Marantz CDR300

A professional field recorder that happened to burn CDs - phantom power, XLR inputs, and a built-in mic in a box you could carry to the gig.

Overview

The CDR300 is the machine you bought when you needed to walk out of a session with a finished disc in your hand. Marantz built it as a portable CD recorder for the working recordist, and the feature list reads like a tape deck's, except the tape is a CD-R or CD-RW you can pick up at any office supply store. It has stereo XLR and ¼-inch mic/line inputs, 48V phantom power, S/PDIF in and out, an internal microphone and speaker, RCA line out, and a stereo RCA aux input. The preamp is built in, so you don't need to drag a mixer or a separate mic pre along just to get level. Mix (July 2003, p.102) framed it as the continuation of Marantz's rugged portable-recorder tradition. It noted that anyone who knew the Marantz/Superscope PMD cassette machines would feel at home with the built-in mic and small speaker, and that the CDR300's pro features earned it a closer look.

It's a tape-recorder workflow moved onto optical media. Recording level can be set manually or left to automatic control, and there's an onboard limiter to catch the peaks you didn't. A programmable mic/line EQ plus high- and band-pass filtering let you shape the input before it hits the disc, and a 3-band master EQ handles the output side. Monitoring runs through the built-in speaker or the headphone jack. An IR remote is included. It runs on AC, or on DC with the optional RPS300 battery pack, which is what turns a rack piece into a field recorder.

Pricing put it firmly in professional territory. BSW's retail listing showed the CDR300 at a $899.99 list, discounted to $699, with the RPS300 battery pack at $215 list. The CDR300PKG package came with the recorder, an Audio-Technica AT825 stereo mic with a dual-XLR Y-cable, a 50-pack of CD-Rs, and a carrying bag, at $1,423.50 list. Mix (July 2003, p.102) quoted the unit at $849. Either way, this was not a consumer toy.

The inputs are the strong point. Stereo XLR and ¼-inch mic/line jacks with 48V phantom power mean condenser mics plug straight in, with no outboard preamp and no adapter chain. S/PDIF I/O lets it sit in a digital chain, and the stereo RCA aux input takes the output of a CD player, LP rig, cassette deck, or DAT machine for dubbing to disc. A BSW write-up described exactly that use: recording your own CDs from CDs, LPs, cassettes, or DAT. The same source noted the built-in preamp removes the need for an external mixer or mic pre, and that the speaker and headphone jacks make monitoring convenient without extra gear.

Per the period coverage, the CDR300 is not a consumer personal recorder. A contemporary buyer's guide drew the line plainly: consumer personal recorders are everywhere and offer long recording times, but they usually lack an external mic connection, can't download recorded data, may not be as rugged as professional designs, and may use inferior coding algorithms. The CDR300 sits on the professional side of that line.

Anyone chasing one today should think of it as a capture device first and a CD burner second. The CD-R/RW media it uses is still readily available and inexpensive, which is more than can be said for a lot of early-2000s digital gear with proprietary storage. The pro I/O (phantom-powered XLRs, S/PDIF, aux in) is the reason to want one. The disc mechanism is the reason to check it carefully before you buy. The RPS300 battery pack was sold separately, so a complete field-ready example is worth more than a bare AC-only unit. The CDR300PKG bundle, with the AT825 mic and carrying bag, is the version that shows up complete.

The feature set is deep for its class: programmable filtering, a limiter, master EQ, manual or auto level. The phantom-powered inputs are the headline. It's a CD recorder, not a modern file-based recorder, and it cuts a disc on location without a laptop in the signal path.