HHB CDR-850
A broadcast-grade CD recorder with a purple face and a back panel that embarrassed the consumer competition.
Overview
Most people notice the color first. HHB built the CDR-850 into a 2U rack-mount chassis with a deep metallic purple front panel, and EQ (1999, p.124) gave it a full review. It looked like nothing else in the rack and was wired like nothing else at its price. It was the successor to HHB's own CDR800. The company's pitch, as it appeared in the trade pages of Mix (March 1999, p.77), was blunt: a "fully loaded, professional CD recorder" that a studio could actually afford. That's advertising copy, but the feature list behind it held up.
The headline feature was media compatibility. The CDR-850 records on conventional write-once CD-R discs and on CD-RW rewritable media, which was still a fairly fresh idea when the unit launched. A bad take doesn't cost you a disc, because CD-RW can be erased and reused, and HHB gave owners four separate erase levels to work with. For anyone who'd been dubbing to CD-R and binning failures, that changed the workflow.
Recording is handled through four one-touch modes - two manual, two automatic - and the front panel menu exposes every function without digging through submenus. The auto modes will convert DAT start IDs into CD track numbers, and the machine can copy track starts from CD, DAT, MD, DVD and DCC sources. A switchable sample-rate converter accepts any digital input from 32 kHz to 48 kHz, including varispeed material, and converts it to the CD standard of 44.1 kHz. Audio (January 2000, p.58) put the CDR-850 on the bench and found its frequency response essentially flat. Fade in and fade out, auto pause, and an auto-finalize function round out the day-to-day features, and an infrared remote is included. A level margin indicator reads out in 1 dB increments, and SCMS is under complete user control rather than locked down.
The back panel is where HHB drew the line between this and a consumer deck. Balanced XLR analog inputs and outputs are fitted, with the outputs switchable between +4 dBu and -8 dBu. Unbalanced RCA phonos are there too. Digital connectivity covers AES/EBU input plus coaxial and optical S/PDIF in and out, and a parallel remote-control port is provided. EQ's review made the point plainly: one look around the back and it's clear why the CDR-850 belongs in a studio rather than a bedroom system. That connectivity is why the unit turns up in broadcast and post rooms rather than hi-fi racks.
A variant, the CDR-850 PLUS, adds a Word Clock input, which you need when locking to a master clock in an all-digital system. It also has a balanced AES/EBU digital output that carries track ID information. The two are externally similar and the PLUS commands more money, so confirm which version you're looking at. Pricing at introduction was $1,350 list for the standard CDR-850, with street pricing advertised considerably lower. The PLUS listed at the same $1,350 but was discounted less aggressively. HHB positioned a cheaper sibling, the CDR830, below both, with unbalanced RCA analog inputs only and no balanced I/O. If XLR connectivity matters, the 850 is the one to hold out for.
Go in with clear eyes. These are working machines built for daily use in professional environments, and two decades on, the laser assembly and transport are the usual failure points on any CD recorder of this vintage. Media matters too: the CDR-850 wants Orange Book-compatible discs, and HHB sold its own line of 80-minute CD-R and CD-RW media to match. Parts and service documentation are thinner than they were, so a tested unit with a known-good laser is worth far more than an untested one.
eBay Listings
As an eBay Partner, we earn from qualifying purchases. This helps support our independent vintage technology research.