Yamaha CDC-697BL 5-Disc Carousel-Type CD Changer

I was surprised how little user information was available on the web about 5 disk carousel changers.

I tried several higher end players (including Rotel, Denon, Sony, Onkyo/Integra and Marantz*) but I couldn't get past the extremely long time it took to switch tracks between disks while in random/shuffle mode (15 to 20 seconds). The 17 year changer I was replacing could change tracks on different disks in 8 to 10 seconds (measured from the end of one song to the start of another on a different disk).

Yamaha got it right with the CDC-697. It matched the track change speed of my 17 year old changer. If you regularly listen to music in random/shuffle mode, this CD changer is the only one out there (in 2008) that can change tracks on different disks within a reasonable time (8-10 seconds vs 15-20 seconds). Nothing else I tried out there that could do that.

Yamaha also seems to have the best version of the disk exchange feature. All the players I...Read more

Before buying the Yamaha 5-disc CD player, I did a comprehensive analysis of all currently available products. It included the players made by Denon, Onkyo, Teac and Sony among others, as well as DVD players that can also play CD's. I wanted a high quality player to work well with a stereo system including large JBL studio monitor speakers, a high-power integrated amplifier, and a direct drive Technics turntable. I had no interest in playing DVD's, only in good quality audio CD's, so I eliminated from consideration many products which are basically DVD players. I found out that most multi-disc CD players compromise their technical specifications compared with the audiophile-quality single-disc CD players, with Yamaha CDC-697 looking better than the others, possibly because it is optimized for playing CD's only, while the Denons and Onkyos also play compressed audio files like MP3 and WMA.
Any product that attempts to do too many things at once, usually does not do anything well...Read more

This is a solid unit but I had to discuss a problem with the power cable that I received with the unit. The end of the cable that hooks into the back of the player would not sit flush with the hole it hooks into (FYI if you consult the manual some versions of this unit do not have this). As soon as I plugged it in I thought the cable didn't seem to fit. Then the player would not turn on. I was required to finally hold the power cable with my hand so it would stay flush and keep juice to the machine going. I gave up and went to my basement and got out a similar power cable which worked perfectly. This is a crazy problem and I don't know who is at blame but it sent me for a loop. I docked the review of this unit heavily for such a hassle.

As for the machine it works great and helps me listen to many more cds continuously than a single disc player. It changes discs really fast and keeps the tunes flowing. You can also change discs while one is playing which is nice.