HHB comm CDR800 User's Manual
Contents
1. Serial Copy Management System the user controls the copy management Input selection is done with a momen tary contact button on the front panel you toggle through the various analog and digital inputs by repeatedly depress ing the button The CDR 800 has five modes of operation three are automatic and two are manual One of the most use ful of the automatic modes is ID SYNC for recording from DAT sources This mode copies index numbers from your DAT and automatically turns them into track numbers on your CD R The AES EBU interface does not trans mit DAT ID codes so you must use the S PDIF connection To do so simply load a blank disc and toggle the INPUT SELEC TOR until the correct input appears the display should recognize DAT as the source at this point Now cue up your DAT tape to a point about five seconds ahead of the first DAT index number you wish to record Next toggle the DIGITAL PHOTO 3 A close up view of the Pioneer Stable Platter mechanism used in the CDR 800 The CD must be inserted up side down but this mechanism greatly reduces disc vibration and dust accumu lation on the laser pickup SYNCHRO button until ID SYNC ap pears in the display The CDR 800 will begin a short setup procedure which takes a few seconds After this setup ID SYNC returns to the display and SYNC flashes in red You are now ready to begin recording Sim ply press the play button on your DAT recorder when the2. CD is placed upside down There are a couple of advantages to this system First the disc is supported over its entire surface minimizing vibration which in turn should reduce clock jitter This serves the same purpose as the disc dampers many of us have used but Pioneer s solu tion is far more effective Second the laser now faces down so it is far less like ly to accumulate dust Operation Operationally the HHB CDR 800 is ex tremely well thought out and is really not much more difficult to operate than an analog cassette deck For the most PHOTO 1 Front view of the HHB CDR 800 Profes sional Compact Disc Recorder and its remote control L i 32 Audio Electronics 2 00 part the manual is clearly written and includes numerous illustrations Input and output connections are straightfor ward but the rear panel also contains a couple of switches that you may need to reset A three position slide switch locat ed between the balanced analog input connectors selects either the unbalanced RCA line inputs or the balanced XLR connectors at 4dBu or 8dBu levels A digital out switch mutes the digital outputs if only the analog outputs are used You select digital copy permis sion prohibition with a pair of DIP switches which you can set to allow un limited copies of your recording one time only copying or no copying at all Since the CDR 800 is a professional product it is not bound by the consumer
3. Elite line and features their glossy Urushi front panel and Rose wood side panels While based on the consumer models the CDR 800 is actu ally manufactured by Pioneer for the pro audio user and incorporates a number of features not found on the consumer units The Pioneer consumer players have only unbalanced RCA analog in puts and outputs along with S PDIF and Toslink digital inputs and outputs To these interfaces the CDR 800 adds bal anced XLR analog inputs along with a balanced XLR AES EBU digital input Photo 2 All analog and digital outputs on the CDR 800 remain unbalanced This may appear odd at first but most pro audio users are likely to use the CDR 800 with an external digital processor for play O PHOTO 2 Rear panel of the CDR 800 In addition to the RCA type analog and digital inputs balanced XLR analog in puts and an AES EBU balanced digital input are also provided back making balanced analog outputs unnecessary One other important differ ence between the CDR 800 and its Pio neer counterparts concerns the types of recordable CDs you can use The Pioneer consumer machines will only recognize consumer type CD R blanks The CDR 800 will also work with computer type CD blanks The CDR 800 is also equipped with standard 19 inch rack mounts One important feature of the CDR 800 is Pioneer s Stable Platter mechanism Photo 3 which includes a full size platter upon which the
4. PRODUCT REVIEW HHB Compact Disc Recorder Reviewed by Gary Galo HHB CDR 800 Professional Compact Disc Recorder HHB Communications USA LLC 1410 Centinela Ave Los An geles CA 90025 310 319 1111 FAX 310 319 1311 E Mail sales hhbusa com Website www hhbusd com HHB Communications is a British based firm specializing in digital audio record ing equipment and media for the profes sional audio industry In addition to CD recorders HHB manufactures portable DAT recorders a line of vacuum tube processors including mike preamps compressors and parametric equalizers and studio monitor loudspeakers includ ing nearfield monitors and powered sub woofers HHB also distributes the Genex line of high bit rate high sampling rate magneto optical digital recorders Their complete line of digital media includes professional quality recordable compact discs CD R ADAT tapes MiniDiscs MD and rewriteable magneto optical MO discs The CDR 800 Compact Disc recorder Photo 1 has been on the market for over two years At the time it was introduced the CDR 800 repre sented a price breakthrough in profes sional CD recorders The list price of 2200 has become irrelevant since the unit now sells for around 1200 at most pro audio dealers The CDR 800 looks suspiciously like the Pioneer PDR 05 and PDR 99 con sumer CD recorders which are essential ly identical the PDR 99 is marketed as part of Pioneer s
