Price Paid:  $650.00 from B&H

Summary:
I am a music collector hobbiest with a large collection of vinyl 45's and LP's (as well as CD's). My goal was to make my vinyl more accessible for listening and recreate/improve my custom casette compilations on CD. I've used my PC but it was cumbersom to setup and I was never satisfied with the audio results. I tried a Media Center PC but I had the same issues with it plus reduced flexibility. The Yamaha 1300 solved all these issues; it's easy to use, produces terrific audio and holds a lot. I still use my PC to clean up my vinyl recordings from the Yamaha when neccessary. Analog recording provides flexibility to copy back and forth. It took some effort to master all the functions but the manual is good. This is the answer to my needs.

Strengths:
Ease of use once you catch on and the manual is helpful but there are a lot of features to learn.
Audio quality
Storage capacity.
Flexibilty.

Weaknesses:
Labeling (text) and organizing is more cumbersom than with a PC.
Cleaning-up vinyl (filtering) is only possible, and editing is much easier on a PC.
Copy protection sucks but this machine provides an analog alternative.

Similar Products Used:
Could not achieve anywhere near the same results with a Media Center PC.

Price Paid:  $659.00 from HiFi Regler, Germany

Summary:
I mainly use the recorder to store backing tracks for my (hobby) band: Dairybeat.

Strengths:
Very fast digital ripping. The 40GB harddisk can store a lot of music and the sound is perfect for our use.

Weaknesses:
Slow analoge ripping. No on/off switch on the remote and neither volume control for the headphones! You can only make copies from the harddisk to the much more expensive audio-cd's. If there is recording time left in a created disc on the harddisk, than you don't get strait recording access to that disc; very strange! The recorded songs that I gave a title, don't show up on it's screen; so what's the use? Wobbly cd-tray. Tiny buttons on the remote.

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Practical Hi Fi Manc

Summary:
A clever second generation hard drive jukebox recorder which just needs more work on the user interface.

Strengths:
Solid sound, excellent ripping speed and accuracy. Good capacity and no data compression to mess the quality of sound up.

Weaknesses:
Quirky user interface (why no PC connection to CDDB database?) and 1980's like on screen display. Yamaha seem to have a cutting edge machine with no proper software connection to the outside world. You'll spend hours typing in the track titles and don't even think of using the remote control - it is TOO painful! A zipped software program for your PC and £5 RS232 cable allow easier input from a compuer keyboard.

Similar Products Used:
My PC - nicer interface but worst quality ripping!

Price Paid:  $650.00 from Audio-Vision

Summary:
Yamaha CDRHD1300. This is a well engineered and manufactured piece of equipment. You can store up to 120 hours of music, depending on the Hard Disk capacity. If you have the time and courage to copy the essential tracks from your CD collection, you'll appreciate this time restriction. The sound is good and I can not spot weaknesses. Working your way through the manual may be a pain, but once you got the hang of it, it is logical and consistent. Yamaha complies with the rules of making copies, therefore you have to buy genuine blank AUDIO CD's (more expensive than CD's for data). This could make you swear on the rest of the world who downloads massive numbers of songs from the internet and burn CD's like hell. But sweet revenge: the Yamaha is a neat machine, a source of audio comfort: use it as a juke-box, mark your wife's or kids' favourite tracks and let them use this machine too.

Strengths:
Good engineering and manufacture. Clever concept: CD player, Juke-box and recorder of high quality, all in one.

Weaknesses:
Copy Management rules: Digital copies and Audio Master Quality copying erases the data of your hard disk. Plug and play.... after chewing the manual first.

Price Paid:  $475.00 from RITCHER SOUNDS, SEVE

Summary:
IF ANYONE THINKS THIS PRODUCT IS OVER-PRICED PLEASE THINK AGAIN. PRIOR TO BUYING THE CDR-HD1000 I HAD THIS BIG PROBLEM. I HAD A HUGE COLLECTION OF SCRATCHED CD'S AND PREVIOUS CD PLAYERS SKIPPED LIKE A KANGAROO TRYING TO PLAY THEM. BUT THIS MACHINE PLAYS THEM SEAMLESLY WITH NO SKIPPING. THE MACHINE AUTO-CABERATES WHEN YOU LOAD A CD AND IT ALSO AUTO-CALIBERATED BETWEEN PLAYING TRACKS, WHICH MAKES IT AS GOOD AS PLAYERS COSTING MORE THAN TWICE THE PRICE. NOT TO MENTION THE ABILITY TO STORE UNCOMPRESSED MUSIC OF UP TO 127 HOURS.(IGNORE YAMAHAS QUOTE OF 120 HOURS). PLEASE BUY IT AND YOU WON'T REGRET. IT'S THE BEST BANG AT THIS PRICE FOR YOUR DOLLARS POUNDS OR EUROS.ITS HAS ENLESS EDTING FUNCTION WHICH I HAVE NOT EVEN THE TIME TO EXPLORE. AND IF YOU DONT LIKE LENDING YOUR CDS TO FRIENDS, JUST BURN ALL YOUR FAVOURITS UNTO THE HARD DRIVE, HIDE THEN AWAY IN THE LOFT AND TELL YOU DONT HAVE ANY CDS AS THEY HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO CHARITY. (HA HA lol lol lol).

Strengths:
EVERY THING MENTIONED ABOVE PLUS MORE. ATART UP LOOKS FUTURISTIC AND IMPRESSIVE.

Weaknesses:
CANNOT BE TURNED ON OR OFF VIA THE REMOTE CONTROL YAMAHA SHAME ON YOU. WHEN YOU CREATE DIGITAL COPIES USING THE A.M.Q.R. YOU AUTOMATICALLY LOOSE WHATS ON THE HARD DRIVE. EXXEPT WHEN ANALOUGE COPIES ARE MADE.

Similar Products Used:
ALMOST EVERY THING BELOW THE £350 MARK.