Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips CDR785 3-CD Integrated CD Recorder

Do not buy this product. I had a Pioneer which worked rather well, but I decided to upgrade my CD recorder since I often compliled new CDs for my restaurant. Unfortunately, this purchase was a major disappointment. Although it is fairly easy to program the music; the recording part is very frustrating. For example, if you are recording from an external source, say a carousel-type CD player, you cannot set the program, leave for 80 minutes, come back and enjoy a new CD. Why? Because the record function stops after 1.8 seconds. Should the CD player change CDs within the carousel the recording will stop.

I called the Philips hot line for help, but they could only tell me, "sorry that's the way it was designed." Another problem occurs with internal recording. Sometimes the machine acts like it has the voodoo. Inexplicably the recording will stop (you can tell when the timer stops), but the display reads that recording is in progress. This freezes the machine and prevents you from doing anything else. You must remove the plug to move forward and sometimes that doesn't even work!

There are better machines out there, find them and buy them. Ignore this turkey.

This cd recorder is one of the better ones I have used. It is not only great for making compilations from cd's, but also excellent for recording live. It has provisions for RCA type analog, 1/4 inch analog, digital coax, and digital optical recording. I run a sound board and have recorded several shows direct from the mixer. I love the auto level control. If the recording gets loud, it quiets it down. If it gets quiet, it brings it up. It makes for a great finished product. I always get a ton of compliments on the sound quality. The fact that it includes a 3 disc changer is great. It is a very useful product. The complaints that I have heard dont hold up if you read the instructions. While it is a little complicated to record from an external source, it's not the nightmare I have heard it described to be.
I recomend this product for anyone looking for a home audio recorder thats dependable and a good price.

I bought this unit used, and received no owner's manual with it. I thought this would be a potential problem, but so far I've been proven wrong. It's very easy to figure out just by trial and error and some guesswork. Also a very inexpensive product in comparison with the others out there. It also does well with hours of extended use. It also reproduced a severely scratched cd onto a CDR with no problem.
On the downside, it has a low I.Q. as far as machines are concerned; i.e. it has a tendency to get "confused" and freeze up to where all you can do is turn off the unit, unplug it, and try again. However, 90% of the time, I've had no problem with cd burning. The best you can do is be patient, enter commands very slowly, and it should work fine. Also problematic is the fact that it rejects perfectly good CDR's for no apparent reason. Out of a pack of 50 Memorex CDR's, it rejected about 15. All you can do when this happens is put in a new CDR and it'll work fine.
Overall, this is a decent unit for the price.

Ours worked well at first and we loved being able to duplicate CDs for use in the car, but after maybe two years of very very very very light use, the recorder drawer refused to open. My subsequent research on the internet revealed that this player is known for this defect. Indescribably annoying. I don't even want to drag it in for repairs because even on the off-chance they do fix it, which in my experience is a rarity, I am quite confident the player will break again due to whatever the design defect is. Stay away! I will never again buy a Philips appliance, and they were formerly a name I trusted.

I've owned this unit for several years and, unfortunately, the cd technology has passed it by and made it OBSOLETE! If you want to burn blank cd's, it will only work with cd's of 16x speed or less! Tried to find a 16x or less cd lately? Good luck. Maybe you can find them online and maybe they'll work or maybe they want.
I've spoken with Philips customer service and they were of NO HELP. They kept saying "it SHOULD work with any cd". It doesn't.
If you want a cd player it works fine, but don't buy it if you want a burner.