5. Used with ex ternal digital sources via its digital input the CDR 800 will make compact discs that are virtual sonic clones of the origi nal digital source Recently HHB intro duced the CDR 850 rewritable Compact Disc Recorder CD RW which is priced about 200 less than the CDR 800 Read ers may wonder whether it renders the 800 obsolete Not at all The new CDR 850 also based on a consumer Pio neer product the PD R555RW does not have the Stable Platter mechanism For the ultimate in CD R mechanical sta bility the CDR 800 will continue to be the recorder of choice Home users in need of a CD recorder should not hesitate to purchase this pro product Because of the Stable Platter mechanism the CDR 800 will probably outperform your existing CD transport so you may be able to dispense with your existing playback machine When the time came to purchase a CD recorder for use in my studio at the Crane School of Music at SUNY Pots dam where I am employed as audio en gineer I chose the CDR 800 I could not give a more enthusiastic endorsement W Audio Electronics 2 00 37
6. elf respecting golden eared au diophile will desire to know exactly how the CDR 800 s copies compared to the original CDs Unfortunately the an swer is not at all straightforward I can t honestly state that the copies were indis tinguishable from the originals Howev er any differences I heard are no greater than those caused by substituting one high quality digital interconnect for an other The differences were normally far less than those I associate with changing CD transports In my opinion digital copies made on the CDR 800 are faithful reproductions of the original and any observed differ ences may well be attributed to external factors The performance of the CDR 800 will depend primarily on the quality of your source and the intercon nect between your source and the HHB recorder The dated op amps mentioned previ ously undoubtedly limit the perfor mance of the CDR 800 when used with its analog inputs and outputs However the excellent performance of the A D and D A converters used in this recorder make up in part for the performance of the op amps I have no doubt that re placement of the op amps with the best dual devices currently available would significantly improve the analog perfor mance of the CDR 800 allowing the ex cellent digital circuitry to perform to its potential Conclusions The HHB CDR 800 is a remarkable prod uct and a real breakthrough in affordable professional CD recorders
7. gin the process The time display begins counting down when it reaches 0 00 the process is complete and the CD R may be played in any CD player The CDR 800 has a SKIP ID function that can be used during finalization This function allows you to effectively elimi nate any unwanted tracks on your CD after it has been recorded Suitably equipped CD players will then ignore those tracks during playback The CDR 800 is supplied with a re mote control that duplicates the func tions of the front panel controls You must use the remote to enter track num bers for CD playback numeric buttons for track selection are not included on the main chassis of the CDR 800 Re mote control operation can be defeated with a DIP switch on the rear panel The rear panel of the CDR 800 is also fitted with an 8 pin DIN Parallel Remote sock et which allows you to construct your own wired remote control duplicating PLAY PAUSE RECORD STOP MANUAL TRACK NO WRITE and the two TRACK SEARCH BUTTONS A connec tion diagram is included in the CDR 800 manual Circuitry and Construction As Photo 4 shows the CDR 800 is packed with circuitry There are no less than 13 PC boards in the CDR 800 vary ing in size from large servo and audio digital boards to several very small boards including the headphone amp Two power transformers are used one for the audio and digital circuitry and an other dedicated to the servo Like most products of Far Ea
8. here is also a 1 SYNC mode that allows auto matic copying of 1 track from any of the above digital sources After the one track of the original has been recorded the recording process stops You can add additional tracks to your recording using this mode until the CD R is filled to capacity The CDR 800 also allows manual copying of analog or digital sources one track at a time During manual record ing the CDR 800 s REC LEVEL and REC BALANCE function the same as on any other recording device You can record an individual track stop and continue at a later time If you manually record a sin gle track a process called fixation au tomatically takes place before and after the track is recording During fixation the lead in and lead out information for that track is written When you have finished recording a CD you must perform a process called finalization which allows the CD R to be played on any conventional CD play er During this process the absolute lead in and lead out information for the entire disc and the table of contents are writ ten to the CD along with a code that pre vents further recording on the disc Once you have finished recording a disc press the FINALIZE button After a few seconds of setup the display will indi cate a time of 4 03 or 4 07 depending on the length of the recording This is the amount of time it will take to finalize the disc Now press the PAUSE button to be
