PRODUCT REVIEW
HHB Compact Disc Recorder
Reviewed by Gary Galo
HHB CDR-800 Professional Compact
Disc Recorder. HHB Communications
USA, LLC, 1410 Centinela Ave., Los An-
geles, CA 90025, (310) 319-1111, FAX
(310) 319-1311, E-Mail sales@hhbusa.
HHB Communications is a British-based
firm specializing in digital audio record-
ing equipment and media for the profes-
PHOTO 2: Rear panel of the CDR–800.
In addition to the RCA-type analog and
digital inputs, balanced XLR analog in-
puts and an AES/EBU balanced digital
input are also provided.
sional audio industry. In addition to CD
The CDR–800 looks suspiciously like
recorders, HHB manufactures portable the Pioneer PDR–05 and PDR–99 con-
DAT recorders, a line of vacuum-tube sumer CD recorders, which are essential-
processors (including mike preamps, ly identical—the PDR–99 is marketed as
compressors, and parametric equalizers), part of Pioneer’s Elite line, and features
and studio monitor loudspeakers (includ- their glossy Urushi front panel and Rose- back, making balanced analog outputs
ing nearfield monitors and powered sub- wood side panels. While based on the unnecessary. One other important differ-
woofers). HHB also distributes the Genex consumer models, the CDR–800 is actu- ence between the CDR–800 and its Pio-
line of high bit rate, high sampling rate ally manufactured by Pioneer for the pro- neer counterparts concerns the types of
magneto-optical digital recorders. Their audio user, and incorporates a number of recordable CDs you can use. The Pioneer
complete line of digital media includes features not found on the consumer consumer machines will only recognize
professional-quality recordable compact units. The Pioneer consumer players consumer-type CD–R blanks. The
discs (CD–R), ADAT tapes, MiniDiscs have only unbalanced (RCA) analog in- CDR–800 will also work with computer-
(MD), and rewriteable magneto-optical puts and outputs, along with S/PDIF and type CD blanks. The CDR–800 is also
(MO) discs.
Toslink digital inputs and outputs. To equipped with standard 19-inch rack
The CDR–800 Compact Disc these interfaces, the CDR–800 adds bal- mounts.
recorder (Photo 1) has been on the anced XLR analog inputs, along with a
One important feature of the
market for over two years. At the time it balanced XLR AES/EBU digital input CDR–800 is Pioneer’s Stable-Platter
was introduced, the CDR–800 repre- (Photo 2).
mechanism (Photo 3), which includes a
sented a price breakthrough in profes- All analog and digital outputs on the full-size platter upon which the CD is
sional CD recorders. The list price of CDR–800 remain unbalanced. This may placed upside down. There are a couple
$2200 has become irrelevant, since the appear odd at first, but most pro audio of advantages to this system. First, the
unit now sells for around $1200 at most users are likely to use the CDR–800 with disc is supported over its entire surface,
pro audio dealers.
an external digital processor for play- 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 solu-
tion is far more effective. Second, the
laser now faces down, so it is far less like-
ly to accumulate dust.
Operation
Operationally, the HHB CDR–800 is ex-
tremely well thought out, and is really
not much more difficult to operate than
an analog cassette deck. For the most
PHOTO 1: Front view of the HHB CDR–800 Profes-
sional Compact Disc Recorder and its remote control.
32 Audio Electronics 2/00
tomatically generates a track number on “finalization,” which allows the CD–R to for track selection are not included on
the CD. It makes sense to prepare a DAT be played on any conventional CD play- the main chassis of the CDR–800. Re-
master, including all of the index points er. During this process, the absolute lead- mote-control operation can be defeated
you desire, before making a CD–R.
