They look good when they smash - when you thro em at the wall

All of it

I have now had 2 of these units: And to anyone who is about to Purchase one Pease dont!!!
Nothing but bother - Discs dont record, Unit cant work out data on discs, Cant finalize discs & the list goe's on

KICKASS!!!

If it does not work as promised, there are no strenghts.

Poor remote operations, manual and layout of controls on unit.

I purchased the Philips CDR 775 last year in October 2001, as the warranty lapsed I noticed I was having problems while recording CDs. It did not matter which source was being used analog, digital high speed or normal speed, the recorder would lock up while recording any make or brand CD or CDRW, thus leaving me with a 5, 10, 15,upto 50 minute incomplete CD which to say the least pissed me off.

sounds terrific; does what it is supposed to do

(possibly) does not auto-sync properly---jury still out

"I just bought the Philips CDR880, used, as a private purchase from someone who was selling it for somebody else---always a chancy thing ! Anyways, it has thus far performed great; the finished CDs that I have created sound as good as the sources, to my ear.. The only thing I have not gotten it to do properly (yet) is, to burn a source CD in the "CDsync" mode---you know, such that the CDR disc lays the material down nonstop w/ all the tracks numbered accordingly.. What has happened instead is that the CDR disc lays all the master tracks down under ONE track heading (you get a bunch of songs that you cannot selectively skip through)! But that could just be due to the fact that the 'master' disc I used was a rewritable which contained tracks that I manually laid down from various original sources; the CDR disc (and/or the deck) may not be able to sync off manually timed discs.. If anyone out there has some input about this, lemme know pleeeaase! In the meantime I will keep experimenting, rather than jump to a conclusion about it.. Anyhow, it has (other than that) worked beautifully :)

Similar Products Used:

none

CDR779 - Ease of use (a doddle), sound quality (superb) and value for money (dogs testicles)

I haven't discovered any yet bearing in mind the price.

This review is for the CDR779 which is relevant as you will shortly see. The CDR775 was reviewed in the UK (www.sospubs.co.uk/sos/dec00/articles/philipscdr.asp)and was criticised for the poor D/A convertors. Philips responded and along came the CDR779 with A/D and D/A convertors from the High End CDR951 so in all other respects it is a CDR775. The result? In my opinion a Superb twin deck CD Recorder. I am using it to master my own compositions and the output from the recorded CD is, to my ears, identical to the source.

Similar Products Used:

Casio DA-7 DAT Recorder

Ease of use, recording quality.

Freezing-up.

I like the double deck facility, and the quality of the recordings are very good. It only sometimes freezes before a recording starts. All I can do then is to switch the unit off, and start over again. Luckily enough it doesn't freeze during a recording, like my Pioneer 555 did a lot.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer 555.

Price, ease of use

General inability to use 80 minute disks

As easy as it is to use this CDR(W) component, it has provided me no end to my frustration that it generally won't write to 80 minute disks. Only 74 minute ones work consistently. Naturally, Philips does tell you this in the directions. I have found reviews by other users (see Circuit City website) noting the same problem.

Fair price. Analog and digital outputs. Trays can play separately.

Unit is loud when it is powering up.

I bought my unit from Circuit City as a demo for 200 bucks, with a 30 dollar rebate, so I can not complain about the price. It usually goes for a bit over 300 dollars. I have only made one CDR so far and have not experimented with a CDRW, but the disc sounds fine. When you make a CD, it counts down backwards, so if you are using a CDR and not a CDRW, it will help in that you will know how much time is left for that last track. One problem with these home CDR decks is that they take audio CDRs, not computer ones. They are much more expensive. The best thing to do is to make your disc with a CDRW, and then copy it with a computer CDR on your computer. You will save money and hassle. I have not compared which sounds better, the computer CDR or the home recorder, but the computer is much easier to use when making compilations. Songs can be dragged from different CDs and your CD layout is done before you burn your disc. The home recorders are much harder to use. If you have a computer, this is definitely the route you want to take. I made my one CD from a record. I did make a compilation, but remember with a CDR if you mess up or bump the turntable or there is a skip, it is all over for that CD. If you were using a CDRW, you could delete the newest track simply. One thing I like about this deck that all of the home CDR decks do not have is the separate analog outs. This allows you to use one pair of high quality audio cables for the listening, and cheaper cables for the copying. You may say I am backwards, but most of your CDs are real CDs and you want to spend as much as you can on these cables. You need two pair of cables (in and out--like a tape deck) for the recording end of it, which would be very expensive if you are in the few hundred dollar range (that would be three cables you would then need at that price). There are also digital and optical cables if your equipment can handle that. My preamp only allows for RCA cables, so I can not comment on the quality difference if these cables are used. (It does come with a digital cable, but not an optical cable.) I also opened up the unit and cut little pieces of the 3M damping sheets and stuck them all over the case for each drive. In fact, each drive looks surprisingly like a CD drive from your computer. I do not know why the discs are different, it must be a scam. The sound was much more focused after I did this and the bass was much clearer and less bloated. One thing if you are taping vinyl or something that you are taping that has multiple songs on it. The automatic track setting needs about three seconds of silence to make a track. I found that the machine never made a track. Then I had six songs that were listed as one track. What you need to do is either pause between each song, or use the force track button. I am giving it five stars because I got such a great deal on it (I got all the the manuals, remote, etc, just not the box).

Similar Products Used:

Classic CDR deck.