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Panasonic SL-SV550 CD/MP3 Player

Panasonic SL-SV550 CD/MP3 Player

List Price: $59.99
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Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 3 stars
Summary: It's ok
Review: It's not too bad, but it's not loud enough. When you're in the train in NY you want to drown people out. Me personally I want to feel like I'm right there listening to them play. Another thing, I had a cd player that when I pressed play after I stopped it, it would start exactly where it stopped...to the second, but this one starts at the beginning of the song which isn't too bad but i prefer to stop at the exact minute. If you don't care for it to be too loud, this isn't too bad. That was what really disappointed me about this product.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It's great... but
Review: It's actually a great cd player, nice sound, easy to use, it has radio, long life battery, mp3 and all the basic functions you can find on a regular cd player, but the volume level is so low that you will need to buy some new headphones for sure, you can even hear the people around you when you're in the car or the bus, the headphones included has a nice design but are pretty cheap anyway.

If you want a great sound, you should buy another model from Panasonic or buy a new potential headphones.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: excellent according to expectations
Review: as you see I rated this player as 5 stars. In fact I am vary sceptic person and I thought 1-2 weeks before buying this product. Finally I read The reviews and Bought it. it is upper than my expectations and I am really happy with it. The radio,cost and also its sounds really great. only handicap is its headphones but it is worth buying despite that.
finally I am strongly offering this product if you expect buying a discman having low cost easy usage enaough features and more than exĂ°pected quality for its cost.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Not sufficiently reliable
Review: I thought the sound quality was fine. The battery life is great. But there are some little problems. For one thing, it doesn't let you skip forward within a track. That's a problem if you're listening to a book that has hour long tracks, e.g., audible.com. More importantly, after a few months mine simply stopped being a CD player. It's still a fine radio, but it doesn't play CDs of any kind. So far as I know, it was never dropped or anything. I'm hoping Panasonic will honor the warranty.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: don't buy it, it's a waste of money
Review: when i first bought this cd player, it was a good deal and it seemed to be very well made. but after a few months it started to break down. the cd payer first started to rattle, and then it finally broke. also, the latch broke off quite easily. as for the mp3 player, it is almost impossile to play them. it is to much of a hassle to load them on to the player and 99% of the time it dosn't work. also, it has a horrible volume range and the battery life was also very poor. the only good thing about this cd player was the radio, which was fairly decent and much louder then the cd player.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Returning it
Review: I've puttered around for years with an old Panasonic that was made before the anti-skip technology was common. I bought this one for that reason but, when jogging, it will skip. The controls were not great, it could use a remote (any sports model shouldn't require you to press buttons on the player to change a song or station), and an AC adapter.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Not impressed - I got a dud.
Review: I have two fundamental problems with this unit. The first is I cannot play MP3's on the unit. It scans the folders and files correctly then when you think it's about to play it simply shuts off. I've burned a small stack of CD's - using various settings - thinking there was something I was missing - but no - as that small stack plays on my friends Sony MP3 car stereo.

It does play my CD-DA music CD's, but the volume has a low range. I expected more - I got less. Not sure if this unit is defective, but since I bought in the US and live in Costa Rica I appear to be SOL.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Terrible Sound
Review: Well...a couple things bothered me about this product. At [another internet site], where I got the cd player from, the description of the unit said that an AC adapter is supposed to come with it. It actually doesn't. I only intended to use the thing when I'm at the library to study mindlessly. They have outlets there and that saves lots of dough on batteries.

The sound is also bad (and I know it ain't my new Kinyo KY-90 pulsating headphones...they can handle ANYTHING - [[UPDATE ON 01/07/04: My Kino headphones are now falling apart. I baby all my listening equipment, so it isn't me. First, the extra headphone extension cord broke...fine, I threw it out. Now the main headphone cord is crackling when held at certain angles, and the right earpiece is distorting, even when I play quiet piano music! Maybe it's time to splurge and buy some real equipment.]]).

Anyway, back to the Panasonic: I really only listen to orchestral music and whenever there are any trumpets playing loudly or some other loud, high-pitched sound, there's this annoying distortion (even when the CD player is turned town to 15 or 18). This is very similar to what happens on old record players (inconsistent frequency response - especially the high frequencies).

The limited volume is also annoying if you try to play orchestral music on it. There's all these little quiet parts that you'de like to be able to hear.

To be fair, if I put in Plankton Man or some other electronic music, it sounds fine.

Strangly, I never had the distortion problem with my old, CHEAP Koss CD player (even though all the buttons eventually broke - hey, I got a couple of years out of it!).

So, if, like me, you happen to be into things like being able to hear music and FREQUENCY RESPONSE, look elsewhere! I'm returning mine...

...

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Very fragile
Review: This player is as fragile as an egg!!! I take it to the gym and there is always something happening to it. It came with a great holder. But if you touch the holder the unit comes on. So I am constantly changing batteries. Also the open and hold switches are made of cheap materials that break at the drop of a hat. In fact, I'm in need of a repair now!!!! Also, whose bright idea was it to have the battery compartment inside the unit. What a pain. If I could get my money back I would.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Excellent for the gym
Review: For what it is and what it claims to do, this is a great little player. The no-skip feature works great- didn't skip once when I was working out, even when running at a decent clip. The MP3 function works as advertised, although the naming conventions are a bit funky. No ID tag support, but it doesn't claim any either (Panasonic does make one that does this). The AM/FM tuner is on par with other walkman-type devices. Sound quality is also as good as anything else out there- if you want audiophile level sound, you shouldn't be buying a portable device. The headphones are mediocre, but so are every other pair on products like this. For decent sound, get headphones with "Sennheiser" or "Grado" in the name. It will play at decent volume levels- some have complained about the volume, but it will go loud enough to damage hearing. If you are concerned about outside noise, get noise-cancelling or closed-ear headphones. As others have said, the construction is not particularly rugged- if you expect your player to take lots of abuse, you need to look elsewhere. On the other hand, it is very lightweight (a plus for you joggers).

Bottom line: this unit does exactly what it claims. If you want a good CD/AM/FM/MP3 solution for while you are out and about or working out, this is what you are looking for.


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