Despite the meteoric rise of digital music streaming, many older listeners may still have CD collections taking up living space. Yamaha has released a new player that can hold five discs at once, and users can even change CDs while one is playing.
The introduction of the Compact Disc in the 1980s brought many claimed advantages over other music consumption formats, one of which was being able to skip tracks without leaving the sofa. Though CDs pretty much killed off cassette tapes, vinyl records have been making something of a comeback.
However, today's music consumer clearly prefers not to own physical media judging by the unquestionable dominance of streaming. But some folks still buy, trade and own CDs, with hardware manufacturers like Pro-Ject and McIntosh releasing new gear to prepare for the format's return to favor.
The latest player from Yamaha offers much more convenience than a single-disc system, as its load tray can accommodate five disc at the same time. Though there are legacy players that offer more, the CD-C603 does have a rather nifty feature called Play X Change that allows the listener to open the multi-disc drawer while a disc is being played and swap out any of the other four.
A feature from Yamaha hi-fi amplifiers has been included too, which aims to offer the highest sound quality possible from the player by shutting down the digital audio output and turning off the display via the remote to reduce noise interference. And the company reckons that folks can look forward to a "sound full of dynamics and clarity" to boot.
In another modern touch, the big black box sports a USB port to the front for plugging in thumbdrives stuffed with digital audio files up to 24-bit/96-kHz quality. There are analog (RCA) and digital (optical) output around back for cabling the player to a hi-fi amp, along with remote in/out.
The CD-C603 isn't available to ship at the moment, so you've still got time to dust off your old CD collection. It carries a suggested retail price of US$549.95.
Product page: Yamaha CD-C603
