I want a "silver" faced carousel CD changer.

[Pyrrho]

The title says what I want; I want a "silver" (i.e., brushed aluminum that is not painted) faced carousel CD changer. But I am having some difficulty in finding any. In the U.S., that is, as brands make them for foreign markets, as, for example, one can see here:

Onkyo DX-C390S 6 Disc CD Changer - Silver: Amazon.co.uk: Audio & MP3

But they do not sell this "silver" version in the U.S. (which is where I am), and that one is set up for a different voltage (not to mention the issue of shipping costs and possible damage in international shipping and lack of warranty support that way), so I do not really want to order that one from the U.K.

I have managed to see a few used models on eBay (Sony and Rotel), and I may end up going that way, but I would prefer to buy new.

Other than the color of the face, I am very happy with my current player, which is an Integra CDC-3.1 that I have had for a while. I like that it holds 6 discs, but I am willing to sacrifice and go with a 5 disc carousel type changer if I can get one with a "silver" face. The reason I want it is so that it will be easier to see the controls in dim light. I have no trouble with my other gear in my living room stereo, which all have "silver" faces, other than the power amp whose controls I do not commonly touch. But with the CD changer, I tend to use the controls and want to be able to see them without turning on a bright light all the time just for that. I like listening to music in dim light.

Frankly, if I could just buy a "silver" face for my current player, I would be quite happy to do that.


I also do NOT want to go with a DVD changer, as the feature set tends to not be as good for playing CDs (as well as typically having inferior load time). This is for my living room stereo, not my home theater, so video will not be used at all.


I have not been able to locate any, at any price, that are currently sold in the U.S. I would like to keep the price down, but I have no set limit to what I can spend.

Any suggestions for finding what I want would be greatly appreciated.

 

[KEW]

I'll be watching this thread, too!
Anytime I research gear and go to European/UK links, I drool over the silver electronics.
Not sure why, it just looks classier to me.

 

[lsiberian]

I suppose painting it out of the question?

Cambridge Audio Azur 351C (Silver) Single-disc CD player at Crutchfield.com

I think 550 is ridiculous. You could get a quality repaint for that probably.

 

[BMXTRIX]

People still use CD changers? Why?

 

[lsiberian]

People still use CD changers? Why?

Nostalgia I guess. I have a changer that sits in storage.

 

[j_garcia]

I still use a Sony CD changer in my second system. More because it is there and it still sounds good with my SACDs

In terms of silver? Good luck with that. Ebay or like you already found on Amazon in other regions. Not sure anyone still makes DVD carousels either.

 

[96cobra10101]

People still use CD changers? Why?

I have an Onkyo carousel DVD player I use still because I have a couple audio DVDs that only work in that player. They are from Europe and for some reason the othe four units won't recognize them. They include 2 Samsung blu rays, a Sony blu ray, and a Fisher DVD player. I'm guessing it has something to do with region codes, but I can't figure out how to change that on the other players, preferably the Sony.

 

[j_garcia]

With a lot of players you can't easily change region code (without a hack).

 

[bikemig]

I've been thinking about getting a cd changer . . . I've been reeling on computer playback for all my audio for a few years but I keep thinking it would be good to own a CD player again esp. one that has a usb input for iPod playback like the Yamaha CD C600BL.

 

[Pyrrho]

People still use CD changers? Why?

Obviously, in order to have more than one CD in the machine at one time. I have several long pieces of music that last longer than one CD. Some as long as four CDs.

 

[Pyrrho]

I have an Onkyo carousel DVD player I use still because I have a couple audio DVDs that only work in that player. They are from Europe and for some reason the othe four units won't recognize them. They include 2 Samsung blu rays, a Sony blu ray, and a Fisher DVD player. I'm guessing it has something to do with region codes, but I can't figure out how to change that on the other players, preferably the Sony.

There are a couple of reasons why that might be the case. One is region coding, and if your Onkyo is "region free" and the discs are region encoded, then non-region free players will not play them if they are from a different region. But it could also be that the discs are in the PAL format instead of the NTSC format (which is likely, given that you say they are European DVDs), and so the player must be able to handle PAL in order to play the disc.

But this is getting us away from the purpose of this thread.

 

[Pyrrho]

I suppose painting it out of the question?

Cambridge Audio Azur 351C (Silver) Single-disc CD player at Crutchfield.com

I think 550 is ridiculous. You could get a quality repaint for that probably.

I want a changer, not a single disc player.

 

[lsiberian]

I want a changer, not a single disc player.

I don't understand what happened to silver.

 

[Pyrrho]

I don't understand what happened to silver.

Neither do I. One would think it would be cheaper for them to not paint the face black than to paint it. Also, it isn't as if they don't make silver anymore; they just don't sell it in the U.S. See my opening post for a link to an Onkyo in England that is silver. Onkyo lets English people buy it in either black or silver, their choice, but they give no choice to Americans. For us, it is black only. If any of the main companies made one in silver at a reasonable price, I would buy it. I would be happy with Yamaha, Marantz, Onkyo, Integra, etc. But none of them seem to sell one in the U.S.

I started this thread hoping that I had simply failed to locate such a thing, but so far, no one else has located one either.

 

[j_garcia]

They don't sell it in the US because it doesn't sell... It came back for like 2 years and then went away again.

The face still has to be finished in a clear anodize/alodine if aluminum, so it basically costs them the same. IIRC it hasn't been since the 70s, maybe early 80s that we saw many bare metal faced components, but then they also used wood too

 

[KEW]

I wonder if you can remove the front panel and sand the black off.
Maybe a wire brush disc on a drill would be the ticket.

I guess most knobs and buttons are plastic, so you'd be stuck with a two-tone system.

 

[j_garcia]

I wonder if you can remove the front panel and sand the black off.
Maybe a wire brush disc on a drill would be the ticket.

I guess most knobs and buttons are plastic, so you'd be stuck with a two-tone system.

That would also remove all of the silkscreen labels

 

[Pyrrho]

I wonder if you can remove the front panel and sand the black off.
Maybe a wire brush disc on a drill would be the ticket.

I guess most knobs and buttons are plastic, so you'd be stuck with a two-tone system.

That would also remove all of the silkscreen labels

Yes, that is what is stopping me from removing the paint from the front of my player. I want to be able to see what the buttons do, and that is going to be a problem if I remove all of the labels which would come off with the paint. I also would not like the buttons being black, but I think I would live with that if I had a good way to label the controls that would look decent. Remember, this is for my living room, so how it looks does make a difference.

 

[Pyrrho]

They don't sell it in the US because it doesn't sell...

It does not sell because they do not offer it. I do not recall EVER seeing a "silver" aluminum front carousel CD changer in any local store. But, since I have seen a few (very few) used on eBay, it must be that someone sold some sometime or other.

In the 1980's, most things went black, with many things having plastic faces (the silver plastic looks bad; you can see some examples of cheap CD changers from RCA on eBay with a plastic "silver" face). Things have mostly stayed black since then.

I think most people buy black because that is all that they can find at a decent price. Or in this case, it seems, at any price.

 

[macddmac]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Onkyo-DX-C390S-Disc-CD-Changer/dp/B002V1H3PG/ref=sr_1_7?s=receiver-speakers&ie=UTF8&qid=1363744986&sr=1-7
1 of these and a power converter should git'r done.
iirc CDs don't have regions, it's a DVD drm thing.
Cheers, Mac