Best portable CDP? - Page 2

Re: battery life issues

Does anybody else know of differences among various brands of 1600 mAH NiMH brands and chargers? I am especially interested in hearing whether it makes sense to shell out for the GP combo vs. the Maha Powerex.

Thanks,

Legoman

I have No Idea. The only NiMHs that I use are the two sets of four 1800mAh (!) that came with my Nomad and the batteries that came with my Olympus 620L digital camera.

Well, i guess it depends on which sony you have. Older Sony's with dual DACs and powerful amps sound great, but i think they have gone downhill in the last few years. My Sony D-ej01, the current top-of-the-line Sony, has tons of features and is very well built, but it suffers from a loud hissing noise whenever the music is playing. and the music sounds very "dead" compared with new panasonics. I don't think the new sony's can compare with new panasonics out of the headphone jack. However, the line out is another story altogether. When connected to my super-cmoy (dual BB 627's operating in class A per channel) amp, it sounds almost as good as most home decks out of the line out. And I think the digital out is also very high quality, thoough i won't be able to test this for at least a month (at least they have optical out in North America, unlike panasonics)

I haven't had too many problems with scratched discs on my Sony, but the slot loading is starting to scratch my discs!!!

I hear ya! Except with my dej815 (ultra long battery life, 5mw x2...) the thing scratches the CD if I just shake the stupid cd player, it scratches on something... and if I press the aluminum lid it scratches the cd too... No hissing though (well at low to medium amplification). And some aluminum it is, already has a giant scratch on it... isn't aluminum supposed to be strong?

No... Aluminum isn't strong...die-cast magnesium offers 5x the stiffness of aluminum... or somthing like that... Actually, i can bend the top of my cd player down about 5mm with my baby finger

See, i thought slot loading would prevent scratches because it would be easier to change discs...Now, there seems to be some dirt on the rollers that scratches every disc that i play I'd like to open it up to clean it, but the screws are really put on tight, i've destroyed 2 miniscrewdrivers trying to open it up, with no success... And i somehow, i feel reluctant to use any more force on a $600 cd player At least i learned my lesson, sony sucks

moderator: ya might wanna add lennox as one of the possibilites...

My Sony D-E446 only scratches the cd when I drop it and it ejects the cd and the battery. The lid does feel loose, but it doesn't scratch the cd, and dropping the player hasn't messed up the lid any worse. Also, no hissing at any volumes.

My friend has the D-EJ611 and he just told me that even with G protection on when it's in his pocket it will skip constantly sometimes if he lets it move in a certain way. I was under the impression that g protection players should be almost impossible to skip. If that's not the case whats the point? I'll just walk with my D-E446 in my hand with ESP OFF and it won't skip. It's a lot more durable than any of the newer players as well.

btw, my Sony is best at playing cd-r's that other players have trouble with, and my Panasonic is best at scratched cd's.

I have both the Sony D-915 and the Panasonic 570 - out of the two I prefer the Sony in all departments. Battery life is better, sound quality is better (although not as loud), the remote control is better, G-Protection is absolutely spot on!

I have found that the flourescent lighting on the Panasonic's remote control can be heard through the headphones as mild 'white noise' whilst the Sony remains blissfully silent.

I hope this helps.

well, us North americans don't even have LCD's on panasonic remotes...

The problem with old panasonics (up to ct-570) is that they don't use a digital volume control. Instead, they use 2 pots, one on the main unit and one on the remote. This degrades the sound, and shortens the battery life. New panasonics and most relatively new sony's use digital volume controls...

I like the Panasonic SL-SW-860 the Best out of the Portable CD players i have had or used at any lenght so far. The Aluminium upon Plastic case is Tough and solid. The case will not flex at all like all other players do. It playes for 12 Hours on 1200 MAh Ni-MH AA cells. It also recharges the batteries but in order for you to do thios you must use pannasonic batteries, Or strip about 3/4" of the Plastic sleve from the (-) end of one conventional Ni-MH AA cell. and then insert this cell in last as the manual sugest. longer runtime can be had with 1500 MAh Cells but i havent tried them yet. Sound quality is about the same as other Pannasonic portables i have used and that includes lower priced ones. The Highs are smooth and not grany like most Sony's are. The line out via a good external amp is great sounding and i can listen for Hours without having to take a break. The unit when new played most all Discs without any problems, but this quality has decreced with time (8) Mo. motion from Frount to back will cause skipping now when at first it did not. The Motion ghas to be quite hard like Jogging. Overall it playes damaged Disc better than Sonys i have had or used. The sound quality compaired to most sony's is more laid back and less punchy But alot Cleener. so far this model is the Best i have run across. My nexst is maby a model with an optical out and then find a good Portable DA converter since this is the only way to improve upon the sound of Portables that are way below the standard of evean low cost Homeb CD players.

MIGHT I ALSO ADD THE WATER RESISTENT FEATURE OF THIS MODEL, IT PASSED THE SHOWER TEST AND THAT IS IMPORTENT IN THE NORTHWEST OF THE USA.

lol, damn straight ppl! Did you ever get a chance to read my full-length review on headwize?

Yes neruda i have and thought it was rather informative but it has been a while since i have read it, Back in the old Headwize days so i cant remember the exact content of your review, but i do remember it seemed to agree with my view on this fine player. BTW this model is now replaced with a new version so for all you Headphone addics wanting a good portable you might be able to get a good deel in the SL SW-860.

Panasonic SL CT470 vs SL CT 480

I ordered a panasonic SL CT470 but instead received the SL CT480 from eDigitalMegaStore . I had ordered the CT470 because I had seen on this forum that many thought it was the best sounding portable cdp.

I opened the CT480 and compared it to my Sony DSJ01, I prefer the Sony for its better detail (Rebecca Pidgeon, 'Spanish Harlem') through Grado RS-1s and a Headroom Cosmic.

My question is ... Does the CT470 sound better, more detail, clearer, than the CT480? Should I try again to buy a CT470?

By the way, I also purchased the inexpensive Lennox CD87 and it is sonically inferior to the panasonic and the sony by quite a margin. The headphone out has terrible hiss if the AC adapter is used. The line out seems bright and sounds like it is missing mid and bass frequencies.