Marantz CDR-1
The Marantz CDR-1 was among the first generation of professional CD recorders. It could write a one-off disc that played on any standard CD player, and at the time that was still new and expensive. Audio (March 1992, p.46) noted that recordings made on the CDR-1 could be used on conventional CD players but could not be erased and rerecorded. That write-once limit came with the format in this era.
Marantz sold the unit as a professional product, with the price to match. Audio (March 1992, p.50) observed that the price was high for a professional unit, but that it offered balanced inputs and did not impose SCMS copy protection. That mattered to professional users, since consumer CD-R decks of the period were often forced to add a serial copy-management flag to their recordings. In the UK, the CDR-1 was distributed exclusively by HHB Communications, as Studio Sound (February 1992, p.10) recorded.
The CDR-1 was built around a 1-bit delta-sigma recording system with higher-order noise shaping. It used a 24-bit "Finalizer" digital processing stage that actively suppressed the noise of the recorder and analog output stages, which preserved low-level musical detail. The D/A converter ran in a 1-bit silent mode, and the unit used a high-precision crystal-based reference clock. The A/D converter was an ADC 80320 running double-speed sampling. Recordings could be made at the standard 44.1 kHz sampling rate with no digital compression applied.
Known specifications:
- Frequency response: 5 Hz - 20 kHz, ±0.5 dB
- Signal-to-noise ratio: greater than 95 dB
- Dynamic range: greater than 90 dB
- THD: less than 0.005%
- Input impedance: 50 kilohms
- Output level: 2 V, 600 ohms
No production years, original price, or detailed market history have surfaced in the record. Asking prices for used units run from roughly $450 to $900, though those are listing prices, not confirmed sales. Service documentation is scarce.
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