Yamaha CDRHD1500

Quite simply the Yamaha CDRHD1500 is an amazing piece of kit. This unit plays and records CDs and also rips CDs to the built in hard disc drive at 10x speed with ZERO compression. With a multitude of playback options it never fails to impress. The supplied drive is 250 Gig (It is swappable) and the official Yamaha quotation suggests up to 400 CDs can be stored uncompressed. This will vary according to the length of the CDs recorded however.

The sound quality from the hard disk is excellent when ripped from CD without compression. This unit delivers high quality sound with aplomb and this includes playback when used as a CD player. Compared to my Arcam CD player it does lack a little refinement, however that is to be expected and is a minor quibble, for its purpose this unit is quite simply stunning. Looks good too.

This unit can record CDs and also offers an AMQR mode which records CDs up to a quality level more akin to factory produced CDs, however I have not yet used this function and can only quote this option from the manual.

Build quality is excellent, solid metal fascia, gold plated sockets on the rear and a generally solid and weighty feel to the unit. Display is also comprehensive and clear. There is also a facility to view the display on an external monitor. An RS232 connector is provided should you want to add titles via a PC. Digital and analogue inputs, optical, coaxial, and Phono are all provided with input and outputs.

However the logic involved in storing data on the Hard Disk is a little idiosyncratic if I have to criticise this at all, although if you read and digest the manual thoroughly before use then it becomes fairly straightforward.

All in all an excellent unit.