Good solid unit. Plays 80min, CD-R, CD-TEXT CDs (with exception of current noted problem). Has lots of features. If you use a CD-TEXT CD, it fills in Artist, Title, and TRACK up to 256 chars each! Very nice.

Only major flaw is the issues noted in review summary. I seem to be having issues with newer CD-media both factory and CD-R. I partially agree with other people's flaws. If you stick two CDs in one slot, you deserve to have it broken! ;)

I purchased this because of the nubmer of CDs I had of course. But especially, I have was originally impressed w/ the idea of CD-TEXT capability. Although it took a while for CD-burners to come on the market that actually would do this, that was my long term goal. Also, I had EXPECTED the music industry to pick up on this. However, of over 600 purchased factory made CDs, only TWO (2) have CD-TEXT included on them. Destiny's Child, and Anggun (English release only). Cool! Well, okay. So over the past 2 years (I have had the unit about 3.5 years now) I have made my own CD-TEXT version of my CDs. However, recently it has started to not recognize most of my cd-r CD-TEXT CDs and occasionally it doesn't recognize newly purchased factory stamped CDs... I had it checked out/tuned up about 1 year ago as the track came off after I moved (houses). But aside from that it has seemed great until recently. I have not been able to determine if it is some new element in CD properties or new factory stamped CDs that make it not read them or if the unit is now starting to become faulty. It seems to consistently read older CDs and older cd-r i made or make without CD-TEXT.... Aside from that, and some of the other things noted (it seems to replay in a certain order when set on random, so if you start it over, it seems to hit the same set of songs... thus the impression you are hearing always the same songs - but if you let it play on random for 2 days or so, it DOES play all the songs until it is done - unless you have it on repeat... I haven't carefully tracked exactly what that does...) I love it! I have never had memory loss issues.

Similar Products Used:

The Sony 300 changer circa 1998

Massive capacity reasonable price and size. The price is down to 249.00 www.crutchfield.com.

Not many. Name programming touchy at times. Doesn''t remember name when you move the cd.

The only reason that I get to listen to my music. I have upwards of 500 cd''s and this keeps them in the rotation regularily. I love this unit. About to purchase a second for the ultimate juke box.

Stunning Capacity; Impressive Access Time; Discrete, nearly flawless operation; Pinnacle of Listening Convenience

Cumbersone Artist/Title Entry System; Flaky Memory; Biased Randomizer

I've had the Pioneer PD-F1007 unit for a year now, and have been very impressed with its overall performance. On the whole, it delivers exactly what it promises.

In terms of the more serious-sounding problems experienced by some other reviewers, I can't say I've experienced many of them with my particular unit. Although once (after using the power button on the device) I did lose all my memory. Needless to say, having to re-enter all that information was a genuine pain in the ass, and it makes one wonder why Pioneer didn't set it up for keyboard input. What's more, it escapes me as to why they didn't design the unit with a more reliable memory--especially considering the nature of the Artist/Title entry.

Such criticisms are minor, however. On nearly all other accounts, the unit is extremely well made. It has withstood the heat of several long stretches of non-stop play over the course of this year, and in terms of sound quality and overall convenience, I am really quite delighted.

One thing I'd like to note about this unit is its peculiar tendency for the randomizer to focus its attention on the lower-numbered discs in the carousel. That is to say, I've noticed it has a strange preference for discs 1 ~ 250. The last 50 *do* get some play, but if you're at home listening to your unit for a short to moderate span of time (say, 30 minutes to an hour), and you randomize over all the discs, chances are you will not hear any selections higher than disc 270. It has a DEFINITE preference for the first two-hundred, and I've found that it takes considerably longer than an hour for it to randomize to any disc higher than slot 270.

Sounds kinda strange, I know, but it isn't the first time I've come across randomizers that aren't truly random. Anyway, it was just something I wanted to point out, because (for one thing) it doesn't seem as if anybody else out there has mentioned it, and I'm wondering if I may be the only one. For another, there may be some hardcore Zappa or ZZ Top fans out there who just bought one of these things and are considering how to organize the discs in the carousel. To such people my advice would be "Not Alphabetically". Rather, I would likely recommend that they put their favorite 200 or so in the first 200 slots, and then the stuff that they doesn't listen to as much in the last 100, for the very reason I described above.

In terms of my rating, it's tough to beat the value you get from the device. It's sheer capacity, coupled with it's quiet, consistent, hi-quality operation, make it an outstanding value for the casual listener and the audio enthusiast alike (audiophiles are probably a much tougher crowd to please).

