We've spent about a year now with the Insignia 5-Disc CD Changer doing light CD playing duty on our home component stereo system. It's still going strong and we still like it. I'm reposting my original review here --
When the CD changer on your stereo goes whirrr, kathunk, kathunk, thunk, spin, thunk, kathunk, and totally ignores two of your five compact discs before starting to play music, it might just be time for a new CD player. There is a real risk that your old CD changer could even scratch or shatter your discs. My quest for a new CD player ended when I found the Insignia 5-disc CD and MP3 disc changer.
I started watching Amazon.com and Sunday Newspaper advertisements and soon came across a Best Buy insert. The Insignia 5-disc CD Changer (Model NS-CD512) was advertised for $79.99. It was an astonishingly low price. Even though CD players are considered old fashioned in a world of streaming Internet audio, I went and got my new CD player in a truly old school way. I got up and made sure that I was one of the first five people in the store on Sunday morning. I raced to the stereo aisle, found the CD player on display, and found a couple of boxed examples. Sure there was dust on the box, but I still felt like I had won the competition. Since online reviews were middling and disc changers are complex, I went ahead and bought a two year protection plan. With tax and the protection plan, I was out of the door for just than $100.
Installation of the Insignia NS-CD512 CD Changer was easy. I simply swapped out the clunky twenty year old Sony and plugged in the Insignia. I was impressed that the unit came with an RCA cable and batteries for the remote. The enclosed documentation and included setup diagrams were easy to read.
The Insignia CD player does a good job playing CDs. The sound is crisp and clear to my non-audiophile ears. However, this unit does not boast of oversampling or vibration protection or any other optional frills. A headphone jack is provide for direct listening. It is a basic disc changer and it does what it is intended to do at an attainable price point. It has an easy to use random play feature that can be activated for a single disc or the entire selection of five discs. Since the vast majority of my music is on CD, I haven't tried playing an MP3 disc on this unit.
As a basic entry-level five disc changer, this Insignia has two drawbacks. One it is a little slow when transitioning between discs and when responding to commands from the remote control. You can press the remote control and wait several seconds before the CD changer responds. The second drawback is the lack of "spiral play" functionality. In the nineties, I had a Technics player that would play the first song on each disc, then the second song on each disc, and so on. I don't see that spiral play feature on this CD player.
Overall, the Insignia CD five disc changer meets my needs at a very competitive price. If you watch Best Buy sale prices and shop carefully, you should be able to get the Insignia five disc CD changer and an entry-level stereo receiver for around $200. That makes this CD changer part of a very affordable way to get into a component stereo system.
When the CD changer on your stereo goes whirrr, kathunk, kathunk, thunk, spin, thunk, kathunk, and totally ignores two of your five compact discs before starting to play music, it might just be time for a new CD player. There is a real risk that your old CD changer could even scratch or shatter your discs. My quest for a new CD player ended when I found the Insignia 5-disc CD and MP3 disc changer.
I started watching Amazon.com and Sunday Newspaper advertisements and soon came across a Best Buy insert. The Insignia 5-disc CD Changer (Model NS-CD512) was advertised for $79.99. It was an astonishingly low price. Even though CD players are considered old fashioned in a world of streaming Internet audio, I went and got my new CD player in a truly old school way. I got up and made sure that I was one of the first five people in the store on Sunday morning. I raced to the stereo aisle, found the CD player on display, and found a couple of boxed examples. Sure there was dust on the box, but I still felt like I had won the competition. Since online reviews were middling and disc changers are complex, I went ahead and bought a two year protection plan. With tax and the protection plan, I was out of the door for just than $100.
Installation of the Insignia NS-CD512 CD Changer was easy. I simply swapped out the clunky twenty year old Sony and plugged in the Insignia. I was impressed that the unit came with an RCA cable and batteries for the remote. The enclosed documentation and included setup diagrams were easy to read.
The Insignia CD player does a good job playing CDs. The sound is crisp and clear to my non-audiophile ears. However, this unit does not boast of oversampling or vibration protection or any other optional frills. A headphone jack is provide for direct listening. It is a basic disc changer and it does what it is intended to do at an attainable price point. It has an easy to use random play feature that can be activated for a single disc or the entire selection of five discs. Since the vast majority of my music is on CD, I haven't tried playing an MP3 disc on this unit.
As a basic entry-level five disc changer, this Insignia has two drawbacks. One it is a little slow when transitioning between discs and when responding to commands from the remote control. You can press the remote control and wait several seconds before the CD changer responds. The second drawback is the lack of "spiral play" functionality. In the nineties, I had a Technics player that would play the first song on each disc, then the second song on each disc, and so on. I don't see that spiral play feature on this CD player.
Overall, the Insignia CD five disc changer meets my needs at a very competitive price. If you watch Best Buy sale prices and shop carefully, you should be able to get the Insignia five disc CD changer and an entry-level stereo receiver for around $200. That makes this CD changer part of a very affordable way to get into a component stereo system.
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