[blr]

I know this PCD player has been reviewed recently, but thought that more than one review wouldn’t hurt anyway.
I got the D-EJ725 a couple of days ago as a present from my colleagues on the occasion of my PhD defence (yes you can call me Dr blr if you want). I’ve been listening to it for several hours in total comparing it to an old Sony D345 (ca 1995-6) and a cheapie player called Denver, you know one of these real cheap units with powerful headjack. Here’s what I found.

BUILD AND FEATURES
The package includes everything one needs, the player, 2 rechargable AA NiCd batteries ( the unit runs only on AA sized batteries, no expensive gumsticks), an AC adaptor/charger, LCD remote, external battery pack and earbuds (the infamous E805 which I haven’t even touched). The only complain here is the batteries. I wonder why Sony still packs their players with NiCd batteries. NiMH are not much more expensive and extend the playback times considerably according to the manual (22 hours on NiMH vs 10 hours on NiCd). I guess this is a trick to get people to buy Sony rechargables, which cost twice as much as any other brand. Anyway this is not a big drama since I already have NiMH. According to the manual 2 AA alkalines
The unit itself as all plastic, but doesn’t feel flimsy or fragile. It’s quite thin, but surprisingly its footprint is actually larger than the much older D345. The DEJ725 is lighter though. Most of the controls are on the lid. Some people may find them on the small side, but for me and my smallish fingers that’s OK. The hold, open and volume knobs are on the side together with all input and output jacks. The G-protection on/off switch is inside the unit. Bad if you ask me, since to engage the G-protection one should open the lid and remove the CD. More on the skip protection. Even with the G-protection off, the unit doesn’t skip which tells me that there is some sort of anti skip protection that cannot be turned off.
The remote is quite good. It has a backlit LCD and a strong clip at the back. Interestingly, there is no pause button on the remote (wasn’t that a Panasonic feature). The D345s remote had one. Well that’s not that bad since Sonys resume exactly from the position where they were stopped. The resume function by the way cannot be turned off unlike D345 which has a resume switch.
The bass booster is useless period.
In terms of outputs, D-EJ725 has everything one can wish for. Apart from the headjack, there is a combined line/optical out. Great news for me as a MD user. The headphone output is rated at 5 MW into 16 ohms and I expected something really underpowered. This, however is not really the case. It goes louder than my Sharp MDP which is rated as 5mW into 32 ohms and not that much weaker than the D345 which supposedly has something like 10 or even 15 mW amp, go figure. I haven’t compared it to any Panasonics, but wouldn’t be surprised if they’ll be about the same in terms of loudness. If I remember correctly someone even posted something like that. All in all the amp has enough power to drive low impedance, high sensitivity phones. Sure, something like HD600 are not powered properly.

SOUND
I tested the unit straight out of the headjack using Philips HP550 and MDR E888 and out of X-CanV2 via the line out using the Philips and HD600.
Out of the headphone jack, the sound is in a word warm. Compared to the other portables I have this guy has more bass (with the bass booster switched off of course) and the bass goes somewhat deeper. The midrange is the strong point of D-EJ725s headphone output. It’s warm but articulate. The player pulls surprisingly high amount of midrange detail and the levels of presence and realism are also high. Now, the bad news. The headjack is rolled-off at the top end. Not terribly so, but it is audiable even without direct comparison. There isn’t enough sparkle and energy in the treble. The overall sound isn’t muddled however. The details are there, especially in the mids, just that the treble is not this players strongest point. I wish I still had my Grado SR60s. IMO SR60 or 80 would be the ideal match for ampless listening, since they may be a bit bright which will compensate for the 725s overly warm sound, plus I expect the midrange will be marvellous.
The line out is nice. Clean articulate and smooth from top to bottom. Waaaay better than the headjack. I really enjoyed talking Heads “Naked” album with the 725, X-CanV2 and HD600. Should get this PortaCorda soon. One thing made me a very good impression. The other 2 players I tried sounded good connected to the can, but something was missing. Extended listening showed that D-EJ725 has much better imaging and soundstaging compared to D345 and especially the Denver. This is not something that one could pick up in a couple of minutes listening, but over a longer auditioning it is obvious.

