CD Recorders
So I got to actually work with two different models/brands of CD Recorders for Howard County recently. On the outside, these would appear to be identical units. You know, the situation where one company makes a product “behind the scenes” for another company, than slaps the second company’s logo on the casing. The two recorders were the Marantz CDR420 and the SuperScope PSD330. Both worked wonderfully – producing high quality recordings with the built-in condenser mics, and even better ones with a decent external stereo pair plugged in. They looked IDENTICAL, with the same layout of switches and buttons, same hardware, same labels, everything. But that’s where the similarities ended.
The Marantz was capable of some incredible features, including serving as a hard disc recorder, with no CD-R media even necessary for recording and immediate playback. However, when saving to CD, the process was so convoluted and multi-stepped, that the county decided NOT to use them for judges’ comments during festivals.
Instead, they bought a complete set of the SuperScope recorders which, despite looking identical to the Marantz units, functioned in a completely different way. These were operated much more intuitively, much like a tape deck. The quality and recordings remained high, but the ease of use was remarkably better.
End result? If you are considering a CD Recorder, I assume it is because you would like to record quickly and easily to disc, with a CD being the end objective. If that is the case, than the SuperScope is easily your choice. If you want to record to hard disc for quick playback in the classroom, then consider a small digital (Flash) recorder and skip both of these products. If you are looking to record a complete CD product, and plan on doing a lot of editing without a computer, than the Marantz is the one for you. But, let me assure you, there is a much better way.
Go with the SuperScope, or a digital flash recorder.
