Re: 200 disc players

The Sony CDP-CX270 has an on-screen display. I believe there is also a newer model that does as well (the CDP-CX260?). I have the CX270, and the onscreen display and functions it has definitely make it better than just the LED display on the front of the player, plus with a video modulator/distribution system and IR distribution system you can then control the player (select discs, etc) from anywhere in your house where you have a TV (I have this setup now).

However, the display itself and functions it performs are very primitive compared to CDJ. For example, you're limited to 16 characters per CD name, artist name, and track name. Plus, you are limited to naming 16 tracks on a CD (after 16, they just go by number). You can have 8 "groupings" of CD's, which you can then do shuffle play from. However, it is very difficult to ad-hoc create a "play list" of CD's to do random shuffle from (like in CDJ). You essentially have to reserve one of your 8 groupings for this, and manually move each CD into the "ad-hoc" grouping, a tedious process. Finally, although the CX270 has a cross-fade play mode, it only works during shuffle play of your entire 400 disc library, and can't even be turned on/off by remote control! I assume this is addressed in newer versions of the player? (both things are a huge oversight that greatly limit the usefulness of the function).

I am having trouble doing cross-fade playing in CDJ with my two players (on a single S-Link bus, since w/o CDJ the CX270 needs to be connected to the CX200), because the CX270 sends commands to the CX200 to stop playback after CDJ thinks it has queued up the CX200 for fade-in. The end result is a silence gap when fading from the CX270 to the CX200. Colby indicates putting these on separate busses would solve the problem, but then of course I couldn't use the two players as a "linked set" w/o CDJ. I may look at having the bus link between the two controlled by a relay or something like that.