The few criticisms I have of the unit are little more than cavils, however they are noticeable enough to knock about a half-star off its otherwise perfect rating. Of course, this is just my opinion. If I shared the experiences of some of the reviewers below, I may well be hesitant to give it such glowing praise. My personal experience, however, has been excellent, and I have no reservations about recommending the unit to anybody in the market for one.

love the jukebox concept

losing its memory - very frustrating

I love my unit. I listen to music so much more now that it's all in the jukebox. The random feature has played songs that I forgot I had. I couldn't live without this player.

However, I too have had problems with my unit losing its memory. The first time, I only had about 30 titles in, and I just thought I had done something wrong. I entered 30 again, and waited. No memory loss, so I entered all 200 cd's. This was about 2 months ago, and then to my horror last week it lost every stinking title.

Currently it's at Best Buy getting repaired. Does the memory upgrade on the new unit work on this unit? And has anyone had any luck with getting it fixed so I can tell Best Buy what to do?

I love having the titles in. I also have them indexed, but it's really fast to use the disk+/disk- to search for what I might want to listen to. I don't mind keying the titles in once more, but if it loses its memory again...

Any ideas? I love this unit, but I need the memory to work.

Having all of my CD's in one place, ready to assess quickly.

I just turned on my CD player and all the memory is gone!

This is the second unit I have now, the first one I had to return because the carousel jammed and nothing played, that was the first day I had it. Now this second unit has memory problems. I turned on the unit today, and this is the second time that the memory has been erased. I am very careful to turn on the pd-f1007 with the dinky remote, because i read of the problems that other folks had if they turned it on/off with the main power switch,(erasure of the memory) but it still erased with the remote turn-on. I called Pioneer and the tech confirmed that you MUST turn the unit on/off using the remote. (It seems they know of this problem. He had no other solutions.)
If you like the idea of having to scroll your CD's on the memory dial to see what you have in there then this unit is not for you. It is too unreliable and defeats the purpose of putting all of your CD's in one place if you can't find them in the player.
I am going to catalog all of the CD's onto a database and keep a list next to the player so at least my wife and I can look up the CD's she and I want to hear without becoming super frustrated. Perhaps Pioneer should recall these units because I have had this problem twice now and I am not going to input the titles again!

Reasonable Price, 300 Disc Capacity

Memory Problem, Size (this baby is big)

When I saw this machine I just had to have one. Having a large CD Collection it seems perfect and I must say it works well.

Problem No 1
Loses its memory

I have sent the machine back to the dealer, as Pioneer have recommended a fix 'HOORAY'. Machine is back very soon and I will keep you all posted of the success (i'm optimistic)

Problem No 2
Size. Beware if you are buying one of these what you are going to put it on. 42cm deep it will not fit in most HI-Fi Cabilnets and I have had to buy a proper Hi-fi stand

Otherwise, great machine so buy one with these reservations and i'll rate it as ......

Similar Products Used:

None

+Mechanically sound; takes a beating
+Single slot for quick listening to new or borrowed CD's
+Good quality audio w/digital Toslink Output
+Can be computer controlled with Wintrax software
+Easy to understand and operate remote
+Easy to operate from the front panel
+Can read home recorded CD's
+Quick disc-to-disc time
+Best song memory

+Title/Artist text limited to 13 character
+No text listing at song level unless CD has CDText (few do)
+The old ADLC (auto level control) has been removed
+Keyboard is for text entry only, not for play lists, you must use add-on software like Wintrax.

Overall, FANTASTIC. You can never really appreciate your CD music investment, unless they are on line where you can get at them INSTANTLY. Going back to a single changer CD player would be like going back to LP's for me; in that I'd probably not be enjoying listening my collection.

I have three Pioneer PD-F1007's, loaded with about 700 CD's total. I replaced three of the earlier 100-disc changers from Pioneer for these. I've been using Pioneer mega changers for about 7 years and have never had any mechanical or service problems, and I play the heck out of them!

I have a number of library type collections, so I placed them randomly amount the three changers. Then I use Wintrax Jukebox Software (www.cdcontrol.com) to control the three, as if they were one, from my PC. The software can cue up the next changer while it playing another changer. At the end of a song you get a few seconds of overlap. I build play lists that run all day. The PD-F1007's (and FD-F1009) keep on playing and never miss a beat. I had one Sony CDP-CX205 200-disc changer and it broke down the first month I had it after playing it all day for several days.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer: PD-F100, PD-F1009, PD-F109
Sony: CDP-CX205

keyboard input, fast disc changing

I just got the Pioneer PD-F1039 (which is a new model) from J and R for a very good price. I'll submit another review after I use it for a while. Hopefully the memory problem is fixed.

