The Burning Question
Sydney Morning Herald
Monday May 20, 2002
Rod Easdown examines the limited range of CD recorders and wonders whatever happened to home recording?
When was the last time you recorded some music? I mean, without a computer being involved. Unless you're into the whole rip and burn thing it's probable you haven't made a recording for years. Australians used to make heaps, mostly for the car, but this tapered off from the late-'80s as CDs took over from records as the major source of music. Home recording has only really cranked up again with the birth of Internet music.
Which could explain MiniDisc's failure to become the No 1 home-recording format - it was launched into a market that wasn't particularly interested in recording anymore. People couldn't see any point in replacing existing cassette decks with something a lot more expensive, despite its greater flexibility and utility.
I like making recordings, but I could never get excited about MiniDisc - you have to compromise too much with sound quality. When CD-R came along, however, I jumped in with both feet and bought the first recorder I ever tried - a real beauty from Philips that turned out to be totally bulletproof, despite being, by modern standards, a bit cumbersome and clunky. I was excited by the format and convinced Australians would take to it in a big way. Which just goes to show how much I know.
When I went looking for music systems that included recordable CD, I found the pickings pretty thin. Most major stores had only one, one had two, some had none. One sales assistant told me there used to be quite a few around but numbers have dropped because "manufacturers aren't excited about it" anymore.
Maybe people have reservations because it's more complicated than recording onto cassette - you have to finalise discs after recording them, adding an extra step to the process. Maybe they're worried because CD-Rs can only be recorded on once. Maybe they don't know that CD-RWs, which can be recorded and erased just like a cassette, are now almost as cheap as CD-Rs. Or maybe it's because so many cars now have CD players that making recordings simply isn't an issue anymore.
Yet this is such attractive technology. You simply place the source disc in one tray, the blank disc in another and make a copy. It's fast, easy and yields a perfect result, with none of the signal degradation that occurs in analog cassette recordings.
Some of these machines also let you dub from a cassette to a blank CD, a great idea if you want to put old and treasured cassette recordings onto a permanent format before the cassette expires with age. None of them, however, includes a turntable. People who want to archive their vinyl record collection to CD should look at buying a stand-alone CD recorder and hooking it into the hi fi, although it's getting easier to connect a turntable direct to a computer sound card and use the computer's CD-ROM burner for this.
INFO FILE
harman/kardon
1800 817 787
www.e-hifi.com.au
Kenwood
8879 2222
www.kenwood.com.au
Sharp
1800 807 820
www.sharp.net.au
THREE CONTENDERS
We looked at two stereo systems offering CD-recording capability and one stand-alone recorder to be used with an existing stereo.
Kenwood HM982RW
A most unconventional design that I found quite appealing, with a compact, yet clear and comprehensive display. This has a single-disc CD player, a single-disc recorder and a cassette, and the controls are protected behind a hinged Perspex screen.
It gives good sound with surprising bass, given the compact speakers.
Rrp: $1499 (spotted for $1399)
harman/kardon CDR30
This stand-alone CD recorder, to be used with an existing stereo system, is a beauty, with MP3 compatibility, HDCD and a 4x dubbing speed. It has a 24-bit/96kHz digital-to-analog converter, automatic track numbering and a remote. It offers premium sound quality and is flexible and easy to use.
Rrp: $1599 (spotted for $1499)
Sharp CDRW5000
It has a large and detailed display panel with most of the controls hidden on a panel that folds out when you open the six-disc compartment. There's also a remote. You can't load discs as another is being played. A separate CD tray handles the recording. A big, full sound with good bass and excellent definition.
Rrp: $1429 (spotted for $1099)
THE VERDICT
All three copy discs equally well, but the harman/kardon walks away on sound quality as long as you have an existing stereo system. If you want a system, the Sharp sounds a little better than the Kenwood, but I'd buy the Kenwood for user-friendliness.
© 2002 Sydney Morning Herald
Share This