I''ve owned this unit for about three years now, so some of the positive reviews here may not have been written with enough miles on the unit for problems to surface. Last year, I began having problems with CD''s jamming and preventing the carousel from rotating. Makes a horrible sound when that happens so you''ll know. I''ve become very good at popping the hood to retrieve errant CD''s. This has happended about once every other month until finally one of the plastic pieces of the transport mechanism broke off. Everything in this unit is cheap plastic. So, now I face paying almost the price of a new unit just to have it fixed or face getting a replacement. I''m thinking Kenwood or Pioneer this time.

easy to use, capacity

Display isn't big enough

I wanted to be able to listen to all my discs easily and get rid of all the jewel boxes and this product did both of those things. I'm not real big on programming in my cds but it does have keyboard input which is absolutely necessary if you plan on doing that. The random play function does seem truly random. I haven't really used the groups or other features much. If those things aren't important to you this is a great buy.

-Holds a lot of CDs
-Well integrated with my STR-DA777ES Receiver

-No digital bus for interconnecting two jukeboxes
-No track memory

I recently purchased two CDP-CX300 changers. I like the capacity and am very happy with how well the system has integrated with my new Sony STR-DA777ES receiver. The receiver remote displays a text list of both of my changers! This is a very nice way to peruse my CD collection.

Two major drawbacks with this system...

1.-No track memory!
I can store CD titles, but not tracks. I'm considering returning these units and awaiting the next generation for this reason alone.

2.-No digital bus for interconnecting CD players. If I want to interconnect the two units, I have to use RCA cables...(ie. I can't connect my optical cable from player 1 to player two). The result is that I have to connect my second CD player into my MD optical jack... thus, I don't benefit from the cd-linking capabilities.

The capacity both to manage and handle 300 CD's

It takes time and patience to input all of the data that this unit will hold.

We bought this as a jukebox, to hold and manage several hundred CD's that were taking up a lot of space. We are thoroughly delighted. Using the plastic folders that came with the CX300, we have assembled all of the old jewelbox pictures and literature, and we can now browse through the collection easily -- and pull out text or program notes easier than before. More importantly, we no longer have boxes of jewel boxes cluttering up the living room.

The audio from this unit is excellent, and because of the optical out-put, we figure that any audio shortcomings in our system are downstream of this unit. It sounds great.

If we wanted to upgrade our system to improve audio, we would probably keep the CX300 as an organizer. It would not be any more difficult to pull a CD out of here than to use the old hunt em and find em system that preceded this one. :-)

We bought it as an open box item at Circuit City for $189 --mainly because they thought they had lost the manual for it. (The manual ws discovered at checkout to be underneath the box.)

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Until very recently, there was nothing similar, not that will mangage three hundred CD's.

Ability to handle 300 CDs; groupings, sound

Can't program and shuffle

I hope that my unit doesn't develop problems as indicated below.

What a nice "toy" my family gave me for my recent birthday. Loading the CDs and giving each a code was a bit tedious but once I got the hang of inputing the letters/numbers and symbols, it was pretty simple. I used the JOG rather than the remote or a keyboard. Thirteen alpha-numeric spaces wasn't a real limitation, abbreviations worked nicely.

Since my wife and I are opera buffs, the majority of our collection is comprised of both complete operas and excerpts. In order to listen to the same aria or duet and compare singers, ten years ago I had begun coding my CDs and put them in matrixes on large sheets of accounting paper. With my new CX300, I now have the motivation to list them all on computer spreadsheets. I have a friend of ours who drives a lot and I've made her special tapes of different artists singing the same arias. She loves them and has worn out many tapes. It's now going to be easier to do with the CX300.

As I've stated above, the only drawback is that one can't do a program of selected CDs and shuffle them. But one can shuffle groups of CDs. It's really no big deal.

A side note: My wife bought the unit (for the family) in early February at a local Best Buy store. She paid $300. In checking some of the reviews below, I found that a few people had bought the unit at cheaper prices. The local BB store manager would not honor the prices shown in the reviews. However, I did talk to a person in the Best Buy regional office and they told me that if I could print out a bonafide offer from the Internet, the store would honor it. So I went home and did a rigorous search of the Internet and remembered some of the comparison shopping sites, like mysimon.com I found a price of $240 so I was able to get a refund of 20%! One needs persistance to save a buck or two nowadays.

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Previously had a nine-year old five CD changer (Don't remember model)

Great looking, Cd text, 300 disc

trying to scroll through discs, it gets confused and tries to go back to a previously loaded disc, super annoying when trying to scroll through the listed discs

Overall a very good cd player. I picked mine up at the good guys for $220 earlier this year. There is a big difference in sound quality from my old pioneer 6 disc changer to this. much more efficient, dont have to crank the stereo as high to get the same sound levels as before with the pioneer. Plays every cd i have put in it so far, including a gazillion different types of cdr's and cdrw's. I have a sony burner, with cd text, so this cd player which is cd text compatible is really cool. I can put the title as long as i want and it scrolls across if its too long to see all at once. A very good cd player, for the money i am very impressed with it, and if I had the choice would do it again.
Definately worth the money
cant say enough good things about it.

Capacity, Optical output, ability to connect 2 more and have a 900 CD jukebox

First one I got was defective

My collection had grown and I was sick of having 1/2 of my music lying around, so I bought this. The first one was bad, so I had the salesperson make sure the new unit worked before I took it home. Sounded MUCH better than the Technics through the analog RCA outputs, but I just connected it up to the STR-DA50ES receiver with Monster Cable Interlink 100 and it's so much clearer and well defined. I've been pleased with it overall! I must take off 1 point though for the first unit being defective.

