Never in a million years would I have guessed that a CD player could have so profound an impact on the overall quality of a sound system. So imagine my surprise when, after my 8-year old Sony component deck finally burned out, I hooked up my new CDP-XE500 that I'd picked up as a replacement and fired up Mercury Rev's "Deserter's Songs". I was absolutely stunned. I could hear instruments I never knew were there before. The voices sound infinitely more crisp and realistic. The bass was far more robust, and the highs better defined. It's like I'm literally listening to a whole new album. Wow. It was the same with pretty much every CD I popped in. I changed no settings at all on my old Sony Pro-Logic receiver (soon to be replaced with a good integrated amp), and I used the same Paradigm Phantoms I've had for years. Also, my reciever doesn't have TOSLINK, so I'm not using that (though it will rock to hook my Sharp MD-MS722 MiniDisc recorder up to for digital recordings). Wow. I am simply dumbfounded. The quality of the unit is top-notch, too. The fit and finish is nice, and the appearance is sleek and stylish. I like the jog dial plenty for quick access. The XE500 also handles both severely scratched discs and CDR discs (Verbatim Blue, Kodak Gold) with aplomb. I don't think I could ask for more short of a Rega Planet, and I only paid $127 for this unit from OneCall. A truly excellent CD player. Five stars.

I bought this because my previous CD player which was a fairly inexpensive Pioneer was damaged during a cross country move. I wanted a signle CD player (size considerations) with a headphone jack and got this one. I have no scientific data to back my claim but the first thing I noticed was that its sound quality was inferior to what I used to get from the previous CD player. Its sound quality is "lifeless." I probably have not noticed this if this where my first CD player. My judgement is only comparative and based on what I can hear through my fairly high quality Denon AH-D750 headphone set.

Great Price, Nice cosmic design, ergonomic remote control unit, fine resolution.

Not impressive, remote control lacks a power off botton.

The Sony CDP-XE500 is a very fine player. Althought it cost only $120.00, it will almost certainly outperform those $500.00 range DVD players. Compare with my Panasonic DVD player, this Sony CDP produces clear mid-range and higher resolution.
The cosmic design is traditional and really comfortable to look at. The remote control is clear, easy to use; the volume level on the remote control is very convinent to use if you Amplifer does not have a remote. The cons is that the you can't shut off the unit using the remote. This really bother me since I used this unit at bedroom. I have to get up the bed and turn off the unit because the display light is too bright at night.
Overall, this player is really a strong competitor at this price, I am very satisfied with it.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic 510 DVD player, Audio Analogue Paganini CD player, Marantz OSE 6000,

This is an absolute bargain. This little Sony player sounds better than the Marantz 67se or my Jvc l050. Igive it 5 rating.

It has a retail price of $200. It can be purchased for about $150. It has an optical-digital output which makes it an ideal candidate for a transport. It has a near-industrial grade cd transport mechanism. That is pretty impressive by itself! But wait, there is more! The build quality is very good and it weighs about 8 lbs.
It has a full function remote. It has a built in digital volume control (from the remote). The downside.....after all the money had been put into the above, the cost cutting appears in a generally average d/a converter, which is a hybrid-pulse type converter. As a stand-alone player, it performs decently, better than most of its similarly priced competition. It exhibits a touch of the "digital nasties" that plague players with average d/a chipsets! I use it as a transport, mated to an Adcom GDA-600. This combination can hold its own against anything in the $1500-$2000 range, at half the price (or less)!! Remember.....Sony can charge less for its products because it manufactures most of its own parts and it has staggering buying power!

Offers a lot of features for little money.

Very thin sound with no substance.

My Yamaha was over three years old and I wanted to try this single CD player thinking it might be surprisingly good for the money. Not. The sound is very thin with little life to the music and the soundstage was poor. Hooked up to a small or modest system it might sound okay. Went back to my Yamaha and returned the Sony for a refund.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Technics, Marantz

Price & recording-friendly features

I can't add much to what has already been said about sound quality. I bought this unit in late 1997 primarily to connect to my new Minidisc unit because my other CD player at the time did not have a digital out. Much to my dismay, I found that making compilation MDs was impossible with the digital pathway because you couldn't change recording levels! I think this has changed now, but the cool thing I discovered was that this player has a peak search function, which automatically scans through a track to find the loudest bit, then plays it over and over again so you can set the proper record level. This has saved me so much time that I actually enjoy sitting on the floor and making compilations again (1st time since I was 18, I think).

This unit also is much more immune to CD scratches than any other unti I have owned, including my CA7ES 5-disc changer I use for my primary CD player now. I have several disks that skip on that unit, but read perfectly on the 500.

All that being said, I still don't use it as my primary CD player, probably because I prefer a changer. And if I did, I would definitely route it through my Receiver to utilize it's superior DACs. But for the price, I agree that this unit is a tremendous value and one piece of equipment that I will not part with. In fact, I did part with it for about a year, but then I bought it back from the guy I sold it to because making compilation MDs was such a pain with my other equipment.

Similar Products Used:

Many CD players & changers