Sony RCDW100B Recordable CD Player – Black

easyrider

at 11:15 am

This is a good twin deck CD Recorder. You can record at up to 4 times normal speed to make copies of CDs. Sound quality is good – and it sounds best when connected to an amplifier using the digital optical output.

It will record on CDR or RW discs – but these have to be the music or audio ones – NOT the type you normally use to save data on your PC. These are readily available on the high street or online stores.

I use this recorder to make copies of discs for use in my car – as I don’t like to get the originals scratched and dirty. It’s also good for making personalised compilation CDs of your favourite tracks.

It supports CD Text, so you can enter track and disc name information – and this will display back to you on compatible equipment.

It also has a digital optical input for connecting to an external source or an amplifier (for recording purposes). It can also be connected using the ordinary (analogue) phono line inputs/outputs to a `tape loop’ on a standard amplifier.

When you have finished recording a CD – you have to `finalize’ it before it will play on other equipment, this happens at high speed – and only takes about 1 minute.

As there are very few alternatives available on the UK market at the moment – I would recommend this player.
Rating: 4 / 5

Martin T

at 2:44 pm

This is one of the few pieces of equipment available that will create CDs from any music source and it is very affordable at about £200. It has twin drives, one of which can be used for recording and also a remote control. The manual is a 40 A5 page booklet in that is quite well written in English (not 15 different languages!)

You can use it simply as a CD player in a music system but its main feature is the ability to create CDs from other CDs, LPs, cassette tapes, even reel to reel tapes. You can connect it to a tuner and record radio programmes or connect to a DVD/Video/PVR recorder and record soundtracks. It is very versatile. I have been using it to record my LPs and also to make compilation or copy CDs to play in the car. I haven’t had any problems playing the disks on a variety of other CD players.

An important point to note is that you must use CD-R (record once) or CD-RW (record many times) audio disks. These are different to the CDs that you get for computer drives. CD-R disks are cheaper but you cannot remove a track once it has been recorded. This means you need to plan your recordings to avoid making mistakes and having to start again with a new disk. A disk holds just under 80 minutes. Once you have finished you need to “finalise” it, which means it can be played on any CD player. If you use CD-RW disks you can remove all tracks or the last track so mistakes can easily be rectified. You can also “unfinalise” a CD-RW disk and add or delete further tracks.

When copying from LP or tape you can switch on a function that will automatically increase the track number when the signal level drops below a certain level (i.e. the gap between tracks). This level is adjustable. Alternatively you can manually mark the start of each track during the recording or pause/stop the recording to end that track. When copying from CD you can copy a whole CD at high speed or you can copy individual tracks at normal speed. The playback deck has a programme function and you can use this to record selected tracks in the order you specify. When recording from a CD the level of the source disk is replicated and you cannot change it, but when recording from external sources there is a control to set the required level. Finally, there are some other functions that I have not mentioned, one of which is the ability to use the remote to enter a disc name and track names (up to 70 characters) for up to 40 tracks. This has do be done before finalising a CD-R disk and is a bit like texting. The text is displayed on the unit during playback.

I wholeheartedly recommend this unit for people like me you are wondering what to do with their LPs, cassettes and tapes or just want to make compilations of their favourite tracks.

Rating: 5 / 5

J. R. Evison

at 6:09 pm

Having used this machine for over 1 year without complaints,let me tell you

about a feature which to my mind is worth all of £200 and that is the ability of this impeccable cd recorder to Super Bit Map the recording.

Using an external source preferably cd this machine is able to produce a Digital Remaster of the original.

They sound incredible to the point of transforming some discs ,making these your most listened to and your reference disc.

To date i have not tried this on older classical recordings but will begin the excercise with mouth watering anticipation.

Well done Sony!
Rating: 5 / 5