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iriver SlimX iMP-550 CD / MP3 Player with Ultraslim Design
From iRiver

Within the sleek metal case of the iRiver SlimX 550 you'll find the highest level of quality and industry leading features like 32-minute skip-free playback, a built-in FM tuner and extended battery life up to 55 hours.
Amazon Sales Rank: #42080 in Consumer Electronics Color: Black Brand: iRiver Model: SlimX 550 Original language: English
In keeping with its reputation for cutting-edge features and design, iRiver's iMP-550 handles nearly every conceivable file format. The player, which is little more than half an inch thick, is built with rugged electronic shock protection to guard your listening against interruptions, offering up to 32 minutes of protection when you're listening to WMA files on your home-made CDs. The player supports MP3, WMA, and ASF formats, and additional formats (like AAC and MP3 Pro) may be supported in the future through simple firmware upgrades, by which iRiver can add and modify player features. slim, powerful, cool. The iMP-550 comes loaded with accessories, too, including a car kit, a carrying case, and two stick-type rechargeable batteries. When used in tandem with a pair of standard AA batteries, the device is capable of playing for up to 55 continuous hours--perfect for hassle-free travel. An easy-to-read, four-line LCD on the included remote control shows every bit of information you need, and an FM tuner comes in handy when you're traveling by tracking the frequencies to maintain reception as you move. The player also recognizes discs in Packet Write format, which enables you to use CD-RW discs like PC hard disks, offering the ease of using discs and of saving and deleting songs.
Excellent MP3 CD Player; Almost Perfect My first MP3 CD player was a Sonicblue Rio SP-250. It was an excellent MP3 CD player until it broke. I bought a cheaper MP3 CD player, and it was quite sub-par. This is my return to the high-end MP3 CD Players. First off, this player is the best I've used. And while it exceeds my expectations, there are still a few tiny, minute flaws.The GoodThe sound quality is superb.The navigation is clear and easy to use.The remote is easy to use, and has a vibrant display and backlight.The accessories that the unit comes with are great.The unit itself is THIN!Battery life of the rechargable stick batteries is good.The BadNo controls or display on the unit itself.Radio reception is not quite perfect (I find my self shifting the remote around to try and get better reception. To my surprise, it works).ConclusionIn the end, I'm very pleased with this player. It is, in my opinion, the best MP3 CD Player on the market. Everything is done great, with minor flaws. The benefits far outweigh the problems with this CD player. However, if you MUST have perfect radio reception wherever you are, or you don't like having to work the player through a remote, this player might not be good for you. For the rest of us, who are just looking for a good MP3 CD player that has the versatility and quality not found in most other players, this is the Holy Grail of CD players. Slim case and Remote control - WOW! This cd player has all the features I was looking for and more that are a total bonus. It plays MP3's, WMF's and regular cd's. I don't use the headphones that came with it because I have a very nice set of Sony studio type phones. The combination of the player and my phones is incredible sounding. I love the remote control. It makes it so much easier to control when you are in bed or in the car or have it on your belt, etc. You don't have to take the player out of its protective holder to get at any of the controls, only to change the disks. The equalizer is worth the price by itself. It has some presets, but you can totally control about 5 different levels, plus right and left. The remote even displays the name of the disk and song if your cd has that kind of information tag on it. I also love the fact that the firmware in the player is upgradable online. It's a very easy operation that almost takes care of itself. I upgraded right away from firmware ver. 1.03 to 1.10. The player itself is beautiful. The case is black and silver metal and comes with a velvety protective case that will slip onto your belt. I don't mind paying a bit more for this kind of quality. This is a great way for an adult to treat themselves to a new toy. So worth the money It's expensive. That's because it's the best. Here's why:Functionality: It has every function you could want and some you never thought of, up to and including a mode that makes the mechanism quieter, so it doesn't bother the people around you. Plays audio CDs, MP3 and WMA, with upgradeable firmware for future formats. Excellent navigation lets you scroll through the list of songs without interrupting the song you're listening to. Supports ID tags and CD text (so you see track names for regular CDs too). Very good memory buffer for shock protection (caches the entire MP3 file, or up to 320 seconds of audio CD, and reads ahead to the next MP3 file so there's no wait between tracks). Equalizer presets and customizable settings.Sound quality: Rivals my Yamaha 565 home deck. It's the best sounding portable I've tested. In addition to headphones out, it has line out and digital out to plug into your receiver.It's small: Looking at it from the top, it's barely larger than a CD. From the side it's 0.54 inches thick. If you have a spindle of CDRs handy, stack 9 of them on your desk - that's how large it is.It looks damn cool: Simple black and silver design will look good in your backpack of with your business suit. Comes with a padded sleeve you can keep it in that doesn't interfere with operation. All controls are on a small remote with a clip on the back. Also includes a car kit - remember when you had to pay extra for that?The included "headphones" are, of course, crap. Pair it with the Sennheiser PX100 for portability and value or the Sony V700DJ for style and sound quality, and you have the best portable rig, period.

   

Sony Discman CD Player w/ Car Connection Kit #D-122CK
From Sony

Featured is the Sony Discman Portable CD Player with Car Connection Kit, Model #D-122CK. The Sony D-122CK includes the Sony Discman D-121 with 1 bit DAC, Mega Bass, and ten playback modes, and a complete car mounting kit which includes a shock absorbing plate, car cassette adaptor which enables CD playback through your car cassette deck, and a car cigarette lighter power cord. Also includes AC power adaptor, and operating instructions.
Amazon Sales Rank: #229711 in Consumer Electronics Brand: Sony Model: D-122CK

   

Sony D-NE300 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player (Blue)
From Sony

Long playback. Good looks. Great functionality. The D-NE300BLUE delivers over 85 hours of continuous playback for ATRACplus using just two "AA" batteries. The full circle design is tight, slim and cool; the player weighs less than 7 ounces, and it's not much bigger than the CD itself. The D-NE300BLUE features 18 playback modes, Skip-Free G-Protection Technology, customizable equalizer, and auto ranking playback. It supports ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3, MP3 and CD-R/RW format playback, giving you lots of options on importing various music formats. Includes SonicStage Software and MDR-027LP stereo headphones.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #42333 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Blue
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DNE300BLUE
• Released on: 2004-03-15

The Sony D-NE300 is a stylish, compact portable CD player with a robust set of features. If you're in the market for a durable companion that will let you enjoy CD, MP3 and ATRAC3plus tracks on the go, The D-NE300 is the ticket. We found much to like and little to complain about in this capable unit.

Features
The D-NE300's simple controls allowed us to find our way around the unit's features with little fuss. The two-line dot matrix display was especially handy for viewing the names of our MP3 and ATRAC3plus tracks. Sony's G-Protection feature can be programmed to offer two levels of protection from stutters and skips when the unit is jarred or shaken. Even on the lowest level of protection, we found that only the hardest knocks could make our music miss a stride. We also liked the intelligently designed equalization features of the D-NE300. Equalizer presets called "soft," "active" and "heavy" are built in, or you can set your own levels in the low, mid and high ranges via a nifty graphical interface.

Sound Quality
In short, we were impressed. We popped in an MP3 CD and within 10 seconds the unit recognized the playlists and song titles we'd burned onto the disc. The unit delivered rich bass and clear highs, especially when we used the "heavy" equalization setting. We noticed some degradation in sound quality when listening via the included headphones at high volumes. We found the Sennheiser PX 100 Headphones to be a worthwhile upgrade.

Battery Life
It would be nice if the D-NE300 shipped with rechargeable batteries, but Sony claims that the D-NE300 can squeeze up to 85 hours of battery life out of two standard AA batteries (not included). If accurate, this is an amazing feat, and although we didn't test the unit for 85 hours, we did note that battery strength was still full after a full day of testing. According to Sony, the D-NE300 is equipped with advanced digital signal processing that helps it pull a lot less juice than its predecessors. The unit's display has no backlight and it sleeps after a period of inactivity, further contributing to battery life.

