I am in desperate need of a good cd player and set of phones for use while I'm working. I mostly work on or around loud machinery such as buldozers and tractors. I had an old lennox sound that died around christmas. I was fine until recently, when the everything started growing again and the bushogging started. Now I'd like to go ahead and by a decent/good cdp for work and just general carrying about. Here's what I need:

It can't be prone to skipping, that means even with the antiskip off.

It must have antiskip, preferably 20+ seconds

It must use AA's, or have an expansion for them, not much is worse than being in the middle of a field and having the batteries die without being able to replace them.

It needs to be durable and last a while on a set of batteries, I don't want to stop every hour to change out batts.

It needs to have good sound, and have a bit of power behind it.

As for phones, I was going to go with those koss clip on things (the name escapes me) but realise that I HAVE to have some isolation. What buds would work with decently good sound and give me the isolation of, say a pair of earplugs?

You may wonder why I need this so bad. I'll tell you one thing about driving tractors all day, it isn't hard, but dang its boring. The most odd thoughts become interesting, I'll just leave it up to your imagination.

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Well, CaptBubba, battery life seems to run counter to powerful sound. The most powerful PCDPs tend to run down their batteries in less than 10 hours - and the longer-lasting (battery-wise) PCDPs tend to come with sub-10mW headphone amps.

My solution? Buy one of the latter, and then add a portable headphone amp such as a TA.

Ten hours is fine, I just remember one of my old cdp used to eat though a pair of batteries in under 1 1/2 hours with antishock on. A headphone amp isn't a bad idea, although I'd proabably build a cmoy or something rather than buy a TA, I just love building stuff.

My 2 year old Sony D-E446 is only rated for 16 hours on AA's which is a lot less than newer ones, but I got a Nimh battery pack for it and that lasts about 9 hours on a charge and you just plug in the ac acaptor to charge it. The battery pack also keeps holding good charges for years (the one I'm on now is 3.5 years old). The 9 hours is plenty long enough for me, also there is no memory effect so you can charge it when it's about half dead if you want. With the sacrifice on battery life you get a powerful 15mw output.
I use the Sony MDR-EX70LP's and they'd probably be a good seat of earphones for you, cause they have decent isolation and really good sound out of a portable player. They aren't always loud enough out of the Panasonic SL-CT470 that I also own, so if I'm in a mood for loud music I have to use the Sony.
btw, the antiskip on the Sony isn't really good (you can't throw it in a pocket and go for a fast walk and expect it to not skip even with ESP on) but it works fine with ESP off just for walking around with it in your hand (even fast walks).
If you got one of these players now it's have to be used cause they haven't been made in over a year.
Good luck.

My panasonic SL-SW860 may fit all your needs. It runs of two AA's for about 25 hours, it has 40 seconds of antishock (and never skipped on me once), it's unbelievably durable, and to me it sounds great. If you need isolation than get the Sony ex70 for $50. This combination, especially after the two modifications I made, sounds very good. My only worry is that it might not have all the power you need. It has 9mW per channel and it can get pretty loud, but sometimes I wish it had more power. Here's a picture of the SL-SW870, which is basically the same thing save for the headphones it comes with (they suck, don't worry about it):

The 860 retails for $150, but if you look around you can find a lower price. Joelongwood found the 870 for something like $80 somewhere...

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That makes absolutely no sense

I second the recommendation on the EX70s though (Get the 3 tipped version..!) um, unless you can spring for the Etymotic ER4s ($$$)

yeah, why would you take antishock off?

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Actually, chych, I think I know what CaptBubba is talking about. I have the SW-SL870 and that thing doesn't skip in normal use (walking, picking it up and moving it around) even with the anti-skip off. I basically never use the anti-skip. That's made for jogging........and Lord knows, my runnin' days are over!

Now the RS 3904 is another story. If I breathe a bit too hard that thing skips. Unless i plan on remaining immobile with that one, I use the anti-skip.

To answer your questions CaptBubba, I HIGHLY recommend the SW-SL870 by Panasonic......well-built, durable, long battery-life (25+ hours on 2 AAs), good sounding....what more could you want?

I got it from Overstock.com awhile ago for $84 delivered. The last time I checked, they didn't have any left.......but who knows, maybe you'll get lucky.

Hm, you know what joelongwood, now that I think about it, my Sony 815 pcdp does the same, hardly skips when I use the line out where 'g-protection' is disabled (I can't manually disable antishock other than using the line out), however on a friend's pcdp, it is so unstable without antishock on...

However, why would you turn off antishock..? Does it drain that much power, because Sony claims very high battery lifes with their pcdps when antishock is permanently enabled...

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To my ears, it sounds better. I don't really understand the different anti-skip technologies, but I don't think I have the good one (linear?). Anyway, I do hear a slight improvement in clarity with it off, so I leave it off.

Here's the way antiskip works, the cd is spun at a higher rate and a buffer is filled with the read-ahead info. If the construction of a cdp doesn't have much in the way of shock absobtion, the laser will get knocked off of it's tracking by lighter jolts or vibrations. This is fine when walking or jogging because the laser has time to re-seek and read ahead and fill the buffer before the next jolt (footstep) happens, but on a tractor, there is a constant vibration (gotta love a diesel), and without good shock absobtion, the laser will never be able to find the track to read-ahead and fill that buffer. Most newer players are good in this area, I was mainly worried about older players.

Neruda, thanks for the sugestion, that thing looks tough enough. I couldn't help but notice that they had the bass boost on for the pic though, *sigh*. I'll look into it, thanks everyone for the ideas.

As for not enough power, 9mW should be enough, and I can always back it up with a cmoy or TA if it isn't. THe other cans I'd be using with it are a pair of V6's, which should be efficent enough for use with a 9mW output, shouldn't it?

Went to look at cdps today and ended up picking up Houses of the Holy and Wish You Were Here, I just can't control myself. Maybe that's a good thing though.

I don't use anti skip unless I really have to. The anti shock degrades the sound a lot on my Sony and a little bit on my Panasonic. The Panasonic skips pretty easy with it off, and never with it on. So basically I only get perfect sound when I'm sitting in one spot. The Sony works fine with ESP2 off when I walk around, ride the school bus (really bumpy) cut the lawn on our vibrating lawn tractor, most things like that. But even with ESP on it's nowhere near as good as the Panasonic is with ASM4 on. So I know exactly what Captbubba is talking about.
btw, I don't find a big difference in battery life, but also the cd player might last as long if it doesn't have to spin the cd as fast. Or in the Panasonics case, spin extremely fast then stop spinning then spin really fast again (ASM4). It spins so fast it vibrates the player! That can't be good for it's lifespan imo.

Captbubba, the 860 has never skipped on me no matter how long I shake it. It simply compensates too fast (as you said newer players would). Even with antishock off it's hard to get it to skip while you're walking (provide you hold it in your hand and not your pocket). It will work fine on a tractor, I promise. And Joe, using antishock will improve the battery life. Serious, it's about 20 hours without antishock and 25 with it on. Cool, huh? So that might be a reason to use it right there. I can't tell the difference in the sound with it on or off, but then again *cough* my headphones aren't nearly as good as yours.

Well, after a little 4th of July entrepreneurial activity, I now have some cash to spend. I've so far managed to find the sw860 for $109 plus shipping. Do you think this is a decent deal?

Oh, and joe, as for what more could I want, I would like it to cost nothing and come with its own pair of Stax, but luckily I'm not picky.

sounds like a great deal to me, go for it!