Yamaha CDX 496

Advantages: Plays CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Remote control
Disadvantages: As Henry Ford said - any colour you like as long as it's black.

...THIS IS A COMPLETE REWRITE OF SOMETHING, WHICH WITH HINDSIGHT, WOULD HAVE GOT ME LABELLED A CHURNER OF "120-WORD WONDERS" IF I'D KNOWN WHAT ONE WAS AT THE TIME! I bought the Yamaha CDX-496 as a replacement for my trusty Technics machine, which was about 10 years old, and bristling with features. My main reason for upgrading was the fact that the Technics was starting to get choosy as to which make of CD-Recordable disk it was going to play. Older CD players were built before recordable CDs were even thought of, and since a CD-R does not comply fully with the original specification for an audio CD, play-back could not be guaranteed, until recently that is..... Having a CD-Writer in my PC means that I make a considerable number of compilation albums, and having to choose a particular make of CD-R was limiting me to the expensive... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Excellent recording quality thanks to advanced technical facilities
Disadvantages: Hidden minor controls are fiddly.

...I have been using this deck for two years. It cost around £250 then ,but it's less than £150 now, thanks partly to a strong pound. Grrrr! Yamaha really have done all they to wring out the last drop of quality from an analogue recording. You have Dolby's B, C AND S (S is a step further on in the battle against the dreaded hiss, and more compatible with B than C is). Good news if you play tapes in the car which only has Dolby B. Also there's HX Pro "headroom expansion" which adjust the machines record characteristics "on the fly", and last but not least, there's a tape-trimming facility which adjusts the machine for the make and type of tape you are using. It does this by making a few seconds of recording, and then plays it back to itself, "making notes" as it goes. If you combine this with a CD player like my Yamaha CDX-496, which... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Very slim design, can play CDR/RW, good anti-skip, it's a sony
Disadvantages: Front door is a bit fiddly. Caddy is flimsey

...Many cars stereos have the ability to link up with a CD changer of some kind. These changers tend to vary from 6 disc, to 20 disc. The most common are 6 and 12 disc. These changers are an ideal way to listen to discs, and are potentially life savers in the way they prevent the driver from manually changing disc. They are ideal for longer journeys as well, where a disc change may be required to keep the tunes coming. I personally had a Sony CDX-T62 already installed when I brought my second-hand Escort last year. It's been a solid performer, with one drawback; it didn't like CD-R or CD-RW discs. By "didn't like", I mean that sometimes you could play a disc just fine, and sometimes it would skip like crazy. A few discs I made just didn't work, and the unit reported there was no disc! This isn't Sony's fault. There are differences... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful