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New Tascam or old reliable Masterlink?

I would like to use a single, stand-alone recorder and playback machine to record my vinyl in a "mix" style, and want to be able to play back in the highest resolution possible. I would also like to take these mixes and put them on regular CD-R's for car and friend use, and also convert them to MP3 files for my son's iPod.

Which machine is best to accomplish this? I have read that the Masterlink is a sound choice for recording, but is not too great as a player. It also does not have an analog input level adjustment to adjust the fixed output from my preamp.

Tascam has recently introduced the DV-RA1000HD, with a 60 gig hard drive and the ability to record in high resolution to not only CD-R's, but DVD and SACD. I would hope that its playback transport and overall sound quality would be an improvement over the older-design Masterlink, but I would like to hear from anyone familiar with Tascam stuff and this unit or its predecessor (the DV-RA1000 sans the hard drive).

The following are the steps that I assume I would need to take. Please correct and clarify where you can:

I would record to the hard drive in order to most easily record full album sides without stopping; then I would create mix playlists and label the songs; lastly, I would record these mixes from the hard drive to an archival high resolution media. Would I use DVD, or another type for best results/highest resolution?

In order to create standard play CD's and MP3 files, could I create them directly from the unit, or would I have to convert the high resolution media file through use of a computer and additional software?

Sorry for so many questions. I just want to know what I am getting into and what is the right product to accomplish what I would like to do.

Thank you for any input that you can offer.
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ghostrider45
449 posts
 
I have the DV-RA1000, without the hard disk. I record at 96 khz 24 bit to a DVD+R. I then take the DVD+R over to my McIntosh running Diskwelder Bronze, and author myself a DVD-A, which I burn to a DVD-R blank. I can play this back on my DV-50, which sounds much better than the DV-RA1000 on playback.

Diskwelder runs on PC or Mac and came with the unit when I got it. I'm not sure the hard disk is worth the extra money for transcribing LPs, since you really need to get the recorded data to the computer, and copying it from the HD just wastes time.

If you only want to make CDs there are cheaper CD recorders out there (Sony makes a couple) that will do just fine.
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