Sony CDP-CX355 300-Disc CD Changer / Player

Sony 300 Disc Capacity CD Player - Sony Model CDP-CX355 
BULLETIN:  In July 2011, after 3 years of service, this player developed a "...tic,tic,tic, tic..." habit that soon degraded to a complete shutdown. I had to remove the cover to retrieve the some 125 discs trapped inside. After a trial of Pioneer equivalents; I was obliged to replace this one with another, exactly like it. Fingers Crossed. 
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This was just what our home needed; a device that could let us Organize, Preserve and Play Compact Discs of any Age, Era, Genre and, Condition. There were dozens of CDs scattered around and it was anyone's guess what they were or how they got here. Sure, the 5-Disc player was a wonderful improvement over the single play models introduced in the late '80s but the feeding and caring for was a chore and we really did not have the room for storing those 'Jewel Cases". Because the San Francisco Bay area has several FM Radio stations that suit our tastes; we thought it was possible to dispose of the CD and depend upon the radio collections. Sure, 10 minutes music, 15 minutes commercials! Reception is poor, however, due to geography. We have access to subscription music from several satellite sources but dislike the variable added cost of this kind of entertainment. Then, there is the "POD" but we did not need portability.
Facing the fact that custom music is an affordable luxury but remembering that we could obtain relief from the cacophony of advertising, I decided to retain the CD Medium and to purchase the latest version of a passive library music source. There are several to choose from but I had to have one right away so - 'Best Buy' blush!.

The Dilemma

A consumer society like ours is driven by the proposition that mankind is insatiable. If it is built, we will buy. What we buy will displace something. And, in turn, will be displaced. Or, will wear out. Just like we will. What was currently available was limited to toys manufactured by at least two companies, what was on the shelf was very limited - this is a "Mature" marketing niche with little or no profits to harvest. Some restaurants have adopted what we wanted; I was surprised to observe more than one of these modern "JukeBoxes" in use to enhance the "Ambience". So the carousel still lives and $225 changed hands (No Extended Warrantee wanted, thankee.)

DESCRIPTION

Carousel/Jukebox Compact Disc Player, 300 disc capacity.
Detector: Laser Max 44.6 micro Watts
Frequency Response: 20 Hz to 20 KHz (20 to 20,000)
Signal to Noise Ratio: 107 dB
Dynamic Range: 86 dB
Outputs:
---Analog Stereo Out, RCA Phono jacks 2 Volts Max output
---Digital Out, Optical Output jack (Avoid this one)

THE ONLY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS

1. "Will it FIT?"
--- a) Dimensions: 17" Wide x 7 1/2" High x 19 3/8" Deep
--- Including Carton: 20.5" Wide x 12" Deep x 21.5" Deep (Pickup or large back seat.)
--- b) Is that cabinet really big enough? Barely is like horseshoes - Close Counts.
--- c) Ventilation is important - Too snug can toast the best equipment.
2. "Can I carry it?
--- Weight: 18 lb 12 oz (8.5 Kg) Empty (11 Kilograms [24.2 lb] including carton)
--- Have it shipped? It still has to be unpacked and wrestled into place.
--- Have it installed. (How big is their truck? And how thick your wallet?)

INSTALLATION

Happily, we had a very strong cabinet/table that could accommodate this monster. Overlooking the need for extra depth for cable connectors can prove to be fatal if you are putting it IN something. Putting it ON something is wiser but the cabinet top was already Flat Panel TV territory. Plan ahead, get some right angle RCA Plug adapters from Radio Shack. I put the CDP-CX355 on the bottom shelf, due to the weight problem created by 300 of those discs. (This has turned out to be a bad place because of dust but I had no other safe choice. It really should be installed at eye level; which would make it much easier to manage.)

Connections:
The requisite 2 conductor, red & white plug stereo cord still works fine. The one that came with the Player did not work because I need to slide the Player two feet out to clear the cabinet and have acess to the back panel. (That flimsy back panel can be removed from the cabinet but then one gets to 'heft' the whole cabinet.) The tuner connection is only inches away as the termite drills but a 36" Cord was necessary as noted.

The CDP-CX355 comes with a DIGITAL Output - Optical*, no less! Needs only one cable! I opted for that connection - 36" needed. (Very Costly and not noticeably beneficial to my personal ears.)
The sound was ok but there was not enough room back there for the straight connectors - so I bought two RCA right angle adapters (Ace Hardware - not cheap) and gained an inch of cabinet depth. No such adapter exists for the Optical Cable that I know of - if it did, I would not afford one.

There is a connection that allows ganging of one and two more of these players but the result is MONO sound. So, forget Surround Sound.
Last but not least is the power connection. Try to find the specified 120 V AC 50/60 Hz outlet (preferably in a Surge Protecter) and plug the CD player into it.

Pray. Try to load and play a single disc. If it is going to work, you will hear something. If it doesn't work, you will not have to unload 299 more before returning the player.

By the way, it won't hurt to mention that you must run the 3 Volt output to an amplifier in order to hear the sounds. (The CDP-CX355 has no Phone Jack, so Earphones must be plugged into an amplifier that has one. Mine does.)

