Product Description

Yamaha 5-Disc Carousel-Type CD Charger offers uninterrupted enjoyment of high sound quality with superior digital performance and easy operation with CD-RW disc compatibility, RS-232C interface and CD Text Display. It gives you the benefit of extended playing time and direct selection from any of the five discs directly. An RS-232C interface is provided so the player can be controlled via computer in a custom installation.

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Product Details

• Color: Black
• Brand: Yamaha
• Model: CDC-697BL
• Dimensions: 4.56" h x 17.13" w x 15.88" l, 16.00 pounds

Features

• Yamaha 5-disc carousel patented PlayXchange for enjoying uninterrupted music
• 40-track random access programable play and clear
• RS-232C interface, IR In/Out and detachable power cord for custom installation
• Random play with disc-to-disc random play
• Repeat play

From the Manufacturer

The Yamaha CD-C697 5-Disc Carousel-Type CD Changer – All Your Music, All the Time!

5-Disc Carousel-type CD Changer offers uninterrupted enjoyment of high quality sound with superior digital performance and easy operation with CD-RW disc compatibility, custom control interface and CD Text display.

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Convenient Operation

Enjoy Uninterrupted Music
This changer is 5-disc carousal type, giving you the benefits of extended playing time and direct selection from any of five discs. And with PlayXchange, you can change up to four discs while the fifth continues to play. You don't have to interrupt the music to change a disc and you're not limited to change only one disc at a time. What's more, when you press the open/close button, the tray opens all the way, allowing you to change all 5 discs at once.

CD-R/RW Disc Compatibility
This CD changer can handle CD-R and CD-RW discs with ordinary songs. (Note that some discs may not play.)

40-track random Access Programmable Play and Clear

Change up to 4 discs while the fifth one plays

It's extremely easy to program the tacks you want to hear in any order. You can clear the program at any time with a single touch.

RS-232C Interface
An RS-232C interface is provided so this player can be controlled via computer in a custom installation.

Peak Search
Gives you better sounding recording by searching the disc for the loudest part and playing it for a few seconds so you can set the proper recording level.

CD-Tape Synchro Rec Start
You'll have smooth recording starts each time, because Synchro Rec Start puts the deck into recording mode a few seconds before starting CD play.

Disc (Intro) Scan
Automatically plays the first 8 seconds of each disc so you can decide which to listen to first.

3-Mode CD Text Display
Get information about the CD currently playing right on the CD player's display. The 3-mode CD Text display shows the CD's title, the artist name and the title of the track.

Random Play (Single/All) with Disc-to-Disc Random Play
Use Random Play to mix selections from various discs or to hear old CDs in the new way.

Repeat Play (Disc Mode: Single/All; Repeat Mode: Single/Full)
To hear your favorite songs again or just for background music, this versatile changer gives you a variety of options.

Music/Skip/Index Search
Music and Skip Search lets you find songs quickly, while Index Search moves the pickup to the index marks encoded on some discs.

RoHS Compliant
This environmentally friendly unit fully complies with the EU's RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) standards.

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High Sound Quality

Super-Silent Mechanism and Disc Stabilizer
Yamaha's new Super-Silent Mechanism uses both a belt and gear drive to ensure smooth disc rotation and plastic rollers under the tray to allow it to move more smoothly. The disc being played is isolated from vibration on a separate tray, and held in place by a disc stabilizer. The entire disc changing system thus helps to maximize sound quality.

Laser Pickup Floating Mechanism
The laser pickup is isolated on a floating mechanism so its delicate operation cannot be affected by vibration.

Intelligent Digital Servo System
Conventional tracking servo circuitry cannot completely overcome errors caused by disc defects, warped discs, dust and so on. This system uses a microcomputer to monitor the signal, adjusting pickup tracking and focus, as well as a spindle motor speed to compensate for any problems.

High Performance Parts and Circuitry Used Throughout
Because every single part affects sound quality, Yamaha uses nothing but the best. The special Low-Impedance Power Supply, for example, uses extra thick wires to ensure that power is absolutely stable even under low-impedance conditions.

Other Notable Features

• 3-mode tape edit: Random, Automatic, and Manual
• 10-key direct track and 5-disk direct access
• 4-mode time display
• 3 illumination levels: full, half dim and auto off during play
• Last memory
• New-designed remote unit
• Remote In/Out

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What's in the Box?