ATRAC3plus, MP3 and SonicStage
The D-NE300 ships with Sony's own SonicStage software, which is designed to convert your MP3s and audio CDs to Sony's proprietary ATRAC3plus music format. There are advantages and disadvantages to using SonicStage and ATRAC3plus encoding. On the plus side, ATRAC3plus offers a very good compression ratio of approximately 1/20, meaning it can compress CD-quality audio to a twentieth of its original size. This allows you to encode up to 490 songs, burn them to CD and then play them in your D-NE300. MP3 encoding, on the other hand offers about half as much compression, which means your CDs won't be able to hold as many songs when encoded in this format.

The downside to ATRAC3plus is that once your music is encoded in this format, your CDs must be played on an ATRAC3plus-compatible device, which means you are stuck with Sony branded CD players with ATRAC3plus support. MP3 formats, on the other hand, offer complete compatibility with all CD players that support MP3 CD playback. Adding to our grumbles, we found the SonicStage software somewhat lacking. The user interface was confusing and encoding both our audio CDs and MP3s to ATRAC3plus was slower than we would have liked.

Fortunately, the D-NE300 supports ATRAC3plus and MP3 formats, so if you want to cram a ton of songs onto one CD you can use SonicStage and burn ATRAC3plus CDs. Meanwhile, if you want to enjoy the universality of MP3 CDs, you can use third-party MP3 encoding and burning utilities. The D-NE300 makes it easy to listen to the music you want, whenever you want it. --Joshua Gunn

Pros

• Compact, simple design is very user-friendly
• Sound is clear and crisp
• Support for CD audio, MP3 and ATRAC3plus
• Long battery life

• No rechargeable batteries included
• Included software difficult to use

Enjoy your digital music to the fullest and look good doing it with Sony's blue, full-circle D-NE300 Walkman portable CD player. The player includes SonicStage software, which lets you take full advantage of ATRAC3plus (Sony's proprietary music-compression technology) when making custom MP3 CDs on your computer. Playback options include 32-track programming, repeat (track, disc, or program), random play, and--thanks to Sony's great work in DSP efficiency--more than 85 hours of ATRAC3plus CD or up to 50 hours of audio CD playback from 2 AA batteries (not included).

The D-NE300 offers a 2-line dot-matrix display, full ID3 tag recognition, and bookmark playback (which lets you program your favorite songs from multiple CDs and play them back at the touch of a button). CD Text support displays artist and title information with compatible commercial audio CDs.

ATRAC3plus is a high-quality audio-compression technology that reduces the size of digital audio files while preserving much of a track's original sound quality (similar in concept to MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats). With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kbps (kilobits per second), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps). MP3 compatibility extends from 16 to 320 kbps files.

The player comes bundled with Sony's SonicStage CD Simple Burner software. Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, this application transfers songs from CDs or MP3 music files from your PC's hard drive and burns them to recordable CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.

Skip-Free G-Protection technology boosts the laser pickup's shock protection to minimize read errors that would otherwise interrupt your music, providing quick recovery from both horizontal and vertical shocks. The D-NE300's heat-resistant lid helps protect the player against high-temperature build up, especially when you're using it outdoors or in a vehicle.

Digital Mega Bass Sound boost your music's low end without high clarity and low distortion, and there's also a built-in equalizer with 3 preset curves and 1 customizable setting. Sony's automatic volume limiter system (AVLS) conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of two settings. The player works with an optional AC/DC 4.5V power adapter (AC-E45HG or -E45A).

What's in the Box
CD player, MDR-027LP stereo headphones, CD-ROM (SonicStage software), a user's manual, and warranty information.

I like it.
I'll try and put this review in for both of Amazon's NE300 models, since they are just different colours afterall. Further to what's already been said, here is some extra info on the player that I was unable to find elsewhere prior to buying it, so this may be of help:

- if an MP3 song lack's ID3 tags, the player's LCD screen will show the filename as you'd see it in windows. Long filenames will scroll automatically
- manually going from mp3 track to track (ie, just hitting forward) there is around a 3 sec delay. If you let a song finish by itself, however, it will go immediately to the next
- load time on a full mp3 disc is 20 seconds (I timed it). Load time on a disc with a single mp3 was 16 seconds. Load time on an audio cd with one track was 10-11 seconds
- this player does not play .wma (windows media audio) files, even though the guy at sony I asked said it does (admittedly the player does not advertise that it plays wma)
- the cd-rw disc I tried worked fine, and that's all I'll be using
- stock headphones seem decent, and in fact with them this player does go very loud
- music order: I had no problems with it. Whether files were in the root directory, or within sub folders everything seemed to play in order as it was burned
- adtrack I did not test. I have no intention of converting all of my mp3s, so no idea on how well it works
- I experienced no "missing end pieces" on songs, as one reviewer said that he did
- I'm confirming that there is no backlight for this
- note that the NE300 blue and gray, on amazon, are slightly different pictures. I bought the gray one from another source and it looked as the blue one on amazon does (it was gray, obviously, but the physical shape of it, I mean). The gray on amazon has a little indicator below the LCD (which mine does not have). I wonder if there are slightly different versions, and the newer ones possibly solve some old issues like track order? I bought mine yesterday BTW.
- I experienced no skipping issues, but I only tried the player in the car and shaking it for maybe 10 seconds. I think technology is such these days that if you're experiencing mp3 skipping on an mp3 discman, it's probably a very poor player; I'd expect no skipping (except maybe running, and supposedly this can handle that)

I give this a 5-star, because it does everything that it claims to do, and it does it well. The player feels reasonably solid. It is, afterall, a $50 player with a lot built into it, so don't expect something you can use as a frisbee. It's quite small with little wasted room.

I do wish it had a backlight, and I'd have no problem losing some battery life (especially since it's awesome with this player), but I knew I was not getting that when I bought it.

EDIT: I should mention something else. When you're scanning from song to song, you will see it exactly as you'd see it in windows explorer, ie. no ID3 tagging; just the file name. It's not until you play the song that you'll see the ID3 tag details, like album, artist, etc.

My First MP3/CD Player
This is my first mp3 player, but I'm no stranger to electronics and standard CD players. I bought this player last night at Target so there are probably features and annoyances I have yet to discover. I just thought I'd share my first impression.

The D-NE300 comes with software for compressing audio files (Atrac3) but the software required updates and made my computer crash. I gave up on that for now, mp3s work just fine for me.

PROS:
**This little player is very customizable!
**LCD screen shows ID3 information, which has a customizable display - you can cycle through title, artist, and album with the push of a button. ID3 tags can be created and edited using the free program Winamp. If you don't have winamp yet and you're buying an MP3 player, something is probably wrong with you.
**There are 3 equalizer presets and a custom style that can be set in one of 21 different combinations.
**The large center button has the play button and menu buttons. The small buttons on either side of the large button are for moving through directories. I have a CD with 8 different albums, with one click I can move from one album to the next. The other two buttons on the face of the player are stop and menu.
**There are several different listening options.. you can listen to one song repeated, all the music on the disc, all shuffled, one directory, one directory shuffled, playlists, playlists shuffled, your most-played songs, your most-played songs shuffled. So many options!
**Battery life is 85 hours! This is in part because the LCD powers down when you push stop. When you push any button, the LCD pops back on and displays the last song you were playing. There's no power button! There's also a timer option, so you can go to sleep listening to music and not worry about the batteries.
**The sound is very nice, plenty of volume, and the bass is sufficient. I'm using my own Sony MDR-Q22LP headphones. The sound quality was a big improvement over my Philips Magnavox CD player using the same headphones. I've tried both music and audio books, the sound is crisp and loud. (see CONS below).
**I've heard complaints with mp3 players about a delay between songs. I have not experienced this. The jump from one song to the next is instant. I use NTI CD Maker for burning.
**The case is sleek and stylish. If appearance is important to you, this player is not lacking. The blue color does have a questionably purple tint to it. If you're a guy or buying it for a guy who would be offended, you may want to consider the grey case.


