8 Groups, plus 3 program modes, Shuffles by groups, All or Hit List. Ability to Delete crappy songs from the playlist was awesome. I have a lot of 1-hit-wonders.

After years of use it has started skipping.

I Loved having this unit for the first 5 years. It was the focal point of many years of outdoor parties, with well over 4000 hours of playing time I definitely got my money's worth. With that said i was very sad last year when it started skipping on brand new, unscratched, store-bought CDs. I cleaned all of my CDs (not a small job) and the player as well as I could, it did not help. I am considering purchasing the DVP-ES777CX 400 DVD changer, but it lacks many of the features that made the CX-240 great like the Hit List.

Similar Products Used:

My buddy has the 300 disc version, with no problems.

The shuffle play and program features are especially useful.

It''s started to have trouble selecting a track during shuffle play after 2-3 years.

The shuffle play and program features are especially useful.

Audio

It ate my CDs! (cds are prone to wobble and get jammed).

When I brought this unit home, at first I was pleased
with the sound quality and fairly easy to use controls.
However, I noticed that the unit is very sensitive to
vibrations. In fact, when I walked into our living
room just as it was changing CDs, the CD that was loading
jammed and was damaged by the unit. Unfortunately, I had
to remove all of the other CDs to get the jammed one. While doing this the player was slapping all of my other CDs against the jammed one. Obviously, I was not impressed.

We returned this unit and exchanged it for the Sony CDP CX300, which I noted has a different loading/player assembly. With this new player, I noticed that the CDs
are much less prone to wobble on the tray, and it has
not jammed at all. I strongly encourage everyone to skip
the CX230 and pay the little extra (it was $50US for me) for the CX300. BTW, the later holds 300 CDs instead of 200.

I and rating this unit with a 2 because of the fact that
it damaged multiple CDs due to its sensitivity to
vibrations. The only thing that saved it from getting a
1 was the the audio quality seemed OK.

Similar Products Used:

Sony CDP CX230

Sound quality is great.
The optical out is a nice touch too.

Unit is having problems loading cd from several slots.

In the past I have been very pleased with my Sony purchases.
This unit is definately the exception. I recieved this as a birthday present from my wife and only had it about 3 weeks before I noticed a major problem. The unit is unable to load discs from certain slots. All in all there are at least 10 slots for CD's that I can't use. When I noticed the unit was unable to load certain dics I popped the cover off and found that the arm that loads the cds from the slot to the player was not lining up properly on a few slots.
It simply missed the cd, it would appear it is not linning up with the discs as it should. The nasty part is my wife lost the receipt so I'm stuck with this failing unit.
I am going to try the sony cdp-cx300 or mayber the cx350.
Hopefully I'll have better luck. If your thinking about buying this model my advice would be not to.

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N/A

Convenience

Slow change time. Ate my CD's

My wife and I love listening to music, and have similar tastes, so we have music on in the house all the time. We bought this player mainly for convenience, and the sound quality is OK for background music. I use the optical outputs for serious listening as I have found that my amp's DA converters do a far superior job.
My real complaint is that these units seem to last about a year before going west. My CX230 suddenly started jamming and actually totaled 4 or 5 CD's, and the only way that I could retrieve them was to remove the cover - major hassle. The player was not worth repairing as it was a month out of warranty, so I bought a CX240, and CX260 as replacements. I bought the extended warrantees with these two new units, which is just as well as they have both given trouble. The CX240 blew a pre-amp, and the CX260 started making a high pitched noise and refused to load CD,s.
That all being said, I have put up with the problems for the sheer convenience of having 400 CD's loaded.

Similar Products Used:

Sony CDP-CX240 and Sony CDP-CX260

sound quality

breaks cds, skips,slow loading time

This is the worst sony product i have purchased. I own several things made by sony. I have sent the cx-230 in for repair 4 times and they keep telling me nothings wrong with it, This has come from sony repair and Best buy repair people. best buy repair has told me that this model has a bad design and it breaks cd's. When i asked them to replace the cd-230 i was told no. I cannot believe Sony would sell a product knowing that it is a piece of garbage.

This unit is very reliable and sounds great.

It needs to have track search on the front panel.

this cd changer is outstanding for sound quality and reliability. I use the digital output and it makes the sound more clearer. The nice thing about a changer is you don't have to keep fumbling between discs and keeps them safe and clean in the unit. This is a great buy for the money at $200. Doesn't quite rank up there with denon, or harmon kardon.

Delete bank
Disc memo
Flexible grouping of discs

Difficult to unload a single CD from the group
Disc memo does not follow the CD, only the slot
A given CD can only belong to one group

I'm surprised at the lack of reviews of this product, given it is sold at Best Buy. I bought the unit basically because I wanted a CD changer, and this unit is cheap (~$200). I would recommend this one over the slightly cheaper CX225, which does not have the delete bank, disc memo, or the more flexible grouping of discs.

