Compact disc player/recorders: a vanishing breed?(product evaluation)(Product/service evaluation)

This is a very short report on a very useful audio product category that may be disappearing. The component category under consideration is the compact disc recorder. The two examples with I am most familiar are both units that I have owned and used: the Denon CDR-W1500 ($599 list) and the Sony RCDW500C ($299). Unfortunately, these two units appear to be the last of the breed.

I think this product category has shrunk because PCs will do the job without some of the restrictions these units impose. For example, these components only work with CD-R music discs, which are more expensive than regular CD-R data discs. The expense of a CD-R music disk over a CD-R data disk represents a royalty that is returned to the music industry under an agreement called AHRA. From what I understand (based on no in-depth knowledge of the subject) the AHRA gives consumers immunity from legal action for copying with AHRA covered devices as long as the copying is done for noncommercial use. AHRA-covered devices such as the Sony and Denon being reviewed here also have Serial Copy Management System (SCMS) that prevents you from making a digital copy of a disc that is already a digital copy.

What these units will let you do, that no computer to my knowledge will let you do, is record analog sources directly to CD-R. With a computer, you first have to record analog to a hard drive, then use more software to "author" the CD-R. In contrast, these units work just like a cassette deck. Obviously, the sonics are better than any cassette deck--or for that matter, any consumer open-reel recorder I have ever got my hands on.

Perhaps of equal importance to those using CD recorders to make analog air checks of live-on-tape broadcasts or copies of out-of-print LPs is the ability to create tracks. Once finalized you can play the disc on any CD player and get to any track in a fraction of a second. Compare that to a tape deck, which could take minutes to fast forward or rewind to the point on the tape where you ...