CONS:
**There is no backlight on the display. That doesnt bother me, I usually know what I'm listening to or I don't care to look at every song title as it's playing.
**The player has a loading time of about 15 seconds. MP3 players are not instant like standard CD players... at least this one isn't. Also, the loading sounds can be a little noisy. Probably not louder than the sound of a phone on vibrate, but louder than I expected.
**The headphones that come with the player are crappy and very quiet. Suprise suprise. I'm using my Sony MDR-Q22LP headphones ($15).
**The volume control consists of two buttons on the side, up and down. A bar appears on the LCD when adjusting the volume. I would've liked some sort of numerical indication of the volume. This is just me being nit-picky.

Great little CD player worth much more than the price
Bought this CD player recently to replace a regular CD player. Not only can you play a CD full of MP3s, it plays ATRAC3 format files (1/2 the size of standard MP3s). Included is the software to convert mp3s to ATRAC3. Being able to have one CD that holds about 500 songs is amazing. I can listen to one CD all day and not hear the same song twice. But, the most amazing thing is that the CD player, when listening to ATRAC3 CDs, uses very little power, saving a bundle in batteries. Also, when you press stop, the player automatically shuts off and remember where you were, so, when you come back, you can pick up right where you left off, even in the middle of a song. Great product that lives up to the quality that I have grown to appreciate with Sony.

   

JVC XL-PG37 Personal CD Player with 45 Seconds of Anti-Shock Protection (Diamond Black)
From JVC

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9729 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: JVC
• Model: XLPG37

The JVC XL-PG37 is a portable CD player which will play audio CDs, plus CD-R/RW discs. The player offers forty-five seconds of anti-skip protection, making the player a nice choice for people who like to listen to their favorite CDs while exercising or while commuting on the bus. If you decide to purchase a few key optional accessories, this player could be used in a vehicle's cassette player. The black color would certainly look stylish in a car or truck. Yet, even without the optional accessories, the player is a nice choice for portable listening. There are a few play mode options, including normal play, repeat, random, and twenty-track program. The required batteries will run the player for an impressive twenty hours (alkaline.) For those interested in saving batteries, the player is ready for rechargeable batteries. Sound quality is much improved with the hyper-bass sound system. Other features include: hold switch, 1-bit D/A converter, DC input, and heat-resistant casing.

What's in the Box
JVC XL-PG37 personal CD player, stereo headphones, user's manual and a one year warranty.

Better than average-worth the price!
JVC XL-PG37 Personal CD Player with 45 Seconds of Anti-Shock Protection (Diamond Black)

My soldier son wanted a good cd player to carry with him when traveling and otherwise permitted. He was looking for good sound and reliability, and says he got both in this player. When I asked him whether it was worth the 3-4 times higher than the average cd player price, his answer was an unqualified "YES." The only reasons this doesn't get a 5 star rating is that the player doesn't appear to be the sturdiest thing (despite its anti-shock characteristics), and that it comes with no protective case or rechargeable batteries. It is hard to find a better than average cd player that will play all types of cds these days, but this one fills the bill!

   

Hello Kitty Personal CD Player with 45-Second ASP - KT2036
From Spectra Merchandising

With an adorable Hello Kitty design and functional CD player features, Hello Kitty fans will truly appreciate this portable CD player. But this player isn't just cute, it has great features. It has programmable memory, bass boost, intro/random play, CD compatible stereo headphones, CD-R/RW compatible and 60 second electronic anti-skip protection. The headphones are also stylish with a picture of the kitty herself. Requires 2 "AA" batteries (not included).

• Brand: Hello Kitty
• Model: KT2036
• Dimensions: 11.12" h x 8.00" w x 2.50" l, .94 pounds

Very cute, good quality.
Hmm...why is this thing classified as a toy? I bought it at Target in the CD/audio section with all the other CD players. Adults like me will love this CD player just as much as kids will (and maybe more!).

Well, the reason I picked this particular CD player is because I love Hello Kitty and I thought the design of this product was very cute. The quality of the CD player is also very good. I've been able to play regular CDs and burned CDs without a problem, and the skip protection feature on this thing actually WORKS, unlike many other models.

The CD player is easy to operate. It has your typical play/stop/pause/rewind/fast-forward buttons as well as a repeat track or entire disc feature and a special jogging mode for when you exercise. The headphones that come with the player are pretty decent, too, which is shocking.

Overall, this is a great CD player that Hello Kitty fans of all ages will enjoy. It's easy to use, the sound quality is fantastic, and it's Hello Kitty, for god's sake! What more could you ask for?

the cutest portable discman!
this is a great portable cd player- i'm 29 & i love it- hello kitty's face is so bright & cheerful, the sound rocks & i've dropped it & it keeps on playing!

it has an anti-skip mechanism that works a lot better than the "grown-up" brand name discman's i've had & did i mention how cute it is????

i gave it a 5 star educational value, because if you're buying this for a child you could fill it with great books on tape and/or wonderful music.

i highly recommend this to hello kitty lovers of all ages!

Cute as fluff.
It's so nice to see something girly that isn't Barbie. Four stars for educational value for the same reason the other reviewer gave-- you could have your child listening to educational CD's while maintaining your sanity instead of going crazy listening to Barney and things. It's also a nice shade of pink, as opposed to the pepto-pink we usually see in girls' toys.

Also great for those of us who are Hello Kitty fanatics! The sound quality is excellent, and the ASP actually works, unlike a lot of the "non-toy" portable CD players.

   

JVC RV-NB1 Kaboom Series Boombox
From JVC

JVC is one of the world's leading developers and manufacturers of sophisticated audio, video and related software products. Building upon a wealth of technologies the company is moving decisively to offer appropriate solutions for the multimedia age. To remain at the forefront of the audiovisual industry in the 21st century, JVC is marshalling its resources to create the ultimate in appealing, cost-competitive products.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38546 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Charcoal
• Brand: JVC
• Model: RVNB1
• Dimensions: 14.37" h x 30.31" w x 13.39" l, 21.00 pounds

The JVC RV-NB1 Kaboom Series Boombox is a powerful CD/MP3 portable player with a funky feature -- a built-in guitar amp featuring twin super woofers for massive sound and rich, deep bass tones. This unit will play CDs, CD-R/RWs, and MP3, so you can access your favorite tunes from virtually anywhere in your music library. The RV-NB1 also plays all your old favorites on cassette and delivers clear AM/FM radio. The tuner stores 15 AM and 30 FM stations in its memory for quick tuning at the touch of a button.

This Kaboom boombox delivers big sound with 52 watts of total power. With this power backing, the RV-NB1's super exciter bass circuit is able to achieve deep, rich bass tones through the dual 6.3125-inch subwoofers. Meanwhile, the active clear sound (ACS) feature improves the other frequencies' clarity for an excellent balance with the deep lows. If the bass levels seem a bit too strong, then you can use the independent subwoofer volume control to keep the bass tones from overwhelming the overall sound. Plus, this boombox features four preset equalization settings -- flat, beat, pop, and clear -- so you can set your levels with the push of a button.

The CD player and cassette deck have twist-doors to keep your music in place and playing. Keep the hits rolling with continuous, repeat, and random play settings on the Kaboom CD player and the auto-reverse transport function on the tape deck. You'll be thrilled as tunes just keep pouring out of the dual 3.1875-inch front-firing, full-range speakers.

Added features such as the carrying strap, remote control, AUX input, clock/timer with sleep and wake-up, and backlit illuminated LCD display make the Kaboom RV-NB1 an excellent choice for any room in your house or for music on the go.

What's in the Box
RV-NB1 boombox, remote control, and carrying strap.

