Sony CDP-CE500 5-Disc CD Changer (Black)

I received this CD Changer yesterday and have put it through enough tests to give a 100% recommendation for acquiring this particular model! I managed to get it working as soon as I had taken it out of the box and hooked it to my receiver. Normally I am a bit of a klutz when it comes to setting up hi-fi equipment, but in this case I have had experience with several previous generations of Sony CD changers and I had looked at the manual online before I even ordered the unit! So in no time at all I played a commercial CD on it, a CD-R and the flash drive as well! So far the player is producing beautiful sounds thru the optical digital connection to my receiver. I highly recommend using the optical digital connection and if your particular receiver does NOT have one, I would strongly recommend getting a new receiver with a digital optical input. I am NOT getting into the argument over digital vs. analog sound, but surely most of you would agree that a digital optical connection sounds better (sounds brighter to my ears!) than the standard patch cords(left and right audio cables) when playing CDS.Obviously the main attraction of this unit is the ability to play off of a computer flash drive. As I am typing this I am listening to a flash drive which I inserted into the front of the player and it contains over 1,000 tracks! That is easily 50 hours of pure musical pleasure and believe it or not I can set it to repeat indefintely! Obviously for a rainy or snowy afternoon, or maybe even a lazy morning I can just sit in my easy chair and listen to my favorite artists or bands! And yes the CD player does display the song title, artist and album title with a few exceptions. At the very least it seems to always produce the song title and sometimes the artist may not be identified. But all in all, the ability to play off of a flash drive seems to be a revolutionary step forward in enjoying a CD player! I also like the fact that I am NOT tethered to a computer in order to play my music. I love computers but there are times I just want to listen to music and read(newspaper, book, magazine,or even a Kindle!) or have a pleasant conversation with my wife. I like listening to music a great deal of the time and even if it is just background music it keeps me in a pleasant mood! One more thing I should add is that previous Sony CD Changers did NOT have the ability to play MP3 files thru the optical audio connection. This was a bit frustrating for me but now I can listen to CDs, CD-Rs & MP3s thru the optical digital connection! My cup runneth over!The changer also has the exchange function(unload and reload up to 4 CDs while still playing a CD) which is great and the remote seems to work very well indeed! About the only thing missing is a headphone jack, but one could always attach the headphone to the receiver of course. Honestly this is the very best CD player that I have ever owned, and for the ridiculous low retail price is a no-brainer as far as deciding to purchase one! And finally please note that you have the ability to delete tracks off of your flash drive while it is connected to the player and in my opinion that is wonderful! You can banish any and all offending tunes if you so desire! Sony used to have a similar function on their CD megachangers a few years ago and then did away with that particular function, but now in a sense it is back!! There are other functions obviously like programming tunes,shuffle play,etc. I would strongly recommend this unit to anyone. My only problem is what am I going to do with my old CD changers?!?P.S. I have only listened to my unit for a few hours but hopefully it will keep going strong and I will enjoy it for many years to come! Kudos to Sony for designing this model and at a reasonable price! Just wish that the Amazon deliveryman could find my doorbell. It would be most appreciated!!!Richard Pearson

Our 20+ year old cd changer had started skipping a lot and we knew it was just a matter of time. I'd been looking for a couple of years for a new one and didn't need a lot of bells and whistles, but everything seemed overpriced, too large, or some way or another unsuitable. This year, I noticed most similar items had been put into circulation around 10 years ago.Therefore, I was very pleased to find this new player with flash drive capability, as well as optical capability, which was just released in early 2011. I was a little fearful, as a couple of people mentioned poor sound. However, I have found the sound to be excellent, and have even heard some deeper tones I've never heard from my Bose wave system before. I find the sound clear and full, and probably better than the quality changer it replaced.We've had this for two weeks and have really enjoyed using the flash drive as it was very simple to transfer songs to it from my iTunes folder on my computer. This keeps the song titles intact, even though it didn't transfer artist names. I was simply happy I could get the titles without messing around with separate software. I can keep adding to it at my leisure. When my CD's run out, I can easily switch to the flash drive for more hours of music. The manual makes it sound difficult to search for and play specific tracks on the flash drive, but it really isn't. You do, however, have to search through each track one by one with the flash player to find a particular track, but of course with the CD player you can go directly to a specific track on any CD at any time.I was really happy I could still use my old RCA connectors and not have to be a tech genius in order to install it. Just switch out the old RCA connectors, hook up the power and voila! It's also nice to know that if I upgrade my amplifier system to newer technology, this Sony has optical capabilities, so hopefully I wouldn't have to replace my entire system.I find programming tracks too time consuming to bother with, but it is nice to have this feature available. Of course, one can simply use the shuffle function to quickly rearrange playback, and that's something I probably will use.All in all, great player at any price, easy to use, and fills my home with beautiful music. Arrived in four business days, even with Super Saver shipping. Gotta love that Amazon!