Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony RCDW500C Compact Disc Player / Recorder

When it works it's an awesome piece of Sony engineered home audio recording equipment...When it doesn't it's scrap pile. I can sympathize why some reviewers might have chucked theirs in the dumpster...

The first one I bought had some serious locking up issues;It just malfunctioned on the same day I purchased it.It even trapped one of my cd's inside;to retrieve the cd back was no small feat without almost busting a knuckle.As I found out after removing the cover that space for the elevator/built in cartridge exchange mechanism is pretty tight. If you ever get a cd stuck in there, good luck!I immediately exchanged it for one that worked properly at my local electronics dealer.

This one has worked flawlesly for me for the past two years without failure ! I have not encountered any finalizing issues. Sony has crammed the RCDW500C with loads of features and then some. The only minor complaints I have is that you have to really read the manual from top to bottom,left to right, then try to memorize what some of it's hidden functions are to get the most from this unit. The flourescent digital readout display is not user friendly. Also, the internal cd exchanging mechanism is very noisy and clunky for being a Sony.Previously, I owned a Philips carousel model that was extremely quiet and smooth in it's mechanical operations and playback/recording functions.The downside of the Philips model was that it lacked the 4 times recording speed and the six cd holding capacity that I'm thrilled about with the Sony! Yet, it's(Philips) flourescent display readout was extremely user friendly and easy to read.It literally would tell you in text exactly what you needed to know and what function it was performing or instruct you what you needed to do to achieve optimum recording results.It would guide you practically step by step in words on the display and not numbers or codes. The Sony doesn't---it's all just digital display numbers and codes(save that Sony instruction manual and guard it with your life!!). However, it gets the job done and then some with flying colors...I use mine mainly for vinyl to cd-r transfers and the results are awesome! Sonically, the music sounds much more crisp, clear and sharp than the original analog source.I don't even use the SuperBit Mapping feature to enhance the sound;doesn't need it.Also, the fact it can hold 6 cds for playback is incredible and versatile. Some of the functions, whether necessary or mere bells and whistles, are a pleasure to have and use.

If the readout display was easier to read,certain "hidden" button/rotary knob functions better laid out on the unit's fascia and the exchange mechanism quieter, this would definitely qualify as Sony's flagship CD-R machine and get a 5 star vote from me...

Let me echo the other comments here and say that this is a great CD recorder. The user's manual, though, is awful -- Sony should be ashamed for putting out a manual that's confusing, skimpy and almost worthless.

REMEMBER: Buy CD-R MUSIC discs, not regular CD-R discs (they won't work -- as the manual not-so-clearly points out.)

I owned a Philips CD burner for five years before it petered out, dying a little at a time for about a year. When it would no longer reliably record I took it back to Sears, where I had an unexpired warranty for shop service. It couldn't be repaired and was no longer available (Philips quit making them a couple years ago) so I bought one of these, the only other CD player-recorder I could locate in the marketplace.

There are many similarities between this player and the Philips, especially the way it burns CDs. I made two new ones the first evening I had the thing out of the box. It tooks about 15 minutes with the instructions to figure out how to make one new CD from tracks on each of two prerecorded originals. Sony could have made that process a little easier but it wasn't hard to figure out. You have to toggle between two pages in the manual until you learn the process.

When you combine tracks from one of more CDs on the new one you're burning (there are five players available and, therefore, you can record from five CD sources at once) it will only record at real time. For most CDs that's 80 minutes or less. I don't know if that matters to you. When you record CD to CD it will do it in faster time. Based on those I've burned so far, it appears to transfer the signal in about one-third of recorded time. There is a process to perform automatic finalization I haven't learned yet. Manual finalization takes a minute or so.

One big improvement I've noticed is the stuff I recorded at the end of my Philips player's life -- some of which had noticeable noise on the surface when I played them in the car and often would not play in lesser machines -- sound great when I play them on this one. It make take 10 seconds for the Sony to read the first track but once it gets started it sounds every bit as good as the original.

I made CDs from all my cassettes with my Philips player so there's nothing left to record with the Sony. I've burned several CDs on this machine sourced from old LPs that were never released on CD. It's not difficult to do this, although it requires rapt attention since you have to manually track your CD.

It appears the digital signal increases the music signal more than the surface noise, which is sometimes less evident than others. I know you can acquire noise reduction technology and people that are going to make lots of CDs from LPs should consider acquiring that. I don't have it and am not unhappy with my results.

I learned last time that the digital signal makes everything larger than on the original source. I have some noticeable tape his on CDs I made from cassettes, especially at the beginning. Still, it's better to have the digital source available since you can always remaster them at a lower level.

All things considered, I've found the Sony CD burner easy to use, has good results, and sounds great when playing conventional prerecorded CDs or those I made on my last machine. So far it's done everything I've asked of it in spades. I paid $300 for mine at a national chain electronics store that advertised the lowest price, so if you can find one here for $250 and get it shipped cheaply, you're doing good.

The place I bought mine offered a five-year warranty for about $80. My prior experience taught me that is an essential purchase with one of these. If my experience this time is same as last, when this one conks out in a few years, Sony will no longer be making it.

