Full Review

I got this portable CD player about 2 months ago. At the time, I was torn between this and the SL-CT470 (lower end model, no remote, only 40 sec. Anti-shock mode). However, there was a sale and the 10 sec. linear Anti-shock mode is way better sound quality wise so I splurged. Too bad I didn't wait another week or two, it dropped in price again (available for $99 instead of the $129 I paid, $150 including tax) but I still feel I got my money's worth.

First off, this CD player is very slim and good looking (at least to me). It has a nice big display compared to similar class Sony models, and the buttons have a nice solid feel to them. The lid is aluminum, which is stiff and solid feeling, but probably not as durable as one would expect. I never dropped or scratched mine, but I do have a cheaper model and the plastic lid on those can easily handle that kinda abuse (aluminum would just dent and looks and feels horrible when scratched). This player's features include long battery life (something like 8 hours with included rechargeable AAA's and up to 50 hours using all alkaline batteries including 2 AA's for external battery compartment), Anti-shock 4.0 (10 sec. linear or 40 sec. normal), 3 play modes (normal, random, resume), 2 repeat modes (one, all) and 24 track programmable play. This model has 3 EQ modes (X-Bass, Train and Live) and includes a dedicated line out. The 10 sec. linear Anti-shock mode is very interesting, it stores the music uncompressed so the quality is just as good as with the Anti-shock off. In 40 sec. mode, it uses data compression and I notice high frequency distortion, mainly things like cymbals losing it's air and sparkle.

The sound of this player is very nice with the EQ off and with Anti-Shock at 10 sec. or off. It is very smooth overall, with warm midrange and soft treble, not harsh or digital sounding. Don't bother using the stock headphones though, they are just plain garbage. I never really like the EQ modes they give most portables and for good reason, it is just too overdone. X-Bass is just bass boost, but can be extreme to the point that it causes the sound to distort with bass heavy music. Train is like X-Bass, but with attenuated treble, while Live is supposed to sound like the music is taking place in an open venue, but all it really seems to do is bring out ambiance and add reverb effects while LOSING bass. The effect is pretty similar to making a "surround" channel from a stereo one to recover an ambiance only signal (basically anything that's out of phase between each channel, mono stuff gets cancelled), just not nearly as strong. The headphone jack sounds pretty free of noise, but the line out is just crystal clear.

Some things I don't like about this player... A comparable Sony model's resume feature will resume a track at the exact time you stopped, and my Panasonic home DVD player does the same thing. This CD portable only resumes from the start of the track so if you were halfway through a long song, you would have to listen to it from the beginning if you stopped halfway through. The comparable Sony model also had EL backlighting on the display, this player does not but the display is bigger. My last gripe concerns the fact that the import models from Asian countries include a much better remote that is full function and EL backlighted, while the US models have a basic 3 key, 6 function (play, stop, fast forward scan, next track, fast reverse scan, previous track... yep, no PAUSE!) displayless remote w/volume control. Also, the Asian market version has an optical out jack, so you could use it as a cd transport and bypass the internal DAC. It also includes pretty decent earbuds instead of those crap $1 quality headphones.

Small update, forgot about the volume control on remote (I don't use the remote).