Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha CDC-697BL 5-Disc CD Player (Black)

I've been going through a lot of CD players in the past few years. Either I don't like the way they sound or they have a problem with durability. I bought this Yamaha to solve those problems. In short it faithfully reproduces sound and I hope it lasts. I bought this at a brick and mortar store and although I didn't pay list you could probably do better on the internet than I did. Even at a discount you could still pay close to twice the price of other changers. But you get what you pay for.

EDIT: Did I mention this player has great SPECS. I guess I just did and the sound you would expect for those kind of specs.

Works great, and useful for playing 5-CDs. I have four iPods, but still find this more useful for playing a quick selection of 5-CDs at dinner time. Very solid, quick, and quiet unit... recommended!

There was no mention in the description or details that the carousel does NOT rotate when open to load discs. This makes it akward and difficult to load the 4 and 5 slots. For anyone replacing a unit like mine, a Sony, this is an unwelcome surprise. I agree with John W. The packing was poor as well. is anyone at Amazon reading these reviews?

this was a bummer. the CD player skipped right out of the box. I took it in for service and learned that Yamaha does not authorize online sales and the warranty would not be honored.

This product performs very well sonically. It seems to be constructed solidly (unlike some other manufacturers). It has one annoying design flaw: the carousel does not rotate (a good thing from a mechanical reliability standpoint) and it does not extend out far enough from the player body when opened to allow clear access to the two rear CD slots (a not-so-good thing from an operating standpoint). The result is that when loading and unloading CDs from the two rear slots, it is difficult to avoid scratching the playing surface of the CD (one must be very careful when doing so). In addition, the controls are less than completely intuitive and the operating manual does not precisely reflect the controls on the unit. In spite of these minor shortcomings, I would purchase this unit again for it's solid construction and superior audio performance. I am a long-time Yamaha audio user and this product meets my expectations for their products with the exception of the design issue noted above.