Those Big, Big Jukebox Mega CD Changers

[tone ded freb]

I know these 300 and 400 CD monsters aren't necessarily up to audiophile standards, but they sure seem darn convenient. Does anyone know whether they have any tendency to scratch discs? Also, do CDs get dusty while they just sit inside there, after months that is? Any good reason to shy away from them?

[mudbone]

What happens when you have more than 300-400 cds?

These never appealed to me. I'd rather store my cds in the cases and pull them one by one. It would be a nightmare to rotate 300-400 cds. With my luck the one I'd want to hear would be in the carousel.

mud-

[tone ded freb]

When you have more than 300-400 CDs, you can do something exotic called "daisy-chaining" and shell out money for another changer. I think I see your point, though. I guess you could just get one changer and maybe switch out discs every few months or so.

[mudbone]

TDF, I didn't realize you could string these things together.

I can understand the convience of one of these.

mud-

[Sckott]

I don't like them for one big reason.

I have almost 2,000 Cds. Let's say I put away 300 in a big honkin' Sony changer. That means I have 300 Cds in my collection dedicated to the changer, and I know I'm going to want room whenever I want it.

Here, jewelbox! Nice little jewelbox! Yep, I'd have to hunt down and store potentially 10-20 jewelboxes every time I want to sit down.

Where's that CD?!? I could have sworn it was in the changer!

Nope. Not for me. I'll take a 5-12 changer (home/car changer in perspective) max. Any more than that, and I'll start losing them or making a big mess in the kitchen. I'm sometimes forgetful. What's worse, my mind plays tricks on me too. Aww, where did D1 of my MFSL "Wall" go, huh?! You get the picture.

Then there's waiting 2 minutes and positional sight to see if this planet-size CD player has it. Ugh!

It's too late to talk about this topic. I'll go to bed and have nightmares. A big 300 CD SOny changer ate my arm.

[Jack Keck]

My brother-in-law bought a mega-changer. He and his wife are music lovers, but not audiophiles. They like their Bose 301 speakers. When te bought the mega-changer, they had a two year-old son who enjoyed taking th cd's out of the jewel boxes and had n way to place them out of his reach. This was an ideal cd player for them.

I would find it inconvienient, myself. I use a 5 cd carousel, which sounds god enough to me, although I recently discovered that my DVD player sounds better. I load 5 cd's of music tat are fairlyunrelate to eah other to play when I'm on my treadmill. Then I can turn off the lights o I can't see the time display. It seems to make the 45 minutes go by faster.

[Gary Freed]

The Mega Changer concept works great in my office computer using real
player. All my CD's are stored in it. I find it very easy to find all my music
quickly. The real player software will group music anyway you want.
Several aftermarket Car audio mfg.s have mega changers out on the market now. Although they haven't perfected Audio Mega Changers yet,
I can see where they will become more popular in the near future.

[Jason Brown]

Originally posted by tone ded freb
Does anyone know whether they have any tendency to scratch discs?

No, but they don't like to play discs that are already scratched. I had to replace a few when I went the megachanger route.

[BradOlson]

I don't have a mega CD changer as they are too expensive for my budget, plus I do not like the idea Sckott mentioned.

[BradOlson]

Originally posted by Jack Keck
My brother-in-law bought a mega-changer. He and his wife are music lovers, but not audiophiles. They like their Bose 301 speakers. When te bought the mega-changer, they had a two year-old son who enjoyed taking th cd's out of the jewel boxes and had n way to place them out of his reach. This was an ideal cd player for them.

I would find it inconvienient, myself. I use a 5 cd carousel, which sounds god enough to me, although I recently discovered that my DVD player sounds better. I load 5 cd's of music tat are fairlyunrelate to eah other to play when I'm on my treadmill. Then I can turn off the lights o I can't see the time display. It seems to make the 45 minutes go by faster.

I've discovered my DVD player sounds better than my CD changer as well.

[JoelDF]

I've got one of those Pioneer 101 disc changers because my wife wanted it. I balked but she won out.

Once she had as many as.......8....... CD's at one time in that thing.

I think there are 5 in there right now.

I still use my Sony single disc player in my office.

Joel

[Gary Freed]

Originally posted by Gary Freed
The Mega Changer concept works great in my office computer using real
player. All my CD's are stored in it. I find it very easy to find all my music
quickly. The real player software will group music anyway you want.
Several aftermarket Car audio mfg.s have mega changers out on the market now. Although they haven't perfected Audio Mega Changers yet,
I can see where they will become more popular in the near future.

