Rating: 
Summary: Finally a good CD/mp3 player with radio at a good price
Review: Finally all you need in portable sound in one package:
* AM/FM radio with decent reception with easily accessible switching of the sound mode that include stereo/mono and DX/local. These features are important for listening to TV sound through FM channels at exercise facilities. The tuner quality is OK but not perfect.* The CD player is decent with good crisp sound with no audible distortion at any volume level with decent bass without using the bass boost. It has not skipped but I have not had the opportunity to fully test this. * The MP3 playback is also sounds good but the bass boost is more useful here. This unit put 150+ tracks into memory when starting it, fairly quicky. One quirp here with mp3: an occasional blurp of sound from the beginning of the previous track when moving to the next track. * The bass boost sounds good on some cases but overdone in others but does not crack and distort like the Sony bass boost does on their players. * Headphones are bad! This unit has all the essential for portable use w/o costly features such as ID tagging. ...
Rating: 
Summary: Very good choice, this is such a cool player
Review: PROS: MP3 playback, unbeatable anti-skip system, FM/AM tuner, cool design, decent sound quality, slim, VERY lightweight. CONS(but not really cons): VERY lightweight, no ID tags, no remote, buttons are too shoved in the lid, not backlit. After 2 months searching for a good mp3 player, this was the one I picked. For 60 bucks, you can't find another player with these features, but they might not fit others as well as they fit me. I literally need a FM tuner, otherwise I'll get bored to deth listening to my mp3's only. The FM caption is nice, but because I live over an hour away from Boston, the radio stations from there (which are the best) won't tune in so well. That's ok though, cuz the only "device" that tunes in to those stations is my mom's car, lol. And even the car stereo fails sometimes, so I can't expect the SL-SV550 to perform miracles. (I think it's cool that the antenna is in the headphone cord, so don't forget to strecth it a little, instead of leaving it coiled)
I never experienced it skipping any songs, especially when I play MP3's(100 sec anti-skip). When you play regular CD's the anti-skip is 45 sec, and that's pretty much enough, unless you want to use it as a yoyo, hehe.
The Panasonic SL-SV550 also works with rechargeable Nimh AA batteries, that is so cool. Though they're not included, it's worth buying them. I wonder if the 4 batteries I bought will last for at least one year, that would be so awesome. The player needs 2 batteries and is very economic, so maybe the batteries will work for about a year or so (they can be recharged over 50 times).
I like the "hold" function, which does the simple job of not allowing you to operate your player. It sounds strange, but it comes in handy when you don't anybody to keep messing with your music, or when you want to make sure that you're player doesn't turn on by accident. Don't forget to disable "hold" when you want to do change anything in your player. This player doesn't show ID tags. Id tags are cool, but if you think about it, they're useless. If you record your own cd's why would you want to know the artists and songs' names? Well I don't mind it not having tags display, but if you do, then this might not be the right player for you.
If I could make some changes on this player I would put a remote with it. When I'm wandering around town, I think it's a little annoying trying to hit the right button on the player that's in my pocket, a remote would be handy, but let's not be too picky.I would also make the display backlit, then it would be an even finer player. One thing that I missed was that rubber thing on the bottom of the player, that makes it stick to surfaces. This player doesn't have that, but that's not that important anyways.
I think this player is very lighweight, this is a cool and a bad thing. It doesn't weighs too much so it doesn't annoy me, and it also fits pockets that it's almost hard to believe they fitted. But on the other hand, it looks flimsy, so I'll have to watch it carefully, and not drop it. I don't know whether it's solid or not, but I'm not gonna try dropping it to see what happens.
It could also be louder. If you're walking on the street, the traffic noises might bother your listening. But when you're indoors then you'll do just fine. Some people want to make known to the whole entire room, that they're listening to music. If you're one of those annoying folks, too bad, you won't be able to do it with this one.
I'm thinking about buying a new headphone set, one of those that fit on the back of your neck. First they look cool, second everybody is using them (and I have no opinion of my own hehehe), and third and most important: my friend has the Panasonic SL-SX420, which has the same exact headphones and I don't want to look like a jerk when I'm around her.
Some people want their players to be miraculous, then they complain about them and want to return them only because it doesn't show ID tags, or doesn't have an arm-band, or doesn't have a car adapter, or it doesn't make you lunch neither does it clean your room, hehehe.
Well, in my opinion, this is probably the best mp3 player for less than 60 dollars. I'd tell you to buy it, but if you're still insecure try checking these other players:
Audiophase CDT420M; RioVolt SP90; Panasonic SL-SX420; Sony DNE509 and Philips EXP320. All of them are good players, I considered all of them before buying Panasonic SL-SV550, they might be as good for you as this one is for me.
