Chevyman16's Full Review: Yamaha CDC-575 5-Disc CD Changer
I bought the next model up from this one, the CDC-675. They have the same electronics inside them, and from what I've heard they sound exactly the same. I'll explain the difference between the two models before my original review of the CDC-675 at the bottom.
The CDC-575 is the same cd player without the CD-Text feature, direct track access, headphone jack and variable analog output (digital volume control on output), peak search for setting recording levels, and tape edit functions (nobody uses these anymore anyways).
The most useful feature missing is the CD-text, I have quite a few newer cd's which now have this feature and I burn cd text onto all my cd-r's.
The variable output is also useful because I use an old amp that doesn't have a remote, and it's nice to be able to turn the volume down with the cd player's remote. If you have a remote for your receiver than this will not be a problem for you.
Direct track access is nice when you have more than 20 songs on a burned cd and you want to get to the middle song. You can go instantly to that song by pressing 1 or 2 buttons. This might not be important for you either though.
If you don't need any or most of these above mentioned features than this player would probably be a good deal. It's apparently been discontinued so you can probably find it for a really cheap price.
Here's my original review:
I wanted to get a 5 disk changer because I had been using my Discman hooked up to my amp and my friend gave me a 10 year old Kenwood 5 disk which I used for a couple weeks and compared the sound with my Discman and the Kenwood sounded a lot better. I knew that when the Kenwood broke down I'd have to buy a new one cause the sound of the portable player just didn't cut it anymore. I also really liked being able to play around 5 hours of music without changing cd's.
Anything more than a 5 or 6 disk changer would be inconvenient for me because I'm always taking cd's out to put in the car or in my Discman and those huge magazine changers are annoying if you take cd's in and out all the time. A 5 disk changer seems less likely to break down too.
I bought this cd player based on the reviews at audioreview.com. Everything everyone else said about it was true. The build quality is above average, the features are great and the sound is good.
It has playxchange (change 4 cd's while playing one, all of them have that now) the thing thats different about this player is that it lets you change all 5 at once without spinning the carousel around to access the other cd slots. This is good in a way but also annoying. Only about 3/4 of the back 2 cd trays are sticking out from the inside of the player making it harder to put the cd's in. This is hard to explain but if you check it out and open the drawer you will see what I mean.
Here are the features that not all comparable 5 disk players have: CD text-very few cd's (even new ones) have this, but I burn my own cd's with cd text on them and the cd text works perfectly. It shows the name of the cd, artist or song titles. The cool looking orange and red display is fairly easy to read from a distance and it also has a 3 level dimmer for people who think a bright readable display is distracting. It has direct track access on the front which some cd players have and some dont. It makes programming songs really easy. It even tells how many minutes total your program list has every time you select a track. It has a variable analog output so you can adjust the volume by remote if your amp doesn't have a remote. It also has a headphone jack with a volume adjust on the player and remote. The remote on this player is a lot better than most that I have seen. I can use most of the important features even at night just by feel. This player has optical digital output for connecting to minidisc or using your Digital receiver's D/A convertor for better sound. I just use the analog ouput cuz my amp is over 20 years old, but the sound seems really good.
The changer on this cd player is supposed to be a super silent mechanism, but its still louder than my dads Technics SL-PD887 (which I have a review of) but its a lot quieter than others i've heard (including the old Kenwood I had). It sounds solid at least and the whole cd player gives the impression that it will last quite a long time. A lot of people that reviewed this player on audioreview.com said it plays scratched cd's better than most. I haven't tested it on any really bad cd's, cuz I try to take care of mine, but I haven't heard a skip yet even using some of my friends scratched cd's. I was hoping it would play cd-rw's but i tested it with one and it didn't work. That cd-rw has only worked on a Panasonic portable cd player that I owned but recently sold. It wouldn't work on any other player. All cd-r's work fine of course, but cd-r's aren't really an issue anymore, they pretty much always work on everything. My friend has a $45(Cnd) Memorex discman that plays all cd-r's.
When I was first shopping for a new cd player I was also looking at Sony's 5 disk changers. Their top of the line CDP-CE545 was the same price as the Yamaha and the Yamaha had all the features the Sony had except Disc memo (lets you program song titles into it for cd's without cd text) plus some more features that the Sony didn't have. Also the Sony is made in China and the Yamaha is made in Malaysia. I have never had luck with anything made in china (read my review of Kenwood portable cd players) but I've had some Sony products that are made in malaysia and I haven't had trouble with any of them. Either way, the Yamaha's build quality is a lot better than the Sony and it was a better deal since Yamaha is a better name.
Both the Yamaha and the Sony have 2 year warranty's which speaks well for both of them. I didn't get the extended warranty because I think this cd player will last me a long time past the warranty without any trouble.
If your shopping for a 5 disk changer in this price range this is the best deal. The CDC575 is $50 (Cnd) less than the 675 but it doesn't have direct track access, headphone jack, variable output, optical digital output and some other things i think. The specs were also slightly downgraded from the 675 but this probably wouldn't make much difference. The 775 was a big jump in price mainly just for a better D/A convertor which probably wouldn't make a difference in my low priced system. The 675 was the best deal for me.
Yamaha single-bit digital-to-audio converter Super silent mechanism Synchro Start Direct disc access Direct track access on remoteMore at Amazon Marketplace
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