Rating: 
Summary: Incredible piece of electronics ! ! !
Review: (...).This CD player is amazing for one simple reason: you can fit up to 15-17 CDs worth of music on it. I am fairly experienced with computers--I used Windows Media Player to 'rip' songs from 11 CDs from my CD collection, then burned them to ONE CD. Windows Media Player was able to automatically download song/album information using CDDB--navigating from CD to CD and within each virtual CD is a breeze. Now--I *have* put my MP3s onto a CD and I will acknowledge that many, many mp3s will fit onto a single CD. However, I am amazed that so many MORE WMAs will fit onto the same CD. The manual recommends ripping songs at 96kbps and this is fine for me. I notice no sound degradation at all. The sound is very good. (...) This is a very cool piece of technology and I am very pleased with the sound--but I am so over-the-edge happy about the WMA format and functionality. This is a must-get.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible piece of electronics ! ! !
Review: (...). This CD player is amazing for one simple reason: you can fit up to 15-17 CDs worth of music on it. I am fairly experienced with computers--I used Windows Media Player to 'rip' songs from 11 CDs from my CD collection, then burned them to ONE CD. Windows Media Player was able to automatically download song/album information using CDDB--navigating from CD to CD and within each virtual CD is a breeze. Now--I *have* put my MP3s onto a CD and I will acknowledge that many, many mp3s will fit onto a single CD. However, I am amazed that so many MORE WMAs will fit onto the same CD. The manual recommends ripping songs at 96kbps and this is fine for me. I notice no sound degradation at all. The sound is very good. (...) This is a very cool piece of technology and I am very pleased with the sound--but I am so over-the-edge happy about the WMA format and functionality. This is a must-get.
Rating: 
Summary: Pretty good
Review: *The first thing that I must mention is that the only difference between this player and the MP70 is the 80's ability to play WMA files. If you don't need that functionality then DO NOT get this player. The MP70 is about 10 bucks cheaper. Now on to the actual review:
At first glance the player looks pretty attractive, although a tad bulky. When it was started, it took about 10 seconds to load the cd and start playing.
The audio quality was quite excellent especially if you like listening to music with a lot of bass, such as rap , r+b, alternative rock, etc; the EQ bass mode takes care of that.
The battery life does indeed live up to its claim. I still haven't listened to the cd player until the batteries have died, and I use the player quite a bit.
The only thing lacking with the player is the inadequate navigation system. To get to track 100, you have to click the skip button 99 times. Although this problem can be somewhat remedied by putting songs in specific albums, panasonic could definitely improve this aspect of the player. Then it truly would be the best.
Overall, the ML-70/80 are definitely the best bangs for the buck. Its affordable price, great functionality, and aesthetic design will provide countless hours of entertainment.
Rating:
Summary: Versatility of technologies
Review: As advertised, it does play all three: CD Audio, MP3 and WMA! At first I had my doubts, but once I got past the WMA copy protection issue and the Variable-Bit-Rate problem, Voila! Do NOT use Windows Media Variable-bit-rate recording option for the WMAs. IMHO, this is a real sophisticated piece of electronics with such versatility and portability. And, so far, it is quite easy on the standard alkaline off-the-shelf AA batteries, at least with MP3s and WMAs. The three choices of Equalizer pre-sets include S-XBS (bass boost), LIVE, and blank/standard. The LIVE setting is HI-FI when used on a number recorded before a live audience and to me sounds like the listener is on the front row of a concert. 3D? One word of caution, however: I am a mature adult and I treat this hardware with the somewhat delicate care such technology deserves. I'm afraid my young adult son would break it in a few days; don't skateboard with it in your pocket! ;-) Also, read the user manual! The player does have other limitations, but they're stated in black-and-white. And last but not least: I just burned ONE CD with 122 songs on it! That's really compact, to me. (In case you can't tell, this is my first experience with a portable MP3 player.)