• The Yamaha CD-C697 5-Disc CD Changer
• Remote Control Transmitter
• Batteries (AA, R6, UM-3) x2
• Audio Pin Cable
• Power Cable

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Technical Specifications

• Signal-to-Noise Ratio: 106 dB
• Dynamic Range: 96 dB
• Harmonic Distortion + Noise: 0.003%
• Frequency Response: 2 Hz-20 kHz +/-0.5 dB
• Dimensions (WxHxD): 17-1/8" x 4-9/16" x 15-7/8"
• Weight: 12.1 lbs

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Customer Reviews

Great 5 Disk Carosel Player
I was surprised how little user information was available on the web about 5 disk carousel changers.

I tried several higher end players (including Rotel, Denon, Sony, Onkyo/Integra and Marantz*) but I couldn't get past the extremely long time it took to switch tracks between disks while in random/shuffle mode (15 to 20 seconds). The 17 year changer I was replacing could change tracks on different disks in 8 to 10 seconds (measured from the end of one song to the start of another on a different disk).

Yamaha got it right with the CDC-697. It matched the track change speed of my 17 year old changer. If you regularly listen to music in random/shuffle mode, this CD changer is the only one out there (in 2008) that can change tracks on different disks within a reasonable time (8-10 seconds vs 15-20 seconds). Nothing else I tried out there that could do that.

Yamaha also seems to have the best version of the disk exchange feature. All the players I tried allow you to change some of the disks while one disk is still playing but the Yamaha is the only one that lets you change 4 of the 5 disks (the fifth is still playing). The others only let you access 2 of the 5 disks to change.

I think Yamaha put more thought into the "changer" aspect of this model.

One other benefit is that the CDC-697 is one of the few CD changers that supports CD text.

I hope this helps others.

* I did not personally test the Marantz CC4001 but I was able to get someone on the DTVforum to check the timing for me.

Objective review of the Yamaha CD player
Before buying the Yamaha 5-disc CD player, I did a comprehensive analysis of all currently available products. It included the players made by Denon, Onkyo, Teac and Sony among others, as well as DVD players that can also play CD's. I wanted a high quality player to work well with a stereo system including large JBL studio monitor speakers, a high-power integrated amplifier, and a direct drive Technics turntable. I had no interest in playing DVD's, only in good quality audio CD's, so I eliminated from consideration many products which are basically DVD players. I found out that most multi-disc CD players compromise their technical specifications compared with the audiophile-quality single-disc CD players, with Yamaha CDC-697 looking better than the others, possibly because it is optimized for playing CD's only, while the Denons and Onkyos also play compressed audio files like MP3 and WMA.
Any product that attempts to do too many things at once, usually does not do anything well!

Investigations of Yamaha's repair record compared with competitive products also appear favorable. Finally, I found out that CDC-697 can be operated both by the pushbuttons on the front panel or by the remote control. All competing carousel CD changers are not fully operational without using the remote. We are sick of having everything requiring a remote to operate. It is just a fake "convenience feature for the user", whose real purpose is to cut the equipment manufacturing costs by eliminating the old-style manual controls from the front panel!

We had the Yamaha CDC-697 for two months now and everything is fine so far. It was easy to set up without the remote control. We have not even inserted the batteries into the remote, the unit operates just fine without it, although there are some functions that are available only through the remote. We had to read only the first 10 pages of the 24-page owner's instruction manual to use the unit, for which my wife is very pleased. The competing carousel CD changers have 60 to 90 page manuals which take many hours to study before you can use the unit!

Let's hope that Yamaha does not make any silly engineering changes in the CDC-697 to make it more alike the Denon, Onkyo or Sony. We do not own an i-pod and will never buy it in the future, we will also never need to play any compressed audio files, we just want high fidelity music.

The fidelity of music from the Yamaha player through our system is just as good as from the Technics direct drive turntable with an elliptical Shure cartridge and new 33 RPM vinyl records, and we do not miss the occasional clicks usually present in vinyl records.
Amazon did a very good job in packing our Yamaha player. It arrived on time through a UPS two-day delivery.

Practically perfect player
Same dimension as most 5-CD players, with the usual advanced features.
It stands out from those I've had because of its smooth and quiet changing mechanism.
I especially enjoy the random cut player, not just random CD but random
cuts from among the 5 CD's loaded in the carousel.

The only thing I don't like is that I can't seem to find a way to make
the carousel rotate when it is open all the way for loading.
This requires you to load a CD into the rear-most slot while part of it
is still inside the body of the unit, making it easy to scratch or drop the CD.

Otherwise, I like it a real lot!