Philips CDR570 CD Recorder
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- Device Type: Recorder
- Number of Discs: 1
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A good product with average execution
Pros
Ease of use, small size, silver finish, remote
Cons
Problems playing some CDs & CDRWs, Very picky on which discs it will play
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Excellent recordings, even from tapes, good value, unique design, small footprint. Problems reading many discs, including CDRW.
A while back I was trying to decide which digital recording domain I should enter- CDR or Mini Disc. I already had a CD player in the car, so I decided to go the CDR route. Though car CD players couldn't play CD-rewritable discs then, many models today can.
I got my Philips CDR570 on ubid for $220 and I was quite pleased. I bought the player back in September 2000, and back then CD Recorders cost a minimum of $350. Even today, good CD recorders cost $300. When I opened the box, I was impressed by the small size and the sleek silver appearance. I got my spindle of CDR media and put one in, and began to think of what CDs and tapes I'd put on CDRs and make mixes with. It has analog inputs and outputs, as well as two digital inputs. It has one coaxial and one optical input, giving you a variety of ways to connect it to the rest of your system.
I skimmed the mostly well-written user manual before I sat down to make my music. I was surprised that they could cram so many features into such a compact package. Single well CD Recorders can only record in the normal speed, unlike dual-well records which can record in 2, even 4 times the normal speed. I knew this would be a shortcoming with my recorder too, but I was prepared to accept that for the lower price that came with them.
I first dubbed all my good tapes, and since tapes don't tell you how much time you have left before the next song, picking track increments was tricky, and I often missed the start of a song by a millisecond. I thought CDs would go much better. My CD player didn't have a digital output, so I thought that maybe I could use my DVD player's digital output. Unfortunately, the Philips manual vaguely explains how discs recorded from a DVD player as the audio source preclude automatic track numbering. Apparently, only CD player digital outputs contain the track information needed by the recorder to make automatic tracks. This was very disappointing, because making mixes would now turn into a full-time affair. Even if I could program the songs I wanted my CDR, I would still have to perform manual track increments. Otherwise, the Cd Recorder depends on approximately 3 seconds of silence to signify a new track. Many artists don't put 3 seconds of silence between tracks. Some dance mix CDs have no breaks at all. But the Philips made excellent recordings as long as I did the track increments properly. Even my old tapes sounded great once I transferred them to CD. There was very little tape hiss that got transferred onto CD. CD copies were excellent as well, and I couldn't tell the difference between an original and a copy.
The CD recorder was very easy to use, and the remote is also nicely laid out. I never understood how to add titles to my CDs, and have yet to figure it out. The player will display CD text on CDs which contain that information, and that's a cool feature. But the recorder is not without its flaws. It absolutely refuses to play certain CDs, claiming that there is no disc in the tray and other weird error messages. It routinely refuses my CDs from BMG (the CD club). It also made some poor recordings on some blank CDRs, but that could have been the fault of the crappy brand (I made a couple of recordings on brands other than the major market leaders like Memorex, Maxell, Sony, Philips etc). I called the company that made the media and they refunded my money as described in their quality warranty. I've had no problems with recordings using the popular brands mentioned above.
I would recommend this recorder to anyone who wants to get into CDRs and CDRWs at a low price point. I've never seen this particular model in the stores though. The other Philips models might be comparable. I only wish that the Philips could use my DVD player as a digital audio source so that it could number the tracks by itself without my supervision. But that problem could be easily solved if I bought a new CD player/changer with a proper digital output.
**UPDATE 5/21/01**
Well, as you may know, my fiancee and I recently bought a 2001 Nissan Sentra, and the CD deck in the car has problems playing CDRs, especially those that are of the generic type. So I got interested in CD-RWs. You see, If the CD player in the car has problems with CDRs (the manual states that it may not play them), then maybe I should upgrade to a new CD player that is CDRW compatible. I bought three CD-RW discs and have had major problems getting the CD Recorder to recognize the discs. I've succeeded at recording about 30 minutes onto one, but after finalizing it, the CD-Recorder has completely refused to recognize the disc. I will be contacting Philips Customer Service soon. I even used my CD lens cleaner to no avail. It still refuses BMG CDs... I'm going to have to lower my original rating on this product. There must be some design flaw in the laser pickup. I'll keep you posted on any further updates.