I was wondering if anyone else got this model and could help me with this question. Is there any light within the jukebox? When I turned mine on, there is no light inside. Is this normal or mine is broken already?

New PD-F1039 has PS/2 keyboard and mouse input
Memory has supposedly been improved from the PD-F1007

New PD-F1009 moves down to a 20 "Best Selection" from the 50 songs available in the PD-F1007

Thanks for the reply's to the questions that I put up last week. I did some research and found out that Pioneer is updating the "Giga" changer line this month with:

1. The PD-F1009 appears to be the same except that the "Best Selection" mode only holds 20 songs instead of the 50 that the F1007 allowed and it now plays CD/RW's.(MSRP $325)

2. The PD-1039 keeps the 50 "Best Selection" mode, has a headphone jack, plays CD-RW's and most importantly has a PS/2 mouse and keyboard port on the front of the unit. (MSRP $375)

I called the company and spoke to someone who said that both of these units have an upgraded memory that should not randomly dump all of the CD title information as the F1007 often does. I ordered the PD-F1039 for $319 delivered from Uncle's. They said it should go out next week as the units are just arriving this month (Time will determine the truth of this statement.)

I really wanted the keyboard option in case the damn thing continues to dump information. I will report in when I get the unit and have had some time to experiment.

I assume if you are reading this you are looking to buy a 200 to 300 disk mega changer. I found that comparing the features of the different brands in the same price range was very difficult because sale people can't keep up with all the stuff buried in the user manuals. To help you in your search, I'm listing the strength and weakness of the Pioneer compared only to other makes. If I list something as a strength, it means this feature is missing on another brand in the same price range. If I list something as a weakness, it means this feature is found on another brand.

Strengths
+ Depth - smallest of the bunch at 17" deep
+ Noise - It's very quiet. CD's rattle around in Kenwood
+ Speed - Faster than Sony maybe not as fast as JVC
+ Motorized door - Kenwood is spring loaded
+ Internal light - Kenwood is dark inside
+ Groups - 10 groups, some others have less (Sony has 8)
+ Group names - You can name the groups (Jazz, Zepplin, MyGroup)
+ Grouping - a single CD can belong to more than one group
+ Random play in groups - Don’t think JVC can do this
+ Display - Two line display shows both CD title and play timer at same time
+ Artist Input - Can enter both CD title and artist name (12 Char. each)
+ Timer - Timer can count forward or backward including within a program
+ Plus one player - has extra slot and controls for playing single CD not intended to remain in the changer.
+ Toslink - Kenwood doesn't have this. Maybe important if you use a portable MD as I do.

Weakness
- Height - Kenwood is shorter
- Remote - Some other brands are better
- Optical Coax - Kenwood has this (5.1 channel ready ?)
- Keyboard Input - option on Sony and Kenwood
- Slink - Sony?
- True CD titling - After you title a CD on the Kenwood (maybe others as well), if you move the CD in the changer the title will automatically move. In the Pioneer you only name the disk slot. If you move the disk you must retitle the slot.
- Disk Eject - I think the JVC will actually eject the disk from the player as opposed to having to reach in the changer.
- Standby Mode - With the Pioneer you are only suppose to turn the changer off with the remote.
- CD Title - Limited to 12 characters. I thing the JVC has 32 character input although it will only display 12 characters while playing. It doesn’t scroll continuously. Kenwood has 25 charater input I think. Sony only 13 Char.
- Genres - You must use the 10 groups to create genres. I think the Kenwood has title input, artist input and genre. Although you are limited only to the twenty-something prenamed genres. (rock, hip hop, polka, etc.)
- Daisy Chaining - From what I've ready, I think the Sony is better.

Based on these strengths and weaknesses I picked the Pioneer. Things like the internal D/A converted really didn't matter because none of the players D/A converters is as good as a separate optical receiver. Also the ability to link to a receiver didn't matter much because I think they all could link to certain receivers of the same brand. Similarly, I think all the changers will scroll CD text capable CD beyond the 12 or 13 character limit of the display. None of the changers have track titling. You have to bump up the price if you need this. I'm worried about loosing my titles as others have reported, but I haven't had any problems yet.

I'm giving the Pioneer 5 stars not because it is the perfect mega changer, but because I consider it the best in it's price range. I came to this conclusion based on my own needs. Hopefully the above review will help you decide if this player will best meet your needs.