CD Players: Reviews

Unless you have thousands to spend, experts and users say you can't do much better than the Onkyo DX-7555. This single-disc CD player is loaded with high-end features and electronics that were unheard of in a CD player in… this class not very long ago. Useful extras include the ability to store up to 25 songs in the player's built-in memory. The ability to adjust the player's clock won't impress casual users, but will give the obsessed audiophile something fun to play with. Reports say that audio quality stands up well when compared with CD players costing many times more. It's available in black or silver.

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The OPPO DV-980H draws great compliments for its ability to play DVDs, but experts say that this universal player's true strength is its performance with CDs. Built-in decoders for both SACD and HDCD are noteworthy,… especially considering the OPPO's price. Most experts say performance with regular CDs is excellent, and everyone agrees that SACDs sound out of this world. Features include support for all types of recordable CDs and virtually all audio formats. There's also a USB port that lets you play tunes (or videos) stored on a flash drive.

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While not the least expensive five-disc changer available, the Yamaha CDC-697 is among the most capable. Important features include the ability to swap out other discs while one is playing. CD Text is supported, and you… can program the CD-697 to play as many as 40 tracks in any order. An RS-232 port allows for control by a PC. One shortcoming is that there's no support for MP3 or WMA files, though recordable CDs with CD audio files play just fine.

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For those with extensive disc collections, the attraction of a mega-changer like the Sony CDP-CX455 is hard to deny. It includes must-have features for cataloging stored music, including support for CD Text and the… ability to add 20-character memos to CDs using a PC keyboard. You can also group music by eight different user-defined categories, meaning people with differing musical tastes can peacefully share this player. For those that have even larger music collections, an additional changer can be connected and controlled. Some complain that features are reduced compared to earlier CD jukeboxes, and that disc handling could be gentler.

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