This is my second CD player/changer, or my first, the other player is really a Toshiba SD3006 DVD player. I purchased this player from onecall for 340 2 day fedex. I use it as a mega transport, I feed the digital out via toshlink (only option, I'd prefer coax) to a $5,000 Meridian 565 digital processor (http://www.meridian-audio.com/). It came double box and in perfect condition. The 240 has 8 groups, a disk can only belong to 1 group, 1 hitlist of 32 entries, will read cd txt or you can input a 13 character disk name (not any track names) via the front panel controls, remote and/or keyboard thru the front panel input. I used both the remote and keyboard with the KB being the best. You can only also label hitlist entries either tracks or whole disks. you have several play modes, 1 disk, all disks shuffle within 1 disk or all disks, these modes can be within 1 group or all disks. The time to change disk is slow and noise. I have 4 kids and have divided up the 200 slots and 8 groups between us. each kid gets 1 group and 25 slots, the other 100 slots and 4 groups are mine and the wife's, 1 group is for DTS/CD's, 1 group for Holiday music, 1 for the wife and one for me. I was blown away by the sound of this player thru both the analog and digital connections, the analog connection goes thru a A/D conversion within the Meridian, I only use this to record to cassettes, listen is thru the toshlink Digital to a MSB Digital Director switcher plus DE-jitter unit out thru coax into the Meridian, my amp is a Sunfire CinemaGrand feeding Martin Logan Aerias Mains and Cinema center, Polk RT/fx surrounds and a M&K MX125mkII sub. Now I don't know what a Hi-end CD player/transport sounds like thru my system, but the 240 blows away the sd3006 dvd player thru it's digital and analog outs, it was like night and day. More bass, more definition and pitch, cleaner, crisp highs, cymbals sound fantastic. Even the DTS disks sound much better, I would also get a digital pop when changing DTS cd on the Toshiba, but not on the 240 the disks change between each other and/or PCM CD's and not a sound. Now I have to consider a single play transport to see how much better they sound. I'm also thinking of a hi-end DVD player to see if AC3 will have that big of an improvement over the SD3006. I know that the Sony ES line will provide a few more features and the sound should be better thru the analog outputs, but for the money I give this 4 stars.

GOOD POINTSA mega-changer is definitely the way to go. You can put it on random play and it gives you the most amazing sequence of songs. Every time it picks a new song I hold my breath in anticipation - what will it pick next? It's lots of fun.

There are eight music categories, each of which can be set to random play. I can put it on "oldies", "hard rock", or "jazz", depending on my mood. Or just play a crazy mix of everything.

There are 3 32-track memory banks. Awesome for a party. First track for dinner music, second for dancing, third for drunken sing-along. No need for a DJ. The 240 also has a "hit list", which acts as a fourth 32-track memory bank but you can't select the order of the songs (unbelievable!).

Sound is good, but I can't say I compared it with a lot of CD players. Audiophiles will tell you the mega-changers sound bad but there's nothing like the convenience.

Another neat thing is if you get the Sony STR 925 receiver it has the same 2-way remote as the CDP 260. Then your track names show up automatically on the remote.

But most mega-changers have these features, but now I'll tell you why you may NOT want this one.


BAD
I'll start out by saying that I specifically wanted a player that would store track names. Well, after many calls to Sony tech support, talking to sales reps who knew nothing, and checking Sony web sites, I determined that this was the CD player for me because it stores track names (unlike the 240, which is cheaper). Well, it stores only 32 track names in something called the "hit list" which is a storage area for your favourite songs. Also if your CD has CD-text (which none of mine have except my friend's Ricky Martin) it stores the tracks.

So the keyboard input function is pretty useless. You're not going to hook it up to put in only 200 13-character disc names and 32 favourite tracks. You can easily put the disc names with the remote while you're listening to music. (It's part of the fun.) This really ticked me off, it's the whole reason why I got the 260.

As for quality, it has some problems. Another person posted that it occasionnaly thinks there is no disc in tracks which contain a disk. This happens quite often. It can be pretty "finicky", for lack of a better word.

But the worst part about mine is that it gets confused and won't play. About one in every 4-5 times I turn it on, the "arm" takes the disc and puts it in the slot but it won't play. I have to power down, sometimes twice, to get it to play. Sometimes it won't play and if you leave it, it starts the song about 1-2 minutes later in the middle of the track. Weird.

I'm hoping that it's just an electrical interference problem because the player is on the same circuit as my refrigerator. I'll buy a combination surge protector/noise filter and see.

