Dual CD players

[tumbler]

Hi.

I am looking to purchase a new CD system for our venue and am leaning towards a dual player. My main priority is to get one that will read CD-R and CD-RW as our current players do not.

Does anyone have experience of a good unit?

Have you had a bad experience with a dual player?

Many thanks in advance.

T

[Ynot]

Hi.

I am looking to purchase a new CD system for our venue and am leaning towards a dual player.

First off, a question.

Why do you want a dual CD player? I can understand perhaps if you do a lot of work with multiple disks, BUT as you're obviously looking for a CDR/RW compatible machine you're able to record your own stuff.

If you're set on 2 CD options, I'd personally go for a pair of matched players - that way if one goes down faulty you still have the other one as back-up.

 

of course, if you have over-riding reasons why this isn't feasible, let us know.

[niclights]

I have been through far too many CD players, both dual and single.

 

I will recommend Pioneer machines throughout & nothing else. All other manufacturers (eg. Denon, Stanton, Citronic, American DJ, Numark) I have had problems with. Pioneer remain stable without issue in nasty environments & will only use these now (mainly 100's and 200's). Industry standard is CDJ1000.

 

They will definitely play CD-R's, but they won't play RW's. AFAIK rewritables are not supposed to be a viable format other than in the machine they are being written. Certainly not unless they are finalised which presumably defeats the object?

[mattydinx]

Another vote here for the Pioneers - and they will actually play CD-RW's!

 

I own the CDJ-800's (mk2) and I've had no trouble.

 

If you require a rackmount option the CMX-3000 is in a Dual CD configuration and will also read CD-RW's

 

Matty

[tom_the_LD]

Is there any specific reason why you cant get a computer instead?? They can hold everything - soo much more than CD's - and read CD-RW.

 

You could pick a decent one up for about £200 if you went somehwere like Ebay

 

 

 

Just my thoughts

 

 

Tom

[saturnx21]

Hi all

 

Well I have to say: Stay well away from Pioneer under all circumstances they are very over priced they overheat and worst of all they won't play cdr's or cdrw's as they get so ridiculously hot they warp the disc to such an extent that you can not remove it from the player! (and I am not the first person to find this with pioneer kit)

 

Now I have installed no end of CD players in bars and clubs and by far the best CD players are from the Denon stable and for what the OP is looking for I would strongly recommend the 4500 unit, if looked after properly it will last you a life time!

[Ynot]

Is there any specific reason why you cant get a computer instead?? They can hold everything - soo much more than CD's - and read CD-RW.

Hmmmm...

Probably loads of reasons!

PC's are seldom as reliable as a proper CD player (I know that some theatre techs are using them, but they're presently in the minority, I suspect), especially those with Windoze.

Just getting a PC from Ebay isn't good enough 0 you need a stable OS, a very good quality sound card and you need to be able to keep it completely clean of any unnecessary software. (and WELL away from the interweb!!)

[Bobbsy]

I'll probably jinx myself now, but....

 

I converted to computer for sound playback in the theatre about 3 years ago. Using a low spec computer (but a clean install, i.e. no internet, games or whatever) I've had zero problems with reliability. FYI, depending on the show, I use a mix of SFX and Soundplant. The only missed cues have been down to me, not computer problems.

 

I can't say the same about CD players, with which I've had occasional skips, disks that won't play, etc.

 

Personally, I've also had quite bad luck with Denon in terms of reliability...and worse in terms of service/support when there WERE problems.

 

Bob

[niclights]

Apart from the glaring fact that OP didn't ask for a PC...

 

Compared to a standalone CD player they are huge, require a monitor, take time to boot up. Unless you are really going to take advantage of other things a PC can offer then it would seem crazy to do this instead of a dedicated, simple, stand-alone machine with all the necessary buttons and will almost certainly be cheaper! (and play mp3 disks/accept RAM cards with mp3's on them etc.)

 

Back to topic. The older Denon's were great but I had nothing but trouble with newer models. I have never experienced any heat/reliability or CD-R problems with Pioneer and the 100's have now been in constant professional use for over 5 years. I have never seen any other make detailed on an artiste rider, so it looks like they haven't either ;)

[jayselway]

In reply to Saturnx:

 

I've installed loads of Pioneer players, and never had the problems you mention with the overheating and warped discs. I think I had one back as it didn't like having a pint of beer poured in it, but that's not exactly a manufacturing fault! (Unless it's supposed to withstand that of course!)

 

Denons - the dual CD-Players a while back were great, e.g. 2000 and the 1800s to a certain extent. Had a lot of trouble with the 2600s (key isn't stable), and 4000s (buttons seem to disintegrate). Having said that I travel round with a set of 4500s, and am very happy with them (although the key adjust is still unstable).

