Rating: 
Summary: Don't buy this Unit
Review: Compared to the Sony CD/MP3 player that i used to have, this Panasonic is awful.
- very cheap feel to the unit as a whole. the hinged cover is especially low grade. feels like it is held onto the rest of the unit by a thread.
- sounds ok, as long as you use other headphones. the ones provided lack clarity and punch. moreover, they fall off very easily
- most of the controls on this unit sit in a row along the edge. the buttons are all of the same shape, and in low light, it's difficult to tell the various push buttons from one another. (volume up, volume down, track up, track down, play, stop).
Rating: 
Summary: Ok....
Review: General quality of the player is good. Of course the FM tuner will not work wewll, portable ones with antennas built into the player never do. And the reason they invented the CD player was to solve that problem. But every other aspect is good. I listen to it on our boat in choppy water, no skips yet. The only problem I have had is that the latch on the cover has broken. Everyone I see with this player has a piece of tape there too. It seems to be a design flaw.
Rating: 
Summary: relatively good for that price
Review: I bought it last week but I am a little bit disappoinnted. Why: 1. the sound is pretty flat. The XBS is powerful but the rest is like a background. No equalizer is available so nothing can help. 2. the behind the neck headphones are horrible. They do not fit to your ears so you do not hear the music if you are outside or not in a quiet room. Tehy also slip and I have the feeling they are made for big headed people with big enough ears like Shrek for example. 3. Without a remote control you will find it dificult to operate because you have to take it out everytime you want to adjust the volume or skip forward. The buttons are small and almost the same so there is no way to adjust it without taking it out of your pocket. 4. The radio is good even though you cannot listen to it were there is no coverage. Overall it is good if you are not a sound quality maniac like me. I have a cheaper RCA which sounds better. Changing the headphones won't help either.
Rating: 
Summary: *** 3 star is a little under-rated. It deserves **** 4 star
Review: I bought one from Amazon when it was on-sale for $45. This CD player might not be excellent but stil very good. Great deal when price is down.
Pros: Sound quality(especially for MP3), the bass is very nice too. Quality contruction, great functionality with randomly play any song in multiple CDs. FM tuner is quite good too.
Cons: No tags for MP3 which I don't mind, just OK or fine earphone, no in-line remote.
Overall, a great CD/MP3 player for that price range.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite ...
Review: I bought this a few months ago, but already have a replacement. The good news is that it's light, has a radio tuner and sounds quite good. The Panasonics tend to be a bit richer and warmer than the Sonys, which are more neutral. The bass is good and the digital sound is clean. The batteries last a long time. On the downside, I dropped it 2 or 3 times -- the lack of a remote when jogging is a big minus -- and now it skips enough to be annoying. The plastic parts on the outside are somewhat flimsy. Also, peak volume is noticeably lower compared to other players. Thats fine if you dont like headbanging music, but make sure you have "closed" headphones if you take the player outside within earshot of auto traffic. Finally, the radio tuner, while better than that of the Sonys I've tried, is just okay. I decided I dont need radio anymore in light of the generally mediocre quality of portable CD tuners. This player handles mp3, but not WMA, as the back of the package indicates. I've also tried and returned a Sony "sport" player, but I didnt like the lack of a remote or the idea of using a handstrap instead of a wrap-around pouch. Still, it was well designed for people who dont mind straps. The sound was excellent and it was quite sturdy. I dont think it ever skipped. Now I am trying another Panny, the SV 430. That one has a nice remote, but no tuner. It apparently also can recharge NI type batteries, but you have to buy a plug to connect to it. It's got a few more features too. I'll write a separate review on that. While I test this one, I am waiting for a new RCA Lyra, with a tuner, WMA capability and a remote. What I really want are all of those features and a Sport type ruggedness. Are you listening Sony? (Panny has all of that except mp3/WMA in a new Shockwave).
Rating:
Summary: Great for workouts and yard work!!
