proaxe83

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 3 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $250.00 from eBay

Summary:
I've had this unit for about a year now, and it's generally been ok, but not great. I've had 3 issues with it in that time, one being I had to take it back to a service centre early on and have the main board replaced to fix a freezing problem, it's been fine since. Another issue which may or may not bother some people is the very slow speed in which this unit does anything. To turn on unit and open the tray, you might as well press the button, go and do something else and come back later while it powers up then opens. As I said this may not bother some people but personally when I want to listen to a CD, I want to listen to that CD NOW! The final issue I've had is the build quality. I own a Yamaha receiver as well as a set of Yamaha 5.1 speakers and I was very pleased with how solid all these items were, but I think Yamaha have let themselves down a bit with this DVD changer. The tray seems too flimsy for something that comes out so far, mine's been sticking for the last 6 months or so and I have to help push it back in before it engages. The rest of the front panel also seems pretty cheaply made in my opinion.
Now the positives... you'd be hard pressed to find a SACD / DVD-A changer at this price. It seems to do the job well, although I've never owned another player of these types so I wouldnt know the difference. Unlike my previous changer, the tray comes all the way out so you can access all 5 discs at once. You can also access 4 discs while the 5th is being played. Finally, this unit matches Yamaha receivers well if that matters to you.

Strengths:
SACD & DVD-A playback
Good value
The tray allows you to access all 5 discs when it comes out

Weaknesses:
Poor build quality
Very slow working

Similar Products Used:
Panasonic DVD-F87

jukeboxtheater

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
3.25 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $230.00 from ebay

Summary:
The Yamaha is an excellent machine with superb audio dac's and very good picture quality. I'm not kidding about the dac's. Used strictly as a cd player, the sound quality is very smooth and focused. I'm not one to wax rhapsodic when describing aspects of sound, but the Yamaha is clearly a cut above every other dvd player I've owned as far as sound quality (picture quality is pretty close, too) and stands shoulder to shoulder with most of the audiophile stand-alone cd players I've had in my system. I confess to not being enormously impressed with super audio cd in general, cd often sounds more detailed though a tad "rougher" in texture. I feel that the phenomenon of mass hypnosis is a big part of audio, fueled by the audio press, with thousands of gullible audiophiles convincing themselves they hear "improvements" that don't really exist. Of the 30 odd super audio cd's I do own, the Yamaha plays them wonderfully. One minor gripe is the reduction in sound level when you play multichannel discs. Other than that, the Yamaha is an absolute steal. BTW, the ergonomics issues with this unit are entirely justified. Who the heck designed this user interface? As far as reliability, however, my unit has performed flawlessly for over a year now, and will even play some super audio discs that my Sony SCD-222ES will not (Mercury label SACD's).

Strengths:
Excellent sound and picture quality. Build quality is much better than one should expect for the price.

Weaknesses:
Terrible ergonmomics! Sound level reduced when playing multichannel SACD's.

Similar Products Used:
Sony SCD-222ES, Sony DVP-C555ES

Discriminator

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5, 1.00 votes

Price Paid:  $269.00 from online

Summary:
This universal player would be a good deal if it were not buggy as a rancid camel blanket. I could tolerate the long disk loading time and other little quirks if it weren't for the fact that the display randomly goes blank and the maching freezes up. I've tried power conditioners and a chassis ground. The latter reduced the failure frequency but did not solve the problem. For others who got stuck with this loser of a machine, I've found that unplugging it and shorting the ac terminals with a penny usually sets it straight.

There is no excuse for not properly grounding the unit and above all for Yamaha's obvioius failure to perform proper reliability tests prior to product release. Read the reviews on this site and you will see that this is not a reliable unit and should be avoided. It's best use might be to play a practical joke on someone. The Yamaha brand is no longer welcome in my home.

Strengths:
Good sound quality WHEN IT WORKS
Decent picture quality WHEN IT WORKS

Weaknesses:
Poorly constructed
Unreliable
Slow

Similar Products Used:
None, thankfully

Audiotom

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Price Paid:  $229.00 from etronics

Summary:
For a universal player, the Yamaha C-750 is very reasonably priced and has a number of useful features that made me decide to buy it after a good deal of research. No, it's not in the same league as a Denon, but then: what is? From an audio standpoint alone, though, the Yamaha is definitely several notches above the Pioneer DV-588, which I also own. In addition, the C-750 has a couple of features that made it a near-perfect fit with my needs: 1. Unlike most other universal players, it's a 5-DVD/CD changer, i.e., useful for parties. 2. Unlike the Pioneer and most other universal players, you can reprogram it in a few simple steps to play Region 2 and Region 3 video DVDs (look for the hack at www.videohelp.com), which I like because I get lots of Euro DVDs for my kids. The super audio performance is excellent, only problem (and that's certainly not the C-750's fault): once you've listened to SACD/DVD-A, you're forever spoiled and never really want to go back to regular CDs, which start to sound trashy and cheap. The only thing even remotely comparabale to the SACD/DVD-A formats is the big old 2-track tapes you could play on your Technics RS-1500, if you had the money for one. The SACD/DVD-A format is simply out of this world, and the C-750 does a very nice job handling it. Re: shortcomings, I agree with most of what people have said here so far: Loading takes forever, crossover is set way too high, and the remote is a bit substandard. I also had some video problems: Hooked the C-750 into my Yamaha RX-V 1500 Receiver, then out to my Toshiba TV. It that setup, all I get is a black & white picture on the TV. When you hook the C-750's video out directly into the TV, the problem disappears, so I suspect this is a receiver issue. No big deal for me quite frankly because I use the C-750 mostly for audio, but perhaps a bigger issue for those w/ video needs.

Strengths:
SACD/DVD-A performance Disk Changer Reprogrammable for Region 2 & 3

Weaknesses:
Crossover Loading time Remote

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer DV-588A-S Denon DVD-5900 Denon DVD-2910

newriverscott

Overall Rating
 1 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
1 to 3 months

Visitors rate this review
3.33 of 5, 3.00 votes

Price Paid:  $270.00 from Showcase

Summary:
I bought this product after reading several positive reviews. However, there exists one major flaw in the machine that Yamaha will not aknowledge. If you try a HDCD encrypted disc in your machine, unlike others machines made by different companies, the C750 will distort the music with noise that make the disc too much to listen to. For that reason, I give a great machine a poor rating.

Strengths:
Normal cd's sound great

Weaknesses:
Distorts HDCD encoded disc. Yamaha will not fix problem. Now I have to sell it.