CONCLUSION
All in all, I think this is a good CDP. I must admit that I was a bit sceptical cause Sonys are getting bad reviews here, but I’m rather pleasantly surprised. The D EJ725 sounds different from the older D345, namely warmer and somewhat darker out of the headphone jack. The line out IMO is the best of the 3 portables I tried. Adding an amp turns this player into a good music maker. It is also well built and has some nice features, like a digital out and a useful remote. The battery life according to Sony is 86 hours with 4 AA alkalines, which is to my knowledge the longest at present. I haven’t tested that yet, but anyway it will be long. In a word I’m happy with my new toy. Perhaps there are players out there that will sound slightly better from the headphone out, but the line out is great and the feature list impressive.

 

[dgs]

Thanks for the review. Personally, I don't care for the line out of my DEJ725 compared to my panasonic 470 or 460, but I think it's just personal preference and not really because one is "better."

The other sweet feature of the DEJ725 IMO is the digital out.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

Great review, blr. You Europeans seem to get versions of the newer Sonys with better-sounding headphone outputs than we Americans (who have to settle for kinda crappy sound) do.

Someone a month or two ago had posted something about the D-E777. That's exactly the non-U.S. version of the D-EJ725. I haven't looked at the U.S.-version's remote, but I will...

...It looks like not only the U.S.-market version of the D-EJ725 has the crappy no-display remote (versus the nice LCD-display one of those units sold outside North America), but the U.S.-market version comes only with a glossy dark blue lid (versus a silver lid on some non-U.S. versions). BTW, blr, what color is the lid of the D-EJ725 you reviewed?

And the line out of my D-EJ721 (essentially a D-EJ725 with no remote) sounds better than the one on my old Panasonic SL-SW850 (but I haven't tested the line out of my Panasonic SL-CT470).

Bottom line: I am recommending the Sony D-EJ72# series PCDPs only if you are planning to use their line/optical output often.

 

[blr]

Quote:

Originally posted by Eagle_Driver Great review, blr. You Europeans seem to get versions of the newer Sonys with better-sounding headphone outputs than we Americans (who have to settle for kinda crappy sound) do. Someone a month or two ago had posted something about the D-E777. That's exactly the non-U.S. version of the D-EJ725. I haven't looked at the U.S.-version's remote, but I will... ...It looks like not only the U.S.-market version of the D-EJ725 has the crappy no-display remote (versus the nice LCD-display one of those units sold outside North America), but the U.S.-market version comes only with a glossy dark blue lid (versus a silver lid on some non-U.S. versions). BTW, blr, what color is the lid of the D-EJ725 you reviewed? And the line out of my D-EJ721 (essentially a D-EJ725 with no remote) sounds better than the one on my old Panasonic SL-SW850 (but I haven't tested the line out of my Panasonic SL-CT470). Bottom line: I am recommending the Sony D-EJ72# series PCDPs only if you are planning to use their line/optical output often.

Hmm, interesting thoughts about the difference between US and european models. On paper, it should only be the primary voltage of the adapter, but no one knows what other changes Sony made. Looking at these negative reviews on Sony units mostly from US makes me thinking... Could it be that they're indeed different, I mean sound different. I know that Sony makes electronics specially tweaked for the UK market. What are the tweaks I dunno, never had one of these, but this points out that Sony really looks at those things.
To answer your question, Eagle_Driver my unit is silver. Actually the lid is silver and the bottom is gray. I think there is a light blue-metalic version of the unit on the market also.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

And another thing, blr, all of the Sony D-EJ725 units sold in North America are made in Malaysia, not Japan. Some versions of the D-EJ725 sold outside of North America are made in Japan.