Rating:
Summary: Don't Give Up On This Gem
Review: I have had this CD player for about a year, and have thoroughly enjoyed using it. I use it every day while commuting between home and work. I have never had any problems with CD skipping, radio reception, or battery life. In fact, I have only changed the batteries three times in the year that I have had it--and I use it five days a week! I, too, had the cd-tray latch pop off, but it only happened when I recently dropped the player on the ground. A quick call to Panasonic Parts got me a replacement latch--and it only cost me $5 (including shipping). The $5 I paid for the replacement part is a steal compared to what I would have paid for a new player of the same caliber.
Rating:
Summary: Best price to performance ratio
Review: Hello, I purchased this product from Amazon (as always, the lowest priced!). Pros:
- Very easy to use, easy navigation buttons
- Nice bass boost system
- Plays CBR as well as VBR MP3 files great! (Tested with Lame 3.93, alt-preset-standard). Yeah I had to test it myself, no one ever wrote abt it!
- Plays CDR/CDRW - CDR/CDRW with CDFS tested, works very fine. CDRW with UDF not yet tested.
- Excellent digital AM/FM tuner Cons:
- The headfone wire sometimes comes out (kinda loose) - I had to order new $5 Sony headfones, the Panasonic ones that coem along aren't that good - this is however a personal choice This may not be the best player in the market vis-a-vis sound quality, but is simply great for its $55 value. So if you're looking for a first time player with no frills - this is the perfect thing to go for. If you are an audiophile and want only the best, and want advanced features like ID3 tags etc, and dont mind a $100+ price tag, go for the IRiver series or SONY.
Rating:
Summary: Lots of features for a surprisingly low price
Review: This thing has MP3 playback WMA playback, an AM/FM radio, with 30 preset stations, and it plays CD-R's, RW's, and normal CD's. There is'nt really anything on this CD player that cant be put on it. It is shocking that Panasonic managed to put this one out for such a low price. Pros:
-Low price for many features
-Can play all kinds of CDs
-Nice volume control
-Bass boost
-Track repeat, album repeat, etc.
Cons:
-VERY confusing controls
-Comes with cheap headphones
-Bass boost is'nt enough
-Can never really get it to be very loud, especially in a plane Overall, this is a great product for the price, but it really has some improvements that can be made. I like it, I recommend it, but if you are looking for better overall design, check out some iRiver CD players. If you're on a budget, however, it doesn't come any better than this one.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a piece of trash, don't buy it
Review: It's really crappy stuff. The sound is not good, the earphone is cheap, and it died around a couple of weeks.
You will regret if you buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Great player for the price
Review: I recently bought a different package of this same CD player which I would recommened over this. It includes better headphones as well as a remote, making this intuitive player even more convenient to use. As for the CD player itself, I found that it pretty much only skips if the user intentionally tries to, and even at that, its pretty hard to make it skip. Since it uses the headphone cord as the radio antenna, with a little fiddling I was able to get good reception almost anywhere. The sound quality is good and the player seems to have better amplification compared to other players in this price range. One annoyance is the need to number tracks/albums on the MP3 CD if you want to have any chance of finding the songs you want. Either is not required, however. Also, the lack of a tag readout can create a guessing game of which song you're listening to, though for the price I can't expect a much better screen. Overall, a good, easy to use, and affordable product.
Rating:
Summary: Fine Panasonic unit, but not perfect.
Review: The SL-SV550 has been replaced by the SL-SV570, now featuring Panasonic's 'D.Sound' for enriched clarity, as well as mp3 remastering. Pros: mp3 capability, excellent FM tuner, good S-XBS, 30 station presets. Great sound overall. Cons: doesn't read ID3 tags, subpar headphones, no line level out (like Sony). Some headphones that work very well with this unit are Koss's KSC55 or "The Plug", also by Koss.
Rating: 
Summary: Ok, but not the best
Review: I've used this player for several months. It is a low cost unit that can play MP3 and had a radio. However, for some reason, the battery life (even alkaline) is very short, often less than a few hours and much less than advertised.
Rating:
Summary: Good product, but not enough volume
Review: For the price, this is a good MP3/CD player. The AM/FM tuner is great and is hard to find in other models and the battery life is excellent. But clearly the max sound volume is extremely weak. I like to listen to music while mowing the lawn, but that's practically impossible with this unit. And another major drawback is the horrible "random" feature. I must've listened to the same song 4 times in one three hour car ride out of a possible 150 songs! Still, good bang for the buck. PROs:
- AM/FM tuner
- Good battery life
- Decent sound quality
- Sleek, lightweight design
- Good price CONs:
- Very weak max volume
- Inability to FF/REW in MP3 tracks
- Random/Shuffle feature is horrible
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