9. mer cou pled input the balanced to unbalanced conversion is accomplished with an SN75157P differential line receiver The SN75157P is a dual device only half of it is used The signals from the balanced input PC board are fed to the audio digital PC board assembly which also houses all of the analog and digital unbalanced in puts The unbalanced analog inputs for each channel are fed to NJM072 input signal op amps manufactured by JRC These are TLO72 equivalents another ex tremely dated device data on JRC op amps can be found on their web site www njr co jp I m not familiar with the analog to dig ital converter chip it bears the part number AK5340 VS HHB claims it uses the latest 1 bit conversion system which is completely free of zero crossing distor tion The A D chip design also elimi nates nonlinear distortions within the passband and does not require external adjustments Digital inputs are fed directly to the LC89585 EFM encoder chip The CDR 800 also includes a built in sam pling rate converter chip which con verts 32kHz or 48kHz inputs to the CD standard of 44 1kHz The sampling rate converter functions only when needed inputs at the standard 44 1kHz frequency bypass the sampling rate converter On the playback end the SM5813AP digital filter feeds a pair of 1 bit Pioneer PD2028B Pulseflow D A converter chips which are actually stereo devices with left and right audio outputs To im prove l
10. next index number appears the CDR 800 automatically be gins recording making that index num ber track 1 on the CD You don t even need to press RECORD on the CDR 800 Each subsequent DAT index number au TABLE 1 MANUFACTURER S SPECIFICATIONS Applicable discs CD and CD R Frequency response 2Hz 20kHz Playback S N 110dB EIAJ Playback dynamic range 97dB EIAJ Playback THD 0 0027 EIAJ Recording S N analog RCA input 90dB Recording dynamic range analog RCA input 90dB Recording THD analog RCA input 0 005 Recording S N S PDIF digital input 105dB Recording dynamic range S PDIF digital input 95dB Recording THD S PDIF digital input 0 003 Wow and flutter Less than measurable limit 0 001 weighted peak ElAu Analog input impedance 10k Analog XLR line input level 4 or 8dBu switchable Analog RCA line input level 500mV RMS Analog output voltage 2V RMS Power supply US model 120V AC 60Hz European model 220 230V AC 50 60Hz Power consumption 21W Weight 6 2kg 13 lbs 11 0z Dimensions 482mm W x 294mm D x 134mm H 18 3 2 x 11 Ae x 5 2 Audio Electronics 2 00 33 tomatically generates a track number on the CD It makes sense to prepare a DAT master including all of the index points you desire before making a CD R The CDR 800 will also copy other digital sources the same way including MiniDisc Digital Compact Cassette and CD using the AL SYNC mode T
11. ow level linearity an entire chip is devoted to each channel configured in a differential mode The balanced outputs from the D A chips are fed to the inputs of a 5532 op amp The unbalanced out put from the op amp is fed to a second 5532 which functions as an output buffer The filter DAC combination should provide resolution comparable to conventional 20 bit converters Deemphasis is accomplished in the analog domain using a shunt filter locat ed between the first and second 5532 The deemphasis network is activated with a single bipolar transistor The CDR 800 does not apply emphasis to CD recordings Only a handful of commer cial CDs mainly from Denon are record ed with high frequency emphasis and modern high resolution converters make it unnecessary Overall the construction of the CDR 800 is extremely impressive This unit should stand up to demanding day in day out professional use Performance In order to evaluate the accuracy of CD R recordings I made a demonstra tion disc cloned from a number of tracks on commercial CDs that I normally use for equipment evaluation I made the test disc by connecting my CD trans port a modified Denon DCD 1015 to the S PDIF input on the CDR 800 My DCD 1015 has a Canare 75Q BNC out put connector the two units were con nected with a DH Labs D 75 S PDIF in terconnect fitted with a Canare 750 BNC connector on one end and a Canare 75Q RCA connector on the other Every s
