Price Paid:  $225.00

Summary:
The ergonomics of this unit are poor:

o) repeat button resets to off at power off
o) the repeat button is not on player, but only remote!
o) disk skip button is in awkward place when tray is open
o) track LED's design is not great (no track calendar)

The unit has started "glitching" after only two years. I owned other (brand) players that lasted much longer (the Kenwood single play is still working after 12 years).

The reputation of Onkyo superior quality is a myth from my perspective, at least in this case.

Strengths:
6-disc; Custom File

Weaknesses:
poor ergonomics; less than stellar reliability

Similar Products Used:
Sony ES 5-disc

Summary:
I have use it for more than 1 year. The Onkyo DX-C540 produces a very good, clean sound. This is a great CD player for this price. I have been very pleased with it!

Strengths:
Very nice sound, 6 disc changer, reasonable price.

Weaknesses:
No peak search, No headphone out.

Summary:
Addendum to the review below: The CD player has continued to age nicely, with burn-in time, but it's important to note that I got the biggest improvement by upgrading to Monster Cable interconnects and speaker wire. Now I swear there's a violinist in my living room playing Paganini. Such a big, sweet, full, clear, transparent sound. This just goes to show that your system is only as good as its weakest part, including the wires. If you try this CD player and think it sounds too harsh, you might want to try the Monster Cable upgrade, because apparently it can perform quite nicely.

Summary:
This CD player sounded quite harsh right out of the box, but after reading some of the other reviews, I decided to give it a decent burn-in time. After about 4 hours of continuous play it started to warm up, and from then on it just got sweeter with every disc. Its transparency is wonderfully refreshing, but so honest that it made me say UGH at some of the poorly done CDs which I never noticed before. Imaging is very nice. It even made my crappy old spare speakers (9 year old Bose 501 series IV) sound HALFWAY decent. The 6 disc tray is handy, as is the ability to change discs while another is playing. The disc naming feature is also very helpful when programming. Altogether a good deal if you have a discriminating ear but not a pile of money.

Strengths:
Nice, transparent sound, reasonable price, 6 disc carousel

Weaknesses:
none so far

Similar Products Used:
Sony, Harman Kardon

Summary:
I purchased this to replace the denon. At first i hated it.
It had a harsh sound that use to drive me crazy. I almost returned it many times. After 2 months of burn in time, it sounds good. It does not have the warmth of the Denon. It is in the middle, not too bright not too warm. I was hearing wierd noises from some of the cd's i own and it turned out to be instruments in the upper ranges. I was hearing things with the 540 that I did not hear with the dcm-65. This player sounds like a cd player not like a cd player attempting to sound like a record player. It produces a very good clean sound.

Strengths:
6 discs, disc naming

Weaknesses:
needs alot of burn in time

Similar Products Used:
denon dcm-65