Digital Drive: REVIEW: Yamaha CD-R HD1000 CD Player/Recorder by jimmyjames

Model:	CD-R HD1000
Category:	CD Player/Recorder
Suggested Retail Price:	$1000
Description:	CD Recorder w/20gig hard drive for storage and editing
Manufacturer URL:	Yamaha
Model Picture:	View

Review by jimmyjames ( A ) on February 12, 2002 at 12:53:04
IP Address: 149.173.6.25

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for the CD-R HD1000

Picked up one of these for $800 price match from local chain to quote from J&R Music. Features 10X, 2X, 1X read speed, 8X, 2X, 1X write speed, 20 gig hard drive (approx. 30 cd's with no compression, PCM), editing for mix compilations, etc. All comparisons made with reference to the Pioneer Elite PDR-19RW that I have had for a least 3 years. The Pioneer only does real time burning to disc, that is you have burn the cdr as you play in the source. The Yamaha has various functions allowing straight up dubbing or copying of a whole disc. At 10X, the read in takes 6 to 7 minutes, 9 to 10 minutes to burn and less than 2 minutes to finalise/write TOC. Great, that part works for all you would be pirates/bootleggers. The fun begins when you want to do an edit/mix/complilation. I read in the 10 disc Led Zeppelin box and the proceeded to "bookmark" songs I wanted to compile for the mix disc. I read in the entire box in under an hour. Made my playlist by using headphones thru the head phone jack on the Yamaha. Converted the bookmarks or playlist into an "album". All these terms are Yamaha's from their very haphazardly laid out owners manual. Burned the album to a disc at 8X and then tried playing back on my ML 37 transport and on my Delco snatch-o-matic car deck. The disc would play OK but would not index past track 13 on either deck. Next day read in another 6 discs, this time Johnny Winter for those keeping score and made another "album". This time when burning my new best of Johnny disc, it only burned the first song and stopped. In about another hour of fussing and cussing and re editing my 'album' on the hard drive, I got the rest of the disc to burn. Listening to the 2 discs I burned at 10x/8x I got the impression that there was a little more distortion on some passages and a muddiness on others and some sounded just fine in comparison to the master. OK I could probably live with that for car play and I could always resort to 1x or 2x read and writes to cure some of those anomallies. But what I could not live with is the clunky user interface on the Yamaha. Everything revolves around a "jog/shuttle" dial and involves turning it, twisting it, punching it etc. and naviagting thru the various menus to set up the machine to do what you want. And then it sometimes does something you didn't want. In comparison to the Pioneer, the Yamaha is positively a pain in the butt to operate. There is only about 3 buttons needed and plainly available on the front of the Pioneer to do the same thing it takes numerous twists, turns and prods of the jog dial to do on the Yamaha. The hard disc is nice but falls somewhere in between too much and not enough. 30 cd's is plenty to do some neat mix/compilations and then just delete them and read in some more. But 300 cd's is probably the space I would need to make this thing a digital music server which is kinda what it is billed to be along with being a recorder. Too me it falls short on both counts. The Pioneer is just too simple and convenient for dubbing and compiling. So what you have to do it in real time. If dubbing you just push the same button twice, hit play on your source and walk away for 74 or 80 minutes. If compiling a greatest hits, you just have to sit and listen while doing the burn for each song. Sheer torture. And although I did not get to do a 1x vs. 1x burn and comparison on the 2 machines, the 1x burns on the Pioneer surely beat the 10x/8x burns on the Yamaha. Great idea just not completely thought out and brought to life. Others may find the user interface completely acceptable and the need for speed to inticing to pass up. If I had to live with this product and it's interface knowing how easy the Pioneer is to operate, I would need a lot of psycho therapy. It's that aggrevating.

Product Weakness: User interface/controls, not simple and straight forward at all.
Owners manual also less than helpful.
Product Strengths: 10x read, 8x burn speed max. 20 gig hard drive for editing/compiling.

Associated Equipment for this Review:
Amplifier:	NA
Preamplifier (or None if Integrated):	NA
Sources (CDP/Turntable):	NA
Speakers:	NA
Cables/Interconnects:	NA
Music Used (Genre/Selections):	jazz and rock
Room Size (LxWxH):	NA x NA x NA
Room Comments/Treatments:	NA
Time Period/Length of Audition:	3 days
Other (Power Conditioner etc.):	NA
Type of Audition/Review:	Product Owner
Your System (if other than home audition):	used as stand alone, auditioned discs on my home system and car

Product Weakness:	User interface/controls, not simple and straight forward at all. Owners manual also less than helpful.
Product Strengths:	10x read, 8x burn speed max. 20 gig hard drive for editing/compiling.