 

If you're using CD-RW, would it be possible maybe to do it on a memory card, say SD - quite a few players take this instead of a disc. Just thinking it may be worth looking around for ones with this feature, as they may be more common than CD-RW players.

 

Just my 2p.

[Willott]

You don't say exactly what your venue is, so hopefully this viewpoint is useful to you.

 

Until september, we had a Denon DN-D4000 dual CD player installed in our main room, and still have a second installed in a smaller room. They are both good work horses, and can cope with a lot of abuse (read as 2 big club nights a week, plus student DJs on other nights). The main room was replaced due to a mix between a fault (play/pause button sticking after a lot of abuse) and a demand for CDJ style players. If it wasnt for the DJs request, we'd still have the Dual players going, and would be happy about it. The second set are still happily working, and are serviced once a year (as with most things, well looked after items mean longer life spans).

 

Our Radio station (which I'm Head of Technology for) has just bought the DN-D4500, which looks to have similar features to the 4000. I was very pleased that we could get that, and, if you need info, I'll see if I can get some feedback from some of the presenters (some of whom mix properly). Hopefully they'll last longer than the Numarks we had before.

 

Depending on your venue, and if you're likely to get bigger DJs in, I'd suggest looking at CDJ style players. We currently have Denon DN-S1000s, which do the job, however, some of the DJs ask why we didn't get Pioneer CDJ-800s or CDJ-1000s. From what I understand about the workings of our venue, this was a cost based decision, getting equipment that provided basic functionality as the DJs requested, but at a lower cost than models with direct drive platters. We've had a couple of events where the DJs who have come in have had riders specifying CDJ-1000s, and it appears a lot of the larger DJs, or London club based DJs like these players.

 

Hope that's of some help

 

Will

[Matt Riley]

To the OP, would it be fair to say that you're not looking for a DJ solution, but something for front of house playback, and thus, a couple of pioneer CDJs (as recommended earlier) are unnecessary unless you're theatre sound tech has aspirations of scratching during the interval music - in that case, you might want to invest in a nice xone 62 to go with it?

 

So something rackmountable, and a bit cheaper than fully fledged direct drive CDJs (which only cost a very modest £1500 for 2) might be in order. In our main FOH racks we've got denon units, and we use some CDJ style denons on our bar stage. These are bombproof, but they are the older generation units, and following the feedback on the newer ones, well, I wouldn't!

 

I'm thinking, if there's a real budget then perhaps (if it's still getting produced) then a pair of the marantz pmd 340 would be a good option. If not, then the cheaper tascam stuff hasn't broken on me yet.

 

Having said that, this leads me to any bad experience with dual players- the tascam cd/tape combo - the cd player's great, but the buttons are absolutely tiny and it's not easy to read the labels. Personally, I've never had any problem with new cd players playing burned cds btw.

 

HTH,

 

Matt

[Bobbsy]

Apart from the glaring fact that OP didn't ask for a PC...

 

Compared to a standalone CD player they are huge, require a monitor, take time to boot up.

 

And those are 100% valid reasons to go for a CD-player solution rather than a computer. However, Ynot was specifying reliability as the main reason to avoid PC-based playback systems and, in my experience at least, that's just not true.

 

Unless you are really going to take advantage of other things a PC can offer then it would seem crazy to do this instead of a dedicated, simple, stand-alone machine with all the necessary buttons and will almost certainly be cheaper! (and play mp3 disks/accept RAM cards with mp3's on them etc.)

 

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. The thing is, even a basic PC-based system can do far more and give the sound op more flexibility than a couple of CD players. Computers also play MP3 disks and RAM cards easily, while (as evidenced by the discussion here) such things are hit and miss with CD players.

 

If the OP needs CD players, so be it, hence my comment about newer Denons not be overly reliable in my experience. However, although I carry a CD player for things like interval music, for actually running most shows I wouldn't want to go back to CD or minidisk now that I've used a computer.

 

Bob

[niclights]

Oh, I was more making the point that many of the stand-alone CD players can play MP3's and accept cards and are not restricted to PC's, rather than the other way around!

 

Regarding simpler, non-DJ type players I can say that our current FOH racks contain Tascam and Sony and both are unreliable, esp. with CD-R's.

 

However, OP did ask about 'dual', which to me says DJ type.

[WJProctor]

Hi,

 

Just been reading this thread, and its amazing how many times it throws up the same stuff and the same debate CD or Computerised Playback. All I think that can be said is that both have their merits and both have their downfalls, and alot of it is personal opinion.

 

Personally I use computerised playback on a clean install and its quite stable. Like you all say keep it away from the net etc and youll be fine. But make sure the operator knows the system and the pc just incase anything ever happens.

 

Regards

 

James