A caveat about bad performance: in my experience, there have only been one or two instances when my machine did not work perfectly and defied explanation as to why that occurred.

I chalk up these rare instances to high humidity or an electronic malfunction the machine does not report. The most common cause for non-starts is a code that indicates the machine is not stable. In those cases I used one of the other drawers for the original CDs and performance is fine.

Most of the time the reason for inadequate performance is related to one of two causes:

-- The recording you are trying to make exceeds the 80 minute capacity of the music CD.

-- You are trying to record on a nonmusic, or data, CD.

I've found only two brands of music CDs (note they must be music CDs) work every time without question -- Sony Music (the silver ones, not the colored ones) and Maxell CD-R Music. This became a big problem for my former Philips CD burner the longer I owned it, so I expect it will become one with this machine, too.

I bought this recorder in april of 2005 after my previous recorder,a HARMON KARDON BRAND, stopped working(5 years)and was not worth fixing(too much money).Like other reviewers, i had no choice but to buy this sony because i could not find any other brands for sale(i have acess to all major sellers of cd recorders).After 8 months of operation and many discs burned,i really don't have any complaints.It is not complicated if you read the manuel CAREFULLY!! The fact that it is a 5-disc player makes it much easier to mix a cd using 1 track from each disc(my first one was a single tray which was not fun!!!)I ALSO USE THIS RECORDER TO MAKE MIXES OF MUSIC DVD(MANUEL RECORDERING, SO BE SURE TO GET THE LEVEL CORRECT, OR YOUR RECORDING WILL BE DISTORDED.IT IS DIFFERENT FOR EVERY DVD OR TAPE SO USE A BLANK CD-RW FOR PRACTICE BEFORE YOU START THE FINAL COPY.ALSO USE THE FADE IN-- OUT BUTTON FOR LIVE RECORDINGS, AS I FIND IT HANDY FOR PAUSING BETWEEN TRACKS. I far as the finalizing process is concerned,i have not had any problems with this unit,which is a major complaint of other reviewers.I use 3 to 4 different brands of CD-r blanks and always buy 80 minuets.I always record between 75 and 79:57 on the disc because if i am paying for 80 i should get 80,right!! Make sure you buy blank discs that say DIGITAL AUDIO under the CD LOGO.ANY OTHER WILL NOT READ,BUT YOU KNOW THAT ALREADY.Here is my one problem with this recorder. After i finalize a disc and play it back,on any given number of tracks,there is a static underneath the song that makes it unbearable to listen to.It is not every disc i make and sometimes not every track.I called sony and tried thier recommendations for a solution(magnetic static due to other audio/video componets so i moved it away from my other equipment,and try unplugging it for a minute,but both did not work.)I wonder if anyone else is having this problem and if so,can you offer advice on this issue.Other than that problem,i would give this product 5 stars but because of this,it gets 3 stars.

Looking at some of the other reviews here, I'm left wondering if Sony's quality control off the assembly line was inconsistent, given the performance issues a number of users have had with this model - I bought mine in November 2003 and it has performed very well overall through HEAVY use (lately I've been recording all the CDs from my collection to CD-R and selling the originals)...

Like another user, I bought the Sony to replace TWO crappy Harmon Kardon CD components (their five-CD changer which was an absolute lemon, and their dual deck CD recorder which burnt out after about a year) - It's great to get the benefits of a 5-disc changer and a dual-deck recorder in the same unit - It has some really cool features in the advanced menu operations (you DO have to read the manual, people), like the fade in/out button, option of inserting 2" silence between tracks, adjustable record volume on both analog and digital input modes, optical digital ins/outs (this is great for running into another CD player or mixer, and I've recorded a lot of my own music performances on this Sony) - AND it plays MP3 CDs if you ever use those...

The ONE problem I have had with this unit (I have NOT had the problems other reviewers have complained about) is that on SOME CDs (CD-Rs mainly, but even on some commercial factory-made music CDs) the changer/playback deck does not read tracks correctly when dubbing - What I mean is, I put a ten-track CD in to dub it to CD-R, and two or more tracks get run together into one track on the CD-R copy - Obviously not good if you want to be able to access individual tracks on your home-recorded CDs - This has only happened on three or fours OLD CDs from 1990 or so, where perhaps the index info on the source disc was sketchy, although these problem CDs DO play on other CD players, including my Sony $600 rackmount pro model, cheap Discmans, and my computer - I actually thought the unit was defective and brought it in for servicing (I was smart enough to get the extended warranty), but it turned out to be okay - A related problem is that for a while A LOT of the AUDIO CD-Rs I burned from MP3 files on my computer would tend to skip when played on this Sony, whereas they played fine on other players, which meant I had to take the computer-burned CD-R and play it on my Sony rackmount player while running an optical out cable from there into this Sony recorder, to rerecord the CD - BIG pain in the butt - But oddly, this situation seems to have resolved itself, and now I am burning dozens of CDs on my computer from MP3 downloads and they're playing fine on the RCDW500C - Go figure... I guess it comes down to the 'error-correction' circuitry that all CD players have, and the circuitry on this model is less forgiving of minor digital glitches and aberrations on CDs than even some cheap Discman units...

At this point, this Sony is working great for me 99% of the time, and I can recommend it to anyone...