Can't see the point of a stand-alone Burner these days, assuming you've got a PC or Mac.

If you get a stand along CD burner it is quite probable that the mechanism is the
same as one of the PC fitment CD burners.

I've always found that "brands I've heard of" CD-Rs are very reliable for burning highly compaible audio CD's. I do not buy unbranded bulk media, not worth the failures. Equally CD-Rs are so cheap that I don't burn audio to CD-RW except for test purposes to read back on my own PC.

My old Sony CD Player (1988 ish) has always played CD-R's but cannot cope with RW's. CD-RWs need a high power illumination laser in the reader and so the system has to be designed with this in mind, or it will have no chance. Basically, if the system doesn't explicitly state "CD RW compatible" you can bet it won't read them.