Help! - I have an old CD recorder (Marantz DR-700) and the only cd-r discs it seems to accept are the Maxell "Music 74" discs. Maxell no longer makes them. If anyone knows where these are still in stock and for sale
I would appreciate it. - Thanks!

Your recorder should accept any blanks labeled "consumer" or possibly "music".

In the early pre-pc days of home stanadlone cd recorders, the record labels got a law passed allowing them to tax the blank discs so their would be reimbursement for supposed lost sales (& yes this shoots a bog hole in the RIAA's current stance!). These discs have an extra bit encoded in them that the recorder looks for. That's likely what you're dealing with.

Best Buy still usually sells these in their cd section. I don't know where to get Maxell's, but quality Mam-A (Mitsui) "consumer" discs can be purchased here:
http://www.tapes.com/index.php?cPath=10 ... a41d40402c

They also carry TDK, but the Mam-a's sound better.

Chris,

Just curious bud, why do you want an old Maranz unit when Sony makes a wonderful 5-1 unit now with no encoding and great sound recording. And no CD-R restrictions.

Rich

For anyone using the standalone recorders, I just got a sale email from another source of the Mitsui consumer discs at 49 cents each in 100 lots. This is the best price I've ever seen for these.

http://www.american-digital.com/prodsit ... IL20070824

regarding 1x standalones, in my opinion there is 1 good reason to use them: sound quality.

I've discovered if I use Tayio-Yuden discs burned at 4x on a Plextor, I can make pc burns that sound ALMOST as good as my standalone.

In the past I've compared 20-40x pc burns on store bought media (TDK, Maxell, etc) to burns also done on store bought media on my Philips standalone. The Philips discs always sound much better then the equivalent pc burns. This difference is not subtle, though it does require a decent stereo to hear (though several years ago I bought some AWFUL memorex cdr's that even sounded screechy in my car!). Again, with slow burned Tayio's in my Plextor, the difference is reduced quite a bit. That's only on my Plex, I also have several Pioneer pc dvd burners, & cd's burned on them don't sound nearly as good (though they do great dvd's).

My all time favorite Plextor is the "40/12/40A", which last time I looked can now be picked up for under $40 brand new on ebay. At the time they were made, Plex was placing major emphasis on reducing jitter in audio cd's. Now that they're focus is dvd, I think they've gotten away from that.

A friend who's much more into this then I am, recommends the Allesis as the best sounding reasonably priced standalone, & as it's a "pro machine" it doesn't require the harder to find consumer discs.

Rich,
The A/D converter in this recorder is very good, this is important when making recordings from analog (a turntable). The recordings I have
made with this Marantz are very, very good. The down side of course is
the limitations of finding discs that work. I've gotten 10 years from this
unit, and I may buy another Marantz recorder (which uses computer
type cd-r discs). I have a Sony 5-disc player which is older than the
Marantz, and it's still plays great!

Very good point on the a/d converter.

Yeah, I did some research before I bought this Marantz DR-700 and they "bench tested"
it (Audio Review, I think it was) - and they were very impressed with it - and stated that
for making analog recordings it was the best unit they had seen yet. Well that sold me
on it, and it is a fine component. But after 10 years I guess its time to find something
newer and even better perhaps.

I have seen 74 minute Music Maxell CD-Rs in a few Walgreens stores of all places.

Maybe there's no need to get a new recorder just yet...

For vinyl transfers, you're likely better off with a standalone then with a pc based set up.

The recordings of some of my albums that I made with the Marantz were
stunning - they almost sounded better than the vinyl, believe it or not.
I am set up to record to my computer also, so I may give that another
try. I use Audiograbber software which records through my soundcard
direct to wav file on the hard drive. Nice program, easy to use. Also
I have a new phono pre-amp (Bugle) that is supposed to be a great match for my AT440mla cart (many reviews back this up) so I will see
how the transfers turn out with this combo. Vinyl is great - you can really
get involved with your music! (just wish I had more time to "play" with it)

It is time consuming. I need to transfer several soundboard cassettes of the late folk singer I recently posted about, Tom Dundee. Even though I'm looking forward to hearing them, I can't seem to find the time to sit in front of the stereo to manually hit the track button when songs end.

I find that sometimes what gets me "motivated" to record or archive stuff
is doing it so somebody else (who hasn't heard the artist or songs) can
have a copy to listen to. Alot of times I record an artist or a "mix" for
somebody else to enjoy. "Who is Tom Dundee?" - why not make a
"this is Tom Dundee" mix, and then you can have something to share,
right? - if some of my friends don't know some of the music I like, I make
sure they can listen to it. I am not a musician (I wish I was) - but I can be an arranger.

In this case I'm doing the transfers for his significant other who may be releasing them, so I really do need to do it!

Chris,

My Sony deck makes great analog vinyl transfers. I am out of town so I can check the A/D if needed when I return, but I have been very happy with the sound.

Rich

Rich,
Which model Sony do you have? When I'm ready to buy another recorder
I would certainly consider Sony, I have owned alot of their products. The 5-disc
changer I play every day (11 years old) works like a champ!
- Chris