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Since its inception in 1982, the compact disc player has revolutionized the way consumers listen to music. In addition to being much more durable than records it reproduces music with outstanding results.
Basically, there are two types of compact disc players for the home. The first type is the single CD player and the second is the CD changer. One CD is handled at a time with the former and usually five or more are handled with the second type.
The two most popular kinds of CD changers in the market are carousel and magazine types. With the carousel, a revolving turntable inside the player holds five CD's for up to over five hours of uninterrupted music. Currently, there are carousel changers capable of holding a hundred CD's or more. The advantage of the carousel design is that any one CD can be played while the others are taken from the player or replaced. With magazine type changers, cartridges holding up to six CD's are used for up to over six hours of music. Although other CD's can't be taken out or replaced while another is played, magazine changers offer the convenience of consolidation; users can put in six compact discs in the player at once because they are contained in magazines. In fact, extra magazines can be purchased so that users can replace a set of six CD's in a player with another set of six at all at once instead of handling CD's separately as in the case of the carousel changer. Currently, there are also magazine type CD changers that can handle three to four magazines at a time for a total of eighteen or twenty four compact discs. Some newer magazine type players can handle much more.
Among the prominent features in today's compact disc players are programming, time edit, repeat, A/B repeat, random play, track skip, direct access play, peak search, music scan, auto space, fader, and time display. For discerning listeners, the inclusion of coaxial or optical output jacks would also be desirable.
