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

Right after I finished copying all my LP's to CD my ancient Technics CD player died. It started skipping tracks on CDR's, then I noticed it was scratching the disks.

I chose this deck mainly because almost all my music is on CDR, and it claimed to read CDR and CDRW. It really does. It even plays the ones which got scratched by my old deck. I haven't found a single CD it won't play. Another reason I picked it was it had hardly any negative comments in Amazon, unlike competitors in the price range. And I will only be playing CD's so I didn't need multi-channel or MP3 or DVD capacity. Why get stuff you won't use, you either pay more or get less of what you do need.

I'm not a hi-fi guru, so I won't try to add anything to the expert opinions about sound quality here.

It does what it claims to do. It sounds great to me. It's easy to use and it seems to be solidly built. I've had it for a few weeks and I'm very happy with it.

I have searched and reviewed and even owned other brands but the one that ALWAYS delivers is Yamaha. My entire Sound system is now Yamaha, (Surround Sound Amp, Speakers, CD changer). Why? Because they work and deliver. This CD changer is easy to install, fast change when a selection is made, and produces true and full sound. My only complaint is that where we live in Central California, there are NO REPAIR services available, in the rare instance when one might be needed. If your looking for a quality, fast and reliable CD changer, look no further, you just found it. I have owned Sony and Dennon and they are not able to match the responsiveness of this unit (in my estimation).

Works as advertised, no problems with set-up, no problems with delivery,no problems at all, follow the directions, hook it up and listen to your cd's.

I was used to a Sony player/changer that had suddenly lost its mind, jumping around the discs at will and stopping when it got tired. I turned it in to Goodwill. I've heard people say that Sony has been riding on its reputation for some time now. I don't know if this is true but I DO know that this player lasted only a couple years. Thus, the upgrade to Yamaha.

And so far, so good! My ear told me the first time I played a disc that its sound was better -- more present, more real. These are not technical terms but they best describe what I've heard. Operation is smooth and fast enough and I've encountered no problems so far. I do wish the remote had specific numbers for going directly to discs on the changer, rather than just forward or back. But this is only a petty complaint (if even that).

All told, satisfaction!

I am extremely happy with this CD changer. It loads
5 CD's quickly and you can choose to random through all five,
which was exactly what I was looking for. The selections
change with minimum noise and within a few seconds.