The old 25-CD changer I'd had for years wouldn't play Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited.

My roommate picked up a copy of this classic over Christmas, and it was one of those magically remastered, repackaged SACD versions of the album. My old CD player (the one that played in the living room, which meant it was the main CD player for the house) couldn't read the SACD. Apparently there was a translation problem or something.

I'd noticed problems with reading CDs during the preceding few months and decided I needed to upgrade. On the second of January, 2004, I picked up a Pioneer 100+1 CD changer for $149 at Best Buy. I did not get the $50 3-year insurance. Why pay 33% more for something when it should work for three years anyway, right?

The new CD player had no problem with Bob Dylan, and my music listening habits changed a bit. Having more room in the changer meant there was more choice as to what was available to play in the living room. Instead of having to clear out the changer after it had been full for a while (with 25 CDs), there suddenly was seemingly no limit as to how much different music we'd have readily available in the living room.

It worked well for a while. There'd be Outkast next to NOFX next to John Coltrane next to Jimi Hendrix and on and on. The CD player would go for hours with little direction from the humans in the room. The carousel would move from CD to CD and keep the beat going.

Then it stopped liking one of the tracks on the new Strokes CD. A little bit after that, one of the tracks on Nirvana's Incesticide would get skipped after playing for about a minute. Because the skips and bad reads were not random, but specific, I assumed there was something wrong with the individual CDs, not the player.

A few weeks ago, a new development occurred. Static started to randomly play along with the music. And then entire CDs were declared unplayable by the CD player. Finally (not that I was waiting for it, but it was a final straw of sorts), the CD player wouldn't read a damn thing.

Less than four months after purchase (but exhausting all warranties not including the rather costly and inconvenient "send it back to the factory" manufacturer's warranty) and this plastic piece of crap was D.O.A.

Of course, I didn't want to give up the ghost yet. I was convinced the CD laser was just dirty or there was a simple explanation (and fix) for the problem. I took the unit apart, sprayed all the sensitive areas with electronic cleaner and let it sit. A few hours after the cleaning, the player still didn't work.

The next day (last Sunday), I decided I'd go shopping and find a new player. But before I went out, I tried the CD player one more time. It worked. It played all the CDs I was having trouble with the day before with no problems, no static, everything was fine.

I still went out to a few electronic stores to do research. I wasn't convinced everything was fixed, but, at the same time, I didn't have the kind of urgency in my shopping I'd have had if the CD player wasn't working.

My biggest CD player problem is the amount of music I play. It can be between five and ten CDs a day. This type of use would lend itself to a changer, but I've come to realize that while those changers seem to be convenient, but they're actually crappy CD players. I need something robust. I need something that doesn't really exist.

I am hoping for what would essentially be a home iPod player, capable of storing thousands of CDs at CD quality, and then just being able to press random and never have to do anything ever again. I don't think this type of digital jukebox is going to be available for home use anytime in the near future, and so I must adapt to current technology.

The newly cleaned CD player lasted for about four days. Then it stopped playing CDs again. For good. After work on Friday, I went to Circuit City and bought a CD player/recorder. On one side it had a five disc changer and on the other, a single disc player. Costing twice as much as the dead player, I feel like I'm taking a step up. This time I got the $50 extended warranty. So I hope this means I have a CD player for the next three years.

Of course, the change from 100 choices to five plus one will cause a bit of adjustment on my part. I'll have to get up and change CDs manually much more than before. Will this cause the new CD player to break down quickly? I really don't know.

At least the damn thing works. There's nothing worse than a silent house when you want to shake your booty a bit.

Matt Worley listens to entirely too much music, but you probably watch too much TV. So there.