TEAC CD-RW880 CD Recorder with Remote

Other products by Teac

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 21 x 15 x 6.5 inches ; 15 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000BC38JW
• Item model number: CD-RW880
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (58 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,113 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Musical Instruments > Recording Equipment > Mastering Recorders > CD Recorders & Duplicators > Duplicators

• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 16, 2006

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

A great way to store all your old records and cassette tapes to CD media, the TEAC CD-RW880 is compatible with recording and playing back CD-R/RW discs (but not discs with data, such as MP3 files). It features easy-to-operate controls on the unit as well as on the included remote, a center-mounted drive mechanism, and program/repeat/shuffle play selections. It has a stylish black cabinet that sits atop four shiny steel foot columns. It has one analog and one digital optical audio input, one analog audio output, and a single headphone jack with volume level control.

What's in the Box
CD player/recorder, remote control (with batteries), power cord, printed operating instructions

Product Description

Includes: remote control, 2 RCA cables, 1 optical digital cable, and 2 AA batteries. Teac CD Recorder - With this component CD recorder, you can easily create your own audio CDs using your existing stereo system. It's compatible with both CD-R and CD-RW media (designed for music components). Unit Weight - 10 lbs. Not compatible with CDR or CDRW intended for computer use

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

163 of 164 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars pleasantly relieved, May 22, 2006

By	Jeffery E. Tishman (Albany, NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After reading the horror story reviews for the "Sony RCDW500C Compact Disc Player / Recorder" I was very nervous about purchasing The Teac cd recorder. Especially since I was going to buy it before hearing about anyone else's opinion.

I'm glad I took the plunge. This unit is doing everything, and more than, I hoped.

I was making my first recording off an lp in about 5 minutes after hooking the unit up. Most of the procedure was intuitive.
The quick guide sheet got me 90% of the way towards making my first cd. Reading the manual completed the task. The quick guide sheet left out one little but important step; Defining where the music was coming from. The unit can record from an analog (record player, audio tape, etc.) or digital device (cd player). I had to define that before I could make my 1st recording. The quick guide sheet doesn't mention that. I had to read the manual to get that info. Other than that one minor flaw the unit works great. I was impressed with the unit's ability to automatically begin the recording as soon as it senses the music. It had trouble recognizing when one track ended and the next begins but you can do that manually by clicking the record button each time you want to define a new track.

Oh yeah, one other fantastic thing about the unit. After 5 seconds of silence the unit stops recording. That means that if you forget you're copying an lp the unit won't end up recording 30 minutes of nothing.

If you're looking to save all your old vinyl records before that technology is gone forever than this is the unit you want to buy. Thank you TEAC! You've given me exactly what I was looking for.

91 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Reliable, not perfect, December 10, 2006

By	Charles Knouse - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this product to replace the cheaper but unreliable ADS Technologies RDX-150 Instant Music PC hardware and software that I had earlier purchased, so I'll be comparing the TEAC recorder to the RDX-150. In general I'm satisfied with the TEAC recorder, although some valuable features really aren't usable.

First off, I find it is a lot more convenient to have the TEAC recorder permanently racked with and connected to the rest of my audio equipment than it was to have to connect my laptop every time I wanted to make a recording. Connecting the recorder to my aged receiver was a bit of a challenge. I ended up connecting it to the TAPE IN and OUT ports and moving my tape deck to the unused VIDEO IN and OUT ports. This allows me to record from both LPs and tapes.

Recording CDs is easy and the sound quality is fine. Playback of CDs also works as expected. There is also a digital port to connect to another CD player, which might be valuable if you don't already have a computer with a CD writer. Otherwise it is much faster to use the computer to copy CDs.

The big disappointment is that the automatic track detection doesn't really work. It's supposed to start a new track when the source sound level drops below a threshold, configured in 10dB increments. But it is virtually impossible to set the threshold so that it actually splits the tracks correctly when recording an LP -- either it doesn't detect the track or it inserts too many tracks. Instead you have to manually insert the track splits (by hitting the Record button on the front panel or the remote). This prevents unattended recording, which is a big drawback in my opinion. It takes a little practice to manually insert the track splits; I've marred a number of recordings by adding extraneous empty tracks.

The recorder's manual actually discourages use of the automatic track detection with analog (LP or tape) sources. Apparently it's only intended to be used when recording from CDs or other digital sources, which as I mentioned earlier you would only do if you don't have a computer with a CD-writer.

The one good feature of the Instant Music product was that its software allowed you to insert track splits after recording the source and before writing the CD. The software displayed a plot of the volume of the recording over time, which made it easy to find where the track splits should go. This kind of interface is just not possible when an audio CD recorder like the TEAC.

The SYNC-ALL feature to automatically stop recording at the end of an LP also doesn't work for the same reason as track detection -- the audio level never drops low enough for it to take effect (remember that repeating click at the end of the LP). But when recording from a CD I've had it stop recording between tracks separated by more than the 5 second threshold. So now I only use the SYNC-1 feature, where it automatically starts recording but you have to manually stop recording.

One other minor complaint: The TEAC will only record on Audio CD-R media, which are a bit more expensive than the normal CD-Rs. This enforces royalty payments from the CD-R vendors to our friends the record companies. CD-writers in computers can make audio CDs copies on normal CD-Rs.

46 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works great....iffy set up schematics and customer help, July 23, 2007

By	Quickbeam (Oconomowoc, WI USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

I love this machine. I have hundreds of LPs and cassettes I want to get to CD (without using a computer). It is basic, simple and a great worker. I've already transferred many LPs and cassettes without any problems at all. I'm not an audiophile but the sound quality is terrific to me.

Why not 5 stars: I'm someone who has not set up a component system in many years, so take that into account....but I felt the set up diagram was woefully inadequate for what this machine does. This machine is marketed to the analog to digital crowd yet the set up diagram had no instructions for where to plug in the analog source (LP, cassette player). The instructions include no toll free helpline. It took me 2 days to get the set up done correctly. I'm embarrassed to say I used the 800 number for my amplifier manufacturer (not TEAC) and got them to walk me through it. It only took him a minute but bless that guy's heart!

After the set up issues were resolved, I've got nothing but praise for this unit. It is easy to use, the rest of the instructions are very clear & finalizing is a breeze. I highly recommend this unit to anyone with a house of LPs and cassettes who wants a free-standing, non-computer way to transfer them to CD. The need to buy audio quality CDs and the track-making feature were non-issues to me.

4/28/08...I just wanted to add that almost a year later, I have transferred over 500 LPs and a few hundred cassettes to disc without any problems.