Yamaha CDC-697BL 5-Disc CD Player (Black)

Other products by Yamaha

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 15.9 x 17.1 x 4.6 inches ; 16 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 16 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B000JU0NK8
• Item model number: CDC-697BL
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,790 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

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  Electronics > Home Audio & Theater > CD Players & Recorders > CD Players

• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 20, 2006

Product Description

Product Description
Yamaha 5-Disc Carousel-Type CD Charger offers uninterrupted enjoyment of high sound quality with superior digital performance and easy operation with CD-RW disc compatibility, RS-232C interface and CD Text Display. It gives you the benefit of extended playing time and direct selection from any of the five discs directly. An RS-232C interface is provided so the player can be controlled via computer in a custom installation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

46 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great 5 Disk Carosel Player, September 30, 2008

By	GeoBrick "GB" (Ventura, CA USA) - See all my reviews

I was surprised how little user information was available on the web about 5 disk carousel changers.

I tried several higher end players (including Rotel, Denon, Sony, Onkyo/Integra and Marantz*) but I couldn't get past the extremely long time it took to switch tracks between disks while in random/shuffle mode (15 to 20 seconds). The 17 year changer I was replacing could change tracks on different disks in 8 to 10 seconds (measured from the end of one song to the start of another on a different disk).

Yamaha got it right with the CDC-697. It matched the track change speed of my 17 year old changer. If you regularly listen to music in random/shuffle mode, this CD changer is the only one out there (in 2008) that can change tracks on different disks within a reasonable time (8-10 seconds vs 15-20 seconds). Nothing else I tried out there that could do that.

Yamaha also seems to have the best version of the disk exchange feature. All the players I tried allow you to change some of the disks while one disk is still playing but the Yamaha is the only one that lets you change 4 of the 5 disks (the fifth is still playing). The others only let you access 2 of the 5 disks to change.

I think Yamaha put more thought into the "changer" aspect of this model.

One other benefit is that the CDC-697 is one of the few CD changers that supports CD text.

I hope this helps others.

* I did not personally test the Marantz CC4001 but I was able to get someone on the DTVforum to check the timing for me.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is a real cd player, July 24, 2007

By	arnaldo munguia (fla) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I finally got this real performance sound machine from yamaha last week. I wanted a cd changer not too expensive, but a very acceptable cd changer, so I found a marantz cd changer whose cost was higher and this one. At the end I decided for this yamaha and I don't regret, It reproduces sound with a high fidelity, the balance between bass and treble is optimum. You can hear very clearly even the touch of the fingers on a guitar playing.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practically perfect player, April 15, 2008

By	John W "crawdaddy" (MS) - See all my reviews

Same dimension as most 5-CD players, with the usual advanced features.
It stands out from those I've had because of its smooth and quiet changing mechanism.
I especially enjoy the random cut player, not just random CD but random
cuts from among the 5 CD's loaded in the carousel.

The only thing I don't like is that I can't seem to find a way to make
the carousel rotate when it is open all the way for loading.
This requires you to load a CD into the rear-most slot while part of it
is still inside the body of the unit, making it easy to scratch or drop the CD.

Otherwise, I like it a real lot!