This Box Rocks
If you need big sound and the ability to play MP3 discs, this is the one to get. I work in a factory and it is a noisy environment. There are also other radios and boomboxes to compete with. I wanted a radio that could be heard above the ambient noise and also had the ability to blow away my coworkers' boxes! I have not been disapointed. The JVC RVNB1 gets very loud. At full volume it is painful to the ears if you are closer than about three feet. The subs pump out very powerful and clean base. You can really feel the
puffs of air being ejected from the ports. It surprises people when they walk by and feel the air coming out. The subs have a seperate volume control so the effect can be modulated. As for the overall quality of the sound, i would rate it as very good. I usually listen to rock/pop music at work and this radio excells at this type of music. The powerfull bass really helps. I haven't really listened to classical or jazz so i can't say how they would sound but it should be good.
One of the main reasons that prompted me to buy this product was it's MP3 capability. I did alot of research and there really aren't alot of options for MP3 boomboxes that put out big sound. maybe this will change as more products come out, but for now i think this is your best bet. i made several discs using my PC and they worked perfectly in the JVC unit. it takes about 30 seconds for the unit to read the disc before it plays. It's really nice to be able to have a CD that can play up to 8 hours of music. this is especially helpful in a work place, as the boss may not like his workers fiddling with boomboxes.
Another cool feature of this beast is it's remote control unit. This fits into a handy pouch on the shoulder strap, so as not to get lost. It is a full size remote that can control all functions of the player, including the volume of the subwoofers. I find it very useful at work as i am often restricted in my movements- ie:
working on an assembly line several feet from the radio. the layout of the controls on the remote are very logical and easy to use. the same can be said of the controls on the radio itself.
In summary, this is a great boombox. If you need a big boomer that can play MP3s it may be the only way to go. It is rather spendy at $250 but i found it to be a good value in it's performance and features. It is heavy at 23 lbs. I usually carry it by the handles on the ends rather than the shoulder strap. Either way, it is not easy to haul around. If you are looking for portability this is not a good choice for you. I don't leave my radio at work as i fear it will grow legs. Hauling it in and out from my car each day is a hassle but i put up with it because of the performance of the radio. I really don't want to be without the great sound it provides. This unit looks to be very tough in construction and i am expecting it to last a long time. I have only had it for about 3 months but so far so good. I like the locking mechanisms on the CD and cassette units. Speaking of cassettes, i have never used mine so i can't comment on that. One thing i don't really like, apart from the bulk and weight, is the
overall appearance. It is grey and light grey in color. I find it rather drab. I was actually considering doing a paint job on it to dress it up. Anyway, these are my oppinions and impressions of this fine product. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for big sound and MP3 capability who is willing to put up with it's weight and bulkiness.

Excellent for standard music CDs and MP3 CDs BUT
I did not purchase this through Amazon but as a regular Amazon customer I felt obligated to review this product for my fellow "Amazoners." Everything about this product is excellent and worthy of 5 stars except for the radio reception which is ABSOLUTELY horrible. This device is incapable of picking up nearby stations that all the others radios & receivers that I own can easily pick up, and that would be 5 if you include my car radio. Another strange thing is the way it handles some stations. For example, 101.1 and 101.5 are powerful stations where I live. 101.5 is more powerful though. What the radio does for some reason is receive 101.5 on 101.1, 101.2, 101.3, 101.4, 101.5, 101.6, and 101.7, with only 101.5 actually coming in clear. It does the same thing on all frequencies. So, even though it comes with 30 FM presets, you probably will only be able to use about 10 if you are lucky...and I live close by both New York City AND Philadelphia! Again, music CDs and MP3 CDs sound superb, but I also bought this as an FM radio and for that it is horrible. I am very disappointed for a device like this that costs as much as it does. One final warning: Read carefully its dimensions AND weight! This thing is huge and heavy. Don't think you are going to tote this thing around like a "regular" portable radio because that just isn't going to happen. I hope you find this information helpful.

A Party Entertainer's perfect piece of Equipment
I bought this product after thorough research and sending back another product that was just too large to carry easily.

If you are a magician, clown, or belly dancer, or some other kind of party entertainer this is the perfect portable, all-in-one durable piece of equipment on the market at this time for dragging to gigues. The guitar amp is also for large pin microphone and has a mixing knob (thus it does Karaoke: you can sing with the music). You will not find this in any other description, not even JVCs. I had to buy the product to see what it really can do.

It has no-nonsense buttons, you don't have to read the instructions to operate it and the sound is clear and LOUD.

A great item for the investment, I think I can will it to my kids.

   

Panasonic SL-CT730 - CD / MP3 player
From Panasonic

The SL-CT730 is a little over an inch thick and weighs a mere 4.8 ounces without the battery. You'll hardly notice it during your busy day, but you'll be glad you have it with you.Advanced D.sound technology is comprised of four components that work together to elevate your audio experience to the next level. A Digital Amplifier helps reduce distortion and also helps you achieve crystal-clear sound - even at higher volume levels. The S-XBS and Digital Audio Gain Control help to improve bass response at higher volume levels and MP3 Re-Master technology allows the listener to receive outstanding sound quality from compressed music files, such as MP3 and WMA.Without H.Bass, headphones and compact speakers cannot reproduce some of the bass sound components that are included in music. H.Bass technology reproduces the harmonic series of bass components. This gives the listener the sensation of a fuller bass sound that cannot actually be reproduced with headphones and compact speakers.You can achieve up to 150 hours1 of MP3 and up to 85 hours1 of CD-DA Playback with the supplied battery life expander. It lets you power the SL-CT730 with two Ni-MH rechargeable batteries and two AA alkaline batteries, for some amazing playback times.The SL-CT730 is designed to reduce or eliminate CD skipping during most active uses. It even has a backup memory feature that helps provide further assurance of a skip-free listening experience.MP3 is the most popular and widely used digital audio compression format available today. Since MP3 files are so small, you can burn a library of music onto CD-R/RWs2 from a compatible computer and play them back on your SL-CT730 Portable CD Player. And with ID3 Tagging, you can display the title, artist name and album name on the remote while the MP3 file is playing.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #68268 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Panasonic
• Model: CT730

...you might have just about the perfect sound for eighty bucks
Like the other reviewer has mentioned, this might to be the ideal player without the need to go higher in price. The mids, lows, and highs, come through perfrectly, without an equalizer. 4 bass settings to chose from, and you might have just about the perfect sound for eighty bucks. Interestingly, this player powers a pair of Senns 650's headphones beautifully, with not need for an amp.

A Stand Out
This player is a cut above anything else on the market. It is the only one that you don't have to open the case to change batteries. The batteries are rechargeable and remain inbedded in the device. The 2 batteries last a long time and since they are about the size of a piece of gum, Panasonic was able to make the player VERY thin. The controls are easy to access. It comes with an extra battery case that holds two AA batteries. With the case connected to the player, battery power lasts forever (it seems), albeit somewhat cumbersome.

I must have gotten a dud!
I can't seem to reconcile my own experience with these glowing reviews. How do I hate the Panasonic SL-CT730? Let me count the ways:

(1) There is NO display on the player itself--there is only an *attachment* that you plug into the player (then plug your headphones cable into the attachment) that provides a small display. This attachment hangs off the player and is attached by the flimsiest imaginable cord. The attachment's display lights up only once you've pressed a button, and there is no way to keep it permanently lit. The attachment also has it's own control buttons which, unbelievably, do not correspond perfectly in function to the control buttons marked with the same symbols on the player. Essentially, while using this player, you must remember how to use two sets of different--but highly similar--control buttons. Human factors psychologists should use this thing to test the limits of human cognitive load!

(2) The battery life on my unit is bad: insanely, no-way-they-sold-it-intending-it-to-be-this-bad bad. With the rechargeable battery, I got through about one and a half standard CDs (that's CDs that are less than 80 minutes each; not mp3 CDs which can be much longer) before it died. So I tried it with two AA batteries. (AA batteries can only be used on the player with the help of....you guessed it, another attachment! (connected by another flimsy cord, naturally)). I would not contend that the player is usually this way; both common sense and the previous product reviews insist that the battery life of this player must usually be much better. However, I think it's important to report on the fact that I got a complete dud in terms of battery life. If I got a dud, you could too, right?

OK, so that looks like just two complaints, but it was really many more than that, I just lazily lumped them into two broad categories. But I hope you have gotten the idea: I hate this player so far, and I have some good reasons for doing so. Maybe I'll update this review in the near future to let you know about Panasonic's product return/replacement process!

ETA 04/07/07: I've decided to keep the player, simply because the sound quality is so terrific. I dropped $40 on a Sony DNE330BLK CD Walkman, and I couldn't stand to listen to it after comparing with the phenomenal sound quality of of the SL-CT730. I still maintain a couple of my gripes (the player is hard to program, the player itself has no display), but the rechargeable battery, as it turns out, recharges just as fast even if you are listening to a CD while charging. So while the advertised life of each battery charge is still a brazen lie, I find it's not too bad to just listen to 2 CDs with the unit plugged in, and then be able to go completely portable using the battery as the power source for the next 3-4 CDs.