Rating: 
Summary: A CD Player that Stanks of Crapiness
Review: First off, the sound quality is lacking some punch. This is as loud as it gets? I know this is a pretty cheap cd player but come on now, really? Sure this cd player looks cool and all but this thing has no durability whatsoever. I drop this thing one time and the thing fell all apart. Now I'm out $60 for this piece of crap. The features are okay (that's it, its only okay)but you'd kind of expect more from a Panasonic product (their suppose to be the leader in electronic features). The sound presets are absolutely pointless, the live setting sounds like someone is playing the music from out of a pringles can, the bass muffles the sound of the music a little and the regular sound preset is really not any better than the previous two settings. The only redeeming factor of this product is that it doesn't eat up battery power quickly but I wouldn't advice buying this based on this positive. DO NOT BUY THIS, I REPEAT DO NOT BUY THIS!!! PANASONIC CD PLAYERS STANK OF CRAPINESS.
Rating:
Summary: A great deal - wonderful sound - doesnt skip
Review: Have owned Sony, Aiwa, Memorex and other portable CD-players over the years, including a couple near top of the line Sony discman's. I seem to get about 3 years use out of any one - regardless of brand. It's the just the fact of the matter. I don't grouse, just resign myself to buying another one every so often. Now that I'm into MP3 and have started running again to stay fit I was looking for a discman that had good skip resistance with MP3's and also sounded good. Hard to find both it seems. Tried an offbrand sports discman (Accuphase)- mediocre sound, skipped. Tried an mid price level Sony Atrac capable sports discman - incredibly poor ergonomics and, (my fault) had I read the label, doesn't play mp3's. Returned it. Started reading discussion groups with my 2 criteria in mind. Found this player. *** It's wonderful ***. It does * not * skip and I can go to town trying to make it skip. Maybe mine was made on a good run, I don't know. I just know it works right. The only drawbacks: You can't fast search, and, like 90% of all discman's out there, one hard and fast truth: ditch the headphones immediately and get some good ones. You will come into a whole new world, sound will improve a couple grades easily. Just figure the price of decent headphones into the real cost of ownership. Volume is adequate/satisfying/enough - not "extra" or blow you away loud but satisfying with decent mid to high efficiency headphones. If you're into LOUD metal volume this may not be the player for you but it wasn't "weak" either. The sound is warm but clear. I encode my mp3's at 128 or 192kbps using the LAME encoder. They sound * great * !! Heck...it sounds better than my stereo at home in some ways. Really I would give this a 4.5 but I don't want to knock it down to a 4. I shouldn't say how good this is as I want a couple more for my friends. I considered the iRiver discman's but backed off due to reports of unbulletproof skip protection which was a primary concern for me. I really haven't auditioned them - they get good reviews mostly - I'm sure they are fine. I covet their hard drive player. Until the hard drive players come down to a reasonable price - this was my solution and is great sounding unit. I am happy. P.S. For MP3's this unit displays the regular windows-named filename in a scrolling billboard way (when you ask for it by switching views - otherwise it's track # and time) which works for me. If you are outdoors/active I recommend obtaining a Case Logic or some kind of see-through padded outer case for bad weather as icing on the cake.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but unimpressive
Review: I bought this as a gift and I was looking for something less geeky than the iRiver ChromeX, which was the first choice. I just wanted a player that got the basics right and didn't involve dozens of settings. The brand name was there, I knew it was made in Japan, and the price suggested good quality for the features you get. Based on my experience of the few weeks while it was still in my hands, my impression of this player is generally positive. The sound quality is good. I didn't look at the watch, but battery life was totally decent. The antiskip protection has passed several tests which have probably been more strenuous than real-life situations. And unless you're a geek, this player has pretty much all the features that you will need. I bought it last year, it's still being used and I haven't heard complaints so far. There are a few things about it that I didn't like. I will mention them in order of their importance. First, the lack of the fast forward and rewind functions while playing MP3s. I knew about it from the manual, prior to purchase, but I underestimated how important these functions are. It may vary with your listening habits, but if you listen to audiobooks or if you find yourself frequently skipping back and forth in a music track, this is not the player for you. Again, it only applies to MP3. Fast forward and rewind does work for audio CDs. Another issue was the occasional overlapping between the end of one track and the beginning of the next when playing MP3s, but this happened randomly and it may have something to do with the quality of the CD. A shortcoming that seems to be common to many CD-MP3 players are the "clicks" presumably generated by the buffering/antiskip algorithms. This player makes no exception. The clicks are there, very weak but still audible. They tend to occur when silence follows sound abruptly. If you pay attention, you will hear them at the end of music tracks. You may notice them if you listen to voice recordings even without paying attention. But you may not care about this. Audiophiles probably don't expect much from a portable player. The browsing of MP3 CDs is limited to jumping by track or by folder/album. CDs with deep directory trees are not easy to browse, but otherwise you'll be fine. The design is okay, but there's nothing "slick" about it. A little dull and bulky, actually. No back light on the LCD display, which makes it harder to use in the dark. The included headphones have a wide spectrum, but they accentuate lower frequencies, which I find unnecessary, since the player itself has a bass-enhancing mode. However, many people like that, and if you don't, you can always replace the headphones.
