CD Recorder Recommendation

[Subob]

For years I've been using a Pioneer PDR 509 to rip my vinyl to Flac files. The CDRW goes in my old Linux laptop optical drive, Asunder rips the album and then I album art tag it with Kid3. Works pretty well, most of the time. Seems a whole lot less fuss than a USB turntable and Audacity to me.

The trouble with my CD Recorder is that it can get fussy at times, giving me the odd 'check disc' error before recording or erasing. It's always been that way, right from new, so it's not a laser issue. I still get by with the latest couple of CDRW discs pretty well though.

From what I can gather, recognising discs can be a bit of a common problem from all CD Recorder makes and models?

Anyone here had any long term experience with a CD Recorder that has never ever been a bit 'temperamental' please? I'm interested in picking up a different player as a back up you see.

 

[DVDdoug]

Seems a whole lot less fuss than a USB turntable and Audacity to me.

Are you sure? You don't need a USB turntable (if you don't already have one). You can get an audio interface with line-in or you can use line-in if you have a desktop/tower computer with a regular soundcard.

Since you are apparently editing with the computer, you're not really saving any work.

 

[Subob]

Are you sure? You don't need a USB turntable (if you don't already have one). You can get an audio interface with line-in or you can use line-in if you have a desktop/tower computer with a regular soundcard.

Since you are apparently editing with the computer, you're not really saving any work.

I only have old Linux laptops, and they can't be set up next to the hifi anyway.

There's minimal editing involved in my set up using Asunder. Certainly there's no playing around with waveforms or getting involved in click removal etc.

Anyway, I'm fully sold on cd recorders as I've been using them for years to rip my vinyl etc. I'm just after some first hand experience with different makes other than the Pioneer, just to try something different and see how it compares.

 

[G|force]

If buying used doesn't bother you, take a look at Alesis Masterlink. It's a burner/player with analog and digital I/O, both single ended and balanced.

It also has a built in hard drive for rendering and storage that you can use or not. I've had one I picked up used for about 15 years. It's been reliable.

 

[Subob]

If buying used doesn't bother you, take a look at Alesis Masterlink. It's a burner/player with analog and digital I/O, both single ended and balanced.

It also has a built in hard drive for rendering and storage that you can use or not. I've had one I picked up used for about 15 years. It's been reliable.

Thank you, that's exactly the type of recommendation I'm after.

I've had a look on Ebay and there's none on there at the mo, unfortunately. I'll keep an eye on it.

 

[Roland68]

For years I've been using a Pioneer PDR 509 to rip my vinyl to Flac files. The CDRW goes in my old Linux laptop optical drive, Asunder rips the album and then I album art tag it with Kid3. Works pretty well, most of the time. Seems a whole lot less fuss than a USB turntable and Audacity to me.

The trouble with my CD Recorder is that it can get fussy at times, giving me the odd 'check disc' error before recording or erasing. It's always been that way, right from new, so it's not a laser issue. I still get by with the latest couple of CDRW discs pretty well though.

From what I can gather, recognising discs can be a bit of a common problem from all CD Recorder makes and models?

Anyone here had any long term experience with a CD Recorder that has never ever been a bit 'temperamental' please? I'm interested in picking up a different player as a back up you see.

Among the devices that have proven reliable are older recorders from Onkyo, Philips, and Harman Kardon, as well as professional CD recorders from Denon, Tascam, and others in the pro audio sector.

However, I can tell you from experience that you're putting in too much effort and still getting a worse result. Good CD recorders haven't been developed for years, certainly nothing affordable, but the development of ADCs has continued. You only need an ADC or audio interface, and the software is free. My Onkyo CD recorder, which I used for such recordings, has since been relegated to being a regular CD player.

 

[Subob]

Among the devices that have proven reliable are older recorders from Onkyo, Philips, and Harman Kardon, as well as professional CD recorders from Denon, Tascam, and others in the pro audio sector.

However, I can tell you from experience that you're putting in too much effort and still getting a worse result. Good CD recorders haven't been developed for years, certainly nothing affordable, but the development of ADCs has continued. You only need an ADC or audio interface, and the software is free. My Onkyo CD recorder, which I used for such recordings, has since been relegated to being a regular CD player.

Thanks. I've seen Tascam ones come up and the occasional Phillips, too, but don't think I've ever seen a Denon or Onkyo come up (talking Ebay here, btw).