   

Sony D-NE900 ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player
From Sony

Long playback, slim design and advanced functionality make the D-NE900 a great buy. Sony DSP technology has extended battery life to more than 85 hours utilizing one NH-14WM Rechargeable Battery and one "AA" battery. The thin aluminum body looks good, and it's great for travel. The D-NE900 supports ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3, MP3 and CD-R/RW formats. It can fit up to 490 songs on 1 CD-R/RW disc @ 48kbps, and the SonicStage Software makes it easy to manage your music library. Includes a Slim Stick Backlit Remote Control which gives you total control with just one finger. Over 85 hours of battery life. Thin aluminum and magnesium body. Fits up to 490 songs on 1 CD-R/RW disc.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27003 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DNE900

Get the most from your digital music listening with Sony's D-NE900 portable CD player, which includes SonicStage CD Simple Burner software so you can take full advantage of ATRAC3plus (Sony's proprietary music-compression technology) when making custom MP3 CDs on your computer. Playback options include 32-track programming, repeat (track, disc, or program), random play, and--thanks to Sony's great work in DSP efficiency--an incredible 85 hours of playback from the supplied gumstick rechargeable battery and a single AA battery (not included) in the unit's external battery case.

A supplied carrying pouch and slimstick backlit remote control simplify use when you're on the go. The player also includes Sony's popular jog dial control for easy folder navigation, a 4-line dot-matrix display, advanced file navigation with full ID3 tag recognition, and bookmark playback (which lets you program your favorite songs from multiple CDs and play them back at the touch of a button). CD Text support displays artist and title information with compatible commercial audio CDs.

Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, SonicStage CD Simple Burner software transfers songs from CDs or MP3 music files from your PC's hard drive and burns them to recordable CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.

ATRAC3plus is a high-quality audio-compression technology that reduces the size of digital audio files while preserving much of a track's original sound quality (similar in concept to MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats). With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kbps (kilobits per second), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps).

Skip-Free G-Protection technology boosts the laser pickup's shock protection to minimize read errors that would otherwise interrupt your music, providing quick recovery from both horizontal and vertical shocks. The D-NE900's heat-resistant lid helps protect the player against high-temperature build up, especially when you're using it outdoors or in a vehicle.

Sony's automatic volume limiter system (AVLS) conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of 2 settings.

What's in the Box
CD player, MDR-027 stereo headphones, LCD Remote Commander remote control, rechargeable battery (NH-14WM), backlit battery-charging stand, external battery case (AA x 1, battery not included), a CD-ROM (Sonic Stage software), a carry case, an AC power adapter, a user's manual, and warranty information.

Slim-Line Design with Aluminum Body. Includes SonicStage Software / MP3 - ATRAC3plus - ATRAC3 Format Playback. Whether you're commuting, working at a desk, or working out at the gym, the D-NE900 CD Walkman Portable CD Player will keep you entertained and informed right up to the moment.

What's in the box

Stereo Headphones, CD-ROM (SonicStage Software), LCD Remote Commander, Remote Control with Backlit, Battery Charging Stand, Rechargeable Battery (NH-14WM x1), External Battery Case (AA x 1), Carrying Pouch, AC Power Adapter

Four and a Half Stars
Plusses:

- Good sound quality (not excellent) typical of Sony portables. The "active" sound setting seems to be the best at volume, and the "custom" equalizer setting is nice if you need to compensate for too much bass or treble within a recording. I was listening to a CD today, for instance, that had too much treble, so I switched the setting to "custom" and turned the treble down a little, while boosting the bass a smidge.

- Absolutely will not skip, which is nice because the last Sony Discman I owned would skip if the wind blew in China.

- Durable. I dropped it today on my kitchen's linoleum floor from about four feet. Not only did it not skip, but it just kept playing like nothing happened.

- The supplied headphones are okay (not great). If you're serious about sound you'll use better headphones.

- Very intuitive controls on both the CD player and the remote control. After a few minutes of practice you get it down.

- Battery life is great.

- The aesthetics of the player are nice, and this is the slimmest player I've ever experienced.

- The info screens on the player and the remote are large and, well, informative.

- I haven't tried the ATRAC dealio, and I'm not sure I will, but I'm glad that the player will play just about anything I throw at it, including older, scratched CDs, MP3s, etc.

Minuses:

- Doesn't get loud enough. You can make it loud, but you sacrifice sound quality and depth, even in good headphones (I use Sennheiser HD280pros). Perhaps a separate headphone amplifier would improve the volume issue.

- The player and remote controls are a bit chinsy. The jog wheel on the player, for instance, is a bit tough to turn in a plasticky sort of way. In other words, there's a lot of plastic here, rather than heavier, smoother metal.

Summation:

High quality player for those who are picky about sound and features. The plastic issue can't be fixed, but the volume issue can, although you'd have to shell out some more bucks for a headphone amplifier. Also, I'd recommend this player only if you have a good set of headphones, or are not worried about the sound through the supplied, complimentary, headphones. The price here at Amazon was the best I was able to find after thorough research and it was shipped in one day for free.

Rating: Four and a half stars.

DNE900B review
I am posting this review to assist anyone else after info on this model, as I could find very few reviews on it anywhere. I have only owned the thing for a month (black version of course - they go faster/sound better), so these are some preliminary thoughts. I hope this is of some use - email me if you have any queries.

THE PLAYER
I spent a while wondering whether to get this Sony or an I-River IMP job. Getting both was the clear solution, but alas not practical. Have read good and bad reviews of the IMP players, not sure what swung me to the Sony. Either would probably be fine.

The player is excellent (but was too expensive!). Very slim, solid construction, the thing looks and feels tough. Recessed plug socket for the phones/remote is a nice touch. Have had no problems with the life of the battery. I have been using it solely on the internal single battery, playing audio discs and MP3s (not ATRAC), and it's lasted a long time. The external battery pack is strange. Could find no description of this thing anywhere before I bought it. Essentially you can attach the external pack, with single AA battery to front of the player, either by itself, or in conjunction with the internal battery. I do not use it, as it is clearly fragile (plastic) and ruins the ergonomic design of the whole thing. I keep it in a pack as back-up, but as I bought a spare rechargeable battery I may never use this. However, you can attach the external battery pack and recharge the internal battery by plugging DC into the external battery pack. Recharge cradle works well.

Player has lots of features. Reads discs quickly and have had no problems with play-back. As several people have noted, the bass is not particulary 'heavy'. Altho digital bass is mentioned, there is no separate bass boost facility, just the parametric equalisr. The equaliser offers several settings, and you can set your own 'custom' settings. This feature is quite confusing! You can modify the low, mid and high. Three parts of each frequency range (ie 9 settings), set the volume for each, however, the weird thing is that you can ony modify ONE part of each of the three subsets of each frequency bands - once you modify one of the three subsets it cancels out the previous modification you may have done. Very strange, if anyone can figure this out, please let me know, I can't work it out. You should be able to modify the volume setting of all 9 subsets, but I can find no way - you can only modify one of each 3, ie 3 in total.

Yes, this thing will give woeful sound if you use crap headphones. Here in Australia we get some in-ear jobs supplied. They have cables that are way too short, so I simply plugged in another set of Sony in-ears and these sound great.

The remote is excellent, but takes some getting used to. The backlight facility is good. Easy to bump other buttons while using some, so the 'one-hand' claim may be a bit optimistic. I also worry that the thing's cable connection points are fragile. As I destroyed my last player by dropping it three times, I keep this player in a bag and use the remote all the time, works fine.

SOFTWARE

Being a luddite not yet able to afford or embrace an MP3 player/IPOD type thing, I got this as a compromise, knowing little about compression formats etc. Here is a summary of what I've found:

Sonic Stage is confusing and difficult to work. As an on-computer library it is not as good as Windows Media or ITunes. It has no graphic eq feature that I copuld find. When burning an ATRAC CD I could only get one of my two burner drives to be recognised. I also found strange problems where after ripping tracks to ATRAC I could not then burn them to disc, the software kept saying that there's no authorisation to burn or something similar, perhaps this has something to do with copy control - I have no idea but it convinced me to ditch the idea of using ATRAC files completely.

