Customer Ratings & Reviews

I have never heard my CDs sound better in any player I have ever owned, but "Huston we have a problem!" So many of my CDs were skipping, and the discs looked basically ok. I knew that back in the day, the CD players had error correction and I never had an issue with them skipping. I was just about to return the player to Best Buy, but I read a review that said you must install the latest version of the firmware (version 1.53). It was easy to find the firmware update and instructions on Yamaha's website. I was having some trouble installing the update and finally figured out that 1) the USB drive must have no other files 2) the firmware must be properly de-compressed and 3) the firmware with the extension .cdp must not be in a folder. As soon as I did this it installed perfectly. Once installed there were no more skips in CDs that did so previously. Yamaha has done a great job with this player. It is easy to use and the CDs have a pure and clean sound. All my CDs so great at any volume level. I am hearing things in the music that I never heard before. Thanks Best Buy for making this available and shipping it for free!

CDs and CD players are not yet dead. And if you want to start out with collecting CDs (since vinyls are expensive), this is the unit that I would recommend. It’s affordable, user friendly and straightforward. The built-in DAC gives an added “umph” to it. So I’m still deciding if I still should get an integrated amplifier to complete my set-up.

I am impressed. Easy setup and play. I am enjoying the sound

Excellent piece of equipment I'm a CD guru Love my music very happy

Everything I wanted in a traditional CD player. Works great playing one CD at a time. I ditched vinyl in 1985 and went 100% CDs and glad to be able to get this Yamaha CD-S303 player.

The CD player meets my expectations. Time will tell it’s durability.

This is an excellent CD player, especially considering the features and price. Good build quality. It has a decent DAC for analog connectivity and both coax and optical digital output. Sounds very good to me via either (I've tried all of them). Has many playback options (random, repeat, program) and an intuitive remote. Handles CD/CDR media well. It did skip occasionally when I first received it. But it is a well known problem and Yamaha has a firmware upgrade that fixes it. Haven't had a skip since. There are instructions to determine the current firmware version and how to upgrade on their product site. From my research, versions less than 1.37 may skip. The USB is a nice feature but I found it difficult to navigate and find desired tracks. If you just want to put a bunch of songs on a stick and do random play. It may be a usable feature. Note when you first put a USB stick in, it may stutter for a few seconds if you hit play right away. Need to give it some time to read everything. Stuttering stops after that is done. I was prepared to pay more for a quality CD player but everyone I looked at either had issues or lacked features/connectivity options. Glad I decided to given the Yamaha a chance. I may buy another.

Got this player to replace a 25 year old Harman/Kardon FL8300, 5-disc unit that had been erratic for quite awhile. I'm not ready to give up the CD format. I've got too many of them and I like reading the liner notes! Decided to go for a single player. Found this model as an open-box at a considerable savings. I made a point of updating the firmware immediately which was relatively easy to do for a "boomer", such as myself. Had it for about 6 weeks now and have had no issues at all. As of yet I haven't had a skip or glitch, even with CD's accessed from my public library. It has a nice minimal sleekness to it and fits perfectly in the shelf system of my studio/office. The remote functions are great for programming from my chair as the adjustable light display is visible 6 feet away. It's wonderful to hear what my home system can sound like if given the chance!

I highly recommed this unit. Not only does it produce superior sound, but it also has a feature that I did not realize that it had. This is a port for a USB thumbnail unit where I store music files. The unit allows one to toggle between this port and the CD player. When I say superior sound, I mean that it seems to be superior to the sound I get from a TASCAM CD recorder which I purchased recently which cost much more money.

Good sound quality with built-in DAC. Only issue is I can't seem to update the latest firmware file from a USB drive to the CD unit. It's version 1.37 and should be updated to 1.53 version. No matter what I try I can't convert the zip file to open up and load to the player. Difficult for me. It seems that Yamaha should already have this latest version on new units.

