Customer Reviews

Onkyo DXC390 6 Disc CD Player

5 star:		(56)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(12)
1 star:		(44)

 

 

I bought an Onkyo C-390 refurb model a few months back and have had excellent results. I burn my own music CDs on blank CDR or CDRW media using the CD burner on my Home PC. The C-390 tracks everything I've thrown at it very accurately without a hitch. It even plays MP3 files burned onto CD. Plus the remote control unit is full featured and works flawlessly.

There are two digital connections, a digital fiber optic TOSlink and a digital coax connection on the back of the unit. I use the fiber optic TOSlink connection to my reciever. A digital connection will give you the purest output. There is also the typical analog RCA jack connection.

The only flaw I have to report is the carrousel makes a bit of a whirling noise when changing CDs. This is NOT reproduced through to the speakers but is simply low-level ambient room noise. Other than that one minor quibble I can give this CD Changer my highest recommendation.

This 6-disc CD changer from the audio experts at Onkyo is most definitely an unbeatable value. It's sound quality clearly rivals that of other high-end players costing up to three times as much! The construction is very, very sturdy and the remote control is very easy to use. The sound quality is all-around-excellent with smooth and deep bass, an almost-crystal-clear midrange and a well-defined treble (highs). If you're looking for a good CD changer priced at under $300.00 this is the one to get.

Well, buying this player was a mistake. We were in a hurry to find a multi-disk changer before our wedding. I always thought Onkyo was a good name and I had found some favorable reviews. The audio is fine with this player, but about 2/3 of the time it won't recognize CDs. It doesn't matter if the CDs are commercially produced or home-burned, and I keep my CDs in very good shape so it's not a matter of fingerprints and scratches. It's also interesting that if I advance to about track 3 until the CD is recognized and then back up to track 1 it will usually work... what a pain in the ___. It's done this since day one but with the wedding arrangements I didn't have time to return it to the vendor within the first 30 days.

Now the changer is bad, but so far trying to get through to their support has been even worse! For 4 months I've been trying to call in at different times of different days during their support hours. First off, I always get "your call will be answered in 59 minutes". After about 30 minutes I typically can't wait any longer so I have to hang up. Once I let it go on for 30+ minutes than was disconnected. This morning we're up to 66 minutes (since I started this I'm up to 72 minutes) on the phone timer and they say the call will be answered in 8 minutes. If I get anywhere with them I'll update the review, but my current opinion is DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS COMPANY'S PRODUCTS, especially this model CD changer.

I don't typically take the time to write product reviews, but I also rarely feel as frustrated as I do right now.

I purchased this CD player in March 2008. Six months later it stopped working. Onkyo gives you a one-year service warranty and advised me to take it to the nearest repair facility, which turned out to be about 45 minutes away from me.

It took the repair people 2 months to fix this unit. They had to order three rounds of parts, and basically rebuilt the entire unit at a cost that well exceeded the original purchase price. Fortunately, the warranty covered the expense.

Unfortunately, the unit broke again a week later.

I tried calling the original retail store for an exchange, but they referred me back to Onkyo.

An Onkyo Service Manager refused to take back the unit or offer any compensation. He said I needed to go through three rounds of service repairs before they would offer an exchange. When I explained that their service center had already gone through three order of parts and still couldn't deliver a working unit, he said there was nothing more he would do.

I'm not the kind of consumer that gets upset easily and makes unreasonable demands. But after all the hassle I've been through with this product, I feel Onkyo should offer me an exchange. I have several other Onkyo components and am otherwise happy with their performance. However after this ordeal, I'm inclined to find a different product maker.

Caveat Emptor!

I give this unit 5 stars because I feel that it is an exceptional value - you get very high quality for a realistic price.I was after an audio system for my den that wouldn't break the bank.I figured on using my dvd player to play my cd's as well,but then remembered the purpose here was to play MUSIC.I decided for a modest investment,in this case around 150 bucks,I would be getting enhanced audio fidelity compared to the dvd player.6 disc wasn't too important to me,but it's a fun feature none-the-less.Mine hasn't produced any noticeable mechanical noises that I feel would detract from the value of this equipment.I have been very pleased with the sound quality,not really an "audiophile" but I can hear a distinct difference playing my cd's versus the dvd player (I was a bit sceptical that their would be any discernable difference).
As other reviewers have noted,dedicated cd players are oddly becoming increasingly more difficult to locate.If I had any negative thing to say with this player would be that it's rather LARGE,to accomodate the changer carousel - I would have prefered having a single tray player,but ironically couldn't find one with comparable quality that wasn't more expensive!

If you care about using MP3 CD's, I think this is the unit to get. Many units will play MP3 CD's, but this is the only one I found that displays artist/title info for MP3 tracks, and lets you select and play tracks as organized by folders on the disks. I exchanged a Denon DCM-27 for one of these and I am much happier with the Onkyo.

Cons:

No CD-Text display.

Some functions are exclusive to either remote or front panel. (Why does the remote have a tray-open button, but no display control/dimmer buttons?)

No headphone jack. No A -> B repeat.

A bit larger than some (due to its 6-disc capacity).

It's as slow (15-20 seconds between tracks) and clunky in multi-disk random mode as the other carousels on the market (but doesn't squeal when seeking the next track like the Denon).

I've had nothing but trouble with my unit. With brand new CD's it sometimes will play all the CD's loaded, sometimes not. I have to turn the machine off and on and otherwise it will refuse to play CD #2 or #4 or whatever. If you are looking for a CD player that you just load up CD's and hit play this unit does not work, but the CD's play just fine in my older CD player. Onkyo support does not call/email/write back. This was a new unit. I suggest you save your money.

After purchasing this changer I will never buy another Onkyo component again. Approximately 20% of my CD's will not play in the random (shuffling)mode, those that do play will frequently stop playing, the display timer does not work, and Onkyo's customer service is non existent.

When I contacted Onkyo about the problems the only recourse I was offered was to return it to the point of purchase for an exchange. I did not consider this a fair solution since J&R is 3,000 miles and 2-3 weeks away via UPS. There is an authorized Onkyo repair shop a couple of blocks away from me, but Onkyo refused to assist me by dealing through them. I have decided to just cut my losses, just go buy another brand of CD changer.and tell anyone who asks what I think of Onkyo products.

I supposedly upgraded my system 4 months ago ~ I enjoy having a disc changer so I can shuffle my music ~ I had an old 5-disc Panasonic which worked for years like a faithful friend ~ I was so excited to get a 6-disc changer and gave away my old one ~ but, now, I fight with this Onkyo to get it to play random continously ~ sometimes it will, sometimes it will not ~ I clear it over & over, clean the CD's, however, this player seems to have a mind of it's own ~ PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THIS if you like to shuffle your music & who doesn't !

This unit is fine if you want to be able to have a dedicated CD player instead of using a DVD player. Like any Onkyo component, this is high quality and very sturdy construction. It sounds great and the "RI" link connects it to my Onkyo receiver so pressing play on the CD player automatically switches the receiver to CD input.

However there are a few annoyances that I have:
- "random" mode only applies to all discs in the changer, you can't have it just do "random" on the current disc playing
- as another reviewer noted, there is quite a lag between the time it takes to load the next disc and start playing.
- If you power off the unit or even just press stop, the next time you press play, it will start *at the beginning of the CD*, not where you just were.

Also as a result of being a 6 CD changer, it is a bit longer than your average stereo system component - so take a look at the dimensions and make sure that it will fit on your shelf.

That being said, I'm still glad I bought it. It's going to be producing high quality audio in my stereo system for quite some time...