The Tascam CD-RW 2000 V3 is a discontinued model of a CD recorder and player. It is designed for use in recording studios, although there isn't nearly as much need for something like this now as there was even ten years ago, so CD-RWs like this one seem to be quickly dying out. This one comes in a rack mountable casing, which will take up two spaces in a traditional rack case. It is a fairly simple recorder and player to use, especially if you're only using it for the basic features, which is what my experience is with the CD-RW 2000 V3. I don't know how it compares to the original 2000, as I've only used this particular version. In the professional recording studio where I've used this, we had it set it up to record mixes straight to CD. While of course this can be done inside on the box on your computer, this has been in the studio for a while and has stayed since the days when it was a necessity. As a CD player it does the job very well, offering up a headphone jack in the front as well as a knob to control the level. It also has large buttons for play, stop, pause, and record. It has the standard settings that you'd expect from any CD player, as well as some not so standard ones for using the recorder. I must admit that I haven't delved too deep into the 2000 V3, and have generally only used it to write mixes to a CD for clients for myself. For this sort of use and beyond this unit will undoubtedly get the job done. It really just depends on what kind of system you're currently running to see if you need something like this, but most home studio owners won't at all. If you do need a hardware version of a CD player and recorder for your studio, the Tascam CD-RW 2000 V3 shouldn't be too expensive or hard to find even though they don't make them anymore, so I'd definitely recommend looking into it if you've got a need.