 

[blr]

Mine is also made in Malaysia. To my knowledge, only the top PCDP are made in Japan plus the MD gear.
Sharp moved their production facilities for portable MDP in Malaysia as well, more than a year ago. My MT866 was one of the first not made in Japan units. However, I haven't had any problems with it for a 14 months of heavy use, so I guess it's OK.

 

[coolvij]

The MD gear is made in malayasia, too!

I don't think it matters that much, tho......

 

[blr]

My R70 which I got about year and a half ago was made in Japan. Apparently they've moved everything to Malaysia, but I agree with you Coolvij that id doesn't really matter.

 

[pedxing]

I just bought the EJ725 too after reading the review above. When I plugged in my HD570 into the headphone jack and let'er rip, my jaw fell to floor in awe. I was surprised that it was able to drive my HD570 almost as well as my D-842k sony pcdp which is 5 years old. It sounded sharper with details, but the bass didn't go as low as my old pcdp did.

I bought the EJ815 two years ago and that thing sounded like complete crap compared to the EJ725. Apparently, when I crank up the volume in the 815, it cranked up the volume evenly with cheap headphones, but with the HD570, it only made the treble more piercing. The EJ725 seems to have more logic in the vollume control, pushing the bass harder than the treble with cheap headphones. With my HD570, the bass got better when I crank up the volume, but the emphasized treble died down.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

I wholeheartedly agree with you, pedxing!

The D-EJ7## series apparently sounds better than the higher-level Sonys!!!

Though the D-EJ7##'s sound is merely middle-of-the-pack (from their headphone jack) once you factor in the Panasonic SL-CT470 (silver) and the SL-CT570 into the mix.

Oh, as blr had stated in his review of the D-EJ725, the headphone output is rolled off in the treble, making it the ideal candidate for Grado headphones - or other relatively "forward"-sounding headphones, such as the Sennheiser HD 570 (but my experience with the HD 570 indicates that they're way too bright even from my D-EJ721's headphone jack).

 

[pedxing]

In my post above, I meant the EJ915, not the 815. My bad....

I wanted to buy the CT-570, but I can only find it mail order and I heard complaints about line noise in the 470's and some 570's. If one thing that annoys me the most is line noise. Heck, I can't even have the pcdp on the table somtimes because I can hear the electric motors vibrating the table. So I decided not to take the chance of ordering the 570.

My biggest complaint about the EJ725 is the treble roll off - it cuts off too fast. I don't get the annoying sibilance anymore making the music much more comfortable, but something feels missing.

One other major complaint about the remote: it is designed up-side down. When the sony logo and buttons symbols are right side up, the wire that goes to the pcdp is at the bottom and the heapdhone jack is at the top. This means I have to rotate the remote and fight the wire if the remote is naturally dangling. The wire that goes to the pdcp should be at the top instead and the headphone jack should be at the bottom.

 

[blr]

I know exactly what you're talking about pedxing
about the upside-down remote. Most Sony remotes are designed that way, God knows why. Besides, what remote did you get with your unit? The european version comes with the long and thin remote with an LCD. Someone posted that the US version is packed with the cheaper round remote which here ships with the 625 and 615 before. If this is true, Sony does not really sell their products much cheaper in the US, rather the price difference comes from cutting corners like this.
About the sound, I had a chance to briefly audition my friend's 815 and IMO my 725 sounds considerably better. The 815 sounds hollow and tinny in comparison. The recessed midrange also leaves the impression of a lot less apparent volume at the same settings, although both units are rated at 5 mW into 16ohms. The EJ725 has more body and presence which makes it to sound louder.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

As I said of the D-EJ725, we Americans get that crappy round cheap no-display remote and those "Street Style" behind-the-neck headphones. Gyah. I hate those!

The rest of the world, however, gets the nicer LCD-display remote but those terribly uncomfortable MDR-E805 earbuds. (Chuck those in favor of the MDR-E888s!)