It's a simple machine. It turns on and off via a mechanical button, as well as via the remote (which can get out of sync, but no big deal, just press the button twice if you need to). It plays CDs with a very simple display, and evidently plays the CD text, though I haven't seen it yet. There are three display options: track time passed, track time remaining, & disc time remaining, the latter of which I appreciate. It doesn't start back up where it left off if it goes to sleep, which is mildly annoying but not enough for me to dock the rating. It's well built, and looks nice. "USB memory devices" is a bit of a vague term, so I just tested out plugging in my external HDD full of music into it, but got a big "UNSUPPORT" on the screen, which is a shame, but also no big deal -- I got this primarily to play CDs and honestly playing digital files through a CD player via a USB dive seems like kind of a ridiculous thing to do and an almost completely unnecessary feature. Is that just me? Maybe. The interface just doesn't seem at all conducive to navigating larger collections of music. Now, it is expensive for a CD player -- so it gets 4 stars! You could always pay more if you want too, but you could also get something a thrift store for ~$25 that will do the same thing -- play CDs with a simple display in a standard component size. I like that this one is new, dust & grime free, and only I have touched it, which is a luxury, I know.

After spending a few years going down the vinyl rabbit hole, I wanted to get more enjoyment out of my large collection of CDs. After some research I purchased this unit as it seemed like a good combination of quality and value. So far I've been very happy with this decision, as the unit is constructed well and sounds great running through my stand-alone DAC and headphone amplifier. One caveat - be sure and perform the USB-based update firmware procedure that corrects a skipping issue that can affect this unit. The update is simple and takes just a few minutes.

Though its not a sacd player it plays those c.d's much better, plus you can play (high quality) USB drives. Also I have a Yamaha receiver and they both have c.d. direct. Great value on sale

I bought in 1990 a Yamaha 2-ch receiver and Yamaha 5-disc CD player - all good. Then in 2020 the CD player died and I hooked up a first gen 1986 Sony CD player to the receiver - all good. Then the old receiver died recently and I replaced it with a new Yamaha and hoked up the old CD player - not good! So I bought the Yamaha 303 and it has a 'pure direct' feature that made the sound more smooth, warmer a bit and less brash with the new Yamaha receiver. Much better - I believe pure direct switches between a analog DAC and a digital DAC. Subtle change but it does make a difference. The only qwerk in the player is when a CD is finished and left that way for a while, even thou the power light is still on you can't eject the CD, so you have to power it down and then back on. Not a problem but a bit confusing the first time it happened.

So far i am satisfied with this unit. It does everything that i expected it to do. I have it connected to a Technics stereo receiver and the sound is great on the cd or usb.

It performs better than the cheaper units out there. The only problem was to update the software by visiting the Yamaha site and following the directions for PDF instructions and the update file, and no more skipping discs. Just a fantastic CD player.

I bought this player about a month or so ago. It has performed flawlessly so far. I have been buying audio components for about 50 years now, but do not consider myself an expert in any way, but Yamaha is a good reputable brand. The player is very good for the price in my opinion. The USB input works like perfection with 2.0 and 3.0 drives in them and I did not have to update the software in the player. I would buy this player at this price all day long. There are better players out there if you want to spend a few hundred more, but I'm happy would this one.

As it is a Yamaha you can expect good build quality. It is heavier than I thought which to me means a solid build. Sound is very clean but to me a bit lean. Old CDs play no problem whereas in the old CD player I had they couldn't be read. Good value for money.

Love it ! Easy to hook up and sound great! I highly recommended this unit!!

My first few hours of experience with the product were not good. I threw in an old classic cd and the skipping was bad despite the disk being visually flawless. I put same disk in my 2002 denon dnd9000 and the previously skipping disk played perfectly. Turns out the Yamaha sc303 needed a firmware update. Avoid initial disappointment by updating firmware ware before playing your first disc. I found the Best Buy total tech support via chat to be extremely ineffective. I called Yamaha and quickly resolved my issue after a few minutes of discovery. They recommended firmware update which took 2 minutes.