Teac cdrw 890

[diode84]

Hello

I have given up trying to record digital audio on my laptop and wondered if anyone had tried a Teac cdrw890 or similar to record digital audio from say bbc iplayer or spotity.

The quality of both for me is not exceptional but is good enough to enjoy, I only have spotify free.

I run puppy tahr linux but have tried ubuntu 1604 and even xp but no convincing luck.

Has anyone any ideas on this.

Thanks

diode84

[gmgraves]

23 hours ago, diode84 said:

Hello

I have given up trying to record digital audio on my laptop and wondered if anyone had tried a Teac cdrw890 or similar to record digital audio from say bbc iplayer or spotity.

The quality of both for me is not exceptional but is good enough to enjoy, I only have spotify free.

I run puppy tahr linux but have tried ubuntu 1604 and even xp but no convincing luck.

Has anyone any ideas on this.

Thanks

diode84

I have it's predecessor, the TASCAM CDRW700. It works fine, but I must tell you that recording to CD is a pain in the backside, especially if you need to start and stop the recording to edit out commercials or just talky BBC announcers. If I had your need (and I do from time to time), I'd opt for the Zoom solid state Handy-Recorder H2n. It will record 24/96 (overkill for Internet radio), has a line in and line out (via 4mm[1/8 inch] stereo phone plugs) and costs only about US$160 new. I recorded the 2017 Proms, broadcast on the BBC in 16-bit/48KHz FLAC over the Internet, at the broadcast data rate and the results were better than CD quality! It's just too bad these recorders don't have digital inputs so that you could record the data stream, but for occasional recordings, and at the price (you have to supply a flash card, as recording media, and a couple of AA cells (or a wall wart) but that's about it). 

[diode84]

Thats another good possibility. I have digital out from usb soundcard so bbc and spo*ify sound moderately acceptable through my system so it seems a shame not to use something with digital input. Choices so far seem to be mini disc recorder, cd recorder and yours a portable recorder.

If I can get it converted to digital it is not difficult to edit with vlc and like you I don't need to record much, only if I hear something really nice.

I also haven't much spare cash.

[gmgraves]

23 hours ago, diode84 said:

Thats another good possibility. I have digital out from usb soundcard so bbc and spo*ify sound moderately acceptable through my system so it seems a shame not to use something with digital input. Choices so far seem to be mini disc recorder, cd recorder and yours a portable recorder.

If I can get it converted to digital it is not difficult to edit with vlc and like you I don't need to record much, only if I hear something really nice.

I also haven't much spare cash.

The Zoom H2n should work well for you. I have the original H2 and I've had it for probably about 8 years. It gets used a lot and it's nowhere near as sophisticated as the current H2n. I paid more for mine as well. Currently, the H2n retails for US$160, but I have seen it for much less. The microphones in these pocket recorders aren't bad either. They're very quiet, have very low distortion and while they are lacking in bass (doesn't seem to be much below 100 Hz) that's easily fixable by running the file through Audacity's bass-boost feature after recording it.