HHB comm CDR800 User Manual

HHB CDR-800 Professional Compact
Disc Recorder. HHB Communications
USA, LLC, 1410 Centinela Ave., Los An­geles, CA 90025, [phone], FAX
[phone], E-Mail sales@hhbusa.
com; Website www.hhbusa.com.

HHB Communications is a British-based
firm specializing in digital audio record­ing equipment and media for the profes­sional 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 (includ­ing nearfield monitors and powered sub­woofers). 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 repre­sented a price breakthrough in profes­sional 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 con­sumer CD recorders, which are essential­ly identical—the PDR–99 is marketed as
part of Pioneer’s Elite line, and features
their glossy Urushi front panel and Rose­wood side panels. While based on the
consumer models, the CDR–800 is actu­ally manufactured by Pioneer for the pro­audio user, and incorporates a number of
features not found on the consumer
units. The Pioneer consumer players
have only unbalanced (RCA) analog in­puts and outputs, along with S/PDIF and
Toslink digital inputs and outputs. To
these interfaces, the CDR–800 adds bal­anced 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-

back, making balanced analog outputs
unnecessary. One other important differ­ence between the CDR–800 and its Pio­neer 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 computer­type 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 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 solu­tion is far more effective. Second, the
laser now faces down, so it is far less like­ly to accumulate dust.

Operation

Operationally, the HHB CDR–800 is ex­tremely well thought out, and is really
not much more difficult to operate than
an analog cassette deck. For the most

32

Audio Electronics 2/00

P

RODUCT

R

EVIEW

HHB Compact Disc Recorder

Reviewed by Gary Galo

PHOTO 1: Front view of the HHB CDR–800 Profes­sional Compact Disc Recorder and its remote control.

PHOTO 2: Rear panel of the CDR–800.
In addition to the RCA-type analog and
digital inputs, balanced XLR analog in­puts and an AES/EBU balanced digital
input are also provided.

part, the manual is clearly written, and
includes numerous illustrations. Input
and output connections are straightfor­ward, but the rear panel also contains a
couple of switches that you may need to
reset. A three-position slide switch locat­ed 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 permis­sion/prohibition with a pair of DIP
switches, which you can set to allow un­limited copies of your recording, one­time-only copying, or no copying at all.
Since the CDR–800 is a professional
product, it is not bound by the consumer
Serial Copy Management System—the
user controls the copy management.

Input selection is done with a momen­tary contact button on the front panel—
you toggle through the various analog
and digital inputs by repeatedly depress­ing the button. The CDR–800 has five
modes of operation—three are automatic
and two are manual. One of the most use­ful 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 trans­mit DAT ID codes, so you must use the
S/PDIF connection. To do so, simply load
a blank disc and toggle the INPUT SELEC­TOR 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

SYNCHRO button until ID–SYNC ap­pears 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. Sim­ply press the play button on your DAT
recorder—when the next index number
appears, the CDR–800 automatically be­gins recording, making that index num­ber track 1 on the CD. You don’t even
need to press RECORD on the CDR–800.
Each subsequent DAT index number au-

Audio Electronics 2/00

33

PHOTO 3: A close-up view of the Pioneer
Stable-Platter mechanism used in the
CDR–800. The CD must be inserted up­side down, but this mechanism greatly
reduces disc vibration and dust accumu­lation on the laser pickup.

T ABLE 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) (EIAJ)
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 oz)
Dimensions: 482mm (W) ×294mm (D) ×134mm (H)

(18

³¹₃₂″×

11

⁹₁₆″×5 ⁹₃₂″

)