How to put records on CD's?


A freind of mine called me and asked if I could put some albums on CD's. He has a guy at work that has some old big band records that he would like to play in his car(and I would love some new music). I hadn't even considered this before, but now my interest is peaking. I have a Music Hall MMF-5 with the Shure xmr15 cart. I do have a computer at home with a Cd burner. Can I make CD's with this equipment or do I need a realtime CD burner? Anyone had much luck with this?
jdodmead
From my experiance, the fastest and best quality recording to CD have been done using the Profesional CD burners available from Tascam. This will alow you to go from the pre-amp into the CD burner with RCA connectors. Bassicly you use the burner like a tape deck with the tape loop on your pre-amp. This way you can also play back from the burner. The Tascam CD burners will sell for around $400. I have a couple available if interested.
I'll second the Tascam option. Paulg805 is correct. It's MUCH easier - and less expensive in the long run - than doing it through a computer, and the results are far superior. The Tascam CD-R4U is a small, inexpensive 20 bit CD recorder that does a great job & is available for around $325-350. It also make a very decent stand-alone CD player in its own right - maybe for a second system while you're not burning LPs - and you can even connect it to a computer through its provided USB port to use as a CD burner for your Mac or PC! It has a headphone jack with adjustable volume control to monitor while you record and a remote to add track index numbers on-the-fly as you record. The Tascam CD-R700 and CD-R2000 are full size units that are even better if you want 24 bit capability. Feel free to e-mail with any specific questions. My home-made CDs recorded on the Tascam from vinyl sound better than the commercial releases of the same CD - even the gold MFSL & other so-called "audiophile" CDs. The difference is staggering. If you've got a decent vinyl setup you can make some really great CDs for yourself.

Cheers,
Ed
You guys are reccomending a standalone burner and prefer Tascam. Why do you consider Tascam better than denon, Panny, Marantz, others?

Thanks much for the great input
I don't know about the other guys, but my experience is with a Philips CDR-880 and Pioneer Elite models PD-R05 and PD-R99. The Tascam is multi-bit and the others I tried were 1 bit (Bitstream) recorders. I personally feel multi-bit is more dynamic & detailed than single bit - no matter how many times it's oversampled. Single bit recorders (and players and DACs) all sound "soft", slow, and very uninvolving to me. Of course, that's just my opinion, and I could be wrong. :-)
Also, the Tascams are kinda "pro" machines and have some features that aren't on other decks. They also use a really good transport. They burn ANY CD-R or CD-RW media, not just CD-R Audio & CD-RW Audio discs. And SCMS if defeatable if wanted. OR, you can tag your CDs with SCMS in various forms (one generation, no copies, or unlimited) if you want.
All in all, the Tascams really are nice - no matter which model you choose.

Happy burnin'
Ed