best external cd burner to convert SHN file

I do this all the time! Nothing special or expensive is needed to do this at all. Before you burn, you convert the shns (or flac) to wavs on your hard drive. Then you burn the wavs. You can use any cd or dvd burner to do the burning. Nothing special at all is needed, just make sure the burner is faster than usb1.

A lot of people like Plextor burners. These days it's a often easier to buy DVD burners, which can also burn CDs.

If you want an external drive, I would caution that you buy a recorder that uses USB 2.0, as opposed to 1.1. And that your PC's USB port is 2.0. The USB 2.0 spec is a whole lot faster than 1.1. If your PC is only a few years old, it probably handles USB 2.0.

Also, some audiophiles think that you should use the slowest burning speed possible to get the best sound. It's not uncommon these days for burners to not write at slower than 8X. Guess that's something else you can look for. I've downloaded a ton of live shows, and am not sure it really makes that much difference as the fidelity is generally not audiophile quality. But I'm in it for the music, and that makes it very worthwhile. As it is, I never burn audio at faster than 8X.

thanks for your response. it is very helpful. I have a nice collection of vinyl bootlegs from years ago and thought it would be fun to try modern technology.