CD Changers: Love/Hate

A couple of months back, the digital coaxial output on my CC3000 died. The center pin on the RCA connector pulled free from the PCB, taking the solder pad with it. I wasn’t able to repair it.

I took this as a sign that it was time to move on. I tried a Sony DVP-S7700 (couldn’t stand the sliding faceplate), a Sony DVP-S500D (DOA), the aforementioned Sony SCD-C2000ES changer (slow and clunky), a AC Magnum CD.2020 (dim display, noise on digital out) and finally the Rotel RCC-1055 changer (equally slow and clunky).

All this has led me straight back to buying another Marantz CC3000 changer on eBay, and reinforced my suspicion that when it comes to CD transport functionality, I’m a complete diva.
 
I have had sitting on the floor of my music room for way too long, A Pioneer cartridge changer (Like PD 407) It will hold 20 CDs. Somebody gave it to me. But I have been afraid to use it since I have heard that these things scratch or otherwise eat CDs. Anybody have any comments on that. I am tempted to try it with some CDs that are around that I don't care about (that I don't know how they even got here) and see whether they add scratches. I am pretty twitchy about scratches which would be a complete deal breaker. I think I am going to take the sheet metal cover off of it so I can observe its disc handling cycle.
 
All this made me curious as to how long it took my single disc player I bought off eBay recently (Denon DVD-910) to load and start playing a CD. Disc in open tray, press play, tray closes, disc spins up, starts playing - 10.52 seconds. I would guess for a single disc player this is not close to diva territory. More importantly, at my seated position at my desk, with music playing at a very low level, I can’t hear the player.
 
Back
Top