Sony CDP-CX400 400-Disc CD Changer
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- Device Type: Changer
- Number of Discs: 400
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Wonderful for lots of CDs
Pros
Almost limitless storage
Cons
Couldn't they automate the loading process?
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A must buy for a large CD collection!
I do get talked into doing things for my mom. As I am 'on the net' I have become the Shell Answer Man for all of my mom's technical questions, even if it is way outside my sphere of knowledge. I am NOT a stereo expert, yet I got dragged into helping my mom select speakers to replace the ancient ones which were warping on her inherited stereo system. Just recently I got called in to help with some Bach.
J.S. Bach.
My mom's housemate is a great fan of Bach having been an organist and in many choirs. They both love music and Bach, so when he saw an opportunity to buy the collected works of J.S. Bach for a few hundred dollars on CD he did so. Mind you he didn't HAVE a CD player, but would be expecting to get one sometime after the CDs were delivered. Two years later I step into the picture and am asked to recommend a CD player for their system. After a few hours of back and forth I finally learn that they want to listen to the Bach collection of music. How many discs? About 180!
Now I have a handful of CDs and listen to them on my computer. At work I have seen some massive CD-ROM towers that hold thousands of CD-ROMs. I figure that between the two there must be some middle ground for playing audio CDs from a device that holds a couple of hundred CDs. For once Pricewatch (www.pricewatch.com) failed me for researching machines and prices. But Nextag (www.nextag.com) proved to be a great help at pinpointing the general category of CD changers. So I identified the range of machines, by dropping out anything that held less than 200 discs and anything over 600 discs. I figured if they ever got the collected works of Mozart I could look at purchasing an industrial CD tower with a robotic arm and multiple players up top.
So I consulted with them and they finally decided that 400 was a good number as they knew they would be getting more CDs in the future. The brands were SONY, Pioneer and... well they stopped me at SONY actually. I've been impressed with SONY audio/visual equipment since the early 1970's when my dad bought a cassette tape deck (which just died on my mom's stereo system) and an early mono-Betamax VCR. This stuff just LASTS! So out we go to the local Circuit City, check out the features and purchase one, along with a keyboard and UPS.
Why a keyboard? Well, if your CDs do NOT have their content encoded on the CD, then you can manually enter the information for indexing purposes. Yes, this machine automagically indexes your CDs so you can search via CD title, song title or any other piece of metadata encoded on the CD (metadata = data that describes other data). I had my suspicions about the Bach collection and keyboards are cheap. And I would just have to show them how to enter the data for a couple of CDs and let them take it from there. And, no, the metadata isn't on the CDs and no they don't want to enter it just yet.
And a UPS? Automated equipment, running with fragile electronics means that nasty power spikes could kill a couple of hundred dollar CD changer. That would be BAD news! But buying a UPS is cheaper than getting an 'extended warranty' and I promised my mom that if the changer ever died due to electrical surge I'd replace it myself! Bought one with a 250 watt rating and a couple of extra surge-suppressed plugs. Stereo with CD changer is now on UPS, TV set now has surge suppressed outlet.
Finally, there is the loading of this machine. Disc by disc by disc... where are automated robotics when you need them? Luckily you only have to load the CDs once, and if you have skipped a space and notice it early on, you can have the machine eject the CD (a very little) and take it out and put it in the right spot. Or just reach in and re-load it manually if you are not down to the last 50 CDs or so.
This device comes with a remote control, easy search functions and a sleep mode. Beyond that, if you ever have MORE CDs than this device can hold you can buy either another 400 or 200 CD changer from SONY and slave it with this one to make one HUGE changer set-up.
And now I can listen to Bach when I visit my mom. Beautiful beyond words.
J.S. Bach.
My mom's housemate is a great fan of Bach having been an organist and in many choirs. They both love music and Bach, so when he saw an opportunity to buy the collected works of J.S. Bach for a few hundred dollars on CD he did so. Mind you he didn't HAVE a CD player, but would be expecting to get one sometime after the CDs were delivered. Two years later I step into the picture and am asked to recommend a CD player for their system. After a few hours of back and forth I finally learn that they want to listen to the Bach collection of music. How many discs? About 180!
Now I have a handful of CDs and listen to them on my computer. At work I have seen some massive CD-ROM towers that hold thousands of CD-ROMs. I figure that between the two there must be some middle ground for playing audio CDs from a device that holds a couple of hundred CDs. For once Pricewatch (www.pricewatch.com) failed me for researching machines and prices. But Nextag (www.nextag.com) proved to be a great help at pinpointing the general category of CD changers. So I identified the range of machines, by dropping out anything that held less than 200 discs and anything over 600 discs. I figured if they ever got the collected works of Mozart I could look at purchasing an industrial CD tower with a robotic arm and multiple players up top.
So I consulted with them and they finally decided that 400 was a good number as they knew they would be getting more CDs in the future. The brands were SONY, Pioneer and... well they stopped me at SONY actually. I've been impressed with SONY audio/visual equipment since the early 1970's when my dad bought a cassette tape deck (which just died on my mom's stereo system) and an early mono-Betamax VCR. This stuff just LASTS! So out we go to the local Circuit City, check out the features and purchase one, along with a keyboard and UPS.
Why a keyboard? Well, if your CDs do NOT have their content encoded on the CD, then you can manually enter the information for indexing purposes. Yes, this machine automagically indexes your CDs so you can search via CD title, song title or any other piece of metadata encoded on the CD (metadata = data that describes other data). I had my suspicions about the Bach collection and keyboards are cheap. And I would just have to show them how to enter the data for a couple of CDs and let them take it from there. And, no, the metadata isn't on the CDs and no they don't want to enter it just yet.
And a UPS? Automated equipment, running with fragile electronics means that nasty power spikes could kill a couple of hundred dollar CD changer. That would be BAD news! But buying a UPS is cheaper than getting an 'extended warranty' and I promised my mom that if the changer ever died due to electrical surge I'd replace it myself! Bought one with a 250 watt rating and a couple of extra surge-suppressed plugs. Stereo with CD changer is now on UPS, TV set now has surge suppressed outlet.
Finally, there is the loading of this machine. Disc by disc by disc... where are automated robotics when you need them? Luckily you only have to load the CDs once, and if you have skipped a space and notice it early on, you can have the machine eject the CD (a very little) and take it out and put it in the right spot. Or just reach in and re-load it manually if you are not down to the last 50 CDs or so.
This device comes with a remote control, easy search functions and a sleep mode. Beyond that, if you ever have MORE CDs than this device can hold you can buy either another 400 or 200 CD changer from SONY and slave it with this one to make one HUGE changer set-up.
And now I can listen to Bach when I visit my mom. Beautiful beyond words.