Review: I bought this CD player after spending almost twice as much for an MP3 player which stopped worked the second day I had it. Now I never hit the gym without bringing it with me. Great sound and great quality!!
Rating:
Summary: Mp3 functionality - pros & cons
Review: I bought this mainly for use in listening to long (45 minutes to 1 hour) mp3 audio files that I have burned to CD of sermons, lectures, and audio books. One very good feature this has is, when the unit is stopped and powered off, and then powered back up for the next use, it will start at the exact minute and second where it was previously stopped. This is very nice when you are 38 minutes and 21 seconds into a 55 minute mp3 file. The downside is, this player is not capable of searching through mp3 files. So, if you do not press "stop" prior to powering the unit off, it will not register where you were within the mp3 file when stopped. In the case of this unit, you then have no way of getting back to the 38 minute spot within that file, besides listening through to that point again. I had to return my unit because of the lack of this feature. Other than that, it is a very nice item.
Rating:
Summary: not durable/won't last long
Review: i bought this player not yet a year ago - and I've already been through two of them. Both times (after the first broke, I was able to send it back to Penasonic and they sent me a replacement) the player would stop being able to spin the cd. I admit that I do not quite keep it in a stainless steal case, but it should be able to endure whatever roughness I treat it with. I have an old Sony player that I've had for years, and, while it is not that advanced of a player to begin with, it stil works even after the same treatment that this one went through. My suggestion would be to buy a Sony player (i have had problems in the past with other Penasonics as well) I hope this helps!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best portable CD player
Review: I don't know why everyone gave this nice piece of engineering such poor rating! I bought this player from Circuitcity after reading all the positive reviews, and overall I think I made a 'sound' decision. The design is small and sturdy (nicely fit in my backpack), the sound quality is good enough, and feature set is okay for a player in this price range. Not that it's perfect, but than all portable audio players have their pros and cons.
Pros:
1. Nice looking blue-themed design :-)
2. Good sound quality, specially with X-SBS enabled
3. Supports MP3 files from 32-320 kbps (including VBR), as well as multi-session CD-R/CD-RW
4. D-sound: Digital amplifier and digital remastering for cleaning up poorly encoded MP3 files
5. City mode and mono/stereo selector for cleaning up patchy FM reception (FM reception is resonably good in San Diego)
6. Awsome battery life (~60-70 hours with MP3 playback), supports rechargable AA batteries, and has a battery life indicator
7. DC input jack for using the unit in indoors/cars
8. In MP3 mode, you can restrict the playback to a single album only
Cons:
1. No ID3 tagging display/search
2. The display has no backlight
However, I guess the pros far outweighs the cons.
Rating:
Summary: decent cd player, mediocre headphones, only fair radio
Review: I generally like Panasonic portable disc players, finding their sound more musical than the typical Sony with construction that seems sturdier. This player is no exception in terms of cd playback. (I'm not interested in mp3 so I have not tested that.) As is typical the unit ships with only mediocre headphones. While I have heard even worse 'phones, they are definitely dull, lacking in bass, and generally unmusical. If you care about sound quality you really need to spend some money for a different set of 'phones. I am using the Sennheiser HD-280 Pro 'phones with mine. The FM tuner is the biggest disappointment for me. Perhaps the tuner would work better in a different environment. Radio and TV reception is very spotty in San Francisco because of all of the hills. Even using the "city" function on this unit, some stations have considerable multipath distortion. Switching to mono usually gets rid of the distortion but then, of course, the music is no longer in stereo. This poor radio reception occurs with both the supplied headphones and the Sennheisers. (I mention this because the headphone cord functions as the FM antenna.) One word of caution to users: I initially thought my unit might be defective because the sound was mono only. After reading the instructions and pressing some buttons, I realized that while my headphone jack was pushed in far enough to make firm contact it was not pushed ALL of the way into the unit. Once I put some more force on the cord, the headphone cable snapped all of the way in and the sound changed to stereo.
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