Low price. Dual deck makes recording from one CD to another very simple with little chance for error. Analog recording gain is good. Manual is easy to understand and doesn't leave much to be desired.

In analog record mode, the track will increment when a silent passage is encountered. Although this is usually what you want, sometimes it is frustrating. I wish there were a way to disable this feature. Finalize takes over a minute. Deck A (the "reader") takes a long time to read the TOC by today's CD player standards (maybe 8 secs instead of 4) No text entry for tracks. No way to elminate a mistake track from the TOC (does any deck do this?). SCMS is a pain. CD-R and CD-RW simply are not good media for editing purposes (such as MiniDisc). But, these weaknesses are not the deck's fault. Most swearing you will do will be because of these industry limitations.

This is an easy-to-use deck. The price has come down a lot, I believe because of newer models coming out in the fall. This is my first CD-R(W) deck and I'm very happy with it. Any weaknesses in the system are because of SCMS or the fact that editing CD-R(W)'s is not nearly as flexible as mini-disc. This product is definetely worth a purchase if you can nab it for under $300.00. Over $300 and you may want to consider other options or wait for Sony's new offering in the fall.

Similar Products Used:

PC-based CD making and MiniDisc.

Price features Build

Has Only Fair Red book cd playback.. SCMS

This Sony dual cd recorder is oe step up from their cd to minidisc recorders. It does excellent cd clones & OK analog fare. The W1 is a good buy at street prices of $319-$349. I would purchase their Pro-line ie. the cdrw-33 which is much better uses any blank & ignores SCMS which is a blessing. In comparison to other Home cd recorders the W1 is a good contender, as for cd playback only it has a soft presence & lacks bite......FF DHVCD 2002.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz dr-6000, dr-4050,Dr-17 Elite PDR-99