Any ideas on a good CD duplicator?

[4_Legs_Good]

Hiya everyone!

I have a Marantz CDR500 dual deck CD duplicator. It's a fantastic device and I use it all the time... that is, until it started to take a dive a couple months ago. I use it to do duplicating (mostly legal!) as well as to digitize old analog tapes.

Anyway, I'm now getting OPC errors as well as NO DISK errors even when using very high quality MITSUI CDRs. Sooooo, I'm thinking I could either have it serviced to the tune of $200+ or buy a new straight up duplicator.

Anyone have any thoughts?

david

Kucinich 2004

Recall - NO

[Systematic Chaos]

1. Doesn't your computer have a CD/RW and a DVD drive?

Or even just a regular CD rom and CD/RW?

If you do, then for the cost of a decent software package (like Nero Burning Rom or Alcohol) you can duplicate all the CD's you want. And if you need a CD/RW, you can get a FAST one for about $50 dollars.

There is simply no reason to get one of those dual-deck CD recorders anymore.

[4_Legs_Good]

3. I don't like to get the computer involved...

There are times when I do a lot of duplicating, and I prefer to be able to use my computer for computer type stuff (e.g. playing games), while I'm duplicating CDs. It's true that I could avoid it by using the computer CDburner, but I'm a fan of the deck.

Thanks for reminding me of the alternatives though!

david

[bif]

2. I have a Que!

Have had it for about 3 years and have never had a problem with it.

[4_Legs_Good]

7. My wife has a Que!

...but I haven't had much luck getting it to work with my system. Perhaps I should give it another try...

david

[BlueJazz]

4. Keep in mind that some of the new CD-W drives...

...are fast as lightinig.
The new one I have will burn a CD in about 7 Minutes.
My old one took 1/2 an hour.

Also, as a repairman, I must state that about 80% of errors are caused by
dust on the lens of your laser.
If you haven't blown it out with some compessed air, you might want to try that first....just stick an air hose in the opening and fire away!

ON EDIT: Also, you might want to take off the cover and clean the Lens (Lenes) with denatured alcohol.
There might not be anything wrong with your electronics.

[ET Awful]

5. A good new burner can burn a complete CD in under 4 minutes. . .

It also has buffer underrun protection so that you can do things like play games, browse the internet, etc. while you burn.

I burn CD-R's and DVD's while playing games all the time with no problems.

Sorry, I know you prefer the deck, I was just pointing out some more information to go with what was already here :)

[4_Legs_Good]

6. Dust on the lens, eh?

Thanks for that tip. That thought had occured to me, but I haven't tried it yet. It seemed silly for it to be dying after just a couple years (Marantz is a very good brand). I'll give it a shot!

It's good to have a repairperson in the forum! ;)

Oh, and on the 52x-ish recording, I usually record at just 1 or 2 (or maybe 4) x because imperfect discs are usually read better at slow speeds, or at least that's the myth in my trading circles...

Thanks again!

david

[BlueJazz]

8. Yeah....you'd be amazed how many times folks...

have brought their CD player or DVD player in and the only thing wrong was just dust (or smoke "stuff") on the lens.
Believe me, it doesn't take very much for the lens and electronics to come
up with errors if there's ANY dust on the lens. :)

[ronzo]

9. My old Philips is sill working...

Philips CDR765.
I don't know how reliable they are on the whole, but I've had no probs in nearly 5 years. The only thing that's always bugged me about it is the fact you can't insert track seperation without a pause. Surely they've addressed that by now.

Anyway...