Rating:
Summary: A decent MP3/CD player that fits most needs.
Review: I bought this CD player looking for an MP3/CD player with long battery life and durability. I got pretty much what I wanted -- the player's survived a couple tough falls (though it'll roll a bit if it lands on its side) and the batteries have held out over periods when I forgot to stop the music. I do have a few doubts as to whether they last for 48 hours, but they're good for at least 20, which serves my purposes fine. The claim of resumable playback is also questionable -- I've had some trouble getting it to work consistently. One major feature that's lacking is fast-forwarding on MP3 CD's -- you can only do this on audio CD's, as holding down the seek buttons just move you up and down the folders in data CD's. But my only other complaint would be the lack of a LCD backlight -- it's really difficult to figure out what I'm doing in the dark, though the button configuration is still intuitive. I'd also have prefered a scrolling (vs. the button-based) volume control, but that's not all that important either. The playback of MP3's and WMA's is useful, though if you have no use for the latter just save yourself some money and get the MP70 (unless you like the concentric ring design of the MP80 to the MP70's blue gradient). There are no problems with sound, a hold button exists, skipping has never happened to me, having ID3 tags is nice, and read time is good. Priced on the lower end of MP3 CD players, I'd say this one is a good buy, but I'd shop around a little more to make sure you get the features you want. There's no remote or FM tuner on this one, and some players boast even higher battery lives. But if all you need is a reliable MP3 CD player that'll play everything on it reasonably conveniently (as long as you don't need to see song info in the dark or be able to search within an MP3 track), this may be the one you're looking for.
Rating:
Summary: A decent MP3/CD player that fits most needs.
Review: I bought this CD player looking for an MP3/CD player with long battery life and durability. I got pretty much what I wanted -- the player's survived a couple tough falls (though it'll roll a bit if it lands on its side) and the batteries have held out over periods when I forgot to stop the music. I do have a few doubts as to whether they last for 48 hours, but they're good for at least 20, which serves my purposes fine. The claim of resumable playback is also questionable -- I've had some trouble getting it to work consistently. One major feature that's lacking is fast-forwarding on MP3 CD's -- you can only do this on audio CD's, as holding down the seek buttons just move you up and down the folders in data CD's. But my only other complaint would be the lack of a LCD backlight -- it's really difficult to figure out what I'm doing in the dark, though the button configuration is still intuitive. I'd also have prefered a scrolling (vs. the button-based) volume control, but that's not all that important either. The playback of MP3's and WMA's is useful, though if you have no use for the latter just save yourself some money and get the MP70 (unless you like the concentric ring design of the MP80 to the MP70's blue gradient). There are no problems with sound, a hold button exists, skipping has never happened to me, having ID3 tags is nice, and read time is good. Priced on the lower end of MP3 CD players, I'd say this one is a good buy, but I'd shop around a little more to make sure you get the features you want. There's no remote or FM tuner on this one, and some players boast even higher battery lives. But if all you need is a reliable MP3 CD player that'll play everything on it reasonably conveniently (as long as you don't need to see song info in the dark or be able to search within an MP3 track), this may be the one you're looking for.
Rating:
Summary: Does not resume at "exact spot"
Review: I had to return it to Amazon because I could never get it to resume in the "exact spot" where it left off. I tried & tried on both regular CDs, burned CDs, & MP3 CDs. Nothing worked. It doesn't even say this feature exists on the box or in the instructions. Amazon created this one out of thin air. I've asked them to change their description, but they haven't yet. So if this feature is important to you (like it is to me) then don't buy this unit. Also, it felt cheap... very "plasticy" if you'll pardon my nonsense word. I really expected more from Panasonic.
| 
