I've been listening to CDs since they stopped putting everything out on LP, and I have never once programmed a CD, though I can see how you'd miss the feature if you used it. The thing that got to me is that when everyone was manufacturing CD players even the most chessiest junk players would show you total time remaining on the disc all the way to the end of the disc, but in the higher end players it was almost a matter of principle not to include this. Rotel players would have it, but even then it would cut out for the last 3-5 tracks on a disc. As an inveterate clock-watcher I always resented this, and when I had an Audiolab transport I used to keep a timer next to it to try to show time remaining. It was really a delightful surprise that my current Jay's Audio player does show time remaining to the bitter end, and shows the track you're on rather than the number of tracks remaining (as the older countdown players did), which I prefer.
What’s the deal with high end CD transports not having the ability to program tracks!?
First it was the Pro-Ject CD Box RS2, now I find out that the Jay’s Audio transports also lack this feature. I am scratching my head wondering why on earth anyone would deliberately leave out such a basic feature that has been a part of CD playback since the very beginning? I can’t see how including it could possibly have any impact on sound quality. Sure, some don’t use, or care about this feature, but others do. Why tick off potential customers in an already limited market? Are they trying to make the experience more like vinyl? If so, that seems pretty lame. The other thing that is frustrating, is that none of the professional reviews even bother to mention this lack of a very basic feature. Has anyone purchased one of these transports unaware of this, and been disappointed?