LOADING (Inserting) Compact Discs

It looks to be intuitive, once you learn where the switch to open the loading door is (the button just right of the lower left hand corner of the door). With the Power On, push the Open/Close button. You will hear a sound like a 6 volt starter in a 1952 Chevvy on a cold morning; the Player is indexing to the slot in the carousel you want to load/unload.
(Hint: One might want to think ahead and decide how to arrange the discs. Stack the Jewel Boxes alphabetically by Composer, Artist, Style of Music, Titles {Recommended by me}, recording date, Record Label, or whatever you choose. Being neurotic helps, I tried several patterns but had trouble deciding which stack would come first. I settled on "BROADWAY" and 25 disc groupings to allow additions to that group. My partner wants "Chicago".)

Do whatever you can to avoid making oily fingerprints on the recorded side. The geometry makes this difficult. Again, try thin surgical gloves.
OK now that you have been frustrated enough to RTDM**; you will feel better when you do. . .
There are two large knobs in the upper right hand part of the front face. The right one is called "JOG". Twisting it CW or CCW causes the carousel to move one or more slots L or R (turning the other large knob allows selection of individual tracks). Try it. Take note of how it moves, relative to the top of that "JOG" knob. Holding the disc vertically, label to the your right, slip it into the slot and leggo! Presto! Of course, you can load the next half-dozen discs before indexing. Skip slots to if you wish. (The player can be programmed to ignore empty slots.) When you finish close the door with the OPEN/CLOSE button. Once all discs are loaded, close the door and press the Big Play button. If it works, read on for the real fun....

OPERATIONS - All Those Functions and So Little Time

Loading the Machine with music:
Power up. Open the front door with the Open/Close button at lower right corner of the door.
The large right hand dial allows advancing of the circular rack. Turn until the desired slot lines up, as annunciated on the Display Screen. Lining up is not easy nor is it obvious - it is a small indentation in the plastic holder surrounding the carousel. Users must "eyeball" which CD sequence number is aligned. I recommend that users mark that small indentation with a light color paint/correction fluid. Users can skip holder spaces to separate one CD, or type of CD, from another group. If one intends to use the "Random" setting and let the player run wild, so be it.

If, however, users wish to play a favorite, then the indexing knob will deliver the desired CD and play it. (If the user remembers what number contains what music.)
The player will display the number of the slot into which the selected disc has been installed as the rack is indexed in the search for the right slot. The display can be altered with the Remote or, preferably, with a PC Keyboard, that is fitted with a PS/2 connector.. Nope, you don't need to connect to your PC to make this work.
Because revised titles cannot exceed 8 characters, some creativity will be needed to invent a meaningful 'title'. Titles can be altered using the keypad on the Remote Control but the process is tedious and may lead to madness. Sony built a PS/2 socket/port into the lower left portion of the player face.

Attach a PS/2 Keyboard cable to the port, line up the disc slot, press enter, type in the title of your choice, press enter again to store the title. The process is intuitive but demands concentration and a thorough read of the manual.

Other Operations:

Organization: The Compact Discs can be arranged into physical groups as noted above. Electronic Groups can be devised by users. Up to 8 Groups can be played continuously from first to last, in random sorting, and each member CD in a Group can be found and played individually, random Disc selections or a single disc in any group can be played through or by random track selections in a disc. Groups can be named with up to 13 alphanumeric digits with upper and lower case letters. Once a group is selected, the machine will stay within that group although one may want a disc in another group. Once defined, Groups are selected with push on/push off switches. If one tries to index to another Group, the carousel with jump back into the first group.

Shuffle (Random) Play - Entire contents of player, a GROUP, or of a single CD
Continuous Play
Repeat Play
Timed Play with auto shutoff

Although the Compact Disc format is on the edge of extinction; the CDP-CX355 will keep your collection organized and can be mined for pleasant experiences for many years to come.

End of Review
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Notes:
1. *Sony (a purveyor of CD Music) warns against the Optical Cable if one wishes to play CD-ROM media. So, if you are a 'Ripper' have a look at one of them PODS.
2.** Read The Damned Manual
3. One day in 1983, my lovely partner and I were in a store in San Francisco's Japantown Center - standing in reverent silence in front of the latest thing in Hi-Fi! It was the Debut Showing of a Compact Disc player. In the top of a cabinet 4' High x 12" Wide x 12" Deep was a thing that looked like a miniature phonograph but the "Record" was a shiny silver platter about 6" wide that spun very fast. Music was coming out of the cabinet. We were mesmerized. Price: $9,999.00 out the door! We went away empty handed.
4. After 25 years, between us, we owned a large number of Compact Discs dating from the dark age '80s to 2007. We had already outgrown the single play tuner, a 5 disc player, and a 100 Compact Disc capacity player (1994) model FD-100 by Pioneer.
4. When the new player was installed, I spent a couple of hours finding and relocating all the CDs we owned into this new player. This gives users a final chance to goober the playing surface (opposite the label - usually) to create convenient skips and stops. Surgical gloves will make the loading/unloading easier and safer. The Toroid Shape of the loaded discs provides just the smidgeon of space needed to allow you to press the edge ever so slightly and get a finger grip on the disc you want to remove. Also, the discs tip left and right to allow a good grip.
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