[AV Media Matters] HHB CDR800

[sgreen@westernfolklife.org]

Greetings,

We have been planning to buy an HHB CDR800 CD-R
deck, and now that our funds are in place I have learned that the CDR800 has
been discontinued and replaced by the CDR830.

At the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound
Collections) conference two years ago, quite a few people were endorsing the
CDR800 in favor of the HHB CDR850 which was the other pro unit available at the
time.  My understanding of one major preference for the CDR800 was that its
"stable platter mechanism" was regarded as a major plus for use by audio
archives, as it theoretically (empirically?) reduced the error rate during disc
burning.  The CDR850 used (uses) a conventional hub-based disc mounting
system that was not considered as dependable.

HHB now has abandoned the CDR800 apparently, so my
question is--  is anyone familiar enough with the new CDR830 to comment on
its appropriateness for use in an archival setting?  I have quickly
compared the spec sheets and it appears that the CDR830 does not have balanced
XLR analog and digital inputs that were present on the CDR800.  Are there
other differences that I should be aware of?

A recent price quote I received for the CDR830 is
less than half of what the CDR800 listed for less than a year ago.  This
price reduction *must* reflect some major changes so I'd welcome any help
interpreting who this unit is primarily deisgned for.  At the moment, I'd
be inclined to stick with finding a CDR800.

Any thoughts?

Steve Green / Archivist
Western Folklife Center
<A
href="mailto:sgreen@westernfolklife.org";>sgreen@westernfolklife.org