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SONY CDP-CX Series of CD Players. Opinions?

TubesGalore

TubesGalore

Active Member
In my thread asking for CD suggestions for unusual looking CD players the SONY CDP-CX series of CD players came up. A little research shows that Sony had 200, 300 and 400 CD capacity players and maybe others in the model series, How is the build quality and how do they sound? Thanks. Image from hifiengine.com:

CDP%20CX400%20%20%20sony%20multi%20charger_0.preview.jpg
 
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I have the 200 CD/DVD model, which I picked up from Goodwill. Built quality is fine, but I can see where the inside could break down pretty easily over time being a plastic carousel. It hasn't scratched any of my discs yet, but I've only played about 5 CDs in there thus far. As far as loading, it takes about 10 seconds for it to load up a disc, perhaps a bit longer depending on the carousel positions of the former and new disc. Sound seems to be just about as good as the high end CD players I have; it certainly doesn't sound terrible and sounds better than typical DVD players for sure.

Personally, I love them since they're CD jukeboxes. Watching the carousel going around is just so cool to me. As much as I love using it, I wouldn't have bought it if it hadn't showed up at Goodwill, because for what they're going for on EBay (~$100), that cost would have been too much for me to justify buying it as my computer is already my main source and holds many times more albums. As far as my usage of it is concerned, it's more of a cool novelty item than anything.

Probably the biggest complaint I have about mine is the size - it's roughly 19 inches deep, which means it won't fit in most standard audio component stands (which are about 15 inches deep).
 
If you want a mega changer, get an AMI-Rowe (and get a nice professional grade Philips mechanism with it, it accepts coins and bills, has a nice sized power amplifier and speakers) and much more fun to operate.
 
I see those at thrifts quite often but haven't ever picked one up (they are usually priced well below eBay money but I won't touch the flipping business out of laziness and eBay horror stories). I do have a few friends that have them and there aren't any failures that I'm aware of so far.
 
Bought a Sony CDP-CX225 (200 CDs) that is suppose to be fully functional. Now the hard part starts. Find 200 CDs to put in it and what order.
 
Several years ago, I had the 200 disc player for a very short time (was given to me). Although it functioned okay, I didn't like the sound. It sounded harsh and shrill to me, but that is subjective.
 
The Sony CDP-CX225 arrived. The seller only had some peanuts in the box for protection, No bulb wrap,no sheets of cardboard added for extra protection. He did provide a refund which included postage and said to keep the Sony. The Sony must have taken a heck of a drop. The peanuts didn't do much good as you can see the remains of one smashed into the damage,

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TubesGalore said:
The Sony CDP-CX225 arrived. The seller only had some peanuts in the box for protection, No bulb wrap,no sheets of cardboard added for extra protection. He did provide a refund which included postage and said to keep the Sony. The Sony must have taken a heck of a drop. The peanuts didn't do much good as you can see the remains of one smashed into the damage,

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Sorry to hear that. At least the seller was cooperative.
 
Walked into a local thrift store today, and there on the shelf was a Sony CDP-CX455 400 disc changer. Grabbed a cd and tested it out as best I could. It seemed to work, and I had a 30%-off coupon in my pocket, so it came home with me.
No remote with it, of course.
 
I realize this is a very old thread but my comments make sense here more than anywhere else.

I picked up a 200 Disc CDP-CX235 a bit back and like too many other things it sat on a shelf. Earlier this week, I did a quick test on it, verified it worked fine and seeing how easy the main board was to get to (the back comes off easy and you can access that whole board that way), set about recapping the ecaps on it. It was made in 2000 so it was about due.

I bumped up the filter cap a smidge (from 3k3uf to 4k7uf) and popped in Wima film caps for the few 4.7uf's and a 1uf that were in there.

I like it! Yes the carousel is plastic but it's not cheap plastic. I disagree with the comment above about being "cheap". I've been in plenty of stuff and overall, the build quality is quite good. Metal chassis with some beef to it, etc.

I can't say I spent a bunch of time listening to it before the recap, but I have afterwards and it sounds pretty damn good to my ears. Good enough, I went ahead and bought belts (it uses two) for preventative reasons which I'll install once they arrive. That too looks super easy on this thing.
 
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