Ther is no way you can burn an ATRAC CD that includes existng MP3 files on the same disc - the software will convert them to ATRAC or not burn them. ATRAC sounds great, but I can't use ATRAC files on any other library program like ITunes or Windows Media, so I will not be using ATRAC. There is NO way that I can find to convert ATRAC files to MP3 using Sonic Stage or any other software, so it's a case of keeping 2 copies of a track if you want ATRAC and MP3.

I use Music Match Jukebox to rip tracks as MP3. One user suggested ripping to MP3PRO and playing on the DNE900, but I believe that the DNE900, even though it wil play the Mp3PRO file, will not play the separate high-frequency component of the file, so the sound is not as good as straight MP3. Please correct me if I'm wrong. The player will not play WMA files. Therefore there's not much point rippping to MP3PRO and playing on the SONY. I rip the tracks as straight MP3 files and use Windows Media Player as my standard libray/plyer on the computer. WM player has a burning facility but I can't work out how to set up folders on the CD to burn so I use Nero to burn the MP3 discs (the version I use doesn't recognise ATRAC so I can't use this to mix ATRAC and MP3 files either).I like ITunes but opted for WM player. The DNE900 plays MP3 files well, it will use more battery power to play these than ATRAC apparently but that's OK.

That's about it. Have fun, let me know how you go!

Robert Ashdown

Small and powerful
Initially I was just looking for a small CD player so that I could listen to recorded books when I wasn't in the car. Then I discovered ATRAC software and (even though I thought it sounded too good to be true) knew I wouldn't be happy with JUST a CD player. I did a little research and decided a remote control would also be essential. So, the D-NE900 was in the running but seemed a tad expensive until I found a great deal at Amazon.

I've been more than pleased with it. (My husband must be tired of hearing me gloat about it!) And the ATRAC software has become a necessity (instead of a luxury) since I can no longer play CDs from the library in my new car's CD player.

The car was about 6 weeks old when a borrowed CD got stuck in the changer and I had to take it in to the dealership's Service Dept. They gave me a new changer and had to send the other one off to extricate the CDs. (Thank goodness it was warranty work!) The service rep says it doesn't matter what make car you have, CDs that have inventory labels (such as from the library) or even CDs YOU BURN have a chance of getting stuck. He said you should only play recorded CDs you buy from the store.

So...I still rent the CD books from the library but I record them into the ATRAC format and listen to them on my D-NE900 in the car and anywhere else I decide to take it. So far the most I've transferred is 24 CDs (2 books) onto 1 ATRAC CD, but it will hold more. And the battery life is amazing. The only problem I've had is when the PLAY button must've gotten pushed accidentally - I've made sure to use the LOCK buttons since then and haven't had that problem anymore. It took me a little while to learn all the remote functions but I'm so glad I have the remote! I just put the player in a fanny pack, clip the remote to my clothes and away I go.

I would definitely recommend the Sony D-NE900.

   

Sony D-NS707F S2 Sports ATRAC Walkman Portable CD Player with Digital Tuner (AM/FM/TV/Weather)
From Sony

Is your workout demanding? Choose a sports Walkman that can hang. The D-NS707F's water-resistant design includes rubber gaskets, bushings, and seals that help keep out water, moisture and dirt. Its heat-resistant lid protects against high temperature build-up, and the Skip-Free G-Protection Technology provides quick recovery from bumps and shocks. The D-NS707F is packed with features too. It has a built-in digital tuner with AM, FM, TV and Weather bands, and it includes 51 station presets. You can get over 50 hours of continuous playback with just 2 "AA" batteries, and the D-NS707F supports ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3, MP3 and CD-R/RW playback formats. ATRAC3plus lets you put up to 490 songs on 1 CD-R/RW disc, and the SonicStage Software makes it easy to transfer music from your PC. It also supports CD Text and ID3 Tagging, so you can easily view song, album and artist information.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30316 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DNS707F
• Dimensions: 10.00" h x 14.00" w x 12.00" l, 2.00 pounds

Spin your commercial CDs, your homemade music CDs of almost any stripe, or listen to the radio, TV, or weather-band transmissions with Sony's versatile, full-circle D-NS707F S2 Sports-styled Walkman portable CD player. Designed for rugged outdoor use, the player features active control playback operation so you can make changes to your program literally while you're on the run. Sony's "h.ear" clip-on headphones are designed for streamlined comfort.

Skip-Free G-Protection technology boosts the laser pickup's shock protection to minimize read errors that would otherwise interrupt your music, providing quick recovery from both horizontal and vertical shocks. The D-NS707F's water-resistant body and heat-resistant lid helps protect it against the elements, with rubber gaskets, bushings, and splash-resistant seals that help keep out water, moisture, and dirt.

Playback options include 32-track programming, repeat (track, disc, or program), random play, and--thanks to Sony's great work in DSP efficiency--more than 75 hours of ATRAC3plus CD or more than 50 hours of audio CD playback from 2 AA batteries (not included).

The D-NS707F's 2-line dot-matrix display is built right into its handstrap, offering full ID3 tag recognition, and bookmark playback (which lets you program your favorite songs from multiple CDs and play them back at the touch of a button). CD Text support displays artist and title information with compatible commercial audio CDs.

The player comes bundled with Sony's SonicStage CD Simple Burner software. Compatible with ID3 tagging and most CD burners, this application transfers songs from CDs or MP3 music files from your PC's hard drive and burns them to recordable CDs using ATRAC3plus compression.

ATRAC3plus is a high-quality audio-compression technology that reduces the size of digital audio files while preserving much of a track's original sound quality (similar in concept to MP3 or Dolby Digital sound formats). With ATRAC3plus, music can be burned and compressed at 132, 105, 66, 64, or even 48 kbps (kilobits per second), letting you select the right balance between fidelity and storage space (you'll get around 490 songs per disc at 48 kbps).

The D-NS707F delivers a whopping 51 station presets, which works out to 30 FM, 10 AM, 4 WB, and 7 TV stations so you're never far from your favorite channels. You can hook the player up with your home system through an optional analog stereo "Y" interconnect.

Digital Mega Bass Sound boosts your music's low end without high clarity and low distortion, and there's also a built-in equalizer with 3 preset curves and 1 customizable setting. Sony's automatic volume limiter system (AVLS) conserves batteries--and guards your hearing--by capping your listening level at either of two settings. The player also works with an optional AC/DC 4.5V power adapter (AC-E45HG or -E45A).

What's in the Box
CD player, h.ear clip-on stereo headphones, CD-ROM (SonicStage software), a user's manual, and warranty information.

Is your workout demanding? Choose a sports Walkman that can hang. The D-NS707F's water-resistant design includes rubber gaskets, bushings, and seals that help keep out water, moisture and dirt. Its heat-resistant lid protects against high temperature build-up, and the Skip-Free G-Protection Technology provides quick recovery from bumps and shocks.

The D-NS707F is packed with features too. It has a built-in digital tuner with AM, FM, TV and Weather bands, and it includes 51 station presets. You can get over 50 hours of continuous playback with just 2 "AA" batteries, and the D-NS707F supports ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3, MP3 and CD-R/RW playback formats. Atrac3plus lets you put up to 490 songs on on 1 CD-R/RW disc, and the SonicStage Software makes it easy to transfer music from your PC. It also supports CD Text and ID3 Tagging, so you can easily view song, album and artist information.

Operates faultlessly
This player takes CDs, including CD-Rs and CD-RWs with 20+ hours of mp3 on them, in stride. It plays them through, and does fast forward and rewind about as well as my solid-state mp3 player. Utilizing CD-RWs, I use this unit instead of a juke box. I still use my solid-state mp3 player only because it is more compact than this unit. As I prefer having TV audio available, no other player/receiver would have entirely satisfied me. The impressive technical accomplishment of this product will cause me to favor Sony products in future.

