Rating: 
Summary: Problems to be aware of.
Review: I got one of these back when it was a new thing and cost about $60, and I have encountered the following problems:
- Scratches/engraves a ring around my discs at about 75% out from the center.
- Collects internal dust with a surprisingly fast rate compared to the non-MP3 discman I used before.
- Have to remove the disc to change batteries
- It just broke such that the spindle locks up on startup. I don't know if this is common, but it should not occur from normal wear and tear.
- Skips (in MP3 mode) when walking with it in any pants pocket other than top fron of back pockets.
Rating: 
Summary: My Long Search Is Over!
Review: I have been through 4 portable CD players in the last month (I have a good excuse though) and I have to say that I have finally found a great little machine that delivers just about everything that I am looking for at a really great price.
My trusty Panasonic SL-SX270 died last month after 2 years of pretty heavy abuse. I replaced it with a Sony Psyc that died (with no abuse) after only 3 weeks. I then exchanged that for a Sony D-NE510 ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman and I was appalled by the poor sound quality. It was the worst I have heard on any portable unit. I decided to give the Panasonic SL-MP70 a try and I am glad that I did!
The sound quality is great for this price. I have not even upgraded the headphones yet (although I plan to do this) but I am already very pleased with the sound. The highs are bright and the bass is nice and deep. The sound is very full and there is good seperation. This unit delivers very crisp and clear sound and I have turned the volume all of the way up using the s-xbs bass preset and have not had ANY distortion. Part of the reason for this is that the headphone output is not as powerful as some other units floating around there ... so if you are a volume freak this might not be for you. However, at 8mw per channel output it has more power than its sleeker (and more expensive) counterpart the Panasonic CT700 which is only rated at only 6mw. Also, I really like to listen to stuff loud and while I know there are more powerful units out there I find this to be just the right maximum volume. Another reviewer commented on how quiet the MP3 playback is ... I did not find that to be the case at all ... it is the same as CD playback. It all depends on how loud the original MP3s are burned at. If you have quiet MP3s they are going to stay quiet on this unit.
This unit also has great battery life - supposedly 50 hours and that sounds about right. The ID3 tag support is great (although I wish that there were more than 10 characters displayed.)
OK here are the negatives ....
No back-lit display (would be nice if you could push a button and see what was playing if you are in the dark.)
Can't play WMA files (the SL-MP80 can and it is only about $... more and I think all of the other specs are the same. For me I don't like WMA so I didn't want it.)
No line-out (which would be nice if you wanted to hook it up to a portable amp to drive some really nice headphones and get a little bit more power.)
Can't play Variable Bit Rate MP3s (at least not to my knowledge and I don't think that it's that great of a loss.)
Can't fast forward through MP3s (that would have been a nice feature but you can't have everything.)
Even though I just listed a bunch of negatives I still say that (for me at least) they are all minor ones and the positives more than outweigh them. I seriously doubt that you are going to find a better sounding machine with the functionality of this unit in this price range. I am completely happy with mine (and very relieved at finding a nice unit after my bad experiences with the new Sony models in a similar price range.)
***UPDATE***
I need to add the following. I dropped this machine from about 3 feet and as another reviewer promised, buttons really did fly off. Luckily I was able to open up the unit and put everything back in place but this is really unacceptable. These are portable units after all and should be able to take SOME abuse. I lowered the my rating from 4 stars to only 3. This machine still sounds great but it is really a shame that they skimped on the build. I considered returning mine but I am still satisfied with the sound and features so I will keep it. I am just going to keep it in a case as much as possible.
Rating: 
Summary: amazing value and quality
Review: i purchased this product for about 60 dollars. its sturdy does what its told and has amazing battery life. here are some pros and cons about this device.pros:
color scheme pleases the eye
can use with just one hand
quick reading, does a 143 file cd in a few seconds
sturdy(i dropped it once and it acted up for about a half hour and was back to normal)
48 hour battery!
buttons don't get pressed if its in ur pocket. i love that. cons:
there are few but the biggest problem is no artist id3 tag, you basically only get album and track name, this can be rectified by naming the mp3 file after the artist, but really i shouldn't have to it should just do it. the volume control is digital which is a personal problem for me, i like to move the knob. the headphones that came felt awkward but i just used my old earbuds. other than that its amazing, one thing however that you will need if you purchase this is a program like "tagscanner" or "the godfather" to rename and edit the id3 tags.
Rating:
Summary: Do your homework before you buy it
Review: I received this player two days ago and back it goes tomorrow morning. It did not play any MP3 at all, and we tried dozens of MP3, which played on another CD/CD-RW/MP3 player just fine. While playing CD-Rs it clanked and made other strange noises. It probably plays regular CDs but that is not the reason why I got this player. On the top of it all, IT SKIPS! I'm always very careful around electronic devices, so I didn't drop it or shake violently, but this player really skips despite all the advertising of exactly the opposite. It may be that I got a refurbished or damaged item from Amazon - whatever the cause of these problems, I'm rather disappointed in Panasonic.
