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161 of 161 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than I thought, January 10, 2009
This review is from: Ion USB Turntable with Built-in CD Recording (Electronics)
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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164 of 167 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Unreliable ...and unfixable, July 23, 2009
This review is from: Ion USB Turntable with Built-in CD Recording (Electronics)
The Ion LP 2 CD converter is a fairly straightforward machine, which means there is no reason why it shouldn't work consistently and reliably. Unfortunately, mine started failing immediately after I purchased it in April 2009. I got an "Error: System reset" message after trying to burn my first CD. I called Tech Support and they walked me through the reset process. Then, I began to get "Error: Track less than 3 seconds" messages. The machine was now inserting short tracks, which meant the burning process would not work. So, I switched off the automatic track inserter. I then started getting "Burn failure" messages. Once again I called Tech Support. (By now, they knew me by name.) After a week or two of fiddling around (by which point, the Ion was rejecting 90% of my blanks, but formatting them so I couldn't use them for anything else), I sent the Ion back. The company paid for the shipping, of course, and promised I would have the repaired machine back in 7 or 8 weeks.
It's been 3 months since I sent it back, and I'm still waiting. According to customer service, they'll get around to looking at my Ion "soon." But given the backup in orders, and the huge quantity of machines that have been sent back for repair (it seems quite a few of them have similar problems), I don't expect to see it before September. And when (if) it does return, I would not be the slightest bit surprised if I got an "Error: You've Wasted Your Money" message straight off the bat.
Update: I hate being right all the time. My Ion was returned after exactly four months with this note attached: "Tested extensively. Ran for 3+ hours. Not be able to recreate customer's complaint." I was able to recreate my complaint in less than a minute. I put the Ion back together, recorded an album and the very first CD I tried to burn yielded the same "System Error CD Write Failure" message I had been getting before. I called Tech Support. After verifying that I was using the right kind of CD (audio -R)they had me reset the machine. The second CD also produced the same error message. In short, the machine still doesn't work. (And why should it? Nobody be able to fix it.) Customer service says they'll have some new stock around October. My next prediction: The new machine will perform as badly as the old one.
Further update: Well, I was right. Again. The same broken turntable was returned to me in October. The repair people did not even test it to see if the CD burner worked. According to customer service, I will have to send the machine back again, but nobody seems to know when the new stock will arrive. I feel like I'm trapped in some weird existentialist play--Waiting for the Ion...
THE SAGA CONTINUES: After 7 months a new Ion was finally shipped to me. I assembled it and to my delight, it worked!! For a week I blissfully converted my LPs without a hitch. (Or nearly. Like the last Ion, the automatic tracking did not work on classical LPs. But, hey, I could live with that!) Then, after successfully burning about 15 CDs I got the "CD write failure" message. It was like a bad dream. Undaunted, I dashed out and bought a different brand of CD-Rs. (SONY Music. I splurged.) But these wouldn't burn either. Just to make absolutely certain it wasn't SONY's (or Memorex's) fault, I stuck one of the new SONYs in my computer and cut a CD. No problem. I called Tech Support. They advised that I reformat. (Turn off the Ion. Press record and erase simultaneously and then turn on the Ion--Wait until the message bar indicates that the machine has been reformatted.) The reformatting didn't help. I dashed out and bought yet another batch of blanks (Memorex CD-R Music). Then I turned off the machine and let it sit. Before using it, I reformatted the Ion, then I turned it off and reset the defaults twice. (Turn off machine. Press Record and Play, then turn the machine on, and hold for ten seconds. Turn off. Then turn on again). Now it's working! Apparently, these machines don't like it when you switch brands. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...
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60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Right, December 14, 2008
This review is from: Ion USB Turntable with Built-in CD Recording (Electronics)
I bought the LP to CD recorder not knowing what to expect as far as recording quality. The Ion Recorder is easy to record and easy to record to cd. No hookup is needed to a computer. The Stereo of the LP is the same as the burnt cd. The imperfections on the vinyl is transfered to the cd. The recorder is very well worth the extra money I had to pay instead of getting a cheaper model.
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