Sony CDP-CX220 200-Disc CD Changer

I remember when I bought my first CD player back in 1983, WOW, the technology has sure come a long way since then. I paid like 300 bones for that single disc, single laser player back then, about what I shelled out all told for this 200 disc beast from Sony. I used that single laser player for my most of my college years. I feel like I definitely got my value out of that first 300 dollars. Would the Sony be able to live up to the same value?

I've been using the Sony for about two years now, so I have some real world "Epinions" on using it. I first saw a carousel style player while on vacation in the Bahamas of all places. Upon my return I decided I had to have one so I could sequence my Floyd, Steely Dan, and Grateful Dead libraries into massive uninterrupted sessions which could last for days. To that end, the Sony has delivered that goal, which when realized is something of a mind number, and perhaps not up to initial expectations.

I decided not to purchase the next model up, which had a PC keyboard input for an extra like $125, that was a mistake. I so wish I had the ability to label my discs in the beast better. You can use the dial or remote, but they both are very time consuming and frustrating. As a result of being lazy about labeling discs, I wind up opening it up and sliding all the discs out to read them, this kind of defeats the purpose.

One particular frustrating thing is the lack of information you can see about a CD. Even my old single laser player could tell you track and CD time remaining, duh. The buttons are confusing, and some don't seem to work as one would expect. The remote is the only way to fast forward or rewind a track. If you're lucky enough to figure out the cryptic remote that is. I generally like Sony equipment, but this model strikes me as poorly thought out.

Sound quality has been generally excellent, with very few skips. I have had some problems where discs would not be read, and it would forget about them and move to the next one, but these have been only rarely and power cycling the unit a few times seemed to solve it.

This unit has a feature called CD text, which automatically labels the disc, very cool. The very first disc I tried with this unit was the one I had just bought at the record(sic) store on the way to the electronics store to get my shiny new Sony beast(it's black), the new Dylan, Time Out of Mind. The player recognized the disc and labeled it right away, including all the tracks as well, which was something I couldn't do manually. I figured this labeling thing was going to be no problem; wrong. To this day that was the only CD which did automatic CD text, but then again I don't buy many new CD's what with the music these days and all. As it turns out the ability to see what song is playing on what album and the time remaining is very important, but magnified exponentially for giant multi-disc players.

I'm told that I can use Sony's S-Link to chain another player with the keyboard input, but I don't know how that would work. If anyone has had experience trying this I would love to hear about it. I like the concept of a large multi, but implementation is key. I think it's time for the old beast to suffer the same fate as the old college single laser, relegated to the community living room only to one day die of abuse. I think I'll replace her with a more robust modern version which I'm sure I'll be able to research on Epinions.

The Sony she will have delivered on her promise of value after say another two years of service in the community living room. We'll see how she holds up, she's put in a couple of solid years of service and for that I grateful to her.

|-<:)