Regarding the sound - I can't report on the sound of MP3 since this gadget never managed to play one of those, but being a huge classical music fan, I listened to the CD-R that it did play eventually after reading the disc very very slowly: sound is rather flat but not horrible. For this price one could not expect a Bose and for serious music lovers - at least those who prefer to hear classical finesse not just plain bass - this player, even if it works, needs better headphones. You get exactly what you pay for, and that is average in all senses of this word. I did not intend to listen to a lot of classical music on it anyway, because I primarily bought it for foreign language MP3 during the flights. For that purpose this player should be OK sound-wise. For REAL music - either get Bose headphones or a decent shelf system,home theater or car CD changer instead. In my humble opinion if one really wants to listen to quality music, especially classical, portable CD player is simply not the right choice anyway. Or,a player that can create that quality is not yet around.
Rating: 
Summary: Pleasant
Review: I was flipping through Circuit City the other day when this player caught my attention. I like the fact it can show ID3 tags, and it's really stylish. Battery life is long, about 35 hours playing audio CDs and "up to" 48 hours playing mp3's, on two AA alkaline batteries. I'm using nimh battery so I think the battery life will even be longer. I love this cute player. I put a few favorite mp3's on a Cd-r and now I have a single player that makes me happy.
Rating:
Summary: Pleasant
Review: I was flipping through Circuit City the other day when this player caught my attention. I like the fact it can show ID3 tags, and it's really stylish. Battery life is long, about 35 hours playing audio CDs and "up to" 48 hours playing mp3's, on two AA alkaline batteries. I'm using nimh battery so I think the battery life will even be longer. I love this cute player. I put a few favorite mp3's on a Cd-r and now I have a single player that makes me happy.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing CD player . . .if I could only get the MP3s to work
Review: If anyone has any advice regarding the following problem I'm having with this Mp3/CD player, it would be much appreciated. If you don't have any advice, thne you might want to read the below before you buy this player (which is a GREAT player except for what I have to say below). If the situation is ever rsolved, I'll post the results here. Please email me directly if you have any ideas.
I usually organize/tag all of my MP3 tracks with Media Center 9, and then I burn copies of various artist folders onto CDR using Adaptec DirectCD (drag and drop the files, then format the disk to be read on any CD player or CD drive).
Now, when I place the data disk in any PC, my folders and files are in perfect order and playback fine. When I use Media Center to access or import the data disk, everything is really terrific -- the data and tags import back into Media Center perfectly. Everything works fine using a number of other mp3 programs and on various computers and players.
However, when I try to play the same data disks in my Norcent DVD player or on my Panasonic CD/MP3 walkman (Panasonic SL-MP70 Portable CD/MP3 Player) . . . ALL of the files are split up into multiple tracks. A data CD that is supposed to have 189 individual MP3 song files will now have 999 tracks.
With the DVD player this makes it very difficult to navigate, but playback at least sounds fine. With the Panasonic Portable, however, there is a PAUSE inbetween each track . .. so not only is it tough to navigate the 999 tracks, but you also end up with 999 pauses . . . which is insane.
My question: is the way I'm labeling/organizing/tagging these tracks in MC9 causing the problem? Or is it the way I'm encoding (I've tried both VBR and regular MP3, with no results)? Or is it the Adaptec DirectCD that's splitting the tracks (and if so, why can MC9 still read the files without these additional 999 track breaks)? This is extremely frustrating, since this "999 track pauses" makes listening to Mp3s more or less impossible. The Mp3 Id3 tags, however, work great, and the battery life and menu and everything else about this player is wonderful.As is battery life. Great! AAA+++! And it looks cool, and the headphones are decent, and if you buy or own better headphones then the sound on this player is really wonderful. But why buy an MP3/CD player that destroys Mp3 files in this way? You might as well just buy a normal Cd player. But maybe it's just me . . . I haven't found anyone else who's had this problem, and Panasonic's tech support has yet to get back to me.
Rating:
Summary: Just plain awful
Review: If you care anything at all about sound quality stay far away. I have a very expensive pair of headphones I use with a variety of CD players on various computers, etc. Sound quality has never been an issue with any of them really. Then I got this pile of crap. It sounds HORRIBLE. The two preset eq settings don' help either. I have dozens of Panasonic products including my 1996 model portable CD player (it's huge by today's standards ad takes 6 batteries). I bought this to replace it and the new one made the old one sound incredible. Stay away.
Rating:
Summary: Buyer beware
Review: If you purchase this product, I hope you are completely satisfied. It is my opinion that the reliability of Panasonic products has slipped in recent years, and this was confirmed to me when a product I purchased quickly failed. The reason I'm posting this is to warn you that the warranty that accompanies Panasonic products only has value if the company chooses to stand behind it. In my case, they weaseled out of it, leaving me with a total loss and no further recourse. Good luck with your decision.
Rating:
Summary: The Lowdown
Review: It plays mp3s and regular cds very well. For the few who rated it low in case of a nuclear fallout:
It's not the most sturdy built thing, but reliability makes up for that. As w/ anything in life, the better you take care of something, the longer it should last. Even Panasonic admits (in the manual), 'dropping it' is not a very good idea. I suggest getting a real case, instead of throwing it in your backpack. Pros: -Cd R-W/MP3 playback; ID3 tags. -Resume(not exact point played, but plays last track heard over again; acceptable). Very important feature esp. if playing in car. Special *Random* - Also shuffles within separate albums and not just entire disk. Pretty uncommon feature in players. Cons: -No separate 'line out' - earphone doubles as. It's tolerable. -Grab a flashlight if you wanna use it in a blackout. -No WMA support, but you can buy the model up(SL-MP80)for $10 more. Bill Gates would appreciate it. In conclusion, it's a decent mid-grade brand player.
Your search is over.
| 
