CD players

[shrinkrap]

I just purchased a Sony MegaStorage 300CD. Could/should I have bought something better? I immediately noticed laser reading problems and the machine not recognizing that there is a CD in the tray. ????

Perrin

[Mighty Favog]

I'm a frim beleiver that equipment should have as little to do inside of one box as possible. For example: seperate amp, preamp, tuner etc. rather than using a receiver if space is available.

The most I went in this route was that my CD player also plays DVD's. It still has the option to use an outboard DAD through TOS link or a composite digital output.

Seperates usually sound better and have fewer things go wrong with them. Although a CD changer is great on the convenience factor it can suffer in quality output.

It's hard for the maufacturers to cram all those electronics into a small area and still make it sound good.

[Guest Anonymous]

Perrin-

My parents have that exact same cd player for their lake house and they love it. Since my mother had all of her cd's stolen once, she buys them and makes a copy and puts the original in the cd player and uses the keyboard to program the name in, and then uses the copy in her car etc.

Personally, If i were to buy one tommorrow, I would look into a used jolida jd-100, but that may not be what you want. You need to buy for the features and the sound quality. In my expierence, if you do one or the other you end up not very happy. For me when I had a pre-amp that didn't havea volume control that just drove me insane. Luckily, I was able to sell the one I had, made a few bucks, and was able to get the one I have now. It sounds great and even has a volume control.

Best,

George

[nicholtl]

Strange that your player would exhibit such problems as reading errors and whatnot. Are you sure you inserted the disc correctly? Hopefully it's not a lemon, and that you don't have to go through the hassle of returning it and getting another unit.

I do enjoy Sony's megachangers quite a bit, however. I've owned Pioneer and Kenwood changers in the past, and those definitely fell into what the general consensus regarding such products are: unreliable, too many moving parts, cheap sound quality. However, Sony's units seem to be exceptionally built, and sound great. I have their 400 CD changer, it ran me $500, and it sounds very damn comparable to my $2000 Classe single-CD player. That should tell you something.

PS - ever try shrinking-wrapping a drunk buddy's arms to his body when he's passed out? Hilarious! Great screenname.

[wjaco]

I used to have the same unit and it worked flawlessly for 4 years (I stuck it on ebay after downsizing my system...plus it was too deep to fit into my new cabinet). The player never had a problem reading any disc, no matter how scratched...which I thought was weird, as Sony's players (particularly DVD players) have a reputation for being kind of fussy. And it sounded great...particularly the optical out (and I normally avoid those things). I think it sounded every bit as good as my current Denon 380 and Yamaha 506 changers.

[Juba310]

I know this may sound insulting... but are you sure you have the cd's facing the right way? I've done it before... boy did I feel dumb.

[fletcherkane]

I have the same unit you do, and have never had a problem. Reads any disc I can throw at it, and it sounds pretty good.

As others have said, make sure the disc is facing the right way.

[Mighty Favog]

Piece of dust or other foreign object on the laser lens?

[cyclonecj]

Same story here.... I have a Sony 200 & a 300 disk changer. Both have worked great for many years.

[sunnysal]

I have two sony mega-changers, one is more than five years old, neither has ever showed a sign of problems playing any disk I put into them. You must have a bad unit or your CDs must be in bad condition. if it is not the CDs then send it back for a trade. regards, tony