[cccatl]

Anyone have any sound quality opinions of the Panasonic SL-MP35?

I have a RioVolt 100 and the good old Panasonic SL-320 CD player. I bought the Panasonic SL-MP35 today, and listened to the Sony mp3/cd player.

I liked my RioVolt 100 since it was basically the first well executed cd/mp3 player. However, it was obvious to me from the start that the sound quality was pretty awful. (I was listening to a Panasonic SL-320 before the RioVolt, which is quite nice, and was rated the best PCDP at Headroom.com while it was still available).

So, when I heard that Panasonic had come out with a cd/mp3 player, I figured these folks knew how to do the analog stage right. I listened to the Panasonic SL-MP35, my Panasonic SL-320, my RioVolt 100, and a Sony cd/mp3 model at Hi-fi Buys. Here is a quick summary of my opinion:

The trusty old Panasonic SL-320 was still the best, but alas, it won't play mp3's. The music was the most immediate and alive with this player, especially in my Koss SportaPro's and my Ety ER-4S's.

The Panasonic SL-MP35 was my next favorite. It wasn't quite as good at playing CD's as my trusty old SL-320, but it did play mp3's. And, it was clearly better, IMO, than the Sony and clearly much better than the RioVolt 100.

The Sony was next. Very sort of average in my opinion.

Finally, although I like my RioVolt, it actually discouraged me from listening to music since it gave me listening fatigue so quickly. It clearly had the worst sound quality, imo. So, I only listened to it in the car, where the ambient noise is ridiculous anyhow. However, of the 4 players, the RioVolt had the best interface. Whoever said it first was right... interface/sound quality seem to be mutually exclusive... *sigh*...

Here's the URL to Panasonic's web page for the SL-MP35 for those of you interested:

http://www.prodcat.panasonic.com/sho...35&CategoryId=

-C

 

[recephasan]

I bought one of those.

The good stuff: It sounds very good with my Grados and V6. Even the X-Bass sounds good, much better than the one on my 470. Good battery life, unlike my RioVolt.

The not-so-good stuff: No line out. No search within mp3 songs. Sometimes adds the beginning of the next track to the one that's playing (maybe this is a bug with the anti-skip read ahead), and cuts off half a minute or so after starting to play the next track.

I think I will return it, and wait for Panasonic or Sony to come up with a player that sounds good, has a line out, and permits search within mp3 songs, as does my RioVolt player.

Still, if I had to choose between the Rio and Panasonic, I would choose the Panasonic because of the sound quality.