[becca9]

Okay, this is a perennial, but here goes. Just want the best portable sound for audio CD out of the headphone jack, without an amp (running through Senn PX200s). Headroom taps the SlimX's as its favorite CD players (and lots of folks like them), and the SlimX's have more power than the Sony. My one big concern is that the battery life on the SlimX's for audio CD in particular is reportedly pretty bad. I'm hesitant about the 550 (the SlimX with the longest battery life) because it has no controls at all on the player; I'm just not keen on being totally dependent on the remote just to play a CD. So, is the Sony (D-EJ2000) likely to have any better battery life? any other reason to prefer it over the SlimX's (aside from the Sony being metal instead of plastic)? As for the SlimX's -- which model makes the most sense (cost not a big hurdle among all these units). (I know, I know -- Sony D-E905, or D-777; but can't find those in a hurry.) Thanks all.

 

[iPodophile]

The D-EJ2000 has few controls on the player, so you might want to take that into consideration too. I haven't gotten my refurb model from the Sony Outlet store yet (just won it on ebay) but I'll let you know how I like it after I have a couple days to try it out.

 

[D-EJ915]

The D-EJ2000 has a push-button/jog-dial type control for the "|<<" ">" "||" and ">>|" functions. It uses 1 battery, and has an external case that holds 1 AA, unlike the others which hold 2 AA, don't ask me why they did this, it's really weird.

 

[Jeffreybar]

I've got one of the older SlimXes, the 350. I wouldn't worry about no controls on the player: I *never* use the controls which are actually on my player (and the 350 has all of them on the player). The remote is just that good. If you don't want to use a remote for whatever reason, it's probably a bad choice, because controlling the player without an LCD on the body is kinda impractical, buttons or no.

Audio CD battery life is pretty terrible for the 350, but supposedly the 550 has much better battery life. Fact or fiction, however, I do not know.


-Jeff

 

[Jeffreybar]

Oh, and the 350 has a metal cover, not plastic. The unit is well-built and quite rugged. According to the iriver website, the 550 has a metal case as well.

 

[Todd Eng]

I had a Sony mp3 cd player (not sure which model, since I lost it, maybe DEJ-1000?) and even though battery life was good, it came at the expense of really low output from the headphone jack. It was so low I found I had to get an amp to get decent sound out of it. In contrast, my iRiver's heaphone jack is great, it doesn't need an amp at all (IMP-350). So I wasn't terribly bummed when I lost my Sony, since it allowed me to upgrade (and not carry around an amp).

I haven't heard the 550, but from the specs on their website, it looks like it also has decent headphone power output. As for the remote vs. controls on the body, that's a personal preference thing but I find I only ever use the remote controls on the 350, so I doubt I'd miss them.

Good luck,

Todd