My Very Own Juke Box

About three years ago I invested in the bargain of a lifetime, a superb Pioneer stereo system composed of a File Type Compact Disc Player a PD-F1009, that I’m reviewing at the moment, a VSX – D512 Audio/Video Multi Channel Receiver, A DV-565A DVD Player, a CT- W208R Double Cassette Deck, a pair of S-H510V Speakers and an S-CR59 (centre and two rear) Set of Speakers and a Pioneer Stand to house it all, brand new, for under 529GBP (around $900. The sound I have to say is fabulous.

I bought it from a catalogue clearance place, the boxes filled up an Estate Car. I only popped in to have a look around, as you do - the wonders of a credit card - see it -buy it. When my new toy arrived home the first job was to visit the local Pioneer Specialists to work out what connections and how much cabling I would need, also to get some ideas how to set it all up. The Second job was to rearrange the lounge to make it all fit and then to set it all up - which actually wasn't that difficult. All of the Instructions were well written and really straightforward. The hardest thing was to set up the speakers to get the best sound. The final job was to dispose of all of the polystyrene and cardboard boxes, not to mention plastic bags.

Over the next few weeks I am going to review the separates on a piece by piece basis, starting with my favourite toy, the Compact Disc Player. Perhaps personal juke box is a more appropriate expression. The CD player is awesome, it is a 301 disc autochanger, I kid you not - virtually my whole CD collection is in it. I have got all of the cases in boxes in the loft. You can keep your 5 and 7 disc autochangers.

The CD Player came in its’ own substantial box, it weighs a ton (7.5kg – that’s empty – imagine the weight when its’ full), together with 31 pages of instructions, a remote control (with batteries) and an Audio Cable (with white and red plugs on each end). It’s black and is a Compact Disc Digital Audio System. It is fairly large, (420mm[W] x 433mm[D] x 193mm[H]). It looks like a really solid and well made piece of equipment and has excellent build quality. Mine was manufactured in September 2003 (it tells you on the guarantee). I bought it February 2004 it has played thousands of hours since without any problems at all.

Setting it up is a doddle, plug the correctly coloured cable into the Receiver and plug it into the mains. It has a 1 bit digital to analogue converter, you need to buy a separate optical fibre cable – I didn’t bother at first. I bought one later to be honest it doesn’t make that much difference. I sat down and read the instructions from cover to cover (well the English ones…) several times before I started using it. The instruction book showed clearly what plugs went where. In fact the Instructions generally are extremely helpful.

This was the first time I’d had a proper separates system, Kid in a sweet shop. The CD player is basically a box with a carousel in the middle. With a clear plastic door which is opened to allow access to the carousel. You load the CD’s onto the carousel. Each slot is numbered one to 300, there is an extra slot for putting in a Cd for one off playing, so I loaded all my CD’s in (cos I’m like that I made a list of which CD’s went into which slots). There are lots of buttons on the front which control the various functions. They’re actually all fairly common sense and easy to use. That said I don’t tend to use them, unless I can’t find the remote, when I have to. The Remote Control covers all the operating functions. It is well laid out and incredibly easy to use.

So what does my all singing all dancing CD player actually do. It plays CD – R and CD – RW. It covers all the basic functions. Selection of individual CD’s and either plays them from the start of the disc, with the usual skip feature, or plays selected tracks, it will play every disc in the carousel one after another (if that’s what you want). It also has a nice feature where you can play the last disc it played before it was last switched off and the usual repeat functions for both individual tracks and specified discs. Accessing the basic features is easy just a few presses of the buttons. The Unit also supports CD Text, so if you have a disc with CD Text on it the unit will tell you who the disc is by etc

It also has more advanced features, they take a little more setting up (you essentially have to program in CD and track numbers – so it helps to know which CD is in which slot and which tracks are on which CD). You can create up to five custom files which contain up to 300 CD’s each. The System also has a Best Tracks function, you create a playlist from your 20 favourite tracks from everything in the Carousel. I have to say that I actually use this particular function on a regular basis. Another function I use a lot of is Random Play, the unit selects tracks from Cd’s either a specified CD, from a Custom File or from everything at random. I tend to just stick it on random if its’ on as background noise. The system also allows you to listen to the first 10 seconds of a track on a disc (hi lite scan) to either play there and then or to save into one of the custom files or Best Tracks, which is actually quite useful.

There are other features which to be honest I’ve only used a couple of times. The system allows programming of CD’s/Tracks to play in a desired Order of up to 36 steps, Program Play, (a step can be either an individual track or a whole CD). It’s also possible for it to list the last 20 Discs played (why you’d want that information I don’t know) and how much longer the current track/CD/program has left to run.

All in all the CD Player does everything, and more I could possibly want it to. Setting up some of the functions, the custom files, Best Tracks and Program Play takes a while. Not because its’ complicated more because its’ inputting CD and Track numbers. That said once its’ done its’ done. I did it all when I was in the new toy phase, I’ve added/deleted the odd bit since but in the main they’re unchanged since when I first got it.

I have to say that it was one of the best purchases I ever made. I use the CD’s on a daily basis, the quality of sound is exceptional. I haven’t (and I am not at all technically minded) encountered any technical difficulties with the CD player. It currently retails at around $205 - $249. It, in my view, is exceptionally good value. Although of course you do need the speakers and Receiver to go with it.