Rating: 
Summary: Machine is not intuitive AT ALL
Review: After some deliberation, we decided to purchase this 400 CD player to consolidate about half of our collection. I assumed (perhaps to my fault) that like my computer, when I inserted a CD into it, the player would know the title, artist and song list for most (but not all) of the CD's -- NOT SO -- not even close! Of the 400 entered into the system, only about ten (yes 10!) CD's actually had any information come up at all. For all of the rest, you must enter the title and artist - cannot enter song name (not that you'd want to with that many CD's) - but I had no idea how much time would be needed to enter in all of those titles, even with the keyboard used.
Now I should say that I'm actually pretty good with electronics and can pretty much figure most things out on my own, so this is not the ranting of a ludite who can't get the thing to work. If given the opportunity to do so again, I would look for something else altogether. This was a bad decision for someone with a lot of CD's, especially if you're limited with your free time. I also agree with the other folks who said that 20 characters is too few and I'm really disappointed that you can't enter a title, artist AND genre. But what I'm most upset about is that it took me days (a few to several hours each day) to get this fully programmed and loaded.
Buyer beware! Seriously.
Rating: 
Summary: Not happy! At All!
Review: I am a professional musician and have an extensive CD collection. In spring 2001 I purchased the older Sony CDP-CX 400 and it has worked beautifully ever since. I love it. NO problem. My CD collection grew and I decided to purchase another 400 CD changer in late fall of 2003. By then, Sony had "upgraded" to the CDP-CX455. I bought it and "piggy-backed" it with my older CDP-CX 400.
I am as unhappy with the newer model as I am happy with the older! The older model allows you to classify your CD's using 3 different criteria: CD name, artist name and by up to 8 different groups. It's very flexible. But the newer model only lets you classify the music by CD title and artist.
But, ok, I guess I can live with that. What is FAR WORSE is that I have had to have the unit either repaired or replaced 3 times for the same recurring problem, which is that the artist file info for individual CD's will change arbitrarily or disappear altogether. As I type this, I am preparing to search for the documentation of the 1st 2 repair/exchange jobs on the unit to fax to Sony. After that, I'll be boxing it up YET AGAIN to send to Sony ONE MORE TIME...all within 13 months from the time I purchased it.
There are other companies making "CD Jukeboxes"...do yourself a favor and check them out.
Rating:
Summary: CD Changer will eat your CD for lunch.
Review: I have bought a lot of very fine Sony products, but I must tell you about the TWO SONY CDP-CX455 Megastorage CD Changer/CD Players that I have bought.
Both CD Changers have put scratches on every CD that was put in them and has destroyed more then a few CD's. I, in all honesty, could not rate this product as one you should look into buying.
To make a very long story short and to keep the comments focused on the product. Stay away from the SONY CDP-CX455 Megastorage CD Changer/CD Player or you too will have a very long story to tell.
Thank you for your time.
Rating: 
Summary: 5 Stars, but Watch Out!!
Review: I own a Cdp-cx350 for about 3 years and added a cdpcx455 almost a year ago and I am really happy with both of them. The 455 lacks the 2-way remote but I don't care because I have an Slink-e from Nirvis to control both devices. It connects to my laptop next to my chair and controls the CD-changers through the Sony S-link (or control-A1(II) or Control-S) ports on the players. With the CDJ(jukebox) application on the laptop I have a complete overview of the contents of both players and can create and save several playlists for different occasions. One of the nicest options is the possibility to let the players recognize new CD's and send the data to the CDJ program which collects info on the CD's from the CDDB database on the Internet. Part of this info can be sent back to the players for display on the screen of the player.
So if you like the Sony's but dislike the lack of control functions consider buying an Slink-e ..., it really makes the Sony complete.
Rating:
Summary: If You Value Your CD Collection, Don't Buy This CD Changer.
Review: I owned a perfectly wonderful Pioneer, 100 Disc CD changer. Since my CD collection had approached the 400 mark, I decided to purchase the Sony CDP-CX455 unit, so that I could randomly listen to my entire collection, without constantly changing CD's. After reading some of the reviews on Amazon, I was reluctant to purchase this unit. Unable to find another unit that would accomodate 400 CD's, I decided to take a chance and went ahead with the purchase. Big mistake! After spending hours loading the CD's into the system and setting it to play on random(shuffle), I soon discovered that several of my CD's were skipping. I am meticulous with the handling of my CD's, so I know that the problem was not caused by my mishandling of them. I removed the CD's that were skipping, hoping that this was an isolated incident. The next day, I turned on the unit and again set it to play songs randomly. Once again, some of the CD's started skipping. When I removed them from the unit, I noticed that there were scratches on both CD's. I then called up Sony to explain to them that this particular CD changer has an engineering defect, and that it scratches CD's. Their response was that they have had no reports of such incidences. I asked to speak with a supervisor, who informed me that this CD changer has been taken off the market and is not being replaced with a similar unit. He said that stores still had them in stock, but once the stock was exhausted there would be no more available. I then asked him why they were not replacing this unit with another 400 CD changer model, and was told that they are getting out of the CD changer business, in favor of DVD/CD combo units. I offered the comment that the reason they are not replacing the CDP-CX455 with a similar unit, is because they know that the CDP-CX455 has an engineering defect, and they are not capable of building a 400 CD unit that is problem free. At any rate, I called the store where I purchased my changer from, and told them that I was returning it because it was scratching my CD's. I then started the long process of removing the CD's from the system and was astounded to find that almost 1 out of every 3 CD's had been scratched by this CD changer. I called back Sony, and their attitude was basically that they couldn't care less. Once you buy a Sony product, you are on your own. Their customer support is non existent. Despite the fact that over 100 of my CD's have been damaged by this unit, their response was that they were sorry, but there is nothing they could do about it. Based on this incident, I will never purchase another Sony product again. If you are planning to purchase this CD player, my advice to you, "Buyer Beware."
