Home > Consumer Reviews > RCA RP8078 5-Disc CD changer

I was very intrigued to see that RCA was offering a CD changer that played MP3. While RCA received mediocre reviews online, and I couldn't find any reviews of this player in specific, I took a gamble and ordered one. It arrived (single boxed), I unpacked it, and immediately noticed its light (cheap?) plastic construction. Plugged it in, popped in some disks, and ... nothing! It recognized the disks, but would not play them. Amazon graciously agreed to send me another unit second day, and paid for the the original's return. The second unit arrived, this time it would not even accept disks. I was wary of RCA's reputation when I ordered this unit. This experience has buried it for good. A definite do not buy.

I bought mine at the local Best Buy. Wish I had bought from Amazon instead-read on to find out why.

It played great at first. Then I started to hear an occasional squelching sound, like a giant water ballon bursting. At first it was once every few days, then every song, then constantly. Then it quit reading disks period, both storebought CDs and MP3s. All were scrupulously clean and played fine on my old cd player.

Because it was over 30 days, Best Buy would not refund my money. Swapped unit number two is hooked up to the stereo now.

I hope this one keeps working.

--Vance In Denver

I had this machine for about 10 days. Although it plays MP3, its CD changer functions are significantly flawed. This is what I found:

Up Side:
1. It plays MP3, although on some occasions the music blanks out for a few seconds on my mp3 CDs (not too often, so it's tolerable).
2. The programmable playlist function is pretty cool. It allows you to select the songs you want to listen to or skip those that you don't like.

Down Side:
1. Biggest problem that made me return this unit: "shuffle play all discs" function does NOT work properly on my unit. It seems that the machine stops when it randomizes to any one of the last tracks of those discs in changer. You can try to put in some discs and keep skip to the next track, you will find that it stops without playing all tracks.

2. "Shuffle play all discs" means "all discs." You cannot put in 5 discs but select some of them for random play.

3. "Time left" display does not work when using shuffle play.

4. Poor human-factor design:
(a). The open-tray button is at the far right, and skip-disc button is near far left. Use your common sense and put them near each other, RCA engineers!
(b). Tray is placed above the display. When tray is open for loading discs, you cannot see the display.

5. Somewhat flimsy construction.

The Bottomline:
If you just want a low-priced changer that plays mp3 but don't care much for shuffle-playing your CDs, go get it. If you want a solid and well-functioning CD changer, go buy something else.

I'm seriously into MP3 compatible equipment. I have a rock-solid Sony MP3 CD player in the car. I also have a Toshiba MP3 compatible DVD player.

The first thing I noticed about this particular unit was the big 15 character display on the front which clearly shows information about the song file. The track info scrolls across the display showing the name of the disc (if any) and the COMPLETE name of the song file. What's more, there is a button on the unit and the remote which will scroll the entire track name across the display on command. If you want to see what other songs you have on a disc, you can skip through the tracks and display the name of each song on the disc without playing each one.

Unfortunately, the unit does not read CD-RWs consistantly which makes it useless for many MP3 discs. I have already encountered a number of previously recorded MP3 CD-RWs which the RCA simply WIL NOT READ! My Toshiba MP3 compatible DVD player and Sony car unit read the same discs with no problem.

This is totally unacceptable! The old saying is, "You get what you pay for". That is certainly the case here. I ...will wait for a high-quality from a solid brand such as Sony, Kenwood, Technics, or JVC.

Do not be tempted by ... this unit!

Considering the low price, the cheap plastic construction can be forgiven. That said, when the unit is sitting across the room it looks very handsome. The mp3 function is flawless, my only complaint is the display. I would be willing to pay 20 bucks more for a more usable display. It only displays the first few characters in song titles, which makes selecting tracks very difficult on a cd with 200+ songs. I have found that by creating folders on the disc, it is significantly easier to navigate. Sound quality is suprising. There isn't a good reason for spending more.