CD Changers

Steven J. Gross

Well-Known Member
Looking to buy a reasonably priced CD changer or carousel and see they're only making a few high end models. What happened? They're more extinct than turntables. The demand can't be that low..
 
CDs are on the way out, so you're right--there aren't any around, and other than for audiophile single-disc players that cost too much, there's no demand for CD players anymore.

The only thing that comes to mind is finding a used one. But that's a crap shoot. Sometimes they're OK. Thing is, if they're cheap enough, it's not a big deal to toss it out and replace it.
 
The fact that reasonably priced turntables are readily available, cheap quality or not, and these are gone is still baffling..
 
CDs don't sell much anymore. Many used record stores won't even take them in since they sit on the shelves unsold (like the large used record store I live near--they no longer stock them). CDs have even gone missing from some major retailers--Target and Best Buy stopped selling them in 2018, for instance. And without the mass market driving sales, there's hardly any demand today. You can buy large lots of CDs on eBay for pennies on the dollar now--it's not hard to find a lot of 100 CDs for under $20, shipped. New CD sales have dropped 95% since 2000. Downloads have replaced the purchasing of CDs for most buyers, and the rest of the decline is due to streaming. So the writing has been on the wall for some time now.

Vinyl on the other hand has had a big resurgence, and is still growing year after year. Some of the buyers are coming from streaming or downloads--they want a physical product to hold, in a large format that is easy to read with larger artwork to appreciate.

I do wish someone out there still could offer affordable CD players though, as those who still have collections of them will always need something to play them on. There were so many out there, though, that used CD players are cheap and plentiful. A "jukebox" type of changer that holds 100 or up to 300 CDs is still a lot of fun to use. They'll sometimes be 101 or 301 discs, as there is a separate slot in the carousel for single-play CDs.
 
Yep. CD's are pretty much done. The quality can be replicated with download and there's nothing that makes them "sexy" to display either. I have on in my car and I almost never use it. Most just use their phones now - even at home. I'm one of those since my lossless files play back just fine on my phone.

Ed
 
The new vehicles don't even have an OPTION for a CD player anymore. I saw a chart just the other day via Billboard that said physical media (including LP) was only responsible for 17% of the music industry's income; an even smaller amount, around 5%, was purchased downloads. Most of the rest was streaming.

I think CD changers are probably going to be the first thing to go extinct in the world of CD players. They have a lot of moving parts and are prone to breakdown, plus being more expensive. I suppose you're likely to find cheap single-disk players on the market for quite a while to come. The good thing about that is, you can't ruin your CDs on a cheap player the way you can ruin your vinyl on a cheap turntable.
 
I see a lot of statistics showing vinyl finally outpacing CDs in sales. 2020 figures show $619 million in vinyl versus $493 million in CDs. But figures can be made to look any way you want them to look. For instance, many LPs these days - new ones - are selling for upwards of $25, most between $30-$50 depending on the title. CDs are still cheaper to make and sell for around $12 list price. So looking at the above total sales dollars, I think the number of units would tell a bit of a different story.

Then there's the collector market. I watched with disbelief as Paul McCartney and Taylor Swift offered so many different covers and vinyl colors that obsessive fans were buying over 20 copies of each album - all identical in sound - just to get a different color for a collection. I'm a little guilty as well, buying clear Coke bottle vinyl for SINGLES 1969-1973, and a red copy of COLLECTED, and both white and black copies of the RPO album.

For the balance of my life on Earth, I'll be buying CDs when I can. They give me the best sound with the least noise; they're compact enough that they don't take up a humongous amount of room; and they're easier to simply rip into a computer, whereas vinyl needs a lot more gyrations to get into a computer.
 
The new vehicles don't even have an OPTION for a CD player anymore. I saw a chart just the other day via Billboard that said physical media (including LP) was only responsible for 17% of the music industry's income; an even smaller amount, around 5%, was purchased downloads. Most of the rest was streaming.
There were some CD players available on AliExpress (basically a huge Chinese marketplace) that could plug into a car's USB port where you would normally use a memory stick, and those reportedly work OK, despite the janky brand names they use. Forget a warranty though.

I really don't understand the mentality of someone depending 100% on streaming--if that subscription expires, or your Internet connection is gone, where's your music? I download something so I own it, and have it available 24/7 to play on demand. And based on how and where I buy them, they're cheaper than CDs and a higher resolution as well, so I'm way ahead there also. I've said elsewhere in this forum that streaming is an inexpensive and fantastic supplement to a music collection for many reasons, but by the same token, I never suggest anyone rely on it as their sole source of music.
 
BTW, unit sales of LPs has surpassed CDs.

In the first six months of 2021, 19.2 million vinyl albums were sold, outpacing CD volume of 18.9 million, according to MRC Data, an analytics firm that specializes in collecting data from the entertainment and music industries.​
 
LPs are nice to look at, and any time I can't find a CD of something, a clean LP will do.