The exterior design does leave things to be desired. The control buttons are cheesy and hard to operate. The display is too small. Instead of a carrying case or an anchor for a strap, there is a stupidly designed protruding flexible handle that makes the unit twice as bulky as it needs to be.

Great for CD's, lousy with MP3's and ATRACS.
Pros:
1. Long battery life.
2. Decent sount (on CD's).
3. Easy to read display.

Cons:
1. Plays first quarter of an MP3 fine, then it starts scratching and eventually stops.
2. Plays first tenth of an ATRAC disk fine, then it starts scratching and eventually stops.
3. Takes about 5 - 10 minutes (not seconds!) to read a MP3 disc before playing.
4. Button placement makes it easier to use with your left hand rather than right.
5. You have to press a button rather hard and long to make the function work.

In other words, if you listen to the radio and CD's only - and are left handed, this is the perfect player for you!

The best I have ever had
I have not encountered any of the problems other reviewers have had. To prevent the screen becoming scratched, put a piece of clear Scotch tape over it. True, the strap is bulky, but you don't have to hold it; I loop it through my pants belt with the controls facing upwards, then I can control everything with one finger without even looking at the unit. I wear it all day long and love it. I have noticed that it is very complicated to enter programs into the memory, but I just keep it at the stations on MA, FM & TV that I like the most. The station memories remain intact while you change batteries, and mine have always worked perfectly, irrespective of which disc I am playing. Perhaps I just get the good ones, but I am on my 5th one, having used and given away as gifts the others, which never failed to work perfectly, after being constantly bumped, dropped and splashed on. I cannot find anything else made by anyone else that comes near this quality. Keep your receipt; If you get a defective one, return it and try another. This is America! Way to go, Sony!

   

RCA RP2700 - CD player
From Thomson SA

60-Second espXtreme Skip Protection retains up to 60 seconds of CD music in memory providing shock-resistant uninterrupted music playback. CD-R / CD-RW Compatibility - the player is able to play CD-R & CD-RW discs. Extended Battery Life provides up to 20 hours of uninterrupted CD music with two "AA" alkaline batteries. Battery Saver Auto-Off saves battery by shutting down automatically 30 seconds after disc has stopped.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #105869 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Thomson SA
• Model: 2700
• Dimensions: 48.00" h x 96.00" w x 144.00" l, 2.00 pounds

Really, Really Bad
I think I payed about $25 for mine. I thought the price was so low simply due to technology getting cheaper. (It had been years since I needed to purchase a new one.)
This thing was the most frustrating piece of junk I've had to wrestle with. The electronics must have been shoddy because sometimes I would press one button, and the action of another would happen (for example, I would press Pause, and it would replay the track, or I would press Next, and it would shut off).
Also it was unpredictable as to whether it would actually begin to read the CD. I would just hear the motor constantly trying to drive to home... for almost 30 seconds. Maybe I just happened to get a bad one, but, that was my experience.

I bought mine as a refurb.
I am absolutely delighted. I far prefer the sound quality to the same album played on the mp3. But, of course, the latter is far more convenient.

Good Player
I bought two RCA RP2700... Why? Because RCA/Thomson Electronics are the only ones that have surround sound capability. It's simulated but, it's the closest you'll get without the real thing. I bought a low watt computer surround sound system. Grabbed a couple of speaker stands, hooked it all up to the player, and now I have surround sound around my bed because of The RCA RP2700. With the subwoofer under and in the middle of the bed. Too Cool!!!

My Last RCA was a RP2440. It lasted 6 years before the motor burned out.

The other features are just what I wanted. You can program up to 20 songs on one CD. If you push pause it shuts off after 5 minutes. Push play again and it goes right to where you left off. The presets are vocal, rock, surround sound, superbass & normal. You can play the CD Once, Random, repeat one song or continuous repeat. The size, color and LED is perfect for my night stand. All RCA players are 4.5 volts. So it hooked up to my system quickly.

It sounds great... never skips unless the CD is bad and needs replacing. While it just stays on my night stand it should last a long time. Some time cheaper is better. I paid $17.99 each and I'm extremely lucky to get two because the surround sound availability is fading even with RCA.

If you're looking for something that's good at a lower price The RCA RP2700 is a good buy.

   

RCA RP2910B Personal CD Player
From RCA

RCA RP2910B Personal CD Player

• Brand: RCA
• Model: RP2910B
• Original language: English
• Dimensions: 1.50" h x 6.75" w x 9.50" l, .66 pounds

Buyer beware
Do not buy this CD player. It allowed me to listen to 11 CDS and then quit working. The construction feels very flimsy and not well put together. The device is not that expensive but at the price should still hold up for longer than a few weeks. The last one I had from Sony lasted several years and cost about the same.

   

Sony D-NE710 ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman Portable Disc Player
From Sony

Don't make another move without Sony's New D-NE710 ATRAC3 /MP3 CD Walkman Portable CD Player. This player sports a Slim Body with a Full Circle Design and a Clear Lid to add to its High Tech image. Its sleek style is just the beginning? ATRAC3plus, ATRAC3 and MP3 Format Playback, and the supplied SonicStage Simple Burner Software will enable you to create your own music mixes with the ability to get up to 490 songs on 1 CD-R/RW disc @ 48kbps. Ready to listen? Experience the benefits of features like Jog Dial Control, a Bookmark Playback Function, a 3 Line Dot Matrix Display, CD Text and ID3 Tagging Capability, and Over 95 Hours of Continuous Playback with 2 "AA" batteries for ATRAC3Plus Playback and 55 Hours for CD Audio Playback. Take your music anywhere? the D-NE710.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6084 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DNE710

A player for those who listen
First, let me say this player is the best one I have ever owned. Now that doesn't mean a thing unless I explain that I've owned about 8 portable CD players, and this is my 3rd mp3 CD player.

I got this player to listen to books on CD while at work (often times converted to mp3 or Atrac so that I don't have to change CDs.) As such I often push the envelope of compression and at times I'll have 400+ mp3 files on one CD. I've found you can really tell a lot about how well the player is made by using it under these extreme cases, so here's a feature list and my thoughts on each feature.

Batteries:
A definite plus. If you have regular CDs, this player will last about 30 hours, and with mp3/atrac you get that near 100 hours of play time on 1 set. Oh, and using NiMH batteries work great with this player, I highly recommend adding a set and a 1 hour charger. It took a week before I had the battery meter go down one notch, but it went down quite quickly after that. Also, it should be noted that this player uses a technology where it conserves power by using the spinning down CD to recharge an internal battery. Really cool to show your friends.

Atrac:
This was a surprise to me.

Atrac is a proprietary format (used with mini-disc) and it offers better compression than mp3. The software that came with this player will convert from mp3 to Atrac, but it is painfully slow. On the other hand, if you are ripping a CD for the first time, converting to Atrac is faster than ripping to mp3 by a factor of 1.5. The part that was disappointing was that you couldn't save your CD and add more files at a later time, it had to be done all at once.

The sound quality is the same, and quite frankly my advice is this; if you already have mp3s, just burn them on a CD. However, if you have a bunch (10 or more) CDs that you want to put on a single CD use Atrac (but remember it is only compatible with Sony players.)

Something else to consider is that there is no equivilent tool for Linux users, which is a real shame. If Sony was to support Linux, then I'm sure there would be easy ways to re-configure the software to better suit those power users

Overall, I rate this feature a mixed bag.

mp3:
Perfect. Quite a surprise, as my mp3s are often variable bit rate and on the high end of compression. Other players have trouble at the level of compression I use, not knowing when a track really ends, this player worked perfectly. One annoyance, sometimes there's a 1-2 second gap when loading the next mp3.

Random mode:
Good algorithm. I've had players that would play the same song 3 times in a row, because they didn't have a good method for choosing a random song. This player doesn't do that at all. Another plus for the Sony developers.

File System:
If you're like me, you like a nice, organized file system to order things. This player works great with folder and such. The only downside is sometimes folder names get cut off due to the display, so put the disc number first if you want to see it using the jump wheel. Also it is alphabetical, case sensitive, so don't be surprised if Zebra comes before aardvark. Finally, as adding leading zeros is automatic for me, I don't know how this player will work without them, so make sure you leave them on (not needed for Atrac.)