My apologies

I misread the title of the thread. In my earlier post I was refering to the Hard Drive in a computer at my office and the Kegs that a few car Audio Mfg. like Kenwood are using. I think they are a great idea.:)

[wmspence]

Hi, all.

You know folks, I have two 300 CD Sony jukes that are daisy-chained in a system consisting of a Cal Icon modified cd player, Sony SACD, loaded Linn and Graham analog rig, BAT and Bryston amps and Maggie speakers.

The Sony's have a terrific remote with very sophisticated controls and display. There is nothing like a "no-delay" random play to hear music you ordinarily never listen to and be surprised at how nice the library is.

I have about 3000 CD's and it is much fun to do the Sony's when I'm just into listening to music and not picking apart the sound. In fact there was a post not too long ago on Sunday morning listening........and this is a fun listen, let me tell you.

Bill

PS: I have had no damaged discs at all and pretty much flawless operation out of these two open box specials I picked up at BB.

[Holy Zoo]

The idea of a CD mega changer has never appealed to me. I think mostly because I listen to my cds on the road as much as at home. So pulling cds out of a jukebox would be a royal pain.

BUT! I love our 300 DVD mega changer. All our DVDs fit in the changer, and it's a snap to watch anything we want. And we have fewer than 300 DVDs, so it works out well.

[Gary]

I see Sckott's point of view. I loose CDs now, switching them in and out of the car. I have tons of CDs that are not filed.

The mega changer will kill me....

[-=Rudy=-]

I've had a 101-CD Pioneer for three or four years now...love it! i didn't use it much, but this past spring brought it upstairs since I was doing more computer work upstairs. (All of my "stuff" is downstairs.) In the summer, it was great to start it on, say, disc #25 and play through a few Stevie Rays and other blues out on the deck through a pair of Boston A40's. :D Around the holidays, I'll load up a few dozen Xmas CDs along with the quieter jazz and instrumental I'll play during this time of year. In summer, it's back to the rock and pop. I plop the names into an Excel spreadsheet and switch among the CDs as my mood changes.

One thing I've done for the changer, though, is make a lot of my own compilations. I'll put two albums onto one CD, or make up CDs of favorites. So many of my originals aren't in the changer anyway. And filling it with favorites is a good way to keep the music flowing without having to constantly run around trying to find CDs.

I really would like a DVD changer, though. My DVD collection is growing, and it would be great to keep the CDs in a changer as opposed to having the kids try to (mis)handle them.

[JonUrban]

I have a DVD Megachanger, the Kenwood DV-5900M

http://www.kenwoodusa.com/product/product.jsp?productTypeId=25&sortBy=price&productId=782

It is a great DVD player, and it has Faroudja video processing, progressive scan video output, and DVD-Audio capability with internal Bass Management. Not a bad deal. I fill it with DVDs and my wife can watch whatever she wants from any room in the house (because I have a modulator). The DVD- A performance is GREAT.

HOWEVER.... there is a HIGE minus in my eye with this machine, and I have written to Kenwood and received the "sorry, but that is the way it is" letter from them. For some reason, this unit, upon powering up, will always begin to play the last DVD that was viewed. No big deal??

Well, you cannot hit STOP. THe DVD has to start. Then, as many DVDs have the stupid FBI warning and mandatory promos or logos, you have to wait until the playback reaches a point on the DVD where you can issue a STOP.

WHAT A PAIN!!! To me, for an expensive, top end unit like this, it is pathetic.

[-=Rudy=-]

IMHO, the fact that DVDs even HAVE menus at startup is annoying to me. That's the biggest thing I miss about Laserdiscs. I hate having to wait--I want to put a movie in, and have it start up. Give me a menu if I CHOOSE it. Don't force it on me. When you have a couple of anxious kids waiting for Monsters Inc., the last thing you want are stupid animated menus. At the VERY least, I'd appreciate being able to jump right to a menu or chapter of my choice.

That does sound like a serious issue with the Kenwood, though...hopefully they'll correct it in future models. I think Pioneer has a nice DVD changer as well...my current 101-CD is a Pioneer, and with its heavy use lately, it has not let me down. (As long as it's not a Pioneer Elite. Would love to own it, but it's too rich for MY blood! :D )