12. pair the per formance of the disc or shorten its life If you label CDs by hand you should avoid solvent based inks that could damage the disc TDK makes a pen specifically for la beling CDs which you can purchase from any pro audio dealer The recording laser beam is the same wavelength as that used for CD play back 780nm The laser in the CD recorder literally burns the organic recording layer momentarily raising the temperature of the recording layer at that spot to over 300 F The width of a burned area the equivalent of a pit on a prerecorded CD is only 0 6 microns The burning alters the optical character istics of the organic dye producing a dif ferent level of reflection from burned vs years Mitsui is manufacturing these gold discs for a number of other firms includ ing HHB and they have licensed the tech nology to other manufacturers as well Care should be exercised in the han dling and storage of all CD R discs Tests have shown that the green cyanine based discs can be rendered unplayable if left exposed to bright sunlight for only a few days Unless they are being recorded or played all CD R discs should be stored in their jewel cases at all times The HHB CDR 800 recorder automatically adjusts the intensity of the laser beam to suit the specific type of dye found on the CD R that has been inserted in the recorder All CD R discs from reputable manu facturers are certified to meet Orange Book
13. specifications The Orange Book is a document produced by Sony and Philips describing the technical specifica tions for the compact disc format Part II of the Orange Book describes the CD R format You can find a considerable amount of information on the CD R format on the websites of Maxell www maxell com and HHB www hhbusa com or www hhb co uk Audio Electronics 2 00 35 a power transformers are used and the solid copper chassis provides excellent shielding against EMI and RFI 36 Audio Electronics 2 00 PHOTO 4 Inside view of the CDR 800 Two Balanced analog and AES EBU digital signals enter the CDR 800 via the input PC board assembly The balanced analog inputs are transformerless the and legs of the balanced line are each fed to 5532 op amps operated noninverting as unity gain buffers The outputs of these buffers are fed to the and inputs of a single 5532 converting the balanced sig nal to an unbalanced state The use of 5532 op amps is a real dis appointment I fail to understand why the Japanese audio industry continues to use these 20 plus year old devices when so many high performance dual op amps are now available A product as sophisti cated as the CDR 800 clearly deserves better but the Pioneer designers obvi ously continue to believe that high per formance op amps just don t make any difference The AES EBU digital input also dis penses with the usual transfor
14. st origin the CDR 800 uses standard 3 terminal IC regulators for the power supplies Several of these reg ulators are located on the two power supply PC boards but the analog digital board and the servo board each house a pair of local IC regulators 34 Audio Electronics 2 00 CD R Basics The physical structure of a CD R disc is shown in Fig 1 The recordable CD is molded with a continuous groove spiral from the inside to the outside of the disc s polycarbonate substrate The pre grooved disc is necessary in order to provide the recorder with a physical ref erence The groove also contains timing information that the recorder uses to keep the CD spinning at the correct speed at all points along the disc surface After the polycarbonate substrate is mold ed the disc is spin coated with the recording layer an organic dye such as cyanine phthalocyanine or azo The recording layer is then coated with a vacuum deposited reflective layer fol lowed by a spin coat of protective lac quer Most CD R manufacturers add a label coating to further protect the disc from scratches Special discs are available with a label area compatible with an ink jet printer specifically made for printing CD R discs non burned areas The most common organic dye found in CD R disc is cyanine Azo dye origi nally developed for types of optical recording media is also used for CD R discs Cyanine and azo based discs are sensitive
15. to ultraviolet light as well as heat and humidity As such their archival life expectancy is only about ten years The recording surface of most CD R discs is green while some appear blue This is due to the type of dye used and the color of the reflective layer Silver and gold reflective layers yield a different color when they reflect light back through the organic dye More recently the Japanese firm Mitsui has developed a CD R disc using phthalo cyanine dye These discs are gold in color in part due to the gold reflective layer The phthalocyanine discs are far less sus ceptible to the degrading effects of light heat and humidity and are expected to have an archival life in excess of 100 FIGURE 1 Cut away view of a CD R recordable CD The pregrooved polycar bonate substrate is coat ed with an organic dye recording layer and a re flective layer During FOV CARBICRYATE recording the laser beam SLIBSTHATE burns the organic dye WITH PREGHOOVE momentarily raising the temperature of the dye A 1522 4 to over 300 F Inexpensive CD labeling systems are also available from a variety of sources Most of these allow you to print or write on a circular label with adhesive backing These labeling systems carefully center the label on the CD in order to ensure smooth disc rotation The adhesive back ing on the CD labels is compatible with the materials from which the disc is man ufactured and should not im
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