Price Paid:  $375.00 from Soundpro

Summary:
What can I say. It works great. Sound and built quality seem well above average. I very much like the random performance on all 300 cd,s and the ability to wire two units together. I am buying a second unit to use as a slave unit to my orginal.

Strengths:
Quality in construction and durability.

Weaknesses:
None at this time.

Similar Products Used:
Adcom,Pioneer, Sony

Price Paid:  $330.00

Summary:
The mechanism in the back corner of the machine occasionally drops a disc that then jambs the rack and keeps it from turning. I have fixed it twice now by removing all 100 discs, extracting the fallen disc, and then re-installing all 100 discs. What a pain. Pioneer says it won't take exchanges and they don't THINK this is an inherant problem with this model. I'd like to know if anyone else is having this problem with their PD-F17.

Strengths:
great sound and features

Weaknesses:
seems to have some mechanical problems

Price Paid:  $225.00 from Audio King

Summary:
I really like the sound from this unit along with the versatility of 100+1 disc's. I am building a house with sound throughout and am getting things that I want on sale or clearance in this case. I had bought a Pioneer Elite receiver 2 weeks prior that I really love and saw this on the shelf for $225 when I went back. So I had to have it, especially for that price and I even got them to throw in a 3 yr performance plan ($50 value) for free. I got a steal!!! For all of the advantages the inconvinences of the text setup is nothing. I hooked it up anolog (20-bit) at first and thought it sounded great, but now it's digital (24-bit) I didn't notice any great improvement only slightly clearer. Maybe it was just the dics's I was using. Not sure.

Overall though, I would have to say for the money I came out way ahead on this deal. It's a great match for the Elite system I'm setting up for my new house.

System:
Receiver: Pioneer Elite VSX-35TX
DVD: Pioneer DV-434
CD: Pioneer Elite PD-F17
TV: Sony 27" (next yr Pro-510 HD)
speakers front: Infinity
speakers rear: Polk
In the new house I will have polk or B&W all around. Not sure yet.

Strengths:
CD Text, digital output, Hi-bit Legato Link. 20-bit D/A Converter, custom filing, best selection memory

Weaknesses:
wish it had the jog dial & Keyboard input of the PD-F27.

Similar Products Used:
None

Price Paid:  $455.00 from cameraclub.com

Summary:
This is an initial review of the Elite PD-F27 300 CD changer. It is not a review of the PD-F17 which I've heard it sort of replaces.

I have a moderate two-channel system (Arcam Amp, PSB speakers, new Grado headphones, etc.), and only a moderate understanding of sound-review. I apologize if I mislead any readers... the comments of others as to sound quality should be taken over mine, I think.

I thought perhaps that this unit would be a good way to combine the sound quality I'd heard about with the Elite PD-65, with the convenience of a megachanger. So far, the sound falls a bit short of that.

I must admit that the Sony Megachanger I had *seemed* like it had better sound quality before it started braking my cd's. I've never owned or really listened to a high-end cd player, so I'm sorry but I can't provide a really insightful commment comparing this cd player to a really good one for sound.

As to aesthetics, here again the Elite name in this case does not necessarily mean something stunning as with the other Elite stuff you may have heard about. In fact, this machine functions and looks almost identical to the non-elite Pioneer 300 CD changer a friend of mine has.

Otherwise, I'm happy. This thing treats my CD's ok so far, not destroying them or anything (as opposed to the Sony I tried). It does a great job of playing my burned CD's, although obviously you're giving up some sound quality to expand your .mp3 files to cd-audio. So, that's a big positive, but not a high-quality sound activity.

I'd have bought a Technics or Sony, because they cost about $200 less, but I couldn't take any more risks that my CD's would be hurt by the megachanger risk. The convenience of the megachanger is something I really like. If you feel ok about the Sound and quality of a sony or Technics, I wouldn't fault you for trying it. At this level, a couple hundred dollars is important, if you can get a decent non-costly guarantee.

The inconvenience of programming the thing and inputting the disks was awful. Don't make things harder than they need to be: if you have your cd's in some sort of order, go ahead and KEEP them that way when you put them in the device. Anyway, I wish I did that. The search feature on the remote is cumbersome, but once you get used to it, it's not that bad. Yes, you'll be able to find this or that cd.

For those of us who have ripped .MP3 files from cd's, it's mystifying why this device can't be hooked up to the net so it can automatically read all tracks and all cd's for you by hooking up to a cddb database. You'd think for this kind of money, Pioneer would look into that sort of thing. I've never programmed tracks....too much work..... just cd's.

I do have some misgivings that I sacrificed buying a real high-end audiophile device for this megachanger-convenience side of things, but all in all I think I'd do it over again. It does change your relationship to your collection, in a good way I think.

Another thing I've missed is buying a true .mp3 player which would play about 150 tracks per burned CD, but I guess Pioneer hasn't got round to including that capability. To the sound-police this may not sound like an important consideration, but for me it is, and so an .mp3 disc player would be a toy that might compete with this one, if you're an .mp3 geek.

Totally obscure point: there is no remote volume control for this changer (I only saw one, on a yamaha) which is sort of a bummer because I have no remote control over my amp.

I have not had any problem with memory loss. If I ever do, my rating will go down.

I rate things kind of low, in general, to stay away from grade-inflation. I'll give it a four because it works as promised and holds promise for me to use it with a newer optical hookup when I get one, and a 3 when price is taken into consideration (because $450 seems like a lot of money for a non-awesome-sound CD player just so it won't destroy my CD's)

Strengths:
works the way it's supposed to, also plays burned CD's.

Weaknesses:
sound not a religious experience

Similar Products Used:
Sony piece of crud

Price Paid:  $400.00 from soundpros.com

Summary:
THIS IS A REVIEW OF THE PDF-27, which replaces the PDF-17. The PDF-27 is the new 300 disc Elite changer. I bought it because I'm using an old Nakamichi amp that lacks optical ins so I wanted the best on-board DACs I could find in a CD changer. The PDF-27 is clearly it if these are your needs. The internal DACs sound great, maybe a little bright. Overall, very happy with the unit. A few functionality issues: annoying random modes, somewhat difficult to navigate the controls w/o remote, and most noticeably, the changer takes a long time to select a disc and then play a track. Generally, though, this is without question the best high-end changer available, except the Denon 5000 which is more than twice as expensive.

Strengths:
Attractive front piece, internal DACs

Weaknesses:
Annoying functionality