CD recorder Marantz or Pioneer

Hi Bmp & Ramstl; Thanks for a "hands on", informed opinion. Our words have crossed before on this site Bmp, and I respect your observations and opinions on this subject. It seems that Ramstl's skepticism was well placed and I probably owe him an apology. So Ramstl, I hereby apologize. I based my buying decision, and recommendations, on articles I read in audio magazines, info. gleaned from the i-net, and of course advertising information. And although the HHB is undoubtedly a better built recorder (ie it's about twice as expensive), I will defend the Pioneer W739 based on its features and recording quality (I'm sure that in a blind test, I could not tell commercially made CDs from those made with the W739). Before I bought the W739, I tried a Pioneer 509 single drawer recorder that would not copy track information from my two out board Sony CD players. I was pretty frustrated and returned it. Then the W739 came out; it is a "dubbing" recorder, that has built in play and record sides, so it is completely self contained. A Three CD drawer on the left can be programmed in any way you want and recorded on the right side, or a single CD and CD-R can be dropped in and a "one touch" copy made-- neat. I rechecked, and the W739 digital out signal does bypass the sample rate converter when 44.1 (ie CDs) is used. Anyway, the features and versatility of this recorder were also big reasons I chose to go with a "dubbing" "consumer grade" CD recorder. I still stand by my assertion that recording quality of the W739 is excellent. As for SCMS, I suppose that it will have "some" impact in reducing wholesale digital copying, but if I wanted to go into CD copy sales, I would just buy a pro unit that didn't have it in the first place, and that could also use the cheaper computer CD-R blanks. I can see that fairly inexpensive pro copiers (and computer copying) are signicant loopholes in the SCMS (system).

Hi Garfish, Good to hear from you and all who have posted here today. Thanks for all this interesting info. I will take a snapshot of this thread and save it for reference if ever I am looking to buy a CD recorder. That Pioneer sure seems like an intersting machine. I have the Denon MD-1000 minidisc recorder and find that it outclasses every other MD recorder, but that Pioneer sure is tempting. Bye for now.

Garfish, there was no need for the apology. I can see how you might have mistaken my tone. In the past I have added my thoughts about this topic on like threads, however, to little avail. It appears that a few voices from the far can not compete with the loud corporate voice in control of the media. BMPNYC, I'm sincerely sorry to hear that what I feared was true. Somehow this information needs to be made available so that SCMS can be revealed as the SCAM that it is. It my circle of friends, SCMS is commonly known as SCAM. My final word on the subject is in agreement with BMPNYC, buy the best copier you can afford. Thanks for the mature conversation!

.....I'm glad we're ending this thread on a pleasant note. I learned a few "real world" things, and good luck to Don. Thanks, Craig.

Hi Bmpnyc, I'm sorry to hear that what I thought about the money possibly not making it to the artist was true.Thanks for the info.Also Craig,Ramstl and Hifigy thanks for the great info. sincerly, Don