I found the disc memo feature easy to use, but I was disappointed by the 13 character limit, especially since discs that have the CD Text feature will scroll their titles and song titles in the space provided. The biggest diappointment about the disc memo is the fact that the memo resides with the slot, not the disc. I expected that the unit stored the memo alongside a disc serial number in memory. But if you swap discs around, this is not the case. Kind of a pain if you ever sell off some of your other discs, or otherwise move them around.

Getting the discs into the system is fairly easy, but getting them out is not. The discs are crowed together tightly in the carousel, and there is not really an "eject" feature. If you don't intend on ever removing your discs, then this won't be a problem.

A big, big disappointment with the disc grouping feature: a given disc cannot belong to more than one group. This is annoying, say, if you want to make two groups: My Favorites, My Wife's Favorites. If there is a disc that both of us like, then both of us can't have it in our own grouping. I can't understand why Sony did this at all.

I give it a value rating of 4, only because the lack of functionality is made up for in the price. Overall, a 3, because while I'm not overjoyed with it, I am happy with the performance overall.

Similar Products Used:

None

This is the replacement model for the CDP-CX220. Purchased at Best Buy for $250.After modifying my cabinet to allow for the length of the unit I found an essential feature missing. When creating a "program play" there is no indication of the total time of the program when multiple disks are in the programming steps. I have gone to the MiniDisc system and am trying to get rid of 100 to 150 cd's that only have 1-3 tracks that I like (I will still have 200 CD's left to load). This lack of a program time is a major pain in the ass. What was Sony thinking? Sony suggests the CD optical out on the changer be connected directly to the MD optical in so that the amplifier (even an optical one!)is not between the source and the MD. I have produced several MD's this way and the results are fantastic. By far better than other MD's I have made from an analog source CD.
The goal was to load the 150 CD's into the changer, create programs close to 74 minutes and let the system do it's thing. Now I am back to paper and a calculator trying to get a program mix to come close to 74 minutes. Even the Sony 5 disk CDP-CE525 changer ($200) allows you to see the total program from the 5 disks you create, why not the 200 disk changers? It was stupid of Sony to be encouraging the MD, CD optical environment and leave out a feature that is commonplace on cheapo $99 5-disk carousel CD players.
Add to this, the 240 and the 260 have the SAME PROBLEM.
I am considering returning the unit for a Pioneer PD-F1007 300 disk or the JVC XLMC334. But this is not without problems. The Pioneer does not have a great S/N ratio and lots of comments about poor sound quality. Also, it lacks the Sony feature that you can delete tracks on all the 200 CD's so you don't have to hear the tracks that you don't like. What was Pioneer thinking?
The JVC seems to have mechanism and sound quality issues as well.

I think it's time to fire the geniuses that designed the 220, 230, 240 and 260 and get the guys who designed the MD units to take over the CD changer design responsibilities. I really feel like a victim of the marketing department rather than the customer benefiting from the latest design technology (and common sense). I am disapointed in Sony for allowing this to happen.

Just think, the solution to this would be to buy a CDP-CE525 and use the S-Link system to slave the units together. I would then have a the total time programming feature, 205 disk capacity and be out $450!

I called Sony and they could not even answer my questions because the CDP-CX230 is not scheduled to be released until June and they did not have detailed info on the unit. They even wanted to know where I purchased it!!! I guess the Sony Early Release Police will be knocking on the doors of Best Buy, J&R, Crutchfield, ..........
One last missing feature, you cannot play one CD and open the door or move the turntable. What a concept!
This unit was designed to be a player and nothing more. If you want to use it as a source for multi-disk programmed recording, forget it.

If you do want any of the mass storage units, I have been told (and seen) by several stores that these things are being returned by the car load. People buy them and find that they are too long and the doors on the entertainment unit will not close. Seems most people can't use a saw. Look for returned units in an open box for $50-$75 off. Most have never been plugged in.
One thing to watch, you may have to built an extension on the back of your cabinet as the rear feet on the changer may not sit on your cabinet. Also, don't stack the unit on another stereo component as it weighs a ton with 200 CD's loaded.

Hope this helps someone. I am starting to shop for another receiver and was interested in the Sony ES line. Not any more. Time to give someone else the business.

Rating:
Sound, it gets a 4
Features, it gets a 2 (because of the delete tracks feature)
Sony's design and support to date, it gets a 0
Because this is the "latest model" from Sony that will be available in the year 2000, overall it gets a 2 Stars.

Email me if you know of a quality 200+ disk unit that has the features and optical capabilities I have mentioned. Thanks in advance, Peter.

breakes very easily with one blow from hammer

parts flew all over the driveway, and it took too long to pick up.

I have had this CD changer for over one year and have had problems from day one. Sent the unit back to Sony repair 2 times because it kept jaming and broke several cd's. After the third time (warranty expired) I took the machine and crushed it with a sledge hamer.