Full Review

I have owned numerous Panasonic PCDP's over the years. I put them through a lot of abuse, everything from dumping water on them to dropping them on concrete. I've always been happy with both the sound and the durability of the players (the one I dumped water on still played after I poured all of the water out of it). So when I dropped my last player onto cement and it broke, I looked to Panasonic first.

I did consider other brands, as the latest Panasonic I owned had some operational drawbacks, like the S-XBS always defaulting to on when the unit powers up. Plus I didn't think the latest model sounded quite as good as the older ones.

After a little research, I came to the conclusion that many people recommend Panasonic as the best of the newer model PCDP's. Specifically, the 470 and 570 are recommended. Manufacturers currently emphasize low price and long battery life rather than good sound. So the quality of the headphone out suffers, and skip protection is often compressed and unswitchable. In fact, all of the latest Panasonic models suffer from this, and this is probably why I found my latest one lacking.

I was able to purchase a brand new unit for $80 shipped, on closeout (this model is about 2 years old and no longer made, but you can still find a few around).

The unit is very classy looking, with a brushed aluminum lid, a very thin profile, a nice symmetrical layout of buttons and LCD screen on the lid. An in-line remote is included, although I haven't used it. Rechargeable AAA batteries are also included. Because battery life is limited with these small cells, and external battery pack is included which screws into the top of the player, giving about 50 hours of power from two AA cells. This adds a bit of bulk to this very slim player, but only slightly.

One of the plusses with this player is that it gives you options on anti-skip. It can be turned off, set to 40 seconds using compression, or set to 10 seconds with no compression. The latter is probably the best choice for most uses as it still makes the unit skip-proof for everything except vigorous shaking, such as jogging, and does no harm to the sound quality.

The headphone out is specified as 2 x 9mw into 16 ohms, not super powerful, but better than many players. With all but the most power hungry phones, you should have plenty of power. Using Senn 497 phones, the sound is very clear and detailed. Top end extension is excellent, but without any splashiness or spitting, which often comes from compressed anti-skip. Bass is tight but lean, a good match for the Senn's. The sound quality of the unit was not great when I first turned it on, it seems to need a couple of hours to really come into its own. I'm over 40 hours on the batteries now, using the 10 second anti-skip.

I can't comment on the remote, the battery life of the included rechargeables, or the quality of the line out. But I purchased the unit for great sound from the headphone out, and it really performs.

The unit has never skipped yet, is very slim and light, looks very cool, should be reliable and has great sound. What more could I ask?