[350Rocket]

I just picked this up at the post office. I paid $4.55 on ebay + shipping, less than $10 total. It's a Sony D-E401 built June 1998. I moved up 3 years from my 1995 vintage Panasonic SL-S160 that is still working good but the lid hinge broke at the back so it's a pain to open and close especially when i'm in the car. Plus some of the really rough backroads will make it skip since it has no antishock. Also the bass boost switch is worn and loose so it likes to switch the XBS on by itself which was only an issue if I was using the headphone out. I'll keep the Panasonic for a backup when I'm trying to play a really scratched cd since it seems to be the best I've used for that.

The battery life should also be a bit longer on the new old Sony (I think it's like 14hrs compared to maybe 8 on the Panasonic) and the gauge will come in handy.

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r...discman004.jpg

The broken lid on the Panasonic:

 

[JUDOHAWK]

Wow nice

The only portable CD player I have around here is a phillips jogproof I got in early 2000, I think like 2002 or something. It still works good, but the jury's still out on the SQ, I havn't really tested it much with better than stock phones. But it obviously doesn't compare to the older ones.

 

[350Rocket]

When I get a chance I'm going to compare this one to the Panasonic side by side, through the headphone out and from the lineout into the Fiio. These things are only really getting used in my appt so they should hold up ok.

 

[JUDOHAWK]

Can't wait to see your comparison. Hell, this makes me want to hunt down an old ass portable cd player for my collection. But I don't really have much of a CD collection anymore. I can't even remember what happened to them. Might have to look in some boxes or something.

 

[350Rocket]

So I tried to do a comparison between the two players. I really should have burned 2 cd's with the exact same audio track on them so I could have both players going at the same time and just switch the headphones back and forth but I didn't. By the time I swapped the cd and then swapped my PortaPro's and got the same song going again I couldn't tell a difference between the 2. First I tried both out of the line out using the Fii0 E5 which at least allowed me to have the volume level at the same from each player, but I couldn't hear a difference. Then I tried both out of the headphone out, but it was hard to get the volume level the same. The music I used for testing was a couple songs from the Headstones, 3 Doors Down and Slayer. So between the headphones and the music, maybe not revealing enough to tell the difference.

 

[Punnisher]

I have a similar player with a line-out. It sounds very good.