So many ways to select CD's.
Sounds pretty good.
Allows linking to another CD Player (more than two?)

Small display.
Can't connect two players digitally to my Yamaha Amp.

Well impressed so far, not had any of the problems mentioned (yet!), but there's plenty of time ! I'm listening to stuff I haven't played for years. It's just like buying the CD's again for the first time.

Linking the two players is brilliant, if not slightly confusing. Why does the 2nd player have to be labelled as CD3? I have set up all of my favourite bands CD's split over the two players, which means I can now listen for hours on end to Alan Parsons, Elton John, Mike Oldfield & Camel (who?).

The title playing from CD2 is supposed to be displayed on CD1, but for some reason, it always shows the name from CD 200, which happens to be Elvis! Loading the names from CD2 to CD1 doesn't make any difference (nor does it take very long!)

I can't believe Sony have made a mess over linking digitally. I am currently looking for an optical two way adapter to take the cables from the CD players, and then one cable to the digital input on my amp. As far as I can see, nobody else seems to have mentioned this, so maybe I have missed something obvious ?

Apart from the minor above irritations, I can reccommend this product thoroughly to those with large collections. The sound quality is always a worry with disk changers, but I have found the sound to be fine. If you are that fussed, buy a really expensive one disk player, and use that to listen to your favourite disks. Don't miss out on the group and artist shuffle capabilities, especially over the two players. The possibilities are almost endless. Just use your imagination.

Having bought this product, I suggest you plan how you are going to group and load your disks very carefully on a spreadsheet. I did this, and I still ended up changing my group and artist names! Enjoy.

This is also a cry for Help from sunny UK!

I purchased the CX450 yesterday and, don’t laugh! I’ve got absolutely no idea how to enter track titles on each CD.
I’ve loaded one CD, which has CD text and to my delight the Artist, Album name and Track Titles automatically appeared but for neither love nor money can I work out how to enter theses darn track names

Anyone help please

Regards
Michael A

Your entire collection is easily accessible
Ability to view inventory on TV monitor
Remote is top notch
Display and Front Panel is Simple
Link to other CD Players

Big and Heavy
Does not fit easily into entertainment centers -- you will probably have to put it on top
Entering all the title and information is time consuming (but worth it)

There is no doubt that if you have a large CD library or are planning on building a library, this is the product for you. I had CDs all over the place before I bought this. Literally. This player is not only a CD player but an organizer. You will be amazed how it reduces clutter. But more importantly, you will finally be able to listen to your entire collection instead of the same CDs over and over again until you motivate to change them. The "grouping" feature makes organizing your music a breez -- you can categorize and place the discs in a group and then select random playback from the group, etc.

If you have one disc that you want to play, it has the quick play feature from slot #1.

The remote is worth the extra money. Definitely. You can upload all the date input in the player and the keys glow and the it has a big, back lit display. The remote is really indispensible because it allows you to scroll through the entire inventory from your couch without having to get up.

The one drawback, and it is minor in comparison to everything else, is that this is big item. It does not fit well into many pieces of furniture and you will most likely wind up just putting it on top. And it is heavy to move. But once the CDs are in there, in response to some criticisms I have read, they are still easy to remove for car stereos, etc. But I recommend creating a spreadsheet to keep your inventory and putting the liner notes in CD cases to keep everything easily at your disposal. So, in short, having all your CDs in the player creates some extra work but once it is all done, it is absolutely worth it. No more plastic jewel cases!

I strongly recommend this product!

Similar Products Used:

N/A

CD Capacity

Not very intuitive

When my CD collection reached 400+ CDs, I realized I sometimes avoided listening to CDs because it was so hard to find the CD I wanted among all the jewel cases laying around. Then I saw Riverside Interactive's TitleTrack Jukebox with CDBB CD indexing capability, and decided to purchase a Sony TitleTrack-compatible player. Now I've dumped all 400 CDs into the jukebox, connected it to my Mac through the TitleTrack hardware, and it indexed and downloaded all the information on each CD directly into the jukebox!! And, with the LCD remote in my Sony ES 444 receiver, listening to any of my 400 CDs is just a scroll and click away.

The carousel may not be that fast to load/unload discs, but hey, we're talking 400 of'em here!

Similar Products Used:

Sony 50-disc jukebox

Greg,

I appreciated reading your highly literate, insightful review. I too have owned some Pioneer components and know that there are inevitably plusses and minuses. Overall, however, I agree that no (affordable) unit beats the CDP-CX450--so far.

