CD Recorder

CD-R reliability-- that's a tough one. What it boils down to is "you pays your money and you takes your chances". I've owned/used 5 CD recorders:
1. Pioneers 739-- excellent sounding copies, very versatile and pretty easy to use with good manual. No reliability problems in 2+ years . My daughter liked it so much I gave it to her.
2. Pioneer 609-- a single well recorder (not dubbing) and too big a hassle to use, IMO. Returned it.
3. Pioneer Elite W37-- almost identical to the 739, and loaded with features. It malfunctioned right out of the box, and build quality was disappointing for what they call their "Elite" series-- returned it.
4. Phillips CDR 885-- made nice copies, but malfunctioned after just two; flimsy appearing build quality-- I returned it.
5. I'm presently auditioning a Marantz Professional CDR500 dual well dubbing recorder and like it a lot. The build quality is much better than the Pioneers or Phillips, IMO, but then it costs more (MSRP $850, best street price about $675.). This is my choice as "best" of those I've tried. An A'Gon friend has this recorder too, but it's in the shop for repair-- however, he thinks he may have caused the problem. The Marantz manual is not at all clear on how to set Record Level for compilations, but otherwise it's easy to use--their Tech Support was very helpful with this. All functions have worked well so far, but I've just done 3 CD-Rs. I also like the professional features, and plan to purchase this machine. Good Luck. Craig

I am inclined to agree, don't buy a consumer recorder. They are a major pain.

I second Jksellman's opinion about the professional Marantz
CD recorders. I'm the owner of a 12+ year old video editing
and media duplication company. We have used a Marantz Model
CDR500 for the past ten months; and it has performed perfectly and produced excellent sounding discs. I might
also mention that all the discs I have produced for myself
work perfectly on my CD players at home and in my autos -
something that CANNOT be said for some of the "cheapy"
computer CD burners on the market.

Thanks for the feedback. It sounds like a pro unit is my best bet...I'll just save my pennies a little longer.

I have a Pioneer PDR-609, and I really like it. It's easy to use, and the copies of CDs sound virtually the same as the originals. Recordings from analog sources sound great too. A friend has a professional recorder. The main difference is that he can make copies of digital copies, and he can record onto any CDR, not just consumer audio CDRs. The price difference between computer and consumer audio CDRs is much smaller than it once was.

I also recommend Mitsui CDRs, but I've also get great recordings on TDK and Maxell.