Ability to warehouse CDs

Remote, text limit, need to empty before moving

The CX400 is a wonderful beast. It holds 400 CDs, freeing up much space in any audio room. It is relatively easy to load, cumbersome to label discs, and huge. But first, the strong points.

The fact that 400 CDs fit in this unit, even if it is rather large, still amazes me. I love being able to assign categories (up to 8) to the CDs and scrolling through the titles while a CD is playing is fun. The sound quality is very good (I use the optical out) to my ears – of course it’s not going to rival $1,000 single CD units but I don’t think anyone would expect that.

The negatives are many but I can certainly live with them. The remote is poorly designed, the buttons are all too similar and they are too small. The character limit is too small, requiring some unusual abbreviations for my CDs. And, most annoying, trying to use a keyboard to enter CD labels is very cumbersome. For some reason the unit misses keystrokes and will then repeat characters. Keyboard entry is slow, so if you have the ability to burn a copy of your CDs and add text (from www.cddb.com) then by all means do so. The CX400 reads CD text and this eliminates the need to manually enter CD labels (plus, using CD text will give you song titles, too).

My final criticism of the CX400 is the requirement that you empty it before moving it. I can certainly understand the requirement, but the thought of emptying and then reinserting 400 CDs gives me shivers.

Overall, a wonderful way to store 400 CDs if you can live with a few shortcomings.

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n/a

400 Disks; smooth disk/song selecting dials.

Everyone's right: it's big. Measure before you buy. Entering disk data is time consuming...but payoff is there.

Very unfortunate that Sony doesn't allow users to daisy-chain two machines AND use the digital outputs.

Are the folks complaining about sound listening through analog or the digital out? I use the digital, and I have no complaints.

If you take the time to categorize and enter your collection, you'll love the machine. I'm using CA Traxx software and building a database. We'll have a little catalog on the table next to the stereo...pick an album, enter the number on the machine, listen.

Someday, soon, they'll integrate these machines with our pcs and the web (Pioneer apparently has with a 200 disk player). Until then, this is a good choice. And when you're in the store, notice the minor differences between the 400 and the other, more expensive, machines in this line. I'm happy with the base model.

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This is a follow up to my prior review of month ago. Same Strengths

UNRELIABLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, had it a month and it broke, one week after 30 return period. Motor spins erratically one way, then reverses and sous the other way. Nearest Sony service venter is in Pittsburgh PA (250 miles away!!!!!) Take my advice and dont buy this Sony crap. I had a Sony 5 disc carousel that also had motor problems right after the warranty was up. Im fed up with this company and you people should know that this is a bad product. Cant return, now I got burned for 300 bucks. Thanks sony, you greedy A-HOLES

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Sony, Samsung, Yamaha

Disc Storage & Sound

A little slow in shuffle mode. SIZE

Well, I bought this puppy Friday at my local Tweeter for $289. It took my wife and me no time at all to load all my discs into it. Naming the discs was something though, you need a keyboard of 120mA or less. Fortunately, I am a computer junkie (net admin)and have all sorts of computer stuff. Of my eleven keyboards 1 was under 120mA. It's a Compaq if you're wonderin'. This was after I labeled 35 of my discs with the remote. That was no fun..... Well I was expecting to sacrifice some sound quality but this thing sounds good. I was really suprised. The sound is fine. Not as good as my single CD player, but most people wont even notice. The slow shuffle time is, I think, compounded by my having only 200 disks in a 400 disc changer. It keeps spinning to discs that are not there. So I rejoined Columbian House and BMG. I gotta fill this baby up!Not being able to name the tracks is fine with me because I don't just sit there staring at the unit. Be warned - this beeatch is BIG! It just fit into my entertainment center, which I custom made. It will definitely not fit into a regular center. I will keep you posted as I get into it.

Ed

Finally Sony has come out with a 400 slot CD Player. Display and programming is easy to read and enter through your computer keyboard. Nicely designed and built well. Pricing is extremely reasonable for a 400 CD player.

No Optical Out. Other than that I have not experienced any problems.

The Sony unit linkS into my Sony DVD/CD Player that holds up to 200 of a combination of DVD'S and/or CD'S. This gives me total growth of up to 600 cd's. Anybody that is tired of those cd jewel boxes and really wants to organize them into a neat CD Changer this unit is for you. I paid 299.99 through Crutchfield. They have them in stock. My local Stereo Shop who handles the full Sont line hasn't even taken delivery on this unit. Sony just introduced the 400 cd player 3 weeks ago.

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JVC MC-XL301 CD CHANGER. Very nice unit for it's time 3/4 years ago. Takes up to much room. Only could handle up to 300 cd's. Never had a problem with this unit excepts for the space it took up. Each module held 100 cd's or you needed 3 modules for 300 cd's

400 CDs in one chassis and digital outputs! How can anybody complain?

Well, it's LARGE. I would've liked coaxial digital outputs, but it's from Sony and they've got wood for toslink (since they invented it)

I don't subscribe to the belief that there can be CD players that have "warmer sounding" digital outputs. So you wont see me writing anything about that nor will I be comparing this to any boutique CD players. Face it, digital is digital. It hardly matters.

