HHb 850 is a workhorse of a deck, SCMS free, XLR-RCA-DIGI in/out. Sounds great as a playback deck as well. Can be had cheap these days too.
HHb is a UK company which rebadges equipment for the professional markets. The HHb 850 is a rebadged Pioneer standalone. The earlier examples were excellent recorders but recent ones have had some reliability issues. Their blank media is excellent and so is their other gear. They sell no consumer products and their marketing is geared towards professional audio and broadcast users. Their old CD-R 800 was their best CD recorder. A big issue with consumer standalone recorders is most of the best available media doesn't have a Music CD-R option these days. Sony and Maxell are the only reliable vendors of Music CD-R discs these days. Memorex are horrible. MAM-A/MAM-E may still have Music CD-R media available but that status is unknown. You can't use the better data only discs in these consumer units.
I did have a clicking noise in my Alesis Masterlink CD transport after about 30 days-repaired under warranty,and it's been great for several years now.I got mine a few months after they went from 20G to 40G HDD.I use the MAM-A gold blanks.A friend across town decided he liked mine enough to buy one,too. No issues with his. If I'd heard more about the reliability of these,I might have made a different choice.But after all these years and 800 bucks-no complaints.Your best investment for a CD Recorder is a Tascam. Their recorders take any data CD-R or RW discs you like. Excellent sound and reliability. In the radio stations I engineer I have had Denons, Marantz, HHb, Alesis Masterlinks, Tascams and Fostex standalones. The Tascam and Fostex recorders just work. The other makes have had reliability issues under 2-9 hour a day use.
I have 2, a Jvc XL-R2010, that I bought new in 97, or ,98. Works great, never had a issue with it, or any recorded dis's that end up as "coasters". It takes a bit to get used to using it efficiently, but after that' it's a pleasure. . . . It still works great, and I have burned 100's of disc's with it. I use gold disk's now for stuff I really want to save, they burn at a lower level, easier on your laser You can buy the direct from MAM-A Inc.com, they also have stadard audio cdrs. The gold run 71.50 per 50 pack, not sure on the silver. They alos have great deals on archivial gold dvd, and silver as well. They are all bulk spindle packs.
