CD-Recorder Reviews

This is a great stereo system, I highly recommend it to anyone with a portable MD player who is a fan of great quality music. If you dont use MD's, this isnt for you, get something cheeper. Aiwa is the best, Amazon is the cheapest!

Are you kidding me? This price is unbelievable! Just a 3CD changer MiniSystem with this sound qualtiy should be around 300-350 but then it has a mini disc player and recorder which should be another 100-150. Everything is so easy on this product even recording CD to MD or Radio to MD. I thought dubbing on to MDs might be complicated but its as easy as pressing a button because it is just pressing a button. Seriously, if you have $200 buy this right now. The sound quality is incredible the MiniDisc capabilities are outstanding and the price is outrageous. The price is so good that I saw this product about 6 months ago in the stores at around 450, and if I had 450 then I would've bought it.

I did a lot of looking for any unit that was an md system, and everything was $300 or more and they were very tiny with pitiful speakers. And this $200 price is only at amazon i checked at another online electronics place they have it for $300, and the list price is closer to $450. This item is no longer being made so you won't find in any retail place other than these massive online stores. This is an absolutely incredible unit, a 5 MD changer and 3 CD, with an array of recording features and options. If you want to get started in Minidiscs this is the way to go, since you don't have to have any other components or attachments to record, like the $30 digital cable for a portable to record. I'm very glad i found this system. With it's 60watt speakers it provides incredible sound, and has several sound enhancing features. Bass boost, BBE(enhances high frequency sound), surround sound features, and an equalizer with four settings. The only downside is the lack of a cassete player, but if you move to MDs you'll find yourself rarely using tapes again. So again my advice is to buy this unit before it runs out for good.

The Alera Copy Cruiser... is a wonderful device. You'll double your CD collection in no time and soon run out of room to store them! Your friends will get used to you lugging this machine around, badgering them to borrow their CDs.It is very easy to operate and will copy a typical audio CD in about 5 minutes, copying at a rate of 16X, the fastest recommended speed. I also tried it with a Photo CD and it copied nicely also, so you can make copies of your Photo CDs for family members.A very sturdy and user friendly gadget. The box has handles and is a neat way to transport it around for your purposes. Can't recommend this high enough.

This product is amazing I've made 3 cds so far and theyve all turned out great. This product is well worth the money, I can make a hole cd in 20 minutes, I strongly recommend this item. The Edit track works great, Very easy to use.

This CD Copy Cruiser is simple to use. Put the source CD in the top tray. Put a blank CD in the bottom tray. On the top panel, select copy. Then select the speed (max 48x). Hit the okay button and within minutes you've got a perfect copy.

Altough there are extra features that allow you to create custom music cds, I just needed to duplicate145 data CDs for a client (two sets at that) and was finished before I knew it.

Here's an idea of how fast it is. When I started this project, I spent 16 hours and two computers and was only able to duplicate 64 CD-ROMS. When I got the CD Copy Cruiser, I was able to copy those same 64 CD-ROMS in 3.5 hours!

And the best part of this device is that it frees up your computer.

I bought this [thing] at [a local retailer] for my art studio. I just wanted something cheap and simple. Little did I know that it would sound this good. Believe me, I'm a nut when it comes to having all the surround speakers, a powerfull receiver, etc. So I mean it when I say the sound is amazing with this unit. I thought the "surround mode" was a gimmick. I was wrong. The Philips sounds better than some of the nicer stereos I've owned. Ain't that a kick?

I've always felt Philips electronics are head and shoulders above the rest. I have a good stereo setup, components, but as an extra (or even as your main system if you don't have another setup), you can't imagine how fabulous the sound is that emanates from the AZ1560. I was blown away when I heard it at my brother's, who's a real music / equipment buff and only uses the best. I could swear it was coming from his regular stereo system. I believe the AZ1560 has recently been discontinued, but was able to get one of the last three units they had. I'm sure some of Philip's other boom boxes sound great, too, and I wouldn't hestitate to buy any Philips product. But, if you can get your hands on this model, it's the very best sound I've heard from a boom box and I've owned four. Packs an incredible punch for the buck!

I have been a musician all of my life. Grow up to the sounds of big band. Played in the Navy. This boombox has a big sound from a small source. Five stars for sure.

When my iMac's internal CD-R drive failed, I bought this as an alternative. What I like most is that it is small, bus-powered (no A/C adapter needed), and QUIET. It can get rather warm when there is a disc in the drive, however, so the drive needs to be kept on a sturdy, flame-resistant surface, with papers and other flammable materials safely away from the drive.

I had already installed Toast 5.1.2 long ago, and assumed that it would instantly recognize this drive when I added it. Even after restarting the computer, Toast refused to recognize it; Toast could read from it, but could not write to it. After downloading the update to 5.2.1, the SmartDisk drive was recognized for all functions. All this occurred using MacOS 9.2.2.

Being a portable drive, this can easily be taken anywhere; there is unfortunately no carrying case with the drive, but that is not a big issue. This is the first SmartDisk product I have ever owned or even considered, and based upon my experience thus far with this drive, SmartDisk will definitely be considered for my future computing needs.

Very sleek design and Mac friendly. I was able to plug it in, install the software and start burning CDs within 30 minutes. Fast and reliable this burner is a welcome addition to my system, especially after an extremely disappointing experience with another brand. Worth twice it's weight in gold~

I know this rating is a little premature since I've only had this drive for a little over a week now but I am impressed with this burner. At first, it was a little confusing to operate but I talked to someone at SmartDisk and they told me what to do and since then it has been easy to operate with no problems.

The burn speed is quite fast. My only gripe is that since I have a Mac 10.2 operating system the software that comes with the drive is not compatible. The customer service rep. said he would send me an upgrade free of charge. Even with that small problem, I was able to burn by just dragging the files from the original disk onto the CD-R disk then I was able to burn it onto the CD-R.

I recommend this purchase.

This is actually a review of Sony CFD-E75 CD/Radio/Cassette Boombox (Silver), exact thing except color. I "borrowed" this from my wife when I found I didn't have any cassette players (except in a car) and had to listen to a cassette. I was impressed by the sound quality for spoken word cassettes. Everything sounds normal like a human is talking! I've also listened to music cassettes and music CD's and am just amazed at how good this sounds. The "wheel" for selecting CD tracks is a great idea and is used for tuning the radio when in "radio" mode. That makes it easy to find your station.Speaking of which, this model has a "real" three section, rotating antenna, not a skinny little wire hanging out the back What won me over though was the FM AND AM reception on the radio section of this item. We live in an area where the big broadcast antenna are on a hill real close to our home so we've always had problems with radio reception. A good adjustable Bass with the Sony "Mega Bass" button does change the sound noticably. I like the styling and I keep the thing on the night stand next to my head so haven't needed the remote. I guess I'll let my wife keep that. HA HA

This was a good purchase. She swears she got it for considerably less than the price shown. But even at the price shown, I think it's darn well worth it!
Highly Recommended!
John Row

I LOVE this boombox. I got it for Christmas, and it has never given me any trouble at all. Worked right away, great sound too. I highly recommend it.

I received this as an Xmas present to use at my office. Great sound and I love the remote. I had to place this on a high shelf in my office and having the remote makes it easier to operate!

I have been using Plextor PlexWriter recorders since the old days of the 412 caddy unit and have owned every model they released after that. That means the 4220S, the 820S, the 8220S, the 8432A, the 1210A, and now the 1210S. I plan to get the 1610A soon. (A stands for ATAPI models, and S for SCSI). I have recorded hundreds of CDR/CDRW with each of them, from CD Audio to Mode 1 Data and RAW DAO clone copies of protected software. I have had absolutely no mechanical problems with any of these units, and in general, Plextor has been quite competent releasing firmware upgrades to correct known issues. To keep it short, these are the reasons to get a PlexWriter: -Known history of great units and reliability -Excellent support when it comes to firmware upgrades to keep your unit bug-free and up to date -Always supported by every software manufacturer producing CDR apps. -Excellent digital audio extraction capabilities (usually not as perfect as with a Ultraplex unit, but still very reliable)

This unit is worth every cent, but if you can't afford it, consider the 1210A or the 8432S (Atapi model), it has half the buffer, no cooling fan, no play button, less LEDs, and does not take advantage of the SCSI bus, but still, it offers almost the same end results (I own both the SCSI and IDE units).

Also, if you are thinking about getting this 12432S, consider buying the 121032S. The newer model supports high speed RW media (HSRW) for 10x rewritables and more important, the 121032 uses Sanyo's Burn-Proof technology, which basically means that the recorder will no longer abort recording sessions (rendering the CDR useless if it was a DAO mode recording) if the source media cannot keep up with the recorder (loss of streaming). This is useful when recording from slow sources (ZIP drives, old hard drives, very fragmented disks in low memory machines, or reading from scratched disks) and ends up making a big difference when it comes to the number of CDR media you waste.

I don't like Adaptec's bug-ware and would suggest using more powerful apps like Padus Diskjuggler, Ahead's Nero and even the excellent Plextor Plextools, but in any case don't worry, when you have a Plexwriter is the hardware that counts, you can later get any software you want for it...

Plextors are the best, BAR NONE. Look at their history. There has NEVER been a Plextor lemon (unlike HP--which simply patches its badge on another product, Phillips, and almost all other manufacturers). Plextor eats, drinks, and breathes optical drives. They make and only make optical products. Can you say that for the other manufacturers?

Obvious for those in the know, Plextor has until the last few years been a premium supplier of optical drives for the professional and high-end markets. For a while they were a SCSI-only outfit because ATAPI never had the performance and consistency of SCSI. Sure they could have thrown out a decent ATAPI drive for some extra revenue early on, but does anyone remember how unreliable early ATAPI burners were? With the advent of higher speed ATAPI and increased performance of other system components, Plextor finally felt that the ATAPI interface matured enough so they could build an ATAPI product that lived up to the lineage and DELIVERED. Think about that. That was a judgement based on technical merit, not $.

Admittedly, I work in the computer field so I have more exposure to high end equipment than the average consumer, but Plextor is one of the few constants in advanced and reliable technology. It is one of the last remaining manufacturers that actually still does hardcore THOROUGH research (yes, they license third party technology like Sanyo's 8X engine and BurnProof, but if it doesn't meet their standards, they either modify it or develop their own), thoroughly tests their products (no rush to market), manufactures the products with exacting Japanese engineering, and follows through with unparalleled technical and customer support. (*sigh* If only all companies were like this...) That's where their work and their $ goes to. No flashy packaging to make up for deficiencies like HP (I"m actually fond of the low-budget, semi-cheesy Plextor boxes...hey at least my money's not going to pay for pretty wrapping). No fancy designers to make multi-colored, aerodynamic drive casings like Iomega. No expensive magazine ads created by marketing agencies (True, Plextor doesn't need to advertise. They ACTUALLY have quality products to sell. Word of mouth by the legions of their loyal customers is the most effective and inexpensive kind of advertisement).

Folks, this is a technology company run by engineers, not MBA's. The results speak for themselves.

*Side note: My friend works for HP within one of their data centers. Nearly all their optical drives on mission critical servers are Plextors and have been since the advent of the CDROM. Says somethings, doesn't it?

I have had great results using this writer. Choosing this drive was easy since it connects to a SCSI port and is an external device. SCSI helps maximize data transfer speed with less drain on the CPU than IDE connected devices. And because I already had a SCSI card in my computer, installation was a snap. Just plug it in, and install the software. Another virtue of SCSI is the ability to connect 7 devices using the single SCSI card (perhaps more, depending on your SCSI card). But don't exceed the cable length recommended by your SCSI card, or you may not be able to achieve the speed your SCSI card is rated for; and you may get errors from your connected devices.

My drive came with Adaptec EasyCD software and Plextor's own software for creating (burning) CDs. I use my drive quite a bit for creating data cd's. And it is very easy using Adaptec's DirectCD.

Maximum speeds for this drive: 12x (creating regular cd's), 4x (creating rewritable cd's), 32x (reading cd's).

I haven't had any problems at all with this drive. It has performed flawlessly.

I've had this Simple Tech flash drive unit for about four months, and much prefer it over a flimsy competitor I also use to back up files.

This is sturdy, durable and of very good quality.

I just bought another one -- this time from Amazon -- for about $25 less than I paid for my first one in a national store. I'm thrilled!

This is a nice tool to add to your gadget toolbox. I also have a lexar 128mb jumpdrive and it is garbage. Cheap construction etc. Also, I recently lost everything stored on it! Go with the Simpletech Flash drive, you won't be disappointed!

I just started using the SimpleTech USB 2.0 Flash Drive with 256 MB this week, and I'm a convert already. This "thumb drive" offers enough storage capacity to stash some decent sized files(if you compress big file first)---digital images, music, PhotoShop files, PowerPoint presentations---that used to require you to burn a CD or scurry about hoping you found a Mac or PC with a Zip drive. Look at it this way: one of these compact drives will hold what you could have put on 256 floppy disks! There is no power cord to plug in.

Thanks to Apple's heads-up introduction of USB technology several years ago, it's a snap to port data from almost any computer around these days if you have one of these sleek numbers tucked away in a shirt pocket or satchel. So far, the "plug and play" feature of this USB drive has worked in half a dozen computers, and I've been able to store and retrieve files, plus print from the Flash Drive, on both Mac and PC platforms.

The one nuisance I've encountered, and the brief instructions with the Flash Drive do warn you, is that it may only work with the USB ports in the backs of some computers. For instance, the Flash Drive works only in the main USB connection on my IMac, but works in multiple ports on the G4 at work.

It's hard to beat the convenience and ease of these sleek drives. As their capacity grows and their price shrinks, these Flash Drives will soon be as common as cell phones and not nearly as obnoxious.

have had this for over 3 years now.
use it in office for burning data as well as audio cds.
has worked well from day one, no problems in installing
or using it.
a big two thumbs up. great quality product, burns cds at great
speeds, and "coaster" rate of around 1 cd in 100 !

Yamaha has one of the best reputations for making SCSI CDRW's. I've had my 8424 CDRW for about 6 months now and it has always performed reliably. At 8x, 650MB CD's can be burned within 9 minutes, which is fast enough for all my needs. You can find faster CDRW's out there (Yamaha makes a 16x one), but consider the price difference and the few minutes you would save per CD.

I needed an external unit because I am using this device with a Apple laptop. It is very easy to use. The unit came with Adaptec Toast 4 (light version) software, which can burn both data and music and is user-friendly. I wish the Toast software were the deluxe version, which has more capabilities (like recording in a PC-compatible format). Maybe Adaptec did not want that (most CDRW brands only include the light version).

It also included Neato CD-labeling kit, which is very useful for printing out and applying labels/designs on the CD's. This is a valuable addition.

The external case is well-built, pleasant-looking, and reasonably quiet. It does have two fans to cool the CD mechanism inside, but this produces just as much sound as most fans inside the computers the unit would attach to. One important thing to note is that this CDRW does not come with a SCSI cable or adapter, you'll have to purchase one separately. Make sure you find the right one for your computer, since there are many shapes of SCSI ports.

This product is the best investment for my computer to date. Installation is a snap, literally; just plug the SCSI card into an empty PCI port, connect the cable to the Yamaha CDRW & boot up your system. It's that simple. The drive is extremely FAST and it performs flawlessly. It also comes with a generous 4mb buffer that you can update at the Yamaha web site. The software is by far the best on the market, allowing you to create your own music CD's or back up your entire hard drive, just drag and drop or select the folder and click add. Extremely easy to operate, not one problem yet. Highly Recommend!

Good Buy and performs up to expectations.

The only way to describe this burner is easy. The installation is relativly easy for anyone, and the HP software included with the drive makes burning CD's as simple as two clicks of the mouse. But outside of the easy use for beginners, the drive is incredibly fast, and hasn't burnt a single coaster in the 6 months i've had it. That includes using generic, none labeled disks i found on clearance without a problem. The software that comes packaged (outside of the actual HP Software) is also great. A great burner for a great price.

HP IS THE BEST!!!! They kick!!! No problems, great software, awesome price. Great tech support. Can't ask for any more!

I bought the boombox to listen to non-music content, e.g. books on tape and news. As it happens, its music ability is pretty good, and logic controls for all functions makes it a pleasure to operate. The only drawback so far is a somewhat noisy tape mechanism--audible at low volumes, but not too distracting.

I've had it only for only a month, but so far I am quite pleased with the purchase.

I recently received the Aiwa CSD-FD92 and am VERY satisfied with my purchase. It is an excellent value considering the great sound (best I've heard in a boom box) and the extra features (incl. remote, able to modify sound to pop, rock or jazz, etc., etc.). I plan on buying more for other members of my family as they all want to borrow mine! If you're looking for a reasonably-priced boom box with great sound, you won't be disappointed with this item.

The sound quality is excellent for the price range. Great for a small room. This unit has a lot of features that are only seen in models costing ...more! cd-r & cd-rw compatible, autoreverse cassette player.