in and lead-out information for the entire with a DIP switch on the rear panel. The
The CDR–800 will also copy other disc, and the table of contents, are writ- rear panel of the CDR–800 is also fitted
digital sources the same way, including ten to the CD, along with a code that pre- with an 8-pin DIN Parallel Remote sock-
MiniDisc, Digital Compact Cassette, and vents further recording on the disc. et, which allows you to construct your
CD, using the AL–SYNC mode. There is Once you have finished recording a disc, own wired remote control, duplicating
also a 1–SYNC mode that allows auto- press the FINALIZE button. After a few PLAY, PAUSE, RECORD, STOP, MANUAL
matic copying of 1 track from any of the seconds of setup, the display will indi- TR ACK NO., WRITE, and the two
above digital sources. After the one cate a time of 4:03 or 4:07, depending TRACK SEARCH BUTTONS. A connec-
track of the original has been recorded, on the length of the recording. This is tion diagram is included in the CDR–800
the recording process stops. You can the amount of time it will take to finalize manual.
add additional tracks to your recording, the disc.
using this mode, until the CD–R is filled
to capacity.
Now, press the PAUSE button to begin Circuitry and Construction
the process. The time display begins As Photo 4 shows, the CDR–800 is
The CDR–800 also allows manual counting down—when it reaches 0:00, packed with circuitry. There are no less
copying of analog or digital sources, one the process is complete, and the CD–R than 13 PC boards in the CDR–800, vary-
track at a time. During manual record- may be played in any CD player. The ing in size from large servo and audio
ing, the CDR–800’s REC LEVEL and REC CDR–800 has a SKIP–ID function that digital boards to several very small
BALANCE function the same as on any can be used during finalization. This boards, including the headphone amp.
other recording device. You can record function allows you to effectively elimi- Two power transformers are used, one
an individual track, stop, and continue at nate any unwanted tracks on your CD for the audio and digital circuitry, and an-
a later time. If you manually record a sin- after it has been recorded. Suitably other dedicated to the servo. Like most
gle track, a process called “fixation” au- equipped CD players will then ignore products of Far East origin, the CDR–800
tomatically takes place before and after those tracks during playback.
the track is recording. During fixation, The CDR–800 is supplied with a re- the power supplies. Several of these reg-
the lead-in and lead-out information for mote control that duplicates the func- ulators are located on the two power-
that track is written. tions of the front-panel controls. You supply PC boards, but the analog/digital
uses standard 3-terminal IC regulators for
When you have finished recording a must use the remote to enter track num- board and the servo board each house a
CD, you must perform a process called bers for CD playback—numeric buttons pair of local IC regulators.
34 Audio Electronics 2/00
CD–R Basics
The physical structure of a CD–R disc is non-burned areas.
shown in Fig. 1. The recordable CD is
The most common organic dye found
molded with a continuous groove spiral in CD–R disc is cyanine. Azo dye, origi-
from the inside to the outside of the disc’s nally developed for types of optical
polycarbonate substrate. The “pre- recording media, is also used for CD–R
grooved” disc is necessary in order to discs. Cyanine and azo-based discs are
provide the recorder with a physical ref- sensitive to ultraviolet light, as well as
erence. The groove also contains timing heat and humidity. As such, their archival
information that the recorder uses to life expectancy is only about ten years.
keep the CD spinning at the correct
The recording surface of most CD–R
speed at all points along the disc surface. discs is green, while some appear blue.
After the polycarbonate substrate is mold- This is due to the type of dye used and
ed, the disc is spin-coated with the the color of the reflective layer. Silver and
recording layer, an organic dye such as gold reflective layers yield a different
cyanine, phthalocyanine, or azo. color when they ref lect light back
The recording layer is then coated with through the organic dye.
a vacuum-deposited reflective layer, fol-
More recently, the Japanese firm Mitsui
lowed by a spin coat of protective lac- has developed a CD–R disc using phthalo-
quer. Most CD–R manufacturers add a cyanine dye. These discs are gold in color,
label coating to further protect the disc in part due to the gold reflective layer.
from scratches. Special discs are available The phthalocyanine discs are far less sus-
with a label area compatible with an ink- ceptible to the degrading effects of light,
jet printer specifically made for printing heat, and humidity, and are expected to
CD–R discs.
have an archival life in excess of 100
FIGURE 1: Cut-away view
of a CD–R recordable CD.
