[leon]

I was given the task of buying my mom a portable CD player. I'd already given her my Senn HD25SP - she'd tried my MX500, among others, and decided that she couldn't live with earbuds. Her music collection consists of mostly baroque music.

I also wanted to get myself a CD player dedicated to outdoors use. Today I was able to find a CT570 and a CT430. The 570 is for my mom, the 430 would be for me and is the blue ("-A") variant. When compared to the CT470, the CT430
- has optical out, LCD (not backlit) remote;
- has less anti-shock buffer (10-sec versus 40).

I heard both units (anti-shock off, EQ off), and it seemed to be that they actually sound different, despite identical specs. To my untrained ears the 570 is less muddy, and seems to have slightly more of a soundstage. The 430 appears to be more muddy, has the vocals out front so much that I wish it didn't.

Both are certainly fine sources of portable music, and while I prefer the 570 right now, I'd never be able to say if one is better than the other. I'm on holiday in Bangkok, and My CDs at the moment are extremely limited (k.d. lang live, Ryuichi Sakamoto on piano) to sources that to me don't really demand that much of the reproduction equipment.

P.S. what's the big deal with all the new MD portables having blue graphics on the display, instead of black? The CT570 already has it.

 

[Euphonic]

You must be careful when listening to recomendations on the web. Because different markets have different specs for the same model.

Here in Bangkok, if you buy CT430 or CT570 from an authorized dealer, they are made in Japan and comes with Antishock version 4. But in the black market they can be had cheaper, which I believe are made in China, but have only Antishock version 2. So it's highly possible that different markets have different sounds. Be sure to test out the sound yourself.

 

[leon]

Euphonic: I think I know where the version II and the version 4.0 difference came from. Check out these 2 URLs, they are scans of Panasonic's catalog from August 2000.

http://mdman.net/~mdman/minidisc/catalog/pana2k8/11.jpg
http://mdman.net/~mdman/minidisc/catalog/pana2k8/12.jpg

All Japanese domestic CT570 and CT430s has "10 (or 40) seconds Anti-Shock Memory II" printed on them. However, the non-Japan-bound models have "40 seconds Anti-Shock Memory 4.0" printed instead. Check out pictures of these non-Japan-market models.

http://store5.yimg.com/I/discave_1651_2724439
http://www.buyundercost.com/PAUD_CD_slct470_DTL.shtml

As far as my understanding goes, the "4.0" is a marketing thing. They're still doing this today: Panasonic is calling the 580/780 anti-shock "CLAM" in Europe, and "ototobi (= skip) Buster" in japan.

My CT570 has a Japanese warranty card in the box, with a sticker from a Bic Camera (a large electronics chain) store in Yokohama. They both have Japanese-language stickers (for model #, power spec and caution) on the rear. This is as opposed to my CT780 which does have a Chinese-language sticker.

Having bought several dozens (I mean it!) of gray-market electronics in Bangkok, I'm fairly confident of my attention to detail, as arrogant as I may sound.

* * *

More on the sound after several hours of back-to-back listening. Both purchases are very satisfactory, meaning that I like the sound of both. But they're good for different things.

I found something in the pop/dance vein (namely, Kylie Minogue's "Light Years") and tried it on both units. This time, the CT430 sounds more appealing - may not be more accurate, but it's more appealing. The 570 remains the winner for the more "withdrawn" type of music.