I have ordered one of these and already have buyers remorse. And it is too late to stop it. Foolishly thought I needed to update my 20 year old NAD that works like a charm.

Mine skipped from the day I purchased it. Brand new CD’s out of the case we’re skipping. So I followed the directions on updating the firmware and it wouldn’t update. Now the CD player won’t even turn on. I’m going to have to send it in and try to get it repaired. You are absolutely correct in that this should have never left the factory like this. They really need to make the firmware update easier to do as I read others were also having problems updating. Hopefully they will get this all fixed up and playing well for me.

Thank you for talking about this firmware update, my copy of Disturbed's Believe was utterly scratched to hell and never played in other players but now it plays flawlessly.

I bought a Yamaha cd-s303, and I actually had the same problem. I updated the software to version 1.61 and cd-s303 started reading all discs. I previously bought a Denon dcd-900ne which had the same problem, but there is no software update for it, so I returned it. I agree with the statement that the Yamacha CD-S303 should never be sold with old software that cannot read some of the discs that $30 DVD players can handle without any problems.

Thanks for the info... Bought this unit for our church this past week... I noticed our 20+ year old Sony unit sounded slightly better and definitely played better, while this new Yamaha model seemed "finicky" with the choir CD I was attempting to play. Anyways, I updated the firmware and this "seemed" to fix the skipping/glitching going on. At least, I think it fixed it. I do like the USB play function, and would like to keep this Yamaha offering. One thing I did notice was that when I coped the choir cd, which has around 80 different tracks, with many of the tracks composing one song, it did not play via the USB without a slight "pause" between these song section. The sections are employed in order to find a certain location in a song, for practice purposes, but you don't hear any issue when playing the CD. For some reason, the USB want to pause at these track location positions, or whatever they are called. I hope I can figure this problem out. Anway, thanks for the help!

i just got my player hour ago. it plays fine so far.

Glad at least they did the update, but its why I pretty much just stick to my bluray player as my transport since it plays anything I throw at it.

This doesn't apply to me but was still interesting. At first I was surprised that a firmware update would result in better playability of scratched discs, then I thought about computer optical disc drives and firmware updates and then it made sense. I have 2 Yamaha CD/HDD recorders and the only time the firmware would need to be updated (or reloaded) is if the CD-RW drive is replaced and it was only given to the service centres, no download for consumers. My Yamaha CD changer - no updates. My Sony DVD player (not a Blu-ray) is from the same era (2004/5) as those and no firmware updates for that from what I remember. I guess mine were before updates became more common or necessary for players.

It’s so hard to find a reliable cd player nowadays. You read the reviews and so many people have skipping or no disc error on almost all cd players. I just bought the Yamaha cd s303. Updated the firmware and I’ve listened to about 10 cds and another 10 using the usb port. Everything was fine until last night. While playing a cd wav file using usb port that I had already listened to days before with no problems it started to glitch up and skipping. So disappointing. It happened again today on a different song. Now idk if I should just return it and keep looking for a new cd player

Yep....took mine back and told dealer...and then he got me the new updated one for me....and works perfectly....hate update s....! YAMAHA... !

So you still ike it? It looks like it can take quite bad condition players alsi. It is quite hard to find cheaper quality CD-players nowdays... I have fever to buy CD player because my player doesn't always work so well. mr. Finglish (Bäd English Recs)

My CD players are so old that there isn't firmware for them.

Hello Bald, do you know if that cd player can read .cue files? I'm having trouble finding one that does.

My Yamaha s303 doesn’t read “copy controlled “ cds. Will i have to upgrade firmware?

Perks of having a modern CD player.

Perks of having a modern CD player.