[teomad]

Hi!

I temporary need a portable with a lack
of bass and a good timbre for SR325.
I tried Sony DEJ955 and it wasn't good
(too much of bass). I listen to classicaland jazz music (no mp3's).
Any suggestions?

 

[linnem]

Some say the pana 570 lacks bass.
I used mine with a pair of sr60 and that was great

 

[Steve999]

I'm pretty far out of my league when it comes to talking about sources. But for portable CD players I have two aiwas. The current aiwas run from $50 to $100, have 12 mw amps (which seems pretty good to me, many portables are 5 mw or less nowadays), and let you reduce the memory buffer for higher quality sound (but less battery life). They seem pretty flat and clean and very quiet (even with V6s) to me. You can see the model number of my favorite, below. Both of them are a little flakey as to where they start the first track when you first listen to a CD... it often starts somewhere in the middle of the first track, so I just hit the track back button. I consider this a design flaw as it's the same with both models which obviously have similar electronics. Otherewise, the resume function works well. The one listed below also has the options of no memory buffer at all and a two-step (rather than one-step) bass boost, and an FM tuner. It's $90-100. The ones I have also let you see track remaining time, which I like a lot. Again, I really don't know if they're any good, just that they're plenty good for me.

 

[dinosauract]

Hey Steve -

That Aiwa does look pretty promising. I wonder why more isn't written about it on this forum. If it doesn't have a line out, that might explain it. But that phone out looks pretty powerful, and the non-compressed anti-skip is a big plus. I guess Aiwa is kind of getting a rep for not being too reliable, but it looks like an interesting player. That middle of the track thing would bug me though. Weird, my $1500 CAL Audio player in my my home rig does the same thing maybe one time out of a hundred, usually when I have it in random mode, I have no idea why.

 

[Steve999]

It has no line out.... maybe that's it. Yeah, I tried Sony and Panasonic PDCPs and couldn't live with them. I trust my AIWA will break in due course. The lower of the two bass boosts is pretty natural for, say, an SR60. I look at portables as disposable equipment that will not last a lifetime. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn the AIWAS have reliability problems. You can go as low as $50 and get pretty much everything except the bass boost is ridiculous on the $50 one but pretty useful (with my SR60s) on the more expensive one, and you get two levels of antiskip on the cheap one, but two levels plus an option for no compression on the more expensive one.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Quote:

Originally posted by Steve999 I look at portables as disposable equipment that will not last a lifetime.

Not only that, but most low-to-mid-end "consumer-level" full-sized home components also suffer from quality-control bugs that render them equally as disposable as portables. In fact, the only home components that are anywhere near reliable are all astronomically expensive in price (hey, how about $3,000 or higher per component?) Which means that a system made up of reliable, "lifetime" audio components will cost upwards of $20,000 - and that's with only the basics! Very unreasonable, considering that even many "audiophiles" have a severely limited budget - and far out of reach for the average Joe.

Blame all that on the SEVERE cost-cutting that the big-name consumer electronics manufacturers are employing on even their EXPENSIVE products. (Note that I'm only discussing very recently manufactured and/or marketed products here.)

 

[teomad]

Hi!
Yesterday I tried Panasonic SL-MP50.
In comparison (on Grados) with Sony D-CJ01
it really lacks of bass, but I'm not in a hurry.
It's hard to listen to the portables in Geneva -
the sellers want you buy one because of the colour.
There is almost impossible to find any Aiwa models. Steve999 - do you really use
any bass boost with Grado?
What about Philips or this strange thing:
RioVolt SP250 Portable MP3-CD Player with FM Tuner and 8 Minutes Anti-Skip.

I'm waiting still for someone who wanted
thin bass from a portable player (and found one) - Try the track number 4 or 5 from Jacques Loussier Trio - Satie (Telarc 1998) -
I can hold out it only on my home hi-fi,
(or on my computer !) only.

 

[Steve999]

I do use bass boost, level one of two on the AIWA, with the SR 60s with some music. Or with the Sony MZ-N707 minidisc recorder, I'll increase the bass one out of three possible steps. That's just about perfect actually. I find it a welcome addition for some music with the SR 60s. It depends on the recording, really. You have much more expensive Grados than I do and they might well not need the extra bass, I just don't know. The SR80s, for example, are reputed to have better bass than the SR 60s.


teomad asked: Steve999 - do you really use
any bass boost with Grado?

 

[purk]

Teomad,
Looks in buy/sell forum for my Panasonic SL-S700. Out of my portable player, it is the best with my grado Headphone. The headphone out of this player alone is better than TAH+grado SR-225. I suggest you to get this player. The unit is in excellent condition. It is not your everyday Panasonic player.

 

[bootman]

I had good results with a NOS Sony D-25.
(I have the MSII which is a version of the 325)
You can still find them on Ebay. (or right here in the "for sale" forum.)

 

[teomad]

Thanks,

I'm looking for a new model
(with a warranty).