YAMAHA CD-S300BL Natural Sound CD Player

Short answer: Buy it (unpaid review) I was looking for a CD player and found so much more. Shipping through Amazon was fast. The player arrived in a box that contained the factory box inside. Packed well and no damage to box or the unit. CD drawer was taped close and had a protective paper shim to keep the drawer from rattling in transport. Unit came with a detachable power cable, basic RCA patch cable, remote, 2 AA batteries and various paperwork. I hooked the Yamaha S300bl CD player up to a 1979 Pioneer SA 8800 amp (this amp produces an extremely clean signal). From there it went out to a pair of upgraded Klipsch Cornwalls. I could not be happier with the sound. Both the CD player and the USB interface sound fantastic (clear and clean with detail in the lows and highs). When I first hooked up my iPhone to the player, I streamed Pandora and I was initially disappointed... turns out that Pandora (as of the time of this review) limits their bit rate on the stream to mobile devices. The Pandora stream was constrained and the quality suffered. I am an Amazon prime member so I played Amazon music and the quality problems went away. In a blind listening test, people around here, that have tried it, can’t hear the difference between the CD and the Amazon Stream. I don’t not feel like it is necessary to run this CD player through my external DAC. The sound quality is high. I bought the player for the CD function... but, I end up streaming to it more often. I like that my phone is charging while it is hooked up to the unit. It is my new go to charging dock. Beside the CD function and the iPhone connection, the s300bl will play mp3s from a USB stick. The remote is not overly complicated. There is functionality in CD, USB and streaming from my iPhone. You can leave you phone tethered and still pause the music, skip tracks and thing from across the room with the remote. I will likely pickup a second s300bl to put in my classroom... as I listen to music before and after school when grading and preparing for lessons. For that matter when it is appropriate, we sometimes listen to music during work time. The price I paid was 299. The Yamaha s300bl is a great value. I highly recommend it

Received my Yamaha CD player yesterday (S300). Working like a champ so far, will update if necessary. Currently running it with my Yamaha RX-V377 and Energy RC-Micro 5.1 system. I had one of the first Yamaha CD players back around 1985 or so. It was a great one and fingers crossed for this one. This is the first stand alone component CD player I've had in quite some time. Noticeably more natural sounding than playing CDs through my Sony Bluray player. Will be pairing with a Yamaha integrated amplifier and floor speakers as soon as money allows. As a bonus, hooking this to a straight audio input of my RX-V377 I can play music now without the TV having to be "on". Unlike my bluray player that hooks with HDMI and that does require the TV to be on with that receiver. Lots of time during the day I only listen to music and having to have the tv on just to listen to music through the bluray player sucked. This ROCKS! Nice features on the unit include dimmer and counter options, programmability, optical output, and a USB input on the front. Both my RX-V377 and this CDP-S300 have high quality Burr-Brown DACs. I have mine currently hooked up with RCA patch cord (included) so that I'm doing the conversion inside the CD player. Will be upgrading to Evergreen RCA cable soon for whatever difference that will make. I have a 2500+ CD collection and growing. Since adding vinyl back to my audio arsenal I wanted to add the CD player to make the CDs sound as natural as possible and so far this sounds like I got my money's worth here and it should in theory only get better with burn in. Listening through Sennheiser HD558s I can VERY NOTICABLY hear a much more natural sound than playing the same CDs through my bluray player and at this early stage I am just VERY PLEASED. Man it feels good to be able to lay out $300 in this hobby and actually feel like you got $300+ out of it! Thanks Yamaha for making fantastic audio products that almost anyone can afford and thanks Amazon for making every purchase smooth and worry free.

First, the Yamaha works as a CD player should. No problems with installation. Honestly, the reason I bought it was that I have a bookshelf location with limited depth. I looked at the dimensions of a number of players and this was the only one that would fit -- if I remember right, about 10" deep and the width and height were normal for this sort of device. Also, it has bumpers on the bottom so it can fit on top of an amp without blocking the air vents. Every other unit I looked at was at least 4" or 5" too deep so this is the one to get for this type of location. Other reviewers mentioned that the disk drawer does not come out far enough to lay the disk in flat--you have to slide it into a short opening at the back. This is true but I did not find it to be a deal-breaker. The opening at the back is maybe 1 cm high and 1-1/2 cm deep, so just one edge of the disk has to slide in there. You just have to insert the disk carefully--I try to hold it a little high so if anything it might get scratched on the top rather than on the bottom where the recording is. Also, there are no track number buttons on the front--you have to use the remote to program the device. From the front, you can skip one track at a time, forward or back, but not select by number. Other than those two shortcomings, it is a fine unit and the sound quality was excellent, although I do not have audiophile speakers to judge it at that level.

[[ASIN:B00916E6FE Yamaha CD-S300BL Natural Sound CD Player]At first, this unit sounded really boxy, but it's been playing 24-7 now for 5 1/2 days and has now opened up immensely . the soundstage is wider, i feel no listening fatigue. plenty of detail. i've seen that some buyers have an issue with how far the drawer opens-let me tell you it is designed like this intentionally, and it is the easiest loading player i have ever used. I am so happy i didn't spend more money on another product. the remote does not have an on and off, but really, who cares? this player only uses 13 watts; turning it off is not an issue. i leave mine on, with power usage as low as this it does not need a standby mode. buy it and you will probably hear details in your discs that you hadn't heard before.

イメージ通り、ヤマハの高音域の抜けの良さを感じるような気がしました。満足です。

The Yamaha CD-S300BL replaces an originally much costlier CD player which finally wore out after 20 years. When I put it in service and played the Kenneth Gilbert harpsichord rendition of Bach's 2- and 3-part Inventions, I was astounded at the brilliance and depth of the sound-stage. It was as if the harpsichordist was in the room with me! I followed up with Jordi Savall playing viola da gamba music by Tobias Hume, and once again the clarity and sonority were close to those of a live performance. Currently, a CD of mediaeval Aragonese music is playing, and once again there is a presence and tonal purity which were never evident with the old machine. The CD-S300BL is a steal at the price offered. I can heartily recommend it to those who like to listen to early and exotic music.

Excellent audio for my non-audiophile system. Nice looking, easy to use front loading system. Vast improvement in sound over my previous 40 year-old system. The only thing that intrigues me is the indicator for tracks being played is extinguished once the payback begins. If one doesn't care about this then there are no problems.

I Love it...Got this purchase on a warehouse deal had a factory minor blemish that you could only see with a angle of lighting and it is rather tiny. So $140 off yes please well worth the risk I have tried pure direct and also through a Cambridge DAC Magic and I think the DAC Magic really makes the CD-S300 shine. I will have to check pure direct with some nice jazz to see if there is a better trade off. But the external DAC really made Maria Brink's vocals shine and the piano cut right through the mix well pure direct mode made the piano sound duller and harder to make out like its barley there maby a better RCA cable might fix this but I doubt it. Overall a great CD player Yamaha has been my go to for Hi Fi for over 20 years. I have Paired this CD player with (signal chain goes as is) CD>DAC Magic>Cambridge Audio SR10 I feel this rout works the best for best audio sound stage rather than going the pure direct rout out of the CD-S300 its like there is some thing missing. I might try it with my Yamaha HTR 5150 receiver down the road but I am using it as My PC's DAC. Why not the Cambridge Audio CD10 you might ask for the pricing the same $399 the Yamaha just has too meany features the CD 10 lacks and the Yamaha was a warehouse deal for $140 off cant go wrong at that price point.