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Technics 110+1 changer

Overall I was very happy with my first unit and so I bought two more, since you can connect them together and use one remote and one input on the receiver. I was also glad to upgrade to optical / digital recording.
Be aware of one thing though
The player is optical ready
The player can be daisy chained with up to two more players
BUT
The player cannot be daisy chained together optically! Only using analog RCA plugs! Because there is only one optical input/output on the back of each player.
Furthermore, once you switch to analog cables into the receiver, the mini disc player which I have connected optically no longer understood the analog signal! I have stepped back completely form digital to analog.
Still, for $250, this is a really good value.

CD capacity and versatility, abilty to link two units and shuffle between them, reasonable sound quality and stability

lack of digital input, not enough groups, can't assign a CD to more than one group, spotty technical informtaion from Sony

I have two units linked together (598 CD's loaded, with the two "easy play" slots left free). I've used the first unit for about 6 months and the second unit for about a month.

Most often I select one group on each player and let the linked jukeboxs shuffle between them, alternating tracks from the two jukeboxes. There is no delay in loading tracks. The ability to do this is the best feature of the Sony jukebox. (Of ocurse, this means you have to buy two jukeboxes. If you have that many CDs, it's worth it.)

The other main way I use the jukebox is to program on eo fthe jukeboxes,usually to record to MD. When I bought the second unit I though I would be able to set up a program programs with tracks from CDs on both units. If this is possible to do, I haven't figured out how. The so-called manual is no help at all.

To keep track of where the CDs are loaded and to set up groups and playlists, I use a CDDB-compatible music library shareware program called Visitrax (www.synapsa.com). Visitrax isn't unique (see www.cddb.com for a list of other CDDB-compatible databases out there) but it does eerything I need - it's very efficient and stable, provides lots of search options, lets you set up an index that corresponds to slot numbers on the Sony jukebox, and costs only $17. Visitrax technical support is responsive and for $17 you get all future upgrades free. Wish I could say the same for Sony.

Using Visitrax to register CDDB volume and track information for all 598 CDs took time, but much less time than it would have cost me to type all the CD and track names myself. The end result is a database that gives me the information I need to control the Sony jukeboxes. I can decide exactly what I want ot record or I can plan new "shuffle groups" if I want ot be surprised. I don't think it's possible to take advantage of possibilities the Sony jukebox offers without this or a similar music library program.

There is other software out there (Wintrax, for example) that gives you al lthis plus the ability to actually control the Sony jukebox from your computer. (Several audioreview.com reviews of Pioneer jukeboxes wax enthusiastic about Wintrax. Personally, I haven't invested in Wintrax because it costs $250 compared to $17 for Visitrax.

As said above, the ability to shuffle between two jukeboxes is probably the best feature of the CDP-CX300. However, this leads to my two main complaints about the Sony jukebox.

(1) Eight groups is way too few for a jukebox with 300 disk capacity. The inability to assign a CD to more than one group is also a severe limitation. I have 7 permanent groups set up on each unit but I keep the 8th free to temporarily reclassify disks into a custom group. Since Sony doesn't let you assign a CD to more than one group to one CD, when I am done with the temporary custom group, I have to go back and reclassify CDs back into their orignal groups. It should be easier than this.

(2) With no digital input there is no way to use digital output when shuffling between two jukeboxes. Also the only way to record digitally to MD from CDs on both jukeboxes is to manually pause the MD recorder and switch its input source.

I don't have any other major complaints. The sound quality is good enough - it certianly doesn't get in the way of the music. I'm sure I could get better sound if I paid a lot more money but I bought these units for the abilty to mix from different CDs rather than for "critical listening."

As has been noted in other rreviews, the units are not built like tanks. I wouldn't want to drop one. But so far the sound output is stable, which is what matters to me. On a couple of occasions, playback has gotten "stuck" in the middle of a song. This has only happened after the unit had been playing (shuffle mode) for several hours - I don't know if it's a heat problem but it's a VERY rare occurrence.

Since I keep track of the changer's contents via a database the 13-character input limit is no big deal. 13 characters is enough to remind me which CD it is. If I relied exclusively on CD titles to keep track of my CD's I don't know if I could live with the 13-character limit.

I tried different PS2 keyboards for title input. Some were erratic, but the Microsft Natural Keyboard Elite seems to work pretty well.

All this said, the Sony jukebox has let me explore and listen to my CD collection in ways that weren't previously available. Given that I invested thousands of dollars in the CS, the payback for the jukeboxes far outweighs the money spent.

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lots of single and multi play CDs, no other jukeboxes

It has played every disc that I have ever put in it-my Digital Separets have taken care of the rest.

It is pretty slugish at changing discs.

As soon as I put this unit into my system I realized that the DACs were sorely deficient as far as sound quality goes. I was determined to make this Mega Changer provide more inner detail, venue ambience,as well as attack and decay ambients in a hopefuly wider and deeper soundstage. I would need to build a digital lens to focus the slopy (jitter ridden) optical output into a time corrected (more jitter free) digital electrical coax signal for quality D/A conversion.


I connected my CX-300's optical output to an Audio Alchemy DTI Pro. From the PRO via I2S to a AA DTI Pro32 then digital coax to a D/A converter to pre-amp to amp.


I cannot stress the importance of the I2S bus connection enough. In measurements done by Stereophile, it reduced digital jitter by 66%. The result... Right Amplitude + Right Timing = Righteous Sound.


Having made these changes, I found that these wonderfully giant machines can be made to sound as detailed and articulate as their much more expensive yet storage challenged brethern. In fact I beleive that "bits is bits" and once the timing errors that these machines have coming out of the factory are corrected they sound Fan-Freaki'n-Tastic!!!

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Sony 5-Disc changer