The pregrooved polycar-
bonate substrate is coat-
ed with an organic dye
recording layer and a re-
flective layer. During
recording, the laser beam
burns the organic dye,
momentarily raising the
temperature of the dye
A-1522-1
to over 300°F.
Inexpensive CD labeling systems are years. Mitsui is manufacturing these gold
also available, from a variety of sources. discs for a number of other firms, includ-
Most of these allow you to print or write ing HHB, and they have licensed the tech-
on a circular label with adhesive backing. nology to other manufacturers as well.
These labeling systems carefully center
Care should be exercised in the han-
the label on the CD in order to ensure dling and storage of all CD–R discs. Tests
smooth disc rotation. The adhesive back- have shown that the green cyanine-based
ing on the CD labels is compatible with discs can be rendered unplayable if left
the materials from which the disc is man- exposed to bright sunlight for only a few
ufactured, and should not impair the per- days. Unless they are being recorded or
formance of the disc, or shorten its life. If played, all CD–R discs should be stored in
you label CDs by hand, you should avoid their jewel cases at all times. The HHB
solvent-based inks that could damage the CDR–800 recorder automatically adjusts
disc. TDK makes a pen specifically for la- the intensity of the laser beam to suit the
beling CDs, which you can purchase specific type of dye found on the CD–R
from any pro audio dealer.
that has been inserted in the recorder.
All CD–R discs from reputable manu-
The recording laser beam is the same
wavelength as that used for CD play- facturers are certified to meet “Orange
back—780nm. The laser in the CD Book” specifications. The Orange Book is
recorder literally burns the organic a document produced by Sony and
recording layer, momentarily raising the Philips describing the technical specifica-
temperature of the recording layer at tions for the compact disc format. Part II
that spot to over 300°F. The width of a of the Orange Book describes the CD–R
burned area, the equivalent of a pit on a format. You can find a considerable
prerecorded CD, is only 0.6 microns. amount of information on the CD–R
The burning alters the optical character- format on the websites of Maxell
istics of the organic dye, producing a dif- (www.maxell.com) and HHB (www.
ferent level of reflection from burned vs hhbusa.com or www.hhb.co.uk).
Audio Electronics 2/00 35
PHOTO 4: Inside view of the CDR–800. Two
power transformers are used, and the solid
copper chassis provides excellent shielding
against EMI and RFI.
Balanced analog and AES/EBU digital
signals enter the CDR–800 via the input
PC board assembly. The balanced analog
inputs are transformerless; the + and −
legs of the balanced line are each fed to
5532 op amps operated noninverting as
unity gain buffers. The outputs of these
buffers are fed to the + and − inputs of a
single 5532, converting the balanced sig-
nal to an unbalanced state.
The use of 5532 op amps is a real dis-
appointment. I fail to understand why
the Japanese audio industry continues to
use these 20-plus-year-old devices when
so many high-performance dual op amps
are now available. A product as sophisti-
cated as the CDR–800 clearly deserves
better, but the Pioneer designers obvi-
ously continue to believe that high-per-
formance op amps just don’t make any
difference.
The AES/EBU digital input also dis-
penses with the usual transformer-cou-
pled input—the balanced to unbalanced
conversion is accomplished with an
SN75157P differential line receiver. The
SN75157P is a dual device; only half of it
is used.
The signals from the balanced input
PC board are fed to the audio digital PC
board assembly, which also houses all of
the analog and digital unbalanced in-
puts. The unbalanced analog inputs for
each channel are fed to NJM072 input
signal op amps, manufactured by JRC.
These are TL072-equivalents, another ex-
tremely dated device (data on JRC op
amps can be found on their web site:
www.njr.co.jp).
I’m not familiar with the analog-to-dig-
ital converter chip—it bears the part
number AK5340–VS. HHB claims it uses
the latest 1-bit conversion system, which
is completely free of zero-crossing distor-
tion. The A/D chip design also elimi-
nates nonlinear distortions within the
passband, and does not require external
adjustments.
Digital inputs are fed directly to the
LC89585 EFM encoder chip. The
CDR–800 also includes a built-in sam-
pling-rate converter chip, which con-
verts 32kHz or 48kHz inputs to the CD
standard of 44.1kHz. The sampling-rate
converter functions only when needed—
inputs at the standard 44.1kHz frequency
bypass the sampling-rate converter.
