Virgil61

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 4 of 5

Used product for
3 Months to 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $379.00 from etronics.com

Summary:
I'll start with mentioning that audioreview.com has this listed under "Elite by Pioneer" rather than Pioneer Elite. Audioreview.com has a lot of cleaning up to do on this site and needs to spend the time doing so. The PD-F27 has a lot of good features. I was looking for a quality cd player that would deliver good higher end audio. I also wanted the convenience of putting a large number of discs and not worrying about getting up and changing them constantly. The Good: The audio quality on the PD-F27 is very good. The "Elite" designation to a large degree comes from the circuitry it carries that includes a proprietary High Bit Legato Link that smooths out freq responses in recordings that might lack to full spectrum. Not a bad sounding player at all, and for the money quite a bargain. It also comes in the Elite "house style" black Uroshi finish, which is just the veneer/sap of the Uroshi tree grown in Japan. The Bad: The player is a bit slow to change discs and even slower to begin play. Enough so that it becomes a little irritating at times, but not enough to keep one from buying it. The headphone amp is adequate enough, but not anything great. It delivers some decent power but you're better off using a dedicated headphone amp or your system amplifier/reciever. The Ugly: Like another poster here, my unit has begun displaying the tendancy to stop playing discs, returning to start and beginning play again. Sometimes this occurs disc after disc for a few tries and other times it goes hours without it occuring. There is something obviously wrong in this line's laser unit or processor which is making the processor execute a reset. That makes at least two of us here with exactly the same problem occuring. Pioneer has been extremely co-operative with helping find an authorized dealer and they do get kudos for their assistance.

Strengths:
Good cd quality playback for the price. Nice "house-style" Elite design and quite changer.

Weaknesses:
A laser unit or processor problem that occurs every few cds, not just in my unit but on another reviewer's as well.

Similar Products Used:
Magnavox, Harman Kardon, Philips

Price Paid:  $390.00

Summary:
This CD changer is amazing, the sound quality on this is so much better than any of the previous ones I had. The sound is crisper and more balanced than both my previous changers. The coolest feature,in addition to excellent sound quality, is random playback in custom mode. Setting up the custom modes was not the easiest of tasks, but once done it is very pleasant to use. There are many other nice to have features such as "Best" selection, which holds up to 50 tracks that you mark as "Best". It is an excelent buy compare to some other more expensive CD changers.

Strengths:
301 disc capacity, excellent sound quality, custom functions.

Weaknesses:
Text for title and artist could be longer. Kind of slow while changing between CDs, but otherwise no weekenesses.

Similar Products Used:
Marantz cc-870, Yamaha CDC-506

Price Paid:  $500.00 from Tweeter

Summary:
I require a giga-changer because I listen to this unit 3-5 hours nearly every day while working and do not have the patience to constantly change CD's by hand. I've owned the player for 5 months. The PD-F27 file-type compact giga-changer (301) disc player appears to be identical, in all respects, to its predecessor, the problematic PD-F19 that I previously owned that was replaced by this unit.
Programming is straightforward and easily accomplished with or without a keyboard. I highly recommend keyboard entry when loading many CD's for speed and consistency. CD loading is very fast. Removing a CD in the carousel rack is not difficult but requires nimble fingers and will result in touching the playing side of the disc. Playing a single CD is a joy thanks to its one-disc single loader slot with plenty of room on both sides of the disc to place and remove the CD.

The remote control unit operates flawlessly and includes most functions found on the main unit. Its IR sensor permits operation at about plus/minus 30 degrees at 25 feet from main unit.

Sound quality is, in my opinion, excellent for a unit of this type. Somewhat bright and brassy but not overly done. Reasonably punchy and dynamic. Once CD is loaded, a bit slow to read and get underway. Sad to say that this unit has developed one of the same problems that the PD-F19 had. Memory loss has apparently been rectified but the random and uncontrolled skating (grove skipping as an old 33rpm record might do with insufficient tracking force) or stopping on any CD is unpardonable. Unit may play perfectly for several hours and then skate on any one or even several of the 300 CD's and then play perfectly for several additional hours. Sometimes unit will skate when first turned on and then regain control for the rest of the session. Back to the shop - Shudder!

System: Krell KAV-300r integrated amplifier and Martin Logan SL-3's.

Strengths:
Excellent sound quality for a megachanger, ease of operation

Weaknesses:
Randomly skips (skates) on any CD. Will play perfectly for hours, then skate or stop playing any one of the 300 CD's loaded into unit. Sometimes will skate when first turned on. This is the same problem with its predecessor, the Pd-F19 that was in the shop several times with the same problem (along with memory failure problem). The memory problem has apparently been rectified. The skating problem appears endemic

Summary:
NOTE: This is a follow-up to a previous post.

After examination by two factory authorized repair shops, Pioneer elected to replace the unit. I have been using the new player for a month now and it has not exhibited the stopping malfunction shown by the previous unit. The build quality is very good, the sound reproduction (using an outboard DAC) is very, very good for a megachanger. All in all, I am very pleased with the performance of this unit.

Price Paid:  $375.00 from www.speakerhut.com

Summary:
A growing CD collection, as well as use of an outboard DAC and CDR/RW required two digital outputs in my setup. So my Sony, while a workhorse that did not fail once in two years, required replacement. The Elite was excellent out of the box, a suitable replacement for the Sony. After a month, the player would suddenly stop in the middle of a CD during playback. The same CD would play through once, then this would happen the second time. This occurred every couple of days at first, and is now to the point that it happens every third or fourth CD. Everything else has functioned perfectly. The major problem is that I must now unload 200+ CDs and find a way to store them (after all, the selling point for these types of units was to get rid of all those jewel cases!) while the unit is in for repair.

Will post at a later date as to how repair goes.

Strengths:
301 disc capacity, optical & coax digital outs, balanced sound

Weaknesses:
Propensity to default before completing CD playback

Similar Products Used:
Sony CDP-CX245