Ion USB Turntable with Built-in CD Recording Review

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(More customer reviews)The ION LP turntable was much better than I thought it would be for the following reasons:
1) First of all, the sound through the headphones was nice, full, and deep - much better than I expected.
2) Recording directly to a CD made it much easier than dealing with software since I don't have the time to figure out how to effectively use the software (maybe later I will take the time to see if it makes it any better).
3) Recording to the CD was simple because the tracks are automatically separated. It also allows to manually separate tracks if for some reason the turntable missed separating a track (especially when an artist does not space out time between songs because they want the effect of a continual track).
4) It comes with a cover which many others don't (this may seem not important but it really is if you live in an environment where dust is prevalent).
5) Here's what I didn't expect which was a bonus - it comes with an internal hard drive to be able to record around 2 albums. This is very helpful because it allows you to correct any mistakes or skips that occurred before recording it on a CD. It also allows you to rearrange or erase any of the tracks very easily before recording it on a CD, so you can personalize your tracks compared to the album in a simple, easy way.
6) I am a musician and audiophile, so the most important thing to me is the quality of the sound that is recorded on the CD. Upon hearing the CD through my car CD player, the sound remained full, rich, and deep. This was very pleasing to me as I have tried other brands and the sound was always a disappointment, being very thinny and poor in quality.
6) Finally, the price on Amazon, along with free shipping makes it worth the money. I compared it to Brookstone which would have charged me $200 more in the store.
I personally believe that ION got all of the best features placed into this model which was more than I had expected. This is a good buy and the best model I have experienced so far. It is a 5 star product!

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LP 2 CD is the fastest, easiest way to convert your vinyl records to CDs with none of the hassle of connecting a computer. Listen to your music in the car, at home, on your computer, or any place with a CD player.

The LP 2 CD Turntable The included turntable is belt-driven, with a premium tone arm and cartridge to get you the best sound from your vinyl. It's as great for simple playback as it is for conversion. 33 1/3 and 45 RPM vinyl are both supported, and you can also record 78 RPM albums using the included software.
Record Directly to CD-R/RW LP 2 CD features an on-board CD burner that lets you record one or more CD copies of a record with ease. Just place your record on the turntable and insert a blank CD. Play your vinyl, hit the record button and let LP 2 CD do the rest.
Records on blank CD-R/RW discs.
USB Interface Thanks to the LP 2 CD's USB interface, you can also connect your computer and easily transfer your music to your iTunes, iPod, or MP3 player. LP 2 CD comes with software for fast, easy importing to your iTunes library. Mac and PC compatible.
Conversion Software LP 2 CD includes a software CD with EZ Vinyl Converter for PC (with auto track detection) and EZ Audio Converter for Mac. They are the simplest way to record and convert vinyl directly to iTunes. Before you know it, you'll be listening to songs you haven´t heard in years in iTunes or on your iPod. A free download version of EZ Vinyl Converter with Gracenote MusicID is included for automatic track naming.
What's in the Box LP 2 CD turntable, Dustcover, Cartridge with stylus, RCA audio cable, AC adapter, Quick start guide

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Tascam CDRW901SL Slot-Loading Pro CD Recorder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I am in my mid 40s and the last 30 yearts I have accumulated a lot of music in LPs and Cassettes that I would love to have in my car or MP3 player on trips. I tried using my computer to record them but all the complications and file covnersion in order to make just one new CD was tiresome to me. When I found out about the Tascam CD-RW901SL I just fell in love with the idea of having a recorder that pretty much works like the Cassette decks and Reel to Reel recorders of times past. After doing my due diligence and reading everything I could find on the Tascam and competitive players I finally took the jump and bought one.
The CD-RW901SL is a very good looking machine and it feels very well built. The buttons and knobs have a "positive" feel in them that make them a pleasure to use. The looks are, well, professional. It does strike out as a shore thumb in my Hi-Fi rig but I like it none-the-less. One thing that I just love on the Tascam is the lack of a CD tray. The unit is Slot Loading pretty much like the CD player in your car. In this way reliability is improved substantially as there is no CD tray to break.
The unit comes with pretty much every possible connection one could ever need. Digital inputs and outputs in Optical, SPDIF (RCA) and AES/EBU. Analog inputs and outputs in both Balanced and Unbalanced and the Balanced outputs also can be adjusted for output level via a couple of rear panel, user accesible pots.
The front has pretty much all the controls you need to work the unit and it also comes with a pretty good headphone amp AND the reason I actually bought this model: A PS2 computer keyboard connector for inputing Disc and Title tittles instead of using the buttons on the front of the unit (very cumbersome operation).
Finally the unit comes with a wired remote control (according to Tascam because that's what professional asked for...). I would have also like to see a wireless RC or at least the possibility to add one if one would like to. The cord is very long and I found this minor quirk easy to live with.
With just a short overview of the owner's manual I made all the connections to my system and started making some short recordings. Please make sure you buy some CD-RW so that you can re-use them and correct any mistakes before trasfering them to more permanent CD-Rs.
The quality of the Tascam's ADC (analog to digital converters) and DACs (digital to analog converters) is pretty good and more than adequate for my use. I use an external DAC and a professional might consider to use an external ADC to achieve the highest quality recording possible. I recorded some old LPs and tapes and the quality of the recording was very good indeed. Much better than the copies I could make using my Onkyo TA2800 or Nakamichi Dragon tape recorder. The sound of the copies could not compete directly with LPs playing on my SOTA Cosmos but pretty much nothing Digital can anyway.
Overall, the built and operational flexibility of the Tascam are very good. My only complaint and it is a fairly big one is this:
The present software is pretty limited in editing a disc after it is recorded. I do love the fact I can "Un Finalise" CD-RWs and do some more editing on them but I can not make two tracks into one, or split a track after it is recorded. Another disturbing "quirk" is that once you have recorded a number of tracks you can not go and erase just one track unless it is the last one. You CAN erase any number of tracks from the track to the last but you can not erase just one track by itself. I used to have a SONY MD recorder and you could do pretty much anything with the tracks after you recorded them. One would expect that for a Pro recorder like the CD-RW901SL this would be a given...
One last issue I have with the Tascam is that for inputing tittle to tracks using a keyboard you have to press SHIFT F8 every single time you want to input a tittle. In other words, you press SHIFT F8 and input a tittle of a track. For inputing the tittle of the next track you must press SHIFT F8 again, a very silly repetitive task.
I give the Tascam 5 stars for built and overall sound quality but only 3 for flexibility and thus the 4 star rating. I would love to see Tascam adressing the issues with Editing and Tittling in a software upgrade and this could become the best player around to transfer your music from LPs, Tapes or 8track cartridges.

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The Tascam CDRW901SL expands on Tascam's history of high-end CD recorders. Building upon many of the features of the CDRW900SL, the CDRW901SL adds RS-232, XLR balanced I/O, a wired remote, AES/EBU digital I/O, and a timed track increment (selectable from 1 to 10 minutes) for adding CD track ID markers during recording. The CDRW901SL has dedicated input level controls and its digital inputs are equipped with Automatic Sample Rate Conversion for compatibility with nearly any signal. Pitch Control on playback is a standard feature along with Key Control, MP3 Audio Playback, and Power-on-Play. The front panel PS/2 keyboard input offers the ability to name tracks and provide the user one-key access to frequently accessed menu functions. The latest upgrade to the CDRW901SL added continuous recording between two CDRW901SLs, Index Search and New Time Skip functions on skip mode, Selectable Disc Reading Speed, and MP3 Action Setting (prevents accidental termination of continuous MP3 playback) to an already impressive list of features.

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