Oh one more thing, because I may have hundreds of files on a CD I was expecting a long time to load the CD. However, this player loaded it quite quickly, a very nice surprise.

Resets/Resume Mode:
This is another annoyance with this player. Every once a while it will reset and you'll loose your place in a CD. This happens so infrequently though, one shouldn't worry about it. On flip side, this player remembers where you were when you stopped, so you can always pick up right where you left off (even in the middle of a track.) Very cool. Another plus.

Durability:
This player is solid. I have no worries about it breaking like my Panasonic did. It's quite rugged, and will take some real abuse.

Remote:
Remotes on these types of players are inline with headphones, so you don't have to mess with the unit to skip past a track or such. This player has the spot for a remote, but it doesn't come with one. I contacted Sony about finding one, as it would make this player even better, but I didn't get a response. I'd really like a remote for this player, it is one of the only things I can find lacking with it. The remote is included in the next step up, but that version has no controls on the player it's self.

Summary:
If you have the money, this player will satisfy even the most discriminating user. I have been using it for two months, and love it. The only thing that could make it better is a remote, and some improvements with the software. Overall, definitely worth the money, and the +5 rating.

best player out there
this is my first time reviewing anything online, and the reason i feel compelled to do so is because i think that this discman is an absolute must for anyone out shopping for an mp3/cd player (Especially one for the car). i have spent quite a bit of time researching for the best cd player out there, have owned quite a few, and without a doubt this is the best one. where to start... the battery life is fantastic at 95 hours for two AA's. it's wonderfully slim and sexy, stylish and elegant in all the ways good electronics are. sound quality is great... some other discman's (panasonic), seem to sacrifice sound quality or the volume tops off at a level you cannot hear over the subway roar (not this one, this will break your ears at full volume...break them). it features fantastic antiskip... the thing will put the current song in memory after 10 seconds and stop it from skipping, making skipping virtually impossible (ie: you can hurl it at a homeless person and it will not miss a beat). the ease of switching between songs in mp3 or atrac form is unsurpassed. the id tagging here is perfect, but the big news, and the thing that makes me absolutely enthralled with this device is the jog dial. not to exaggerate, but the jog dial is the greatest invention since the typewriter... and more useful than water or air. it allows you to easily roll your way through hundreds of songs or folders in seconds. it is so simple that i am shocked other companies havent thought of this sooner. in many other players you have to tap a button a hundred times to get to the song you like... doesnt that suck? no one likes tapping!! here you roll, and its much faster and easier and looks cool as hell. what else to say? there are no problems with this discman...its perfect... it looks great, the buttons all make perfect sense in their placement, it works better than any discman i have ever seen or read about.... and if youre looking for the best you cannot do any better (Serisouly, even those more expensive ones out there arent more functional.... sure they look like miniature ufo's...but they dont have no jogdial).
enjoy it.

Great little device
After using this device for several months now, I will make the following quick comments:
1) This _IS_ an mp3 player. I was almost deterred by another review that stated the contrary. It plays mp3s quite nicely.
2) The atrac format is great. You can fit 24 hours of music (1.28GB of mp3s) onto one CD without losing sound quality. (I did notice a sound quality difference when I accidentally had the program set to AtracPlus.)
3) The one negative side to the atrac format is that it can take about five hours to convert/burn a CD (this on a fairly high-end computer). Let it run overnight, and you wake up to a nice new CD.
4) The battery performance is amazing. The walkman must have some sort of memory, because I noticed that the atrac CD is not always spinning. This would explain the long-life, as well as the complete absence of skipping. You can juggle the thing and not hear a skip.
5) Good jog dial and display, although they could eliminate the CD and folder icons that take up character space when switching folders.
If you own lots of CDs, this is a great way to store a lots of music on one disc. I recommend it.

   

COBY CX-CD109 BLK Personal CD Player with Stereo Headphones
From Coby

Personal CD Player with Stereo Headphones

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3939 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Black
• Brand: Coby
• Model: CX-CD109 BLK
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 6.00" w x 5.00" l, 1.65 pounds

you get what you pay for--and that ain't much with this one
COBY claims that this portable CD player will let you reliably listen to CDs with the headphones that come with it--but don't be too surprised if it fails you after just a couple of months. This is truly a case of "you get what you pay for." On the other hand, this might be a first portable CD player to give to a young child so that it won't break your heart (or your wallet) if the child drops it and it dies.

This portable CD player uses two AA batteries and, on the bright side, as long as it works you'll get a good amount of play time if you pick good batteries. It weighs barely more than eleven ounces; and that's good.

At first glance the controls on the CD player itself appear slightly confusing but after a couple of minutes you can learn the functions. The controls let you do just the basic things such as adjusting the sound, starting a CD, pausing the CD and stopping it. You can skip tracks as well using the buttons on the player.

Unfortunately, there are more disappointments. The control buttons are rather small so you need to be careful of how you touch them with your fingers. Moreover, the ear phone set hurt my head and ears almost from the word go. I would suggest that you purchase a better quality headset--but then you'll have to buy a headset that's significantly more expensive than the portable CD player itself! Ouch!

Music lovers will probably not be satisfied with this cheaply manufactured portable CD player; although it might be good for a young child who might accidentally bang it around a bit. In addition, the features don't always work reliably after a couple of months; and that's a shame. The quality of the sound could be better, too.

Skip this one and get a better portable CD player. You'll thank yourself down the road!

Low price, but greatThis is a very good
Very good CD player if you are not anal about non-skipping or other bells and whistles. It serves my purpose(s) perfectly .... even though the 1st one I received was broken. Amazon always makes good on their promises.

No good at all
My husband bought this so that he can hear his studying materials and he said that any move he makes the CD skips. He has to sit very still for it not to skip. Not worth the money.

   

Jwin Jxcd566Wht Portable Audio Cd Player With Anti-Skip Protection (White)
From JWIN

The JWIN portable CD player is CD & CD-R compatible and features 60-second anti-skip protection to ensure crystal clear sound.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50855 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: jWIN
• Model: JXCD566WHT
• Dimensions: .0" h x .0" w x .0" l, 1.70 pounds

Jwin Portable Audio Player
I'm not crazy about the color, but so far it seems to be working pretty well. There is still occasional skipping when I listen to audio books while I walk, but it's certainly a big improvement over my old CD players that didn't have this feature. Overall, it seems to be a good value for the money.

A Great Buy
It is everything advertised. I like that it is white and light weight. The CD player was delivered quickly and being able to read the reviews on it before buying was wonderful! I find the sound quality great.

track forward backward function broken
Pretty looking, but functionally it's "personality" has little to say for itself (like most of the girls I used to know, and dropped like a bad habit- I have one particularly in mind at the moment but I digress).

Basically, in an organically honest nutshell, you know the buttons you press to move to the next track or the one before ( < > ) ?

They are defective- you have to apply over five then ten pounds of pressure to get 'it' to respond.. then she, I mean it (sorry) breaks altogether.

Dear J-win company,

Get it together...because this time you lost.

   

COBY CX-CD109 RED Personal CD Player with Stereo Headphones
From Coby

Personal CD Player with Stereo Headphones

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7515 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: Red
• Brand: Coby
• Model: CX-CD109 RED
• Dimensions: 1.00" h x 6.00" w x 5.00" l, 2.00 pounds

Only took two weeks to fall apart...
I would not recommend this product to anyone. My son
received this cd player for his 10th birthday as a
replacement for an old one. Within two weeks the head-
phones quit working. The unit skips with the slightest
movement, making it no fun and unusable to my son. If
you can believe it, the old cd player is actually more
usuable than this almost brand new Coby cd player. : (

cd player
The particular unit I had ordered did not work. I had ordered it as a christmas present, and couldn't return it in time for something else. The unit was as described, just didn't operate, even after switching to several different (new) batteries. Handed it off so tech savvy kids who couldn't make it work either.

Tainted with lead!!!!!!!
Not only is this product a piece of crap, it specifically gives a warning to wash your hands after using b/c the cords are full of lead!! Who is regulating this stuff?!!