Rating: 
Summary: Great changer, horrible problems though.
Review: I received the changer as a requested gift to replace a Technics SL-MC410, which was great btw, just not enough capacity. The only improvement in the Sony is more discs, but the only initially perceived benefit was it's ability to play mp3 discs. This is where the first major problem is: the lag time between tracks is HUGE. Playing mixes is incredibly frustrating. Even changing from disc to disc is infuriating, it takes longer than any changer I've used. Also, to add discs or even open the door requires stopping the item playing at the time. Overall, the capacity is impressive, but do NOT purchase this item based on its ability to play mp3 albums.
Rating:
Summary: Forget the weaknesses, it's a ll in the sound!
Review: I've read the other reviews (and you should too). Yes, the display isn't big enough. Yes, I am REAL frustrated that I can't change from continous play to shuffle without stopping. But, the bottom line is that EVERY family in the world NEEDS one of these. Think about it- 400 bloomin CD's! Not only YOUR favorite music in an amazingly personal and stirring random aural experieince, you can MUCH more easily tolerant the OCCASIONAL -let's say less than favorite tune, it is the primary appliance for ANY family.This is my second CD changer. I out grew the first 200 CD changer, and yes the A1 II cable is an antequated technology and a hard to find critical stinking "leettle" cable that is required to make the whole unit function ... - because it enables the second CD changer in your component system queue up the next song as the current one is playing. But COME ON FOLKS. 400 of your favorite CDs all in your own personal mix!! Unless you are a drone, top-pop radio listening, commercialistic fool, this is a must have! Buy one today! "Heck", buy two of 'em! Best value for ANY money you have!
Rating: 
Summary: Almost perfect, but lacking...
Review: If you really like to have all your music & cds handy, this is a great tool. In order to have control of what's stored, you must have control & order.
This is what I did. I did a list with all the cds, so I know where each one goes. I separated the cds into category, ex 1-99 rock, 100-249 trance, 250-299 latin, 300-349 jazz, 350-400 rap & hip hop. This is how I have it now, and it works fine.
Let's talk about the features. One of the downsides, is that the screen is not big enough! Also, no ffw or rewind buttons on the player - you must use the remote control for this.
I like the feature of the mp3s, they play nicely, but you can't really ffw or rewind mp3 tracks very well, it's duable, but not as easy as regular cds.
I like the fact that you can arrange cds into groups and artists, that's very cool. I haven't used programming or shuffle very much, so I'm not familiar with those.
It's got a digital output in the back, as well as the regular RCA outputs.
I like it. I wish it had a ffw and rew button on the player itself, I wish the loading time were less but it's not too long.
You must have control & have order before loading the cds, if not you'll have a hard time finding your music. I do recommend labeling the cds with a keyboard - very nice touch, but screen again, not able to display many characters.
It works very good so far.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Product
Review: It is difficult to get hold of all those CD's crammed into it, but if you add the SAVR and JukeBox from Panther Studios, it becomes a dream machine! I can see all the CD's I have and make play lists that shuffle between my changers like butter. I love it! See their product at: http://pantherstudioscorp.com
Rating:
Summary: De-Evolution Dooms the Sony CX455
Review: Sony had a good thing going with their CX400 MegaChanger. Unfortunately they tinkered with it and the end result is a nightmare. Gone are the eight music category buttons you could use to quickly categorize each music CD. Gone is the speed of the earlier units: this unit takes almost 30 seconds to change from one CD to another and about that long to initialize after it is powered-up. Gone is the ability to change from continuous to shuffle or one disc play to all disc play modes while the CD unit is playing; you must now first stop the unit before changing modes. Worst of all, this unit scrambles the link between artist names and their associated CD's. Sony is aware of this problem but cannot fix it and "officially" denies it exists. We should know: we've been thru four of these units trying to find one that works as advertised. None of them do.
Yes, this unit will play MP3 encoded CD's. Big deal. MP3's on a CD player are pretty-much worthless since you've no way to control the music selection within a given disc (no artist or album select options within the disc). Also, you cannot view the track title for the disc on this CD player until the track cues-up.
Save your money. Reject the Sony CX455.
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