Sony RCD-W3 Dual CD Recorder/Player

Rating:
Summary: Don't make the same mistake I did.
Review: I bought this thing to replace my Philips CDR778 (that I bought on E-Bay as an opened/used unwanted gift) which had been stolen in a break-in. To my utter dismay, I haven't had any peace ever since or the satisfaction that I anticipated. To begin with, when I turned the power on for the very first time, the display panel did not light up. I contacted the vendor who reffered me to the manufacturer because it was still under warrant blah blah blah, which I did and they promised to get back to me promptly. They did but after a whole 4 weeks later only to tell me that my NEW product actually needed repair and reffered me to their authorized service dealers. (Does it take 4 weeks to figure that out?) Meanwhile while waiting for their reply I searched frantically on Sony's products catalogue to find out anything about it and alas, I couldn't even find it! When the thing came back from repair it worked well but for only a few days and then the display panel started going off and on whenever it felt like. Then there is also a problem with the recording; it only records properly when I'm doing high speed dubbing. When recording at Normal speed the sound is distorted and some of the recorded disk are rejected by other CD players, including the CD deck on the machine. My used second hand Philips CDR778 never gave me no such trouble. What a waste of money. Stay away from this beast. I only gave it one star because there is no zero.

Rating:
Summary: Does everything I need it to.
Review: I just needed a basic cd recorder and it more than meets my needs. From reading the reviews from the W1, Sony has answered some of the concerns. While recording from tapes still needs monitoring, you can add tracks with a touch of a button on the remote. You can also high-speed dub single tracks now. The playback is also really good.

If you are like me and don't need a professional grade cd-recorder I would recommend this one.

Rating:
Summary: I'm happy with mine
Review: This is my first CD recorder. I bought it because my tape deck is worn out. I'm now busy copying some of my favorite vinyl and tapes to CD. I'm using only the audio connections; it also has digital connections. Despite what the manual implies, the playback-only deck plays (finalized) CD-RW disks as well as commercial CDs and CD-R disks. This allows me to make trial disks on a CD-RW and then duplicate the final results to a CD-R. If I want the final CD-R can be in a different track order from the CD-RW. It also provides the capability of playing Deck A, then Deck B (it's called "Relay Play"). I saw some recorders which had separate outputs for the two decks; I didn't want that.

One thing I wish Sony (as well as some other manufacturers) would do is to make their owners manuals available online for download. This would enable people who were shopping online to see the manual before they buy. I'm glad to say it contained no unpleasant surprises.