How to Buy an Audio CD Recorder

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.

Difficulty:

Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need

• CD Recorders
• Blank Audio CDs

1. Surf the Internet for product reviews and information about features.

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

3. 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).

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

5. Take a familiar CD to the store.

6. Buy a blank disc.

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

8. Compare the copies to the originals.

9. 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.