Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners OT: CD Mega Changers

With the Axioms to blame, my CD collection is growing. I've just recently started to look at the possibility of getting a CD Mega Changer. A quick search of the forum didn't yield alot of specific details, but there are apparently a fair number of members who have & use these things. It would be great if we could assemble some input, by specific make & model of plusses and minuses.

This is question is really specific to CD Mega Changers. Not really interested in PC based alternatives or DVD Mega Changers.

What about Mac-based solutions?

Hi Ray!

I just talked a bit about my megachanger in this thread. Also, Mark had some input on this as well, here. I'm not sure if this is the type of info you're looking for, but I hope it helps a bit! I thought about going towards more of a hard drive type storage device, like a high storage mp3 player. However, I don't care for the sound quality of them...especially the most popular ipod. I'm looking for other options as well.

I got to tell you though, when ripped with a encoder like LAME at 256bits/sec, and then having the PCM decoded with good DACs like those found on good receivers and pre/pros, the MP3s sound fantastic.

Nothing wrong with my Sony 300 disc changer. I can't imagine going back to all those jewel cases and disc changes.
A DVD megachanger would be nice too, with all the baby videos I'm currently watching.
I wouldn't hesitate to do either, Ray.

BigWill and SonicFox,

What are the good and bad points of the equipment relative to performance. Things like (and anything else you can provide):
- Audio quality
-Reliability of the equipment
-Any jamming occurrences
-Ease of use
-Entering all of the data
-Things that don't work well or aren't available

Any other "stuff" you want to add based on your experiences.

Do you both have the Sony CDP-CX355?

I've got the Sony CDP-RX400 daisy chained with the 200 disc (can't think of the serial code). In short, I love it. No complaints as far as soudn quality, jamming, loading, etc.

However, I have yet to explore its full functionality. As with many things in life, I don't use more than a couple of the features on the Mega Changers. I haven't entered the names yet, so teh on-screen display is worthless. But when I do enter it, I imagine that it will make finding a certain disc invaluable.

Right now, I just push play on random/all and let it go. I have heard songs in the last month that I hadn't heard in years. I remembered why I loved that song, or I remember why I haven't listened to that song in years. I use the daisy chain to avoid the delay in between songs on random/all. Otherwise, it takes about 10-15 seconds to load, depending on where the carousel comes from/goes to in between songs.

A few pointers - make sure that you balance the discs on the carousel. This will avoid a carousel that is too heavy on one side. If this happens, you migth get jams. Keeping the discs spread evenly throughout ensures that the carousel doesn't get thrown out of balance.

Another pointer - make sure you leave plenty of room in between artists or in the alphabet (if you're loading them in any order) so that you can add to it later.

Recently, I loaded in the 10 or so Christmas discs that I have. I labelled them as a group, and press random/all within the group. These days, its nice to come home, turn the Christmas tree on, hit Group 1 on random, and have 10 hours of random christmas music to listen to while cooking dinner, relaxing, doing whatever.

Bottom line - highly recommend it. But make sure that you're up for the time investment that it will take to enter the names of teh discs, etc.

This whole isue came up after reading the initial posts by Sonicfox and Mark. They are what started me thinking. Addtionally, I just got a very nice custom built piece of furniture to store my CD/DVDs (which I mentioned in another post). Putting the two things together, it occured to me that a megachanger would serve two purposes 1) organize my CDs and eliminate the aggravation of handling the CD cases and 2) free up lotsa room for the DVDs in the furniture.

I started with the post here and also did some research on the net today. Seems like the general consensus from Sony CDP-CX355 users, including the faithful here is that the devices are something to have one of for some good reasons, with the understanding of the limitations they have. A much smaller number of folks just complained and a very few had some real problems that didn't seem to repeat throughout my research.

So I'm sitting here digesting all of this at home, looking at the my 10 day old 19" Sony LCD monitor and - AN EPIPHANY!!! When I registered the monitor, I also signed up at "My Sony", a heavy duty "we luv ya customers" marketing site where you can earn points to use in buying Sony merchandise, that is also discounted to about what the lowest internet prices are. Also includes free shipping. So I wander in. Hey, I never signed up for my "Welcome Gift". One of the choices is a 15% discount for my first order of Sony electronics.

My wife wanders over and we find an under the counter clock radio to replace the dead one we have hanging in the kitchen and guess what - there is the CDP-CX355 megachanger. I am going to order both and the 355 will come in right at $140 - a really good price. Also saving about $28 on the radio. Funnny how this all came together.

My decision was really based on the recommendations here in combination with the price. My thanks to all of you for the input.

Ray:

Adrien really hit all the important points.

The frustrations I expressed in the other post are real to me, but I'd have to say that I primarily feel them because I've gotten a taste of how great changers can be. I really would NOT want to go back to using anything less, although I'm the type to have music on while I'm working…if I actually sat and really listened to a disc, I wouldn't mind the single disc player and the handling involved. I want more than eight groups simply because I've seen how good groups can be. I do wish that you could, for instance, have the option to play all "BUT" particular groups. This way, I could shuffle all discs BUT the Christmas group. And, if more than eight groups are offered, I could also direct it to NOT play Classical, or my nature "relaxation" sound effects discs for instance.

I also think daisy-chaining is the way to go, but I'm not sure who else offers this besides Sony. (I've had mine for 3~4 years and so really haven't seen what's out there recently). Again, I don't know who else offers it, but my Sony's take a keyboard input on the front panel- very helpful. Mine don't have the on-screen display, and sometimes I wish they did.

Really, as Adrien mentioned, the coolest thing is to do a shuffle play of "all" or just within a certain group, and hear tracks from discs that haven't been in your disc tray for years! I'm sure many of us have CDs of stuff we like, but don't often make the "A" list when we choose a disc. I think it's a little like having the new Axioms…you rediscover your collection!

OK - the order is placed!! More stuff under the Christmas tree ( and on the Visa bill ).

Hey - a question. In my travels today, I saw something about burning your CDs in an application (iTunes, Nero, Windows Media Player, etc) such that it goes out to the net databases and pulls down the CD info. Then burning the disc gives you CD-Tect CDs and precludes the need to do data entry. How close am I in understanding this?