Hard Disc Recorders
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Hard-disc digital recorders are a growing segment of the home audio recording market segment. In case you haven't noticed, CD recorders have virtually vanished from the consumer market. On this page you will see the available hard-disc recorders for home use that have MP3 encoding capability.

Escient E2-300 (3999.00)

The new Escient FireBall E2-300 Digital Music Manager provides users with significantly larger capacity (300GB), integrated web interface, enhanced digital audio performance, as well as accessibility over a home network via PC and other control devices. Once MP3 files are downloaded via PC, they can be transferred to the E2-300 and played back throughout the entire house. The unit can also handle lossless FLAC audio files. Escient also makes other model with smaller storage capacity and correspondingly lower price.

 

Integra NAS-2.3 ($2000.00)

With the Integra NAS-2.3 Network Audio Server (NAS) you are able to store 80GB of music (as compressed MP3 or uncompressed PCM format) on the built-in hard drive, thats more than 1400 CDs worth.  Once stored on the NAS-2.3, you can sort and select music by artist, album, musical genre or by creating your own custom play lists. CD text information is automatically read, stored and displayed by the system.  An Ethernet port on the front of the unit lets you connect to a PC to transfer MP3 files and store and sort them as well. Once stored, multiple users on your network.

 

Marantz DH9300 Music Server ($3,100.00)

Marantz was the first mainstream brand to introduce a multi-room music server. The DH9300 provides music for up to four rooms. Drop a CD in the drawer and punch a few buttons to tell the DH9300 if and how you want to record it. The server uses an Internet connection (Ethernet or dial-up) to access the Gracenote CDDB database, identify the CD, and download the artist, album title and song titles. The DH9300 even sorts the music into genres—such as blues, jazz, classical and alternative/punk—automatically.  You can record at four quality levels, from full CD quality to typical MP3 computer audio quality, although the higher the quality, the less music you will be able to store on the drive. The DH9300 was introduced two years ago and new models are coming to market.

 

Revox M37 Audio Server ($4,500.00)

 Revox introduced the M37 Sound Servier in 2004 the M37 sound serverand is a less expensive (????) and more compact version of the M57. The M37 is a discreet two zone server with an 80GB hard disc that allows two independent zones of recorded CD audio in a multi-room environment. It is available with up to 160 GB of storage capacity. It is sold primarily in Europe and England.

 

Sonance Concierge ($3,600.00)

 Sonance Concierge

Marking the first component product for speaker vendor Sonance, this music server provides 160 GB of hard disk space with dual drives. The Concierge uses Imerge's Xiva software for ripping files — uncompressed or compressed in variable rates — either from a built-in CD drive or over an Ethernet-based PC network. It is multizone-capable up to four zones on its own, and expandable to a 10-zone capacity using Sonance's Networked Audio Modules (NAMs), which fit in the back of Sonance SAT amplifiers. A graphic user interface can be viewed on a monitor through a VGA, composite or S-Video connection and the system can download track and title information via the Internet.

 

Yamaha MCX-1000 ($2,200.00)

The Yamaha MCX-1000 is capable of storing 1000 CDs (in 160kbps compressed MP3 format), with the server's self-contained 80 GB hard drive having the ability to provide instant access to a vast selection of digital music. Music is saved to the hard drive in its original quality from CDs or external inputs, then converted to MP3 (160k / 256k / 320kbps compression rates) for broadcasting to clients (sold separately). With the MusicCAST System, everyone in the house can store their music collection in one central location.

 

Yamaha CDR-HD1500 ($849.95)

CDR-HD1500

The Yamaha CDR-HD1500 is a more affordable solution for those who are not interested in having the music server capability of the MCX-1000. It does have a massive 200 GB hard drive for storage. With its 24-bit D/A converters, this unit can provide true digital audio masters, using the Audio Master Quality Recording mode.  Specific tracks off CDs can be selected before recording to the hard drive and ripping and burning can be done at 10X speed.