Sony CDP-CX235 200-Disc CD Changer
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- Device Type: Changer
- Number of Discs: 200
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Budget CD Changer
Pros
Inexpensive; does what you want it to do simply and easily.
Cons
Not terribly solid construction; you'll hit your 200-CD limit!
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
For the money, a very smart choice. But you may want to spend more and buy a better CD changer instead.
Background
Like many CD enthusiasts, I finally got tired of having to search through my collection and open up a jewel box and load a disc to hear my music -- I wanted a jukebox-style changer. I also wanted to do it cheaply as I was saving my dollars for more expensive audio-video upgrades later on. The market is flooded with CD changers from every maker, so finding a model was both easy and difficult.
It's All About Cost
I used price to sort through my choices: I basically narrowed it down to very inexpensive models from well-respected stereo equipment companies (ruling out makers such as Apex, Goldstar, RCA, etc.). Luckily, blue-chip companies such as Sony target this low price point. A local department store had this model on sale for $230.
Features
At this price, you can't expect doodads. This Sony gives you the essentials for any mega-changer and you don't miss anything in particular. You can create titles for each disc, you can create playback groupings for discs, you can play back in various configurations, and you can daisy-chain Sony changers to create a multi-mega-changer system. And the remote control is fairly simple to use, too (pet stereo equipment peeve: remote controls that aren't intuitive to use).
Drawbacks
If you buy a Hyundai, you can't complain that the car doesn't feel like a BMW, so I hesitate to lay forth the following criticisms. Anyway...
The unit doesn't feel very substantial. Knock it too hard and you feel like it'll snap into pieces. Shake it (I know, why would you shake your CD changer?) and the CDs inside fall out of their slots and rattle around. Listen to the mechanicals activate and you cringe a bit thinking "when is that part gonna break?"
I've owned many Sony products and generally, they make good stuff (I can't say the same about other maker's goods). But it's price-point manufacturing, so you get what you pay for.
The biggest complaint is the method for entering disc titles. You can use either the knob or the remote's numerical keypad, but you know how that goes when you're dealing with a 26-letter alphabet in both upper and lower cases. Entering all 200 titles took me more than an hour. Unplug the unit for too long and you lose all that data. More expensive changers have mini-keyboards embedded in their remote controls or, better, allow you to plug in a computer keyboard to do character entry. Not so this Sony model.
Conclusion
For the money, this is a very good changer. If I were to buy one all over again, however, I would spend more and buy a better model: one that's built more solidly, that holds more than 200 discs (I ran out of slots very quickly), and one with a more efficient character-entry method.
If you must go sub-$250 and want to hold 200 CDs, though, you won't go wrong with this choice.
Like many CD enthusiasts, I finally got tired of having to search through my collection and open up a jewel box and load a disc to hear my music -- I wanted a jukebox-style changer. I also wanted to do it cheaply as I was saving my dollars for more expensive audio-video upgrades later on. The market is flooded with CD changers from every maker, so finding a model was both easy and difficult.
It's All About Cost
I used price to sort through my choices: I basically narrowed it down to very inexpensive models from well-respected stereo equipment companies (ruling out makers such as Apex, Goldstar, RCA, etc.). Luckily, blue-chip companies such as Sony target this low price point. A local department store had this model on sale for $230.
Features
At this price, you can't expect doodads. This Sony gives you the essentials for any mega-changer and you don't miss anything in particular. You can create titles for each disc, you can create playback groupings for discs, you can play back in various configurations, and you can daisy-chain Sony changers to create a multi-mega-changer system. And the remote control is fairly simple to use, too (pet stereo equipment peeve: remote controls that aren't intuitive to use).
Drawbacks
If you buy a Hyundai, you can't complain that the car doesn't feel like a BMW, so I hesitate to lay forth the following criticisms. Anyway...
The unit doesn't feel very substantial. Knock it too hard and you feel like it'll snap into pieces. Shake it (I know, why would you shake your CD changer?) and the CDs inside fall out of their slots and rattle around. Listen to the mechanicals activate and you cringe a bit thinking "when is that part gonna break?"
I've owned many Sony products and generally, they make good stuff (I can't say the same about other maker's goods). But it's price-point manufacturing, so you get what you pay for.
The biggest complaint is the method for entering disc titles. You can use either the knob or the remote's numerical keypad, but you know how that goes when you're dealing with a 26-letter alphabet in both upper and lower cases. Entering all 200 titles took me more than an hour. Unplug the unit for too long and you lose all that data. More expensive changers have mini-keyboards embedded in their remote controls or, better, allow you to plug in a computer keyboard to do character entry. Not so this Sony model.
Conclusion
For the money, this is a very good changer. If I were to buy one all over again, however, I would spend more and buy a better model: one that's built more solidly, that holds more than 200 discs (I ran out of slots very quickly), and one with a more efficient character-entry method.
If you must go sub-$250 and want to hold 200 CDs, though, you won't go wrong with this choice.
