Sony SCD-CE595 5-Disc CD/Super Audio CD Player (Discontinued by Manufacturer)

I bought this as a replacement for an identical unit purchased when the SACD format was still new. The old player would no longer initialize discs and a used unit seemed fine for a secondary system. After a few weeks use, the player will no longer read the SACD layer of hybrid discs. Curiously, it will still read and play SACD only discs - I still have a number of CBS re-issues of Leonard Bernstein, George Szell and Bruno Walter discs issued in the early days. The loading of an SACD only disc can take upwards of a minute - like the early days of blu-ray. The repair shops in my area don't want to mess with it. Online research indicates the failure is pretty common and is shared by other Sony SACD players. You'd think the "inventor" of the SACD format would build a better mousetrap. I understand some have had success with opening the case and gently cleaning the laser lens with alcohol.Addendum 9/2018: I googled the failure of this player to read the SACD layer of hybrid discs and discovered that the problem is often related to calibration problem that can be corrected with the diagnostic mode. The procedure can be found in detail at SA-CD.net and involves enabling the diagnostic mode by turning the power off with no disc in the tray, pushing the rotary enter knob and the menu button and turning on the power while keeping the enter and menu buttons depressed. Once in diagnostic mode, open the tray and insert a hybrid disc and close the tray. Press the "enter" knob and rotate clockwise until "B0" appears on the display, Push the "enter" knob and the display will read "FFFF." Rotate the "enter" knob clockwise until "B1" appears. Press the "enter" knob again and the display will count down a string of negative numbers until a 4 character string appears. Rotate "enter" clockwise again until "B2" appears. Press "enter." The four character string will appear again. Open the disc tray and unload the disc. Close the tray and turn the power off. If the laser's calibration is the problem (as it was in my case) you're now ready to play the SACD layers (stereo and multi-channel) of your hybrid discs.It's not a complicated procedure and took me only a couple of minutes to complete. Thanks to SA-CD. net for providing the instructions from the model's service manual.This is a decent utility player that can usually be purchased used at a bargain price but the sound quality isn't up to that of my Oppo (using either the analog or HDMI output) and Marantz units. The Sony's internal DAC simply doesn't provide the clarity and tonal saturation of those competitors.

I received the Sony SCD-CE 595 a week ago and really enjoy it. My wife originally purchased an OPPO 970HD for me for my birthday; however, after recalibrating and TV adjustments I didn't feel the picture was as good as my Sony NS70H so I returned it. It made more sense to get a 5 disc multichanger instead.Its a pretty simple player but has enough adjustments to dial it in. One interesting note is that adjusting the multichannel output seems to impact the digital output! I originally had the Sub Woofer output kicked up pretty high for multichannel but felt the digital optical sound was somewhat dull on the highs and heavy thump to bass. I remembered reading a review on here that suggested the bass management setting impacted cd and sure enough, I turned down the SW output a few notches and it made a significant difference. Adjustments in the multichannel settings seemed to improve the 5.1 sound of regular CD through my receiver so that I listen to most music in surround mode. The only negative could be that it is a little slow to read the discs initial but once it has it moves quickly between tracks.PROS:- Plays SACD at price of normal CD changer- Multichannel Adjustments for speaker distance and speaker output- Great sound on SACD and CD's- Holds 5 CDs- Shuffle play and can exchange a CD while playing anotherCons:- No power button on remote (can be controlled by receiver if so equipped)- Takes a few seconds to read disc initially (due to dual laser for SACD?)In the end, I really love the multichannel and CD output. I have it adjusted just the way I like it for SACD and CD. I have a Diana Krall SACD and it sounds great. The CE595 has a simple remote with no power button but since I have a Sony STRDE998 I can easily control it through the main remote and it powers on and off with the receiver.This combined with my awesome Ascend Accoustics speakers make for a lot of music listening these days. I have gone from almost never listening to music to 10+ hours a week!There are other choices available but it is difficult to beat the price and performance of this unit. Enjoy!

I brought a Sony system in 1999 from conns with 5 speaker I love it then my CD stop working. So this one fit right in my home system it's working fine so far.

After accumulating several hybrid SACDs over the past couple of years, I purchased this inexpensive player to finally experience the hi-rez sound stored on these discs. Wow. My "real" CD player is a Rega Planet, a unit that was well regarded by the audiophile press a few years ago when I purchased it. The Sony fairly trounces it in separation of instruments and voices. The difference is not subtle; my wife, who is generally skeptical of my audio purchases, noticed it right away (and she is particularly delighted that this one was $120, the price of a modest pair of interconnect cables).I'm listening only to the two-channel stereo SACD, not the 5.1 surround. Note that the player defaults to the 5.1 section of an SACD (if it has one), which means that only the left and right center channel tracks will be played if you are listening in two-channel stereo. Correct this by selecting the two-channel section after loading the disc, or follow the instructions in the manual to change the player's SACD default setting to two-channel.Note also that this player has digital output (for CD only), allowing it to be used as a transport for an outboard DAC to get better plain-vanilla CD sound.