Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Mega CD changer

I cannot express how much I love my 300 disc Sony changer. Solved the storage problem and, after days of inputting CDs and titles, I have every CD in my collection available at a moments notice. The things you can program it to do are mind boggling - and it cost $200!!!

Yes Mark, in my view definitely the way to go.

I'm considering buying the Sony DVP-CX985V multi disc. Anyone have an opinion on this changer?

I'm considering a megachanger, too, but also a more expensive but appealing alternative: ripping uncompressed audio of all my CD's onto a large removable hard drive (backed up to a twin drive) and streaming to my audio system via the new SqueezeBox (http://www.slimp3.com/). Works with iTunes for both Mac and Windows. Can be networked via Ethernet or wireless (though they warned me that uncompressed audio streaming may tax a wireless network).

Seems like the perfect solution: no tedious data entry to a megachanger, total flexibility in setting playlists, instant access to all music via remote. An inexpensive 120GB drive could hold more than 150 uncompressed CD's, and of course much larger drives are now available.

Any thoughts on this idea?

Jim, although I'm not very heavy in DVDs, for someone who is I'd suppose the same advantages as my CD megachangers would apply. If you haven't already read it, the 985 was tested in the September issue of Sound&Vision. Then of course you can punch it into Google to get leads on user comments(as usual, hard to set up, etc.). Seems like a pretty good idea to me.

I have a DVP-CX975V which lacks the SACD but retails for more$$$. I believe they are similar in operation. What I will say is that the disc explorer could be much better. You really need to turn on the television to find anything and operation is slooow. This in not a problem for movies but is not ideal for music. The big problem is that the disc explorer cannot display anything while a disc is playing even though everything is in memory. So to find anything you must stop the music and hunt. Stopping requires unloading the disc. Each disc change is also slow in comparison to my Pioneer 100 disc cd changer. If I had it to do over again I would look at a separate cd changer.

Big Will,

Which model did you get and where? JohnK sent me info ages ago, which I lost when my laptop hard drive failed, so if either of you have that old post of John's (I tried a search; nada), I'd appreciate it. My CD collection is out of control and this seems the right solution for me.

Does the Sony model you got have an on-screen display, or let you search for a title on the front-panel display?

Thanks.

Regards,

Hey Alan. The model is CX-355 I think. $199 at BestBuy. Inputting 280-290 CD titles was a little bit of a pain, but it's done now so...
It has a pretty good size display on the front of it, but no on-screen display. When you hit "memo scan" the titles scroll rather quickly, but are legible from my chair 15 ft away. No complaints.
I can't tell any difference in sound quality from it to my Denon DVD player. Optical output only though - no coaxial digital.

Alan, although I made a brief comment in a thread a year or so ago strongly suggesting CD megachangers, I'm sure that you're thinking of a discussion you had with John Henderson beginning 10/31/02 on the Hometheater thread "homemade custom mounts".

I'm not familiar with the 985(or 975) DVD/CD changer Mark(md55)is having some difficulties with(you may have read the test in Sept. S&V), but the CD-alone changer is fine after setup. Among the ones available are Mark's(bigwill)355 and the 400 disc 455, both of which can be daisy-chained to double capacity.

Thanks John, I'll be reading reviews and user comments this weekend. I will use the changer primarily for dvd's Mark, I presently have a 100 disc Pioneer. The disc explorer sounds like a great option, thank you for your observations. Maybe the 985 fixed the problems you described. I'm hoping the quality of Sony's progressive scan won't be a step down from my Panasonic.