Home > Consumer Reviews > Crosley CR248 Songwriter CD Recorder - Paprika

While the cabinet is beautiful, the "brass finish" on the face plate looks to be made of cheap pot-metal. The dials and buttons feel cheap and tacky.

But that wasn't the real problem. Once I got it set up, I was amazed at how out-of-balance the turntable was. The whole turntable assembly is cheaply made from plastic that I was afraid to put an album on (no pad - just bare-naked-cheap-plastic). While the tone arm queuing lever was a nice feature, it felt like it would break off in my fingers at any moment. I cannot understand how these guys get away with charging so much for something made so poorly. It reminded me of those old portable turntables made for children (except, not as durable).

Upon checking out the radio receiver I found that it gave acceptable reception and sensitivity, but the speakers are obviously rejects from AM Transistor radios of decades gone by. The tinny sound almost hurt my ears, and my hearing isn't all that great to begin with!

I decided to give the CD Recording function a try. -- As long as you are willing to record a complete side of an album to a CD and don't really care about sound quality, you'll be fine. The record function was very easy to master. Unfortunately, what you end up with is a disk with two audio files on it (one for each side) which cannot be edited, cleaned up, or broken into single tracks in the native format. I had to rip the two files to MP3 files to my computer to accomplish those tasks. Since software is not included with the Crosley, I downloaded Audacity, a free (open source) sound editing package that I found fairly easy to use without documentation. Once the two files are converted to MP3, you can do any editing that you have the time to accomplish.

Back to the wobbly turntable for a moment though... Besides looking silly, it was bad enough that it induced Wow on the CD. (This produces a sound of "speed-up/slow-down" for each revolution of the cheaply made plastic platter.) This is, as far as I know, impossible to correct outside a professional sound studio. It wasn't noticeable at first, but once you notice it, you'll not be able to ignore it.

I had this item in my house for eight days before I returned it to Target where it was purchased. I assume that, considering the expense of this item, you must be paying a lot of money for the "hand-made, solid wood" cabinet because the electronics couldn't be worth more than twenty bucks. I liked that the box had speaker outputs and auxiliary inputs, but I didn't keep the item long enough to try these out.

If you want a pretty, antique looking box to display, this is the one for you. If you want to use it for it's advertised capabilities, you will be sorely disappointed.

This is a great product. I do not understand all of the negative reviews being left here. I got this first and foremost because I wanted a record player. I thought the added feature of transferring an occasional record or tape to compact disc was a great extra feature. Now for all of you audiophile's out there...the transfer quality isn't perfect. The hiss and pop sounds that come along with vinyl are still there. I never expected a miracle and didn't think the vinyl to CD transfer would sound like a CD I just bought at the store. Also, tape to CD quality is what I expected - once again not like a store bought CD. The quality, however, is very good with both of these transfers and I was actually surprised at the brightness of the sound. The sound is like one should expect a vinyl or tape transfer to CD. If you want to master the sound, rip the CD to your computer and use another program to do so. Also, the split track feature is excellent. You just have to be conscious of when the song ends so you hit the button at the correct time. Now, another person mentioned that the technology should allow for an automatic split track feature so one wouldn't have to monitor the machine all the time; this would be great in a perfect world and I trust that sometime in the future this technology will be available to the average Joe. For a couple hundred dollars I think owners of the Songwriter turntable should be pleased. It does the job well.

This product does a great job of converting records and cassette tapes to cds. Since i am not an audiophile, I don't mind the pops and so forth that show up in th cd. after all, isn't that how albums used to sound?! The touch of a few buttons and you have a cd. I love it!

Caveat Emptor - Buyer Beware! That's my warning to anyone considering buying the Crosley "Songwriter'. Be sure you know why you are buying this and what it can do or you are likely to be very disappointed.
When I saw the title "Songwriter" I thought it would meet my desire for a product which would turn my pop music cassettes and Vinyl into CDs with separate tracks for each song. My car cassette player can "fast forward" to the next track and I assumed the "Songwriter" used that same technology to know when to split tracks. The "Split Track Button" does not work that way.
The directions say, "While Recording your record or cassette, listen for the end of each song. There will usually be a brief silence between songs. Once you are at the end of the song, press the Split Track button. The recording will then go to the next track number by increments of one. Once the recording is finished, you can ...go to the beginning of each song."
Literally, in order to "write songs" to a CD you have to sit by the box the entire time it is recording, hitting the new track button at the right time and only the right time. It is much easier to buy replacement CDs for your albums.
My advice to Crosley is to eith

I was at a loss as to what to do with our extensive record and cassette collections. I knew that I wanted to put everything on CD, but was unsure as to how to do it until I discovered the Crosley Songwriter.
The unit is so easy to use and produces a quality CD. I have absolutely no complaints about it at all.
Ordering from Amazon was very quick and easy and I have already recommended them to several of my friends.
All I can say is that "It's WONDERFUL!!!!"