On the playback end, the SM5813AP
digital filter feeds a pair of 1-bit Pioneer
36 Audio Electronics 2/00
PD2028B Pulsef low D/A converter nect between your source and the HHB
chips, which are actually stereo devices, recorder.
with left and right audio outputs. To im-
The dated op amps mentioned previ-
prove low-level linearity, an entire chip is ously undoubtedly limit the perfor-
devoted to each channel, configured in a mance of the CDR–800 when used with
differential mode. The balanced outputs its analog inputs and outputs. However,
from the D/A chips are fed to the ±inputs the excellent performance of the A/D
of a 5532 op amp. The unbalanced out- and D/A converters used in this recorder
put from the op amp is fed to a second make up, in part, for the performance
5532, which functions as an output of the op amps. I have no doubt that re-
buffer. The filter/DAC combination placement of the op amps with the best
should provide resolution comparable to dual devices currently available would
conventional 20-bit converters.
significantly improve the analog perfor-
Deemphasis is accomplished in the mance of the CDR–800, allowing the ex-
analog domain, using a shunt filter locat- cellent digital circuitry to perform to its
ed between the first and second 5532. potential.
The deemphasis network is activated
with a single bipolar transistor. The Conclusions
CDR–800 does not apply emphasis to CD The HHB CDR–800 is a remarkable prod-
recordings. Only a handful of commer- uct, and a real breakthrough in affordable
cial CDs, mainly from Denon, are record- professional CD recorders. Used with ex-
ed with high-frequency emphasis, and ternal digital sources, via its digital input,
modern high-resolution converters make the CDR–800 will make compact discs
it unnecessary. Overall, the construction that are virtual sonic clones of the origi-
of the CDR–800 is extremely impressive. nal digital source. Recently, HHB intro-
This unit should stand up to demanding, duced the CDR–850 rewritable Compact
day-in, day-out professional use.
Disc Recorder (CD–RW), which is priced
about $200 less than the CDR–800. Read-
ers may wonder whether it renders the
Performance
In order to evaluate the accuracy of 800 obsolete. Not at all! The new
CD–R recordings, I made a demonstra- CDR–850, also based on a consumer Pio-
tion disc cloned from a number of tracks neer product (the PD–R555RW), does
on commercial CDs that I normally use not have the Stable Platter mechanism.
for equipment evaluation. I made the For the ultimate in CD–R mechanical sta-
test disc by connecting my CD trans- bility, the CDR–800 will continue to be
port, a modified Denon DCD–1015, to the recorder of choice.
the S/PDIF input on the CDR–800. My
Home users in need of a CD recorder
DCD–1015 has a Canare 75Ω BNC out- should not hesitate to purchase this pro
put connector—the two units were con- product. Because of the Stable Platter
nected with a DH Labs D–75 S/PDIF in- mechanism, the CDR–800 will probably
terconnect fitted with a Canare 75Ω outperform your existing CD transport,
BNC connector on one end, and a so you may be able to dispense with your
Canare 75Ω RCA connector on the existing playback machine.
other.
When the time came to purchase a
Every self-respecting, golden-eared au- CD recorder for use in my studio at the
diophile will desire to know exactly Crane School of Music at SUNY Pots-
how the CDR–800’s copies compared to dam, where I am employed as audio en-
the original CDs. Unfortunately, the an- gineer, I chose the CDR–800. I could not
swer is not at all straightforward. I can’t give a more enthusiastic endorsement. ■
honestly state that the copies were indis-
tinguishable from the originals. Howev-
er, any differences I heard are no greater
than those caused by substituting one
high-quality digital interconnect for an-
other. The differences were normally far
less than those I associate with changing
CD transports.
In my opinion, digital copies made on
the CDR–800 are faithful reproductions
of the original, and any observed differ-
ences may well be attributed to external
factors. The performance of the
CDR–800 will depend primarily on the
quality of your source and the intercon-
Audio Electronics 2/00 37
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