However, if you're not going to use the optical outputs and instead use the player's internal DAC for playback... Let me say that the internal DAC on this player is rather lacking... exagerrated highs and muffled bass. If you've got an Aiwa bookshelf system, you'll be happy -- but if you have a large hi-fi system, PLEASE use the digital outputs into an external DAC! You wont be sorry.

Since this player can output a digital signal, as read off the disc itself, it will mate up with any gear you have with optical inputs.

I only wish it had coaxial digital outputs as well as optical, simply for the reason that I have run out of optical inputs on my receiver. :)

I don't use the label features at all, so I can't really comment on that. I did hook up a PC keyboard to it and named a few albums, and it worked easily as expected.

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Older Sony 200 disc changer

Sound Quality, Artist Mode, Ease of Use, cool blue internal light!!!

Size, (would you expect from something that holds 400 discs) Also, no fast search button on unit, only the remote.

WOW...where to start? First, I cant believe the sound quality from this thing. Hands down the best of any I've owned. I cant beleive how rejuvenated my 5 year old Sony REceiver sounds! Very crisp highs, rich bass...very nice! The Artist Mode is the coolest thing about this unit, you can randomly play songs from any artist you select. It takes about 15-20 seconds from track end till next random one plays, but again, what do expect for a 400 disc unit? Very cool and alot of fun! Has optional keyboard input for typing text, which helps. Needless to say entry is tedious no matter how you do it. Some people complained that you cant enter song titles...do you know how LONG that would take to do for 400 discs??? THANK GOD it doesnt do that! I like the knobs on the unit for disc selection and track selection. However, I wish there were fast search buttons on the unit-they're only on the remote. My only complaint about this unit is the size (19 x 16 x 8 !!!), and it wont fit into most entertainment centers. It doesnt look big in the store, but trust me...this thing's a monster. Overall I'm thrilled to death with unit and hopefully it will prove to be reliable through the years. Its so convenient and easy to use...a dream come true! Props to Sony for making an excellent product!!!!

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1996 Sony 5-disc carousel, was using Samsung DVD player as my cd player prior to purchase, various mini system changers

400 capacity, Artist Mode

Is this thing big or what!!

Bought the Sony 300 changer, one week later saw this unit "open box" for $160. How could I pass it up.

There has been some discussion in this forum regarding the onboard DAC. I have a STR-DA333ES and the DAC on the disk player is weak compared to the receiver. I use the digital out anyway and had no illusions over what I was getting. This is a garage for my CD's to protect them from my 2 year old.

The Artist mode does not come on the 300 model and is a great improvement worth the extra $! You can use this function to repeat or shuffle within the artist's titles. If you have too many groups for the 8 allowed files, just take an obscure grouping (in my case, the wife's Christmas cds) and label it under "Artist Mode" as "Christmas Music". This frees up one of the eight group titles for something more substantial.

While on the subject, eight is not enough! Most 400 CD owners are eclectic listeners. I don't want to shuffle through all my Jazz titles. I could reach 8 groups without getting out of my Classical disks! Right now I have Classical/Instrumental; Alternative; Jazz and Blues; Reggae and Rap; Classic Rock; Modern Rock; Easy Listening; and New Orleans (tales of a misspent youth). Any one of these Groups could be subdivided into eight. A "shuffle play" of my "reggae and rap" group is interesting to say the least.

This unit is easy to use (programmed mine without a manual). For the money I spent it's a real steal. For the going $260+ this is a must have for CD pack-rats.

In the future I would like to see a computer interface for text downloads etc. Until then, this unit is a real gem.

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CDX335

20 character input, Nice size screen display, Scrolls through all cd's smoothly

Can not select the next cd from the remote control (or maybe I just do not know how)

I owned the pioneer PD-F958 and it worked extremely well. It's only shorth comings was the fact that it only accepted 8 character input and there was no way to browse other titles without stopping the play cycle.

Well first off. I do not like any of Sony's products. I believe Sony is more of a Quantity company as oppose to quality. I must say however that this Mega CD Player is pretty good. I am very pleased with the fact that you can browse all of the titles while playing music as well as the fact that you can hook it up to another unit in case your collection gets out of control. I primarily picked this unit over the Pioneer 300+1 unit PD-F10039 because it actually holds 100 more. As far as size is concerned it is pretty big, but it fits very well in my A/V rack. I plan on purchasing the 200+1 DVD player soon (scared to purchase the Pioneer because of a lot of complaints of Meda Jamming on this site).
I will give it 5 stars on value and 4 on performance so far.

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Pioneer PD-F958