Price Paid:  $430.00

Summary:
A good and effective recorded for converting your analog Vinyl Tapes to digital CD or for compiling your own CD paly lists.

Strengths:
Good analog digital conversion. The CD's recorded from tapes sounded even better than tapes. Both analog and digital recording inputs which means even a digital source can be recorded. Easy to use and very user friendly. I don't agree to most of the objection raised by reviewers prior to me. I have had no problems whatsoever till now.

Weaknesses:
The inability to record on normal computer CDR's. It only accepts music recoradable CD's.

Similar Products Used:
Used to carry out all my tape conversions and compilations on CDR on computer. WRT tape conversions this product is much easier to use.

Price Paid:  $430.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I purchased this RCD-W1 Oct 2001 but I didn't get to start her up until March 12 of this year. I'm one of those "purchase as I can" folks. NEVER had trouble with Sony before, until now. Oh my god! It worked like a breeze for 3 weeks total. I didn't mind the manual song by song recording to make my own compilations. I mean, I'm the cassette generation, kinda been doin' it for awhile anyway. And yes, if you want to burn a complete disc, it doesn't get any faster than this machine. I've burned a 60 minute disc and finalized it in about 5 minutes flat. That rocked. What doesn't rock is the fact that after the 30 days was up, I got "disc error." Manual says, "you put a DVD or unfinalized disc in the tray." Um, I ain't that slow upstairs...gimme a break! Took it back to Circuit City, ofcourse, they wouldn't take it back. So they sent it in. Got the call to come pick it up. Shall I insert the fact that I have to drive 400 miles to get there and back for this here? Yeah. Took it home, no go, in some respects, it was worse. Took it back (em em, another 400 miles travel time), spoke with manager...warranty does not cover exchange, we'd have to ship it back again for repair. I replied "no thankyou", called Sony customer service and got "we have no record of servicing your machine sir." All they could tell me was to ship it to them myself for repair, if afterwards, it still isn't fixed, they'll replace it. Well, it won't be fixed, cause you can't fix a lemon. I will be expecting a refund which I'm sure they won't award unless I cry or threaten a member of their family (the family pet is not safe either). If they replace it, it will no doubt be a refurbished unit destined for a local dump. In short, forget em' all. They don't have the technology down to be making these. Kinda' like copy machines you know, they can't make one that works to save their souls. I would rather just forget the whole mess and burn soley on the PC. In short, Sony doesn't understand why I'm even getting that specific error because it is just that, specific. This thing is just possessed. Insert disc, stare at TOC for like a full minute before it even picks up the disc, if it does. Or insert disc, it plays, stop the disc, reinsert, now suddenly it won't play the disc that it just played. We're talking deck A. Won't even track now.

Strengths:
Speed

Weaknesses:
It's retarded.

Similar Products Used:
Sony Reciever (nice but like all sony receivers, runs too warm) Sony dual Tape Recorder (sweet) Recommendation: Do what I did, without a CD-Recorder, and hook it all up to a pair of JBL Northridge N

Price Paid:  $320.00 from BEST BUY

Summary:
product stinks. is good only for copying a cd in its entirety. nothing else. even some attempts at 4X synch fail. no analog, digital or 4X copies i have made will play on home player, car player or computer player. manual is useless. may as well be a blank sheet of paper. written by a third world oriental fool who knows nothing technical, nothing about the product and nothing about english. product was returned 2 weeks after purchase. good riddance!

Strengths:
none

Weaknesses:
the player is one big weakness.

Similar Products Used:
arcam, nad, paradigm, tannoy, lux

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
As noted below, the instruction manual that comes with this deck is rather unhelpful. Everything you need to know is in it, it just isn''t very user-friendly. Copying an entire CD via CD Synchro is a breeze. Making a compilation CD from the CD well is a bit trickier: You need to program each track, then use CD Synchro. If you''re making a compilation from several different CDs, you have to do a lot of disc swapping and programming. CD Synchro doesn''t work with optically connected external sources: You have to record manually. Analog automatic track marking function seems totally arbitrary: It doesn''t always recognize the gaps between the songs on LPs (and since you can''t manually insert a track mark during recording, this means you have to record one LP track at a time), and sometimes it mistakenly considers quiet passages on classical records as "silence" and inserts a track mark. Also, you can''t turn it off. The deck isn''t very responsive to the remote, and I''ve found it''s better to use the buttons on the front of the deck whenever possible. Discs made using CD Synchro or manually via the optical input sound fantastic. CDs recorded via analog sound great, too. You probably don''t want to replace your primary CD player with this deck: The output isn''t super great. I bought this deck to replace my minidisc deck, and although it isn''t as flexible, the sound quality of the discs is better.

Strengths:
CD Synchro. Unbeatable price. Great sound quality.

Weaknesses:
Analog automatic track marking. Deck not responsive to remote. No CD Synchro with external optically connected sources. Output is just okay.

Similar Products Used:
Sony minidisc deck JE-440.

Price Paid:  $225.00 from ebay (New Unit)

Summary:
This looks somewhat like a review section for Bose. First of all this is a very good recorder. It works well and is easy if you use the product as it was designed to be used. Every function was clear and straight forward. Recording CD’s is nothing like recording tape so that tends to confuse people. Forget tape and it’s use, this is a new era of recording. Read the manual correctly and forget what you remembered from cassettes. I purchased this unit for recording CD’s for my car and that is it’s only use so I could have not done better, As far as a unit for playback of home CD’s it is not suitable for me but it has it’s place in my system. It is sonically one of the best recorders that I have herd but copies of original sources always loose quality, therefore I use no copies at home. A car on the other hand has no ability for accurate sound reproduction and copies are the best way to go. This unit in my opinions is the best buy of CD recorders and at full price it is well worth the money. SYSTEM Panasonic PT-47WX49 HDTV Monitor (ISFcert) B&K Reference 20 Preamp / Processor B&K AV-5125 Power Amplifier Panasonic DVD-RP91K DVD Audio/Video Player Panasonic TU-HS20 HDTV/DirecTV Tuner Sony SCD-C333ES SACD Changer Sony RCD-W1 CD Recorder Paradigm Reference Studio 80 Main Speakers Paradigm Reference Studio CC Center Channel Speaker Paradigm Reference Studio ADP Surround Speakers Sunfire Truesub mk2 Subwoofer Marantz RC5000i Remote Control MIT Terminator 2 Bi-Wire Speaker Cables Tributaries SP-2 Surround Speaker Cable Monster Lightspeed 200 Toslink Digital Interconnects Straightwire Silver-Link 2 Coaxial Digital Interconnects Monster 400 mk2 Audio Interconnects Monster Z2 Audio Interconnects Monster M500 Audio Interconnects Monster Video 3 S-Video Interconnects Monster Video 3 Component Video Interconnects Tributaries Silver Composite Video Interconnects

Strengths:
Great for my needs

Weaknesses:
No Coax Digital

Similar Products Used:
Looked at all of them