About the megachanger. The model I have is a Sony CDP-CX355. Although I haven't had any problems with it, I cannot recommend this particular unit due to reliability problems that others seemed to have had. Surprisingly, a lot of people said it destroyed some cds getting tangled in the carousel tray and others had problems with the cds skipping. I think I've had one cd skip and it was actually a cdr, but I've never had a problem with cds getting caught up in the tray. I'm suspicious that people aren't putting the cds in the tray properly, but just too many people are having this problem.
Because I'm too lazy to write my own description, here's a run down copied from Amazon.com:
Amazon.com Product Description
The CDPCX355 300-disc CD changer puts hours upon hours of music at your fingertips with features like cross-fade sound, text display, and an organization feature that makes it easy to find your favorite songs and albums. The CDPCX355 plays audio CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs, and you can program it to play CDs or tracks one by one, in random order, or in your own customized track order. You can create up to 8 different groups of CDs to quickly jump to certain styles of music or a favorite collection of songs. A hit list memory feature allows you to return to your 32 most frequently played songs instantly. You can browse through all of your CDs by name, so you'll never lose track of what CDs are in the player or what order they are in. You can also custom-label CDs stored in the CDPCX355 for quicker retrieval. The CDPCX355 includes a jog dial control that gives you quick access to individual CDs or tracks. With the jog dial, you can listen to snippets of music or skip tracks you don't like quickly.
For power users or music lovers with a deep library of CDs, the CDPCX355 can synch up with another CD changer. You'll never have to wait for a disc to change to keep the music playing, thanks to a cross-fade feature that brings the audio of one CD down at the same time that a new disc starts to play. By adding a second changer, you can expand your instant access to up to 600 CDs total, and both changers can be controlled by a single remote.
The hybrid pulse digital-to-audio converter reproduces a warm, natural sound from your CDs, making you feel like you were there when the music was recorded. You can easily connect the CDPCX355 to an audio receiver with both analog RCA-type and digital optical outputs. An analog connection instantly synchs the CDPCX355 to another changer, and a Control A-1II cord links the CDPCX355 to any other Sony components in your audio system or home theater. A headphone jack is also featured.
In case you're interested, I'll add my own personal experience and explain how I use it. I input all the cds by artist name first, then album name. When inputting the artist's name, I usually use the first and last initial, the first three letters of the band name, or any other abbreviation to help me recall the artist. This way, when I want to find albums by a particular artist, I do a 'memo search' which recalls text alphabetically. (The exception is if I have a bunch of cds from the same artist, I usually input only the album name and put that artist in it's own 'group'). Unfortunately, when doing a 'memo search' it always starts at the beginning of the alphabet, so you may have to do a lot of scrolling to get to the desired album as you cannot jump to certain letters. Another quirk with 'memo search' is that if the cd already comes with text on it, it cannot be edited. Therefore, it retrieves the cd by album name and not the artist.
Before going on, I must add one quick note about inputting text with this unit. You can connect a computer keyboard to the front of the unit to make inputting text easier. It helps, but it's still a pain because the player cannot keep up with the typing and ends up doubling up on letters or skipping them altogether. Although it's still faster, you have to be careful. It's really frustrating!
Anyway, after the cd text (artist & album name) is input to my liking, I place it in any one of the 8 'groups' which can be anything...artist name, rock, dance, classical, jazz, etc. If you can remember the 'group' the cd is in, this may be a better way to search for them instead of going through the whole library. However, the SAME cd cannot be placed in more than one group which can be frustrating.
Well, I haven't gotten around to using ALL of the other functions of the player, but in general, I really like it. It's too bad others are having problems. Well, I'm sure if you find another more reliable unit, the functions will probably be the same. The real pain of these megachangers are inputting the damn cds! It's a slow process. I'm still not done!