You referred, evidently, to my first review when you pointed out that the user manual (page 20) includes a note to press REPEAT before starting ALL DISCS SHUFFLE PLAY. Thanks for this information; I admit I missed that note(believe it or not, I haven't read the "exciting" manual cover to cover!). BUT the fact remains that this situation surely amounts to a glitch.

First, it’s a “glitch” because one simply shouldn't have to press REPEAT in order to use the SHUFFLE PLAY feature on any CD player. Secondly (and this is my main point here), regardless of the manual’s “note,” my first CX450 initially DID play consistently well for some weeks in random mode EVEN THOUGH "REPEAT" HADN'T BEEN PRESSED. Indeed, my second, more recently manufactured CX450 continues to play perfectly well in random mode SANS pressing REPEAT.

My guess is that Sony already knew of the unit's susceptibility to this glitch before the user manual went to press, hence the insertion of their cautionary "note" on page 20.

First, my responses to the prior two "reviewers":

Rick, since you use the expression "work around," I think you're referring to the bottommost portion of my very first review on 1/15/01. If so, you're very welcome! But in any case, I’m glad your problem’s solved!

And Mark, I'm no expert on compatibility between older Sony 200-disc changers and the CX450; however, the 450 user manual states the following: "If you have a Sony CD player in which 5. 50, 200, 300 or 400 discs can be inserted and which is equipped with the CONTROL A1II (or CONTROL A1) jack and the command mode of that player can be set to CD3, you can control that player as the second player with this player." Note also that you don’t use an RCA cable for the “CONTROL” connection between master and slave; instead, you’ll need to go to a store like Radio Shack and buy a “Monaural (2P) mini-plug cord.”

Finally, folks, re my most recent post (7/31/01): Hey, I'm not a COMPLETE idiot; there really WAS a post by a disgruntled "Mr. Smith," but it mysteriously disappeared right after I'd submitted my post. As to WHY, search me. :)

This (too) is a plea for help, not really a review. I was sent a CX-400 when I ordered a CX-350 online. Two questions (e-mail replies appreciated if possible):

1) Can I get a 450 remote to work with the 400 to make it a virtual 450 or are there other differences?

2) Do you recommend asking for/demanding a swap (to the 350 I ordered) or is this a windfall of sorts?

Thanks,

M.E.K.

Martin,

Just make sure that you ALWAYS (temporarily) disconnect the "link" wire between the two units whenever you input new data into the "slave" unit. Due to an obvious design glitch, the artist names on the first unit will be unpredictably, partially corrupted if the two units are connected during such input. Hope this helps.

I purchased the Sony CDP-CX450 about 1 month ago. It was fairly easy to program and I inserted about 350 discs.
It worked for about 2 weeks, then 1 day it got stuck in the "random" mode of searching for the next song. I had to shut it off. When I turned it back on, it was making a horrible noise like 1 had gotten stuck. Well, I had to remove all CD's to get to where the CD is played. What had happened is, the player will not eject the CD when you hit the eject button. It inserts another one before ejecting the last one, so that there are actually 2 CD's in the player. I am in the process of sending it back right now. If anyone has any idea how to fix this problem, besides sending the unit back, please send an email.

Thanks,

Frank

Capacity

No track titling,limited character display,should interface more completely with slave unit(CDP-CX400).Too small,gets lost in my rack!

I have a CX450,and a CX400 linked together.Initially I was very impressed by both and had no problems. However, after I finally got motivated and entered the data on all 650 discs in my collection( an arduous task for the hunt and peck typist)annoyances popped up.The CX450 would randomly assign Artist names to the discs in it.I would turn on the unit after a day or two,and find Led Zeppelin II by Jewel.Sometimes 150 discs or more would be assigned the wrong artist,and I would dutifully correct them,only to have them wrong again the next time I powered up! The artist file itself was never affected,only which artist was assigned to which disc.The CX400 never exhibited this, or any problem I could detect.So I unloaded the CX450,and exchanged it for another one.I reloaded the discs and data,and after 2 days had the same problem,although only 15 discs were affected.I will say that I had the 450 as a stand alone for a few months and never had this problem,however it only had 100 or so discs in it,and not all of them had Artists assigned.

I e-mailed,and called Sony,and they had never heard of this problem,or wouldnt admit it.Am I the only one?I read all the other reviews on this site and I havent heard this mentioned.I am a better typist now,but I still dont want to go through this again.Any suggestions?

If I could get this problem ironed out I would be in love with these machines.This flaw only really effects Artist mode,but it annoys me to no end,and kills my enjoyment every time I have to re-enter the artist.

I wish I could reccomend this product,but its a matter of close,but no cigar.

Similar Products Used:

CDP-CX400