How to Buy an Audio CD Recorder

By eHow Electronics Editor

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Music CD recording (for a stereo system, not off a computer) is still fairly new technology, and it can be expensive to purchase a consumer unit. Make sure you research carefully, and try to actually record a track and listen to it before you buy.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

CD Recorders
Blank Audio CDs

Step1

Surf the Internet for product reviews and information about features.

Step2

Visit your local consumer electronics and high-fidelity audio specialty stores to learn which products are currently available and what they cost.

Step3

Review available digital outputs. If you want high-fidelity sound quality, get a unit with RCA-jack digital outputs (as opposed to Toslink, the optical connector).

Step4

Consider a unit with a high-quality, digital-to-analog converter if you plan to listen to CDs played back on your recorder.

Step5

Take a familiar CD to the store.

Step6

Buy a blank disc.

Step7

Record a song onto the blank disc on each of the decks that meet your feature and price requirements.

Step8

Compare the copies to the originals.

Step9

Buy the deck that makes the closest copy.

Tips & Warnings

Manufacturers have been slow to produce consumer-model CD recorders. Philips, the first manufacturer to do so, and Pioneer offer the widest selection of products.
Some companies make a dual-well CD recorder, enabling you to dub from one CD to another without jitter-inducing cabling.
If you find trade-offs between different models, buy the deck that makes the copy that "adds" least to the music. When purchasing audio components, products that subtract from the music (or take away sound that was there) always provide more pleasant listening than those that add to it (or inject noise or other interference).
Avoid buying a computer CD writer for recording music CDs. You will not be satisfied with the sound quality.

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Comments

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 Avoid buying a CD recorder that utilizes a cartridge type CD changer. Although it is handy to have more than one deck for copying CDs, the cartridge type is very complicated and breaks down often. Choose a dual deck or flat CD changer instead.

Anonymous said

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on 11/22/2005 You will not notice a difference between a professional audio CD recorder such as Phillips and a CD recorder from a computer. In actuality, there is no difference since they are both digitally recorded. In addition, computer CDR media is cheaper.