JVC XLPM30 Portable MP3/CD Player

Rating:
Summary: You get what you pay for
Review: Pros: MP3 playback, sleek design, extended battery life, No skipping/clipping, Vibrant sound/bass (with good headphones), SOLID Construction, style, large display for clearly visible screen, great sound, quick, high-quality feel, remote, WMA support

Cons: Somewhat expensive (although worth it), Can't recharge batteris, No backlit display

Highly Recommended!!

JVC's XL-PM30 is more than just a CD player, although it is a perfectly fine CD player. The XL-PM30 can also play MP3 and Windows Media Audio files.

The XL-PM30 has a very clear display that will show MP3 text with ID3 tag, segment, track, and title data. The CD player has the usual assortment of playback features: repeat, intro scan, and random play, in addition to a 20-track program memory.

This is a very stable player with 45 seconds of antiskip protection for a CD and an incredible 140 seconds for an MP3 disc. It would take a massive earthquake to disrupt the XL-PM30. Designed with efficiency in mind, it will playback CDs for 22 hours or MP3 discs for 15 hours with alkaline batteries installed.

It comes with very comfortable headphones, which are actually a neckband with a wrap-around style and attached remote control. The headphones sound good, although the Hyper Bass provided a nice boost to the lower frequencies.

This is a very functional player that is ready for all of the best sounding formats.

Rating:
Summary: slow and buggy
Review: Pros:

Preset equalizer.
Large display.
Remote and adapter included.

Cons:

Skipping to the next mp3 is painfully slow, like 5 seconds.
Slow display scroll like 30 seconds to reach the title.
Cannot read many mp3 other player can read, (seams not to support variable bit rate).
Software is buggy: once resumed (at power on) only part of the CD.
Stopped spontaneously during playback for no apparent reason.
Battery eater: batteries are not 40 hours, this with the extra battery pack holder. Should read 20 hours on audio and the box's papers specs say 3h! On mp3, battery indicator started to blink after 8 hours with 4xAA NiMH 1500 mAh rechargables.
Heavy, thick and large.
Preset equalizers not documented.