Rating: 
Summary: Great cd player, good price
Review: I see a lot of people has given a very low rating for this unit, I cant talk bad about it! I live where the roads are really damaged and the ASM-II works like a charm. The resume feature is great. Of course there are some bad units out there, like as in any other electronic gadget, you cant expect that all X-amount of units will be flawless. GET REAL! However, as in performance this unit has behaved excellent, from driving in a dust and dirt road with bumps on a 4x4 at 125 kph, with no skipping, playing Marillion with no skipping, from shorts in the car's electrical system (once)And it kept working ! I'll recommended to anyone !
Rating: 
Summary: Great unit -- poor accessories
Review: I'd like to contribute my 2 cents. These reviews are great. I did my research for this purchase here at Amazon's wonderful site. I was, however, able to find a good deal locally. Local merchants used to gripe about people doing research at the store, getting all the service, then buying mail order. I'm tickled that now it *can* go the other way. The S361C is a great electronic unit. I can't make it skip. The accessories are a big disappointment, though. The cassette adapter only works in one of my cars, whereas my two older style adapters are not nearly as finicky. If I couldn't swap adapters, I'd be pissed. Also the headphones don't stay on. I have to use a hat or headband if even moderately active. I think this is due to a combination of size/shape of ear pad and no spring in the cheap-looking plastic headband. Panasonic, are you listening? Still, I think the player itself is a great unit. If the accessories work for you, you'll be ahead, it's worth the gamble. If they don't, I'd still keep it and buy a different cassette adapter or headphone/earbuds. I have an older Panasonic S-239C and I can attest to it's durability (unscathed after some nasty disasters), good performance (even with only 3 sec. anti-skip), and convenient features (love the pop-up button for one-handed CD changes), and design (shape, position of controls, display etc.).
Rating:
Summary: I recommend all Panasonic portables
Review: Panasonic makes the most reliable portable cd players of all brands, and it also has been rated highest for many other things like cd players, minisystems and VCR's. You've got a pretty good chance of being happy when u buy a Panasonic.
Rating: 
Summary: cassette adaptor may not be at fault
Review: Some cars cassette players are not compatible with most cassette adaptors because they see it as a broken tape. While there should be more information about this when you buy a portable cd player, it is not totally the fault of the player. I have heard that the cassette adaptor is incompatible with some saturns, and newer GM's. Hope this helps. I have been using Kenwood cassette adaptors for the past 2 years. While Kenwood's cd players are crap, and I have gone through 4 of them that I took back on warranty, I have never had a problem with any of the cassette adaptors.
Rating:
Summary: mistake
Review: sorry i meant to say i use the Sony WITHOUT ESP on. It doesn't need ESP on. ESP just adds some background noise.
Rating:
Summary: Great Performance!
Review: This product is absolutely great, especially if you burn your own CD's. A lot of portable CD players often skip and go crazy when you play burned CD's, especially most Sony portable CD players often give incredibly depressing performance with regards to this issue, so try to avoid buying Sony if the music you'll listen to will come from CD-R's. But, for optimal sound, don't forget to use top-of-the-line CD-R's. I had this player (w/ the remote) for a couple of months now and it hasn't even skipped once, even with frequent and heavy use. That's incredible performance! I also like the bright green backlit display when you plug in the AC adaptor, and, well I haven't really tried it in my car since I already have a CD player that came from the manufacturer. To make a long story short, some of the people who gave this product a bad review probably got a lemon or just don't know how to use it. There are a lot of variables with respect to cassette adaptors in the car. Sometimes it may work hassle-free while sometimes it may not work so well. Therefore, the best thing to do is that if you're thinking about buying a new car, buy one w/ its own manufacturer CD player just to avoid such a conflict. Overall, the sound quality is spectacular, especially the xtra bass system, which is deeper than Sony's Digital Mega Bass, but slightly less than Sony's Groove (in other words, it's a perfect bass setting). There are also a lot of other options, such as the pop-up button to eject the disc from the plate (a feature that most Sony players DON'T have and it helps prevent the disc from being bent endlessly), Resume function, Hold Position function, heat-resistant polycarbonate body, battery status indicator (just like the one on a cell phone), and a whole lot of other stuff. I also like the fact that the player is made in Japan, so you know that you're getting pretty good labor and material quality. Headphones could use some improvement, though. To summarize, you're getting a pretty good deal w/ this player, so just buy it while it lasts!
Rating:
Summary: excellent for car
Review: This was a replacement for a Jensen CD-Portable I had. The Jensen never skipped once and it went through 5 months of constant shock therapy (I used it to work out). Unfortunately due to leaving the unit in my car on a 100 degree day (130 degrees in my car), it melted the top. So I bought this (without the car kit) because I thought since my Jensen had 40 second anti-skip, that this would be the same. It was not. Listening to alot of converted MP3 files (to WAV), it would have problems reading them to the point I could not get through one song without it freezing. Even when playing the regular CD's it would skip once in a while. Not good for 40 second anti-skip. The sound is worse as well. It is obvious that Panasonic uses the worst op-amps in the industry because the output is low and without high-efficiency headphones, you just don't get alot of volume. The volume you do get is grainy and the soundstage was worse than my Jensen, even a Kenwood unit I had for 3 years before that. Strange because Technics (Panasonics sister company) makes some good CD players with their MASH D/A converters. I recommend that you stay away from this model and invest 10 more dollars on a Sony or a Jensen (if you can find it). Rating: C-
Rating: 
Summary: Poor Tracking ability.
Review: This was a replacement for a Jensen CD-Portable I had. The Jensen never skipped once and it went through 5 months of constant shock therapy (I used it to work out). Unfortunately due to leaving the unit in my car on a 100 degree day (130 degrees in my car), it melted the top. So I bought this (without the car kit) because I thought since my Jensen had 40 second anti-skip, that this would be the same. It was not. Listening to alot of converted MP3 files (to WAV), it would have problems reading them to the point I could not get through one song without it freezing. Even when playing the regular CD's it would skip once in a while. Not good for 40 second anti-skip. The sound is worse as well. It is obvious that Panasonic uses the worst op-amps in the industry because the output is low and without high-efficiency headphones, you just don't get alot of volume. The volume you do get is grainy and the soundstage was worse than my Jensen, even a Kenwood unit I had for 3 years before that. Strange because Technics (Panasonics sister company) makes some good CD players with their MASH D/A converters. I recommend that you stay away from this model and invest 10 more dollars on a Sony or a Jensen (if you can find it). Rating: C-
Rating:
Summary: BEST Portable CD player i ever had
Review: With Anti-shock on, it NEVER skipped. The Car thing works Well. Very Very good sound
Rating:
Summary: Worked great for two weeks untill car cassette adapter quit.
Review: Worked great for two weeks untill car cassette adapter quit working. Just after starting out on a long car trip the cassette adapter kept ejecting on its own after about one second of play. I bought it for this trip and it was not good company! I got it exchanged for an AIWA XP-V706C. I will report on this after a month or so.
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