If that doesn't work, I'm sending it back, which will be a pain because you have to take all your discs out. I took the 4-year warranty from Sony. I'll probably wait a couple of years to take it back and maybe they'll give me a newer model (I think it's discontinued). Maybe a 300 disc player!!

Impresses your friends. Fills that empty space on your entertainment center.

Read above.

Somebody at Sony should have QA'd this a bit more. I have seen the problem with the CDs not playing unless you power down. That is a nuisance. The real killer is when it jams in shuffle mode, then spins to attempt to get the next CD. This causes the changer to force the jammed CDs against all of the adjacent CDs (forcing them out of their slots) and the case of the unit. When it isn't able to spin the carousol, it figures that it should try again. and again. and again. and again. Finally, after 10 tries, it gives up and displays "ERR" on the display. You can then force the door open and remove all 200 of your CDs, most of which will now be completely out of their slots, and some of which may be shattered. Took the unit in twice so far, and they finally gave me a new one. This one hasn't jammed yet (got it today), but has troubles playing a song without skipping. Will probably try to get my money back...

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I think I'm done with mechanical CDs. Will propably go to MP3 next.....

I bought one of these at a local store back in March. The unit worked great for a couple of weeks. So I hooked a keyboard up to it (with it powered off)and entered the titles of my discs (13 chars max per disc). This process takes a LONG time - and I can type- because the unit changes to each disc before it lets you enter the text. And you need to listen to some of the CD's anyway so you know what to label them. This doesn't take long for each disc, but the time adds up when doing all 200 CD's. Almost immediately after I was done entering the titles, the player went nuts. It had trouble loading CD's, finding the tracks on the CD's, etc.. And I hadn't moved it or anything when entering the title info. I tried everything- cleaning the heads, powering off, cutting the power- nothing worked. Back to the store.... I exchanged it for a new unit- and lost all my entered titles!
The new unit worked great. I waited the 6 weeks or so for the Sony keyboard to come to use it to enter the titles. This time I was smarter about it, though, and had a list of the CD's in order on paper. This saved me the time of having to listen to each CD to determine what to label it. Keyboard input worked OK, except every so often, one of the keys on the keyboard wouldn't work! You had to enter the title without that letter, go back and edit it, and then the key would work fine! Thankfully, this time the unit continued to work after the titles were entered. And I must say that selecting the CD's by name instead of number makes things MUCH easier. I even tried using the s-link connection to my Sony tape deck to automatically record the tracks I programmed onto a cassette- no problems! Nice feature. It even stops the current track playing on the CD when the first side of the cassette runs out, and then restarts it as the first song on the second side, knowing enough to skip over the tape leader.
Now it is several months later. The unit still works for the most part, but every so often it fails to recognize a CD and then reports that there isn't one in that slot- until I power cycle the unit. Also, the 'delete file' light comes on seemingly at random, which supposedly means that one or more tracks on the current CD has been marked by me to NEVER be played. Well, I've never set or even played with the delete file feature. And clearing all of the delete file information in memory doesn't remedy the situation. And all of the tracks on the CD play anyway!
If the unit worked better, I would like it more. I like the s-link feature, and now I have a minidisc that works the same as the tape deck in this regard. The unit sounds very good and changes discs fairly quietly and quickly. Physically, this is a large unit. Very deep, which may be tough to fit into some shelf units with other stereo equipment. And then the cables stick out even further back.

I have 2 of these units. One performs flawlessly. While the 2nd one is a whole other issue...
It has been to the Sony Service Center once already for eating CD's (with one Broken) It took about a week & a half to get it back from them. I filled up the CD changer again... and guess what? The very first thing it did was eat another CD. (count 2 CD's broken now) I'm taking it back in tomorrow with the broken CD's and the first work order and demand they fix it properly this time.

Word of warning: Normally, when you change CD's, you hear the usual, 'put away noise' & the 'grab and insert into spinner' noise. When mine ate CD's it grabbed the CD and it didn't seat properly in the spinner to read the CD, still sticking out some. The unit tried to grab (or put away) the CD a few more times, but it's alignment must have been off and it left the CD sticking out unseated. Then it spins the carousel. Which hits every single CD along the way. If it's sticking out enough, it will break, as 2 of mine did. You could always turn it off and take it in to the repair center loaded with CD's if it should happen to you.

I'm giving it 3 stars because the first unit (which would have gotten a 5) had performed flawlessly while the changer with an appetite for my CD's deserves a big ZERO.