Streaming? Here's my preferred streaming of Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66:
GuyWebster_sergio_mendes_stillness_front.jpg
 
CDs don't sell much anymore. Many used record stores won't even take them in since they sit on the shelves unsold (like the large used record store I live near--they no longer stock them). CDs have even gone missing from some major retailers--Target and Best Buy stopped selling them in 2018, for instance. And without the mass market driving sales, there's hardly any demand today. You can buy large lots of CDs on eBay for pennies on the dollar now--it's not hard to find a lot of 100 CDs for under $20, shipped. New CD sales have dropped 95% since 2000. Downloads have replaced the purchasing of CDs for most buyers, and the rest of the decline is due to streaming. So the writing has been on the wall for some time now.

Vinyl on the other hand has had a big resurgence, and is still growing year after year. Some of the buyers are coming from streaming or downloads--they want a physical product to hold, in a large format that is easy to read with larger artwork to appreciate.

I do wish someone out there still could offer affordable CD players though, as those who still have collections of them will always need something to play them on. There were so many out there, though, that used CD players are cheap and plentiful. A "jukebox" type of changer that holds 100 or up to 300 CDs is still a lot of fun to use. They'll sometimes be 101 or 301 discs, as there is a separate slot in the carousel for single-play CDs.
Not to mention, but we’ve also seen Sony phasing CD’s out of different products, such as the PlayStation 4 & 5, even though both have a laser that’s can work with CD’s (there’s just no licensed software).
 
BTW, unit sales of LPs has surpassed CDs.

In the first six months of 2021, 19.2 million vinyl albums were sold, outpacing CD volume of 18.9 million, according to MRC Data, an analytics firm that specializes in collecting data from the entertainment and music industries.​
Truly amazing!
 
I just took a look in various places and there are all sorts of used CD changers for under $100. Saw a couple of the Pioneer PD-F906 101-CD changers for about $99, 301-CD changers for up to $150, plus some of Pioneer's 6-disc "cartridge" changers and literally dozens of 5-CD carousels (of various brands) between $35 and $75. Cheap enough to toss in the trash when they fail, and buy another. (Or stockpile a few now, while they're still out there. 😉) You may pay a few dollars more for a pristine unit, but I would certainly hold out for one with a remote.

Units like the Sony "ES" series or Pioneer's Elite series are better built than the standard lines and at used prices, don't cost much more.

They're out there! 👍

The new players out there on places like Amazon are being sold for silly money. Not too long ago, I could have bought a higher-end Oppo BDP-103 or -203 for less money than that Onkyo on Amazon (which at best is a $150 unit).
 
Wow, I haven’t even used mine in 12 years. I don’t even know if it still works. I got a bunch of them when we closed the Blockbuster Music superstore in 2003. There were about 40 of them for our listing stations around the store. All Sony 5 disc players. We sold everything including the rolling racks they were mounted on, or the half racks, that I got that holds about 8 electronic items. I love that it has 6 grounded electrical inputs inside, and a power switch on the exterior. Great deal for $25. We only had 4 of those, and 5 or 6 of the 6’ ones with wheels.
 
Wow, I haven’t even used mine in 12 years. I don’t even know if it still works.
I still have a couple of changers here myself. A Magnavox (Philips) from 1989 that uses the 6-CD cartridges (which are a pain to load and unload), and a Pioneer 101 CD "jukebox" carousel. The Pioneer hasn't been touched since 2007, and the Magnavox...no idea when I last used that one. Given the age (especially of the internal components, like the capacitors), I don't even know if they would work any longer. The Pioneer probably would, but the Magnavox is doubtful. They tend to survive the years better if they are used regularly.

As much as I liked the 101-CD changer (which could be loaded with 100 CDs...there was an additional slot for single CD play), it was ultimately inconvenient. Trying to remember which disc was in which slot was difficult without keeping a spreadsheet handy. Plus, that meant there were dozens of CD cases on the shelf that were empty. Ultimately I started using primarily CD-Rs in the changer so I didn't have to worry about it much. Pioneer and Sony also made 301-CD changers, and Sony even went as high as 401 CDs, with a means to connect another 400-CD changer to double the capacity (you could control both changers through the "master" unit with a single remote).
 
I have a 100-CD changer unit in my garage, I think. Haven't used it in many a year. I should put it on eBay and cash in on that baby. It would be like when I sold my original A&M CD of Whipped Cream & Other Delights for $149.00. Those were the days!
 
Back in the first or second week of July of 1986, I got a Technics CD player from Highland Appliance in Saginaw, MI when I was 21 years old. They ripped me apart because the CD player was skipping back in December of 1996 & I had to get it changed. Same thing happened again with Technics in 1987 thru early 1993 until I found another place in Saginaw, MI in which I got a Denon CD player in May of 1995 for my birthday!! I have a Marantz 1 CD player machine since 2015 & has not skipped yet!!
 
Back in the first or second week of July of 1986, I got a Technics CD player from Highland Appliance in Saginaw, MI when I was 21 years old. They ripped me apart because the CD player was skipping back in December of 1996 & I had to get it changed. Same thing happened again with Technics in 1987 thru early 1993 until I found another place in Saginaw, MI in which I got a Denon CD player in May of 1995 for my birthday!! I have a Marantz 1 CD player machine since 2015 & has not skipped yet!!
I still use my PS3 and it only skips on CD’s that have issues (deep scratches, disc rot, etc.), otherwise I’ve been using the PS3 since 2011 (via TOSLINK Optical Cable to a Yamaha DAC).
 
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