[tradja]

My sister-in-law's PCDP recently died, and we want to get her a PCDP for Xmas.
Ideally:

* Most importantly, sturdy build quality
* somewhat "cool", or at least less dorky
* $50 or less, new or used
* relatively easy to find online/ebay, etc.

SQ is not a criteria at all. Remember, this is for HER, not me or an audiophile.

Any recommendations? Thanks!

 

[Sunshines]

Ha! I thought said your sister in-law died.

umm...yeah. I like my iRiver 550 a lot, and i believe older models of it are in the $50 range on ebay. If she's not discriminating about sound quality at all, then this is a pretty neat/unique pcdp in that you dont see many cd players w/o a screen. It's very convenient if your using it in the right setup, such as lugging it in a bag with the remote clipped on the outside, but it's terribly annoying to carry around with no bag.

 

[apnk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunshines Ha! I thought said your sister in-law died. umm...yeah. I like my iRiver 550 a lot, and i believe older models of it are in the $50 range on ebay. If she's not discriminating about sound quality at all, then this is a pretty neat/unique pcdp in that you dont see many cd players w/o a screen. It's very convenient if your using it in the right setup, such as lugging it in a bag with the remote clipped on the outside, but it's terribly annoying to carry around with no bag.

yeah I got my imp-400 for $45 shipped, so far I'm impressed with all the features, but most of them are used you'll have a hard time finding a new one and under $50.

 

[tradja]

Thanks for the good suggestions. The 550 looks absolutely great, but seems to be about 3x my price range (

). The 400 does look unmistakably like a toilet seat. (sorry, apnk!

). I'm looking at a used or NOS 350.

Any other ideas?

 

[YamiTenshi]

Here's a cool looking Sony.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...onics&v=glance

Slightly above your price range but it's still cool looking.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

 

[tradja]

Those Sony's are cool, but I'm leaning towards something with cleaner lines. My sister-in-law is into punk culture and works at a bookstore -- "clean", "design-y", and "metal" will be a better gift than a techy mini-UFO.

Also, this will be a replacement for some generic PCDP that crapped out on her lately, and since I'm the obligatory tech go-to guy in the family, I feel a looming responsibility to get her the best build quality I can get for my budget (around $50). If I come in under budget, I'll probably jazz it up with a neoprene PCDP case and some KSC75's.

 

[YamiTenshi]

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=172282

Don't know exactly what you mean by clean...

The only "metal" looking pcdp I can think of are WAY out of your price range.

 

[gshan]

I was planning on getting this one for my mom because it has a plain display, and with a large and simple control:

http://www6.head-fi.org/forums/showt...hlight=D-EJ120

It also comes in a very nice looking black. Hard to find online now though, maybe BestBuy or Walmart in-store might still have some.

 

[tradja]

YamiTenshi and gshan, those are great suggestions and add some good options. Thanks!

BTW, by "clean", I mean a simple and uncluttered design.

The Best Buy I work at does not seem to carry the EJ120

Back to ebay.