Since you're in agreement with DVDDoug and there's several thumbs up, what software are you talking about please? If it's Audacity, I've watched numerous videos on ripping with that, and to me it seems a lot more faff than what I'm doing now. Also, like I said before, I'm unable to hook up a computer/laptop to my hifi set up. I need the freedom to record in the rack, then walk the CDRW over to my laptop to complete everything.

 

[Roland68]

Thanks. I've seen Tascam ones come up and the occasional Phillips, too, but don't think I've ever seen a Denon or Onkyo come up (talking Ebay here, btw).

Since you're in agreement with DVDDoug and there's several thumbs up, what software are you talking about please? If it's Audacity, I've watched numerous videos on ripping with that, and to me it seems a lot more faff than what I'm doing now. Also, like I said before, I'm unable to hook up a computer/laptop to my hifi set up. I need the freedom to record in the rack, then walk the CDRW over to my laptop to complete everything.

Besides Audacity, there are now several commercial and highly specialized programs that aren't expensive and significantly reduce the effort involved. And if you're digitizing more than a few records a year, the blank discs will cost you something too.

 

[MRC01]

... Anyone here had any long term experience with a CD Recorder that has never ever been a bit 'temperamental' please? I'm interested in picking up a different player as a back up you see.

Back years ago I used a CD recorder I bought used on eBay from a recording studio. It worked fine but the CDs were not always recognized by my audio read-only CD players.

At the time my solution was to get a sound card with good quality AD converters in my PC. It happened to be an ESI Juli@ but there are several others that work well enough (I use Linux and the ESI Juli@ works seamlessly, plug and play). I got rid of the CD recorder and plugged the turntable directly into the sound card on the PC. Recorded directly to files on the hard drive, then burned those to CD with the PC's CD/DVD burner. These CDs were more reliable than CDs created from the old recorder.

Later I adopted a different solution. I bought a studio flash recorder (Tascam SS-R1) and used that instead of the PC. Record directly to the SS-R1, then copy the audio files from its flash card to my PC, then burn a CD (or DVD-A) from the PC. That also works nicely. Later I replaced the SS-R1 with a DA-3000 but still use essentially the same solution.

So there are 2 suggestions for you: a sound card for your PC, or a professional studio flash recorder. You can get studio quality recorders on eBay and they're not too expensive. Either way, burn the CDs from your PC and they'll work more reliably in different audio CD players.

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

I agree with the audio interface method. I ripped my vinyl, CDs, and cassettes to FLAC when we moved 9 years ago. I used DCart audio restoration for recording and noise reduction. It's available for Windows only. It was written by a couple of engineers who had a contract with the Edison Museum to convert cylinders and 78s to digital. They produced a commercial version. Aside from noise reduction, filtering, impulse noise removal, etc. it has a convenient utility for splitting a file into tracks and has post production tools including reverb, compression/expansion, tube simulation... I'm not affiliated, just enjoyed using the product. I've used it for vinyl and for cleaning up recordings of pre-WWII music that was dubbed from worn records. https://diamondcut.com/

 

[Subob]

Thanks for all the suggestions of alternatives to cd recorder. It's appreciated, but I just don't have room to hook up my laptop to my hifi. I would be interested to hear of alternatives to Audacity though, as I'd like to watch videos to gauge how easy these other methods are, should my circumstances ever change.

At the moment, I'm still sold on the idea of continuing to use a CD recorder as it's just easier to me and my particular set up. I get good results, and I'm not really interested in spending time on click removal etc due to the large volume of vinyl I'm still wading through. My collection is about 700 or 800 pieces, and they're mostly LP's. I barely spend anything on discs as I just use two CDRW's in rotation for years at a time. I already ripped all my cd collection to Flac, just using the laptop optical drive.

I'm only interested in reliable cd recorder ideas as my Pioneer (this is my second one now) can be a bit temperamental at times with the 'check disc' thing going on occasionally.

 

[Subob]

Besides Audacity, there are now several commercial and highly specialized programs that aren't expensive and significantly reduce the effort involved. And if you're digitizing more than a few records a year, the blank discs will cost you something too.

Sorry, I might not have made myself fully clear at the beginning.

I'm not ripping my vinyl to CD, I'm doing it to Flac files, so there's no ongoing cost of single use CDR's involved, thankfully.

 

[MRC01]

... I barely spend anything on discs as I just use two CDRW's in rotation for years at a time. I already ripped all my cd collection to Flac, just using the laptop optical drive.

That could be part of the problem, as CDRWs have a limited write life - you can only write to them a limited number of times before they become unreliable and stop working.

Sorry, I might not have made myself fully clear at the beginning.
I'm not ripping my vinyl to CD, I'm doing it to Flac files, so there's no ongoing cost of single use CDR's involved, thankfully.