I got my Philips CDR570 on ubid for $220 and I was quite pleased. I bought the player back in September 2000, and back then CD Recorders cost a minimum of $350. Even today, good CD recorders cost $300. When I opened the box, I was impressed by the small size and the sleek silver appearance. I got my spindle of CDR media and put one in, and began to think of what CDs and tapes I'd put on CDRs and make mixes with. It has analog inputs and outputs, as well as two digital inputs. It has one coaxial and one optical input, giving you a variety of ways to connect it to the rest of your system.
I skimmed the mostly well-written user manual before I sat down to make my music. I was surprised that they could cram so many features into such a compact package. Single well CD Recorders can only record in the normal speed, unlike dual-well records which can record in 2, even 4 times the normal speed. I knew this would be a shortcoming with my recorder too, but I was prepared to accept that for the lower price that came with them.
I first dubbed all my good tapes, and since tapes don't tell you how much time you have left before the next song, picking track increments was tricky, and I often missed the start of a song by a millisecond. I thought CDs would go much better. My CD player didn't have a digital output, so I thought that maybe I could use my DVD player's digital output. Unfortunately, the Philips manual vaguely explains how discs recorded from a DVD player as the audio source preclude automatic track numbering. Apparently, only CD player digital outputs contain the track information needed by the recorder to make automatic tracks. This was very disappointing, because making mixes would now turn into a full-time affair. Even if I could program the songs I wanted my CDR, I would still have to perform manual track increments. Otherwise, the Cd Recorder depends on approximately 3 seconds of silence to signify a new track. Many artists don't put 3 seconds of silence between tracks. Some dance mix CDs have no breaks at all. But the Philips made excellent recordings as long as I did the track increments properly. Even my old tapes sounded great once I transferred them to CD. There was very little tape hiss that got transferred onto CD. CD copies were excellent as well, and I couldn't tell the difference between an original and a copy.
The CD recorder was very easy to use, and the remote is also nicely laid out. I never understood how to add titles to my CDs, and have yet to figure it out. The player will display CD text on CDs which contain that information, and that's a cool feature. But the recorder is not without its flaws. It absolutely refuses to play certain CDs, claiming that there is no disc in the tray and other weird error messages. It routinely refuses my CDs from BMG (the CD club). It also made some poor recordings on some blank CDRs, but that could have been the fault of the crappy brand (I made a couple of recordings on brands other than the major market leaders like Memorex, Maxell, Sony, Philips etc). I called the company that made the media and they refunded my money as described in their quality warranty. I've had no problems with recordings using the popular brands mentioned above.
I would recommend this recorder to anyone who wants to get into CDRs and CDRWs at a low price point. I've never seen this particular model in the stores though. The other Philips models might be comparable. I only wish that the Philips could use my DVD player as a digital audio source so that it could number the tracks by itself without my supervision. But that problem could be easily solved if I bought a new CD player/changer with a proper digital output.
**UPDATE 5/21/01**
Well, as you may know, my fiancee and I recently bought a 2001 Nissan Sentra, and the CD deck in the car has problems playing CDRs, especially those that are of the generic type. So I got interested in CD-RWs. You see, If the CD player in the car has problems with CDRs (the manual states that it may not play them), then maybe I should upgrade to a new CD player that is CDRW compatible. I bought three CD-RW discs and have had major problems getting the CD Recorder to recognize the discs. I've succeeded at recording about 30 minutes onto one, but after finalizing it, the CD-Recorder has completely refused to recognize the disc. I will be contacting Philips Customer Service soon. I even used my CD lens cleaner to no avail. It still refuses BMG CDs... I'm going to have to lower my original rating on this product. There must be some design flaw in the laser pickup. I'll keep you posted on any further updates.
