Pioneer PDR-09

Not the first consumer stand-alone CD recorder (Philips was naturally there first) and not Pioneer's first one either (RPD-1000, december 1991)... but Pioneer's most lavish, with a build-quality equivalent to that of the PD-95 !

Featured here were Pioneer's staple Stable Platter Mechanism, Legato Linear d/a scheme and, conveniently, a built-in Sample Rate Converter.
Legato Linear works by linking one sample to another every 20.8µs, then a custom algorithm interpolates data to "recreate" lost harmonics above the standard 20Khz LPF cut-off.

No less than four digital inputs were incorporated : 1x coaxial, 2x TOS optical and even 1x ST optical !
The other features are those found on any serious recorder like selectable fade in/out, margin indicator and reset plus those typical of CD recorders such as track & index marking, TOC (Table of Contents) writing and finalizing.

Recording time, however, was limited to 60 minutes but maybe present day blank CDs would allow to squeeze a little more... The recommended blanks, then, were Pioneer's own. Pioneer unfortunately withdrew from that product market - along Mitsui, they were the best blank CD-Rs

A huge 14kg beast built like not not much is nowadays, especially when compared to its present siblings CD/DVD recorders which often weigh less than a single kilo. The latter don't last as long to say the least - can't have your cake, have it cheap and carry it too.


I know I have some other images of the PDR-09 and even a prototype image somewhere - stay tuned !