All the more reason to use a CF/SD flash recorder. It's an audio component that is part of your stereo system (like a modern version of a tape deck). After recording you copy the CF/SD card to your PC for the Flac files. Then do whatever you want with them - store, burn to a CD or whatever.

 

[Subob]

That could be part of the problem, as CDRWs have a limited write life - you can only write to them a limited number of times before they become unreliable and stop working.


All the more reason to use a CF/SD flash recorder. It's an audio component that is part of your stereo system (like a modern version of a tape deck). After recording you copy the CF/SD card to your PC for the Flac files. Then do whatever you want with them - store, burn to a CD or whatever.

Yeah, I know about the limited life of CDRW's. I tend to change them when they start consistently giving me errors, but I've had the occasional error even from new. That's why I'm interested to know if there's more consistently reliable cd recorders out there.

On the removable CF/SD card thing, you have me very interested if it sits in my hifi rack without connecting to my laptop until I remove it to put into my laptop. Can you explain more please? Just letting me know what to look for on YouTube would do, as I like watching to learn processes.

 

[xanalog]

@Subob
Waaaay back in the early days of MP3 wars, there was an agreement that audio system "CD recorders" (stand-alone) hardware had to detect a special kind of blank (recordable) CD, which had a surcharge. When such hardware detected the insertion of a regular 'recordable' CD (CDR/CDRW/etc.), copy protection would prevent the hardware from creating/writing onto a non-AudioCD.

I am not aware if this is relevant to your topic... but I am not willing to do the research...

Q: Why not record the CD, using your computer rather than a CD-Recorder?

 

[Subob]

@Subob
Waaaay back in the early days of MP3 wars, there was an agreement that audio system "CD recorders" (stand-alone) hardware had to detect a special kind of blank (recordable) CD, which had a surcharge. When such hardware detected the insertion of a regular 'recordable' CD (CDR/CDRW/etc.), copy protection would prevent the hardware from creating/writing onto a non-AudioCD.

I am not aware with this is relevant to your topic... but I am not willing to do the research...

Q: Why not record the CD, using your computer rather than a CD-Recorder?

Yes, you have to have specific AUDIO CDR or AUDIO CDRW discs ( the latter being multi use 'rewritable' as you can keep erasing, the former being single use only) rather than a regular DATA CDR that you would use in a computer and can rip at didn't speeds. AUDIO discs only rip in real time.

To answer your question, see my post a bit further up. I'm ripping my vinyl using a CD recorder. My CD's I already ripped, just like you say, using my laptop's optical drive

 

[Subob]

For everyone on this thread trying to move me away from using a cd recorder (and it's appreciated, btw), maybe I should phrase a question in a different way.

Can anyone show me a way to rip vinyl to flac files without using a cd recorder that DOESN'T require me to connect a computer to my hifi set up, please?

I've yet to find a YouTube example for starters that doesn't require me to hook up a computer directly to the hifi.

 

[JayGilb]

Yes, you have to have specific AUDIO CDR or AUDIO CDRW discs ( the latter being multi use 'rewritable' as you can keep erasing, the former being single use only) rather than a regular DATA CDR that you would use in a computer and can rip at didn't speeds. AUDIO discs only rip in real time.

To answer your question, see my post a bit further up. I'm ripping my vinyl using a CD recorder. My CD's I already ripped, just like you say, using my laptop's optical drive

The website Reverb might have a used CDRW at a reasonable price.

 

[Sjkrabbe]

if you can find a HHB CDR-800 or 850. Both great machines I have used for years, with no hassle at all, at work, when cdburners were a thing

 

[MRC01]

On the removable CF/SD card thing, you have me very interested if it sits in my hifi rack without connecting to my laptop until I remove it to put into my laptop. Can you explain more please? Just letting me know what to look for on YouTube would do, as I like watching to learn processes.

Can anyone show me a way to rip vinyl to flac files without using a cd recorder that DOESN'T require me to connect a computer to my hifi set up, please?

Step 1: buy a CF/SD flash recorder. Your best bet is to find a high quality used model on eBay, like the Tascam models I mentioned earlier.

Step 2: connect it to your audio system just like any other component. It will have analog inputs and outputs, and digital inputs and outputs.

Step 3: use it to record whatever you want (LPs, radio, etc.). It writes the recorded files to the CF/SD card, typically in WAV format.

Step 4: after recording, remove the CF/SD card from the recorder and read it on your PC using a card reader.

Your PC is never connected to the audio system.