Any tips/advice for living with CD mega-changers (1 Viewer)

Those of you who use CD mega changers care to share tips, tricks, and general advice. FYI the changer I will be "living with" is the Sony CX 455 400 Disc. I am in the process of moving so I won't get to loading it and setting it up for a week or two.

Couple of things I was disappointed with on mine were the fact that it has no video out for on screen music selection. Could have sworn it did but it was the other model, I wanted this one for the MP3 capability. The other was the "Favorite Artist" files instead of 5 or so "genre" files. I would much rather shuffle by genre than by favorite artist.

Anyway, share your tips.

Get a Nirvis Slink-e. It makes dealing with a large CD collection so much easier. I'm using my laptop with a WiFi connection to a server which runs my CD changers. It allows me to select albums, create playlists, etc. very easily. It uses CDDB to fetch title and track information and can get CD covers from the internet.

But it can do oh so much more than just manage your CD collection. It has an IR receiver which allows you to automate operations on your PC using Girder. It also has a Xantech IR distribution interface which allows you to control non-Sony brands of equipment using software automation. In other words the thing is a real hammer for home automation fanatics. But it is still well worth the money just to have it manage your CD collection and run your changers.

John, the Slink-e is no doubt powerful and useful.. but there is no way that having to interact with a computer in order to find and play her CDs is going to fly with the fiance. :frowning:

Typing them in is a real pain so I use Roxio Easy CD Creator.
Much cheaper than a Nevis too!
It allows me to write Song titles , album and artist on the Disc. Out of about 2000 exactly 1 came with text on it.
When recording you need to use the Disc-at-once method. That does not allow you to switch source discs but you can add songs from your hard drive.
I have 3 changers and the 2 older ones have video outputs.
You can always assign an artist or whatever you want to a genre.
I have all my wife discs in one changer. 50 -70s in another and 80s on in another. Each player has 8 different genres so I used very broad classs like 60, 70s 80s, country, jazz, xmas etc to
break up the 50s to 70s changer

Luke, the 'CX455 replaced the 'CX400, which did not have a video out or the LCD remote. The key change is that Sony added MP3 capability to the 'CX455. The 'CX450 remains the "deluxe" model, as it has a video out and LCD remote. Of course, it doesn't have MP3 capability.

I have two older Sony CDP-CX333ES 300-disc megachangers daisy-chained, and I simply have the discs alphabetized. I am in the process of copying all the CDs in the megachangers to CD-Rs with CD-TEXT, so the album titles and song titles will be displayed. Anyway, I find this to be an easy way to find discs. It's true that an on-screen display or the Nirvis would be easier, but having the discs in alphabetical order works for me. I should also note that I don't often pull up a particular disc on my megachangers. I generally use them for random play for casual listening. I use other players for critical listening of particular music.

Thanks, Any more tips?