Terapin TX-3300 cd recorder player duplicator
Written: Feb 06 '04
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Pros: For $100 it can do alot.
Cons: Disappointing audio quality. Some features poorly implemented.
The Bottom Line: I wanted to like it. Somebody had a vision for this product and offered many features but it's a poor implementation.
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| radiofriendly's Full Review: Terapin MCR-TX3300 2-Disc CD Recorder |
I have been looking for a consumer cd recorder for quite some time mainly for use in my recording studio. I record to computer and have found that after a tracking session it can take some time to actually burn cds of the rough mixes for the customers to take home. My hope has been to find a stand alone recorder that can handle this job faster than the process of mastering a cd in the computer. The sound quality for this purpose doesn't have to be great as it's just for rough mixes so I assumed a consumer level machine would be fine. After looking for quite awhile and trying a couple models I was still having trouble finding what I wanted. My 3 requirements were: A) easily Accessible recording level control. B) VU meter for checking analog input level and C) a reasonably cheap price. (otherwise I may as well buy a Masterlink) I was ready to give up when I spotted a $200 rebate offer for the Terapin bringing it's total price to $100 (through buy.com). I'd never heard of Terapin so I looked for info. Unfortunately their web site didn't have much. So I relied on the Buy.com site. This unit seemed to have it all and more. It can write mp3s and copy data cds. I figured I could give it a go and see if it had the goods. But, it was back ordered. So I ordered it anyway and waited. About a month later I got a shipment. Here's what I found.
It looks a little funny because it is mostly black except for the display section on the right which is silver. The left drive drawer doesn't come out as far as the right one. My first test was to play some cds with headphones. The headphone jack is a mini (1/8"). I found that when playing a cd in the left drive I can hear the drive whirring in the headphones. Probably a poor grounding scheme in the analog section. A bigger problem is that this noise is also present at the RCA outputs. The right drive doesn't cause anywhere near as much noise either acoustically or through the analog outs. I also found a tapping sound in the left channel that followed the rhythm of the music. I only noticed this with the headphones but it happened while playing cds on either drive. All signs of poor quality. I was willing to pass these up if the recording process worked well. So I got out a portable minidisc player and some minidiscs that I needed to copy to cdr. Once I had this hooked up I realized that the VU meter does not work for external analog input. It appears that it only works when playing a cd and not recording. This defeats the purpose of a VU meter, at least for me. My entire need for a VU was to set level for recording. At this point I decided that the unit was going back so I didn't proceed with any further testing. Some other notes of interest: There is no pause button on the front of the unit. You cannot pause a cd in one deck and then switch to the other deck and play another cd; only one drive can be "active" at a time. The record function is not a simple one button affair. You have to select a few options to do it. There is an eject button on the remote, which is nice. It has 2 modes of track creation. The auto mode either senses quiet spots or if there is a digital signal it can sense the track changes that way. The manual mode requires a button push on the remote for each track number. There is no timed mode. For instance, many recorders can be set so they make a new track number every 5 minutes. This unit does not have that function. I primarily use macintosh computers so I did not try out the software (pc only).
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 100
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Epinions.com ID:
radiofriendly
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Reviews written: 1
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