[Sentral Dogma]

is anybody else here one of those people that doesn't like the risk of buying used, but also is totally frustrated with modern pcdp's?

peeves about modern pcdp's:

1. Everything's about the remote. I think remotes are bulky, annoying, and don't serve the purpose of making it easier. Its just another thing to accomodate. TOO MANY FUNCTIONS are being relegated to the remote ONLY. remotes would only be useful if they were wireless, but that's not economically feasible, so they should focus on making cdp's the old school way, everything on the pcdp, buttons not being too complex nor too simple.

2. optical line outs: lame. the optical hole gets dirtier and dirtier. i mean its a portable. what's the point. and of course we alll want real line outs.

3. compressed anti-shock that can't be turned off. Actually, i think we should make a list of those pcdp's that do this, so they can be avoided.

There's more. feel free to vent.

 

[Mr.PD]

yep.
Remotes can be a pain. I will sometimes use my SlimX with out the remote. I have a Panasonic CT570 that has never had the remote plugged into it.
Another thing is the thin players are nice, but they always give you that external battery pack. I do use the external batteries, but why don't they just make the thing big enough to hold a decent battery to start with? The SlimX is the worst because the external batteries are on the end of a cord. Looks easy to break something with that. They have those nice gