Need advice on CD Burners

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

I hear they've really come down in price (like under $200). Does anyone have any advice on models, features to look for or avoid, etc? How about real-time versus high-speed (e.g., 8x)? Thanks!
Jim

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

I'd been in the market for one of these for about a year and a half, and over that time I'd learned that the Plextor models are about the best. I have a Mac which uses a SCSI interface, though I'll bet you have a PC and would use the IDE interface. I own a Plexwriter CD-RW 8/2/20, meaning that it burns regular CDs at 8x, burns re-writable at 2x, and reads at 20x (max). It's nice. For the PC, the equivalent (actually slightly faster and cheaper) is the Plexwriter CD-RW 12/4/32. I bought mine online at www.hypermicro.com for $299, plus the external shell. You may be able to put your drive right into your PC with no external shell. It also comes with some basic recording software for the PC (useless to me as a Mac owner).

If you'd like to hunt for online prices, visit www.pricewatch.com . Hypermicro was very speedy and seemed just fine about the transaction. I had a horrible experience with another online seller a year ago when I bought a Yamaha CD-RW 4260 which gave me some problems. I mailed it back and never got a replacement nor my promised $446 refund from the place. They then closed and the guy retired to Florida. I even complained to the BBB and the State Attorney General of his state, and they weren't able to get any results. Caveat emptor.

Feel free to write me for more details about my Plextor.

------------------
Bill * MSA Classic U12 * email * homepage

Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

A buddy of mine picked up a "stand-alone" (Pioneer?) CD recorder at a Sears outlet. It was a return, I think he paid somewhere around $350
He's transferring hundreds of old reel-to-reel live bluegrass recordings with it. I had him do a very fine sounding jazz cd copy for me, and it sounds great. But I wish he'd get back from Nashtropolis, so I can get my Texas Troubadours, old Johhny Gimble, & Claude "The Fiddler" Williams albums converted to CD.

Jack Stoner · From: Kansas City, MO

Depends on how much you want to pay for one. I bought a HP internal IDE 4/4/24 drive (8250i) for $179 back in December. Works great although I did have to buy some upgraded software to do the audio stuff I wanted (Adaptec CD Creator 4 Deluxe). If you want an external drive, they now have USB port drives for under $300. You can go to higher priced "professional" models but they really do the same thing. There are the standalone units but they are in the $500 and up range and those only do audio CD's and most only use the higher priced "audio" CD blanks.

I've done a lot of audio work with my internal HP 8250i and I can't tell any difference, or see any difference on a spectrum display between the one I made and a commercial.

Clarence Wilson · From: morgantown wv usa

PC mag recommended a HP CD Writer Plus, These
are one of the 9000 series. Mine is an external SCSI unit, which I purchased on line
from eCost. com. I am completely satisfied
with the unit and with the Adaptek SCSI.

I could have saved much money by purchasing
the internal unit, and wish I had, since I
have plenty of room in the computer. The
internal unit is available at Sam's at the
present time.

Scanners have come down in price. I had to replace my scanner recently. A Microtek 03.
I threw it into the trash, after buying a new bulb. I bought a new Microtek 06 with the
SCSI and USB connections, take your choice.
In case anyone cares, I have my Kodak 280 and
the Microtek connected to the USB ports and am satisfied. The Scanner came from eCOST.COM
too. They ship from Memphis, in about two days.

CEW

Ken Lang · From: Simi Valley, Ca

As much as we like or dislike Gates and his products, he ended up as the catalyst for this computer stuff. How strange we who were once only concerned with hauling the ax and the amp to the gig on time now deal with things that would have been so foreign then. A country musician typing on a keyboard? An ability to make cd quality stuff in your own house, let alone make the actual cd? The Louvin bros sang, "Stop the world I want to get off". They had no idea of the frustration and fun just around the corner.

Bill Llewellyn · From: San Jose, CA

Do be careful about the issues of quality. I still have a couple of the CDs I burned with the Yamaha 4260 before I returned it, and they do not track as robustly as CDs I've burned on my PlexWriter. My "scientific" experiment was to take my portable Panasonic CD player, take turns playing CDs from each burner, and turning the CD player 90 degrees to flat (read: bottom pointing sideways). The Yamaha's CDs mistracked but the PlexWriter's did not. That indicates a stronger burn from the Plex. Of course, the CD blanks weren't the same either, but in both cases they were the cheapest I could find.

Your milage may vary.

Forum Index > Computers		Next oldest topic :: Next newest topic

All times are GMT - 8 Hours	Jump to: