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Written: Nov 14 '00
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Pros: Sound Quality, Durability, Functionality
Cons: none as of yet
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| dmezzer's Full Review: Yamaha CDC-775 CD Changer / Player |
Quest for a new CD Player
Getting ready to go out to a party Saturday night of a three day weekend was the last time my Sony 5 CD disc changer tray began one of it’s perpetual rotations which in the past have been reset with a few restarts of the power button. This time the power resets didn’t work, and the rotating didn’t cease until the mighty force of a drunken fist made mincemeat of its cheap plastic innards as the offending drawer was slammed home for the last time ever. The fist was mine and the Sony has had it coming.
The immediate remedy was to retreat to the Alpine in my car and make my way to the party only partially musically intoxicated. The dreaded long rainy weekend lay ahead without my central CD player, having to rely instead on an assortment of sub par boom boxes and the computers CD Rom drive.
The next chance I had (when the stores finally opened) I was out there shopping for a new player, this time armed with a list of brand names collected from the internet and compiled based on the reviews of many strangers (and those of a couple of friends from that Saturday night party).
Within my price range three models with the following brand names had made the list: Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha. Didn’t even look at the Sonys as I was dissatisfied (maybe unjustly) that my previous player had only lasted through 5 years of heavy use.
I found a Denon DCM-370 which boasts HDCD which I must admit I hadn’t been familiar with. The Denon was priced at $450.00 which was pushing the top of my range, so before even looking very deeply into it I decided to continue shopping around to check on the availability of the other brands.
I next came across a store which told me they had a Yamaha CDC-765 at their other branch, but no Yamaha CDC-775. So before checking out the other branch I stopped at another store just up the block and found that they had on display a Yamaha CDC-765 and a Yamaha CDC-775. The CDC-775 was priced $100.00 more than the CDC-765 at $398.00. I compared the two and with the price and features of the Yamaha CDC-775 I decided to look no further.
Standard Features of the Yamaha CDC-775.
This unit had a lot of features which are pretty standard on CD carousels, and a few which made it stand out and surpass many other brands in the same price range and made me buy it over the CDC-765. The bottom line is that this unit was purchased based on a noticeable improvement in sound quality and on Yamaha’s reputation for reliability backed up by their 2 year factory warranty which doesn’t even require you to send in a warranty card.
“Playxchange” is Yamaha’s term for the capability of changing 4 discs while 1 is playing. I wouldn’t buy a 5 CD changer without this feature anyway.
The unit had CD Text Compatibility which means that for CDs which are encoded with CD Text information, the player will pick up this information which may consist of the disc title, the artist name, song titles and even lyrics (Haven’t seen a disc with this yet, but it would be pretty impressive if the lyrics rolled by on the little LCD screen as a song was playing although I’m not sure if this is how it actually works).
Programmed play of up to 40 tracks in memory.
“Super Silent Mechanism” is the way Yamaha describes how quite the disc tray works. It is definitely an improvement over the Sony (especially in it’s last days).
Direct access to CDs or CD tracks with the touch of a button. This is another feature I wouldn’t buy one without. The CDC-775 however does not have direct access to a CD in the carousel from the remote, forcing you instead to use skip CD until you’re at the one you’d like.
Multiple Outputs meaning that this unit has Optical Digital output jacks in addition to the standard analog output. This can be a great feature and can provide you with what is touted as the most accurate signal delivery possible provided your receiver supports this which is the case for almost anything less than a year old.
The Intelligent Digital Servo System is supposed automatically adjust the lasers tracking to accommodate for discs which are defective due to warps, scratches and dust. I did bring a CDR with me to the store which always skipped on my old Sony and the Yamaha plays it flawlessly (but my Alpine car stereo does too).
38 Function remote control. This is a feature I’ve heard a lot of complaints about, that the remote is too cluttered etc. I don’t tend to agree that this is a problem, although it might be nice if all the features were also included on the face of the player as well. This is a minor point for me and if I had to choose having more controls on the case or on the remote, I’d choose the remote and that’s the way Yamaha has done it. One neat feature is a dimmer for the front panel lights which is on the remote. Fade in and fade out is missing which is something I used from time to time on the Sony.
Tape dubbing features. These are fairly standard on CD players I’ve seen in the past and weren’t really important to me this time around as tapes for me have gone the way of the dinosaur.
Features which make the Yamaha CDC-775 Stand Out
Some of the features that really make this unit stand out over others in its price range are related to sound quality.
Pro-Bit Digital Translation Technology is described as mimicking the 20-bit resolution of professional recording by adjusting the 16-bit CD signal and sending it through a digital filter, a noise shaper and then to the S-bit digital analog converter for a more natural sound.
The S-bit Digital to Analog Conversion technology used in the Yamaha CDC-775 is employed with 4 separate DACs (2 per channel) to provide more low level linearity, more realistic imaging and sound staging, and enhanced acoustic detail.
Without really having to know what all this actually means, the bottom line is an enhanced sound quality that is noticeable right away. I’ve noticed new sounds on some of my CDs that were masked in the mix or just too low to really be noticed before.
Table of contents memory allows the unit to remember the table of contents on each disc (track listing, start and stop times) so that when the disc is accessed this information does not need to be reread resulting in faster track accesses to the disc. A great feature that one could begin to take for granted very quickly.
Program File for up to 100 discs. An interesting feature, but one I probably won’t use extensively. It allows you to select your favorite tracks on a CD and then have the player only play those tracks when you insert that CD. Might be good for a party if you don’t want to be bothered putting together a variety CD for the event.
Conclusion
So far I’ve been completely satisfied with this unit. I talked the salesman down to $378.00 CDN and for the money I feel I got a great system. My main concerns were reliability, and sound quality which this unit has delivered on as the enhanced sound quality from the CDC-775 puts it in league with some much higher end units which are way out of its price range. As for reliability I’ll have to wait and see, but Yamaha reputation for quality and durability is very strong and my confidence was bolstered by the warranty included. The sales guy actually recommend against purchasing any further warranty as offered by the store as unnecessary which was either done out of honesty or is an interesting (and perhaps ingenious) sales ploy, who knowsJ. A great product which I completely recommend to anyone seeking superb quality and willing to spend a little more than the minimum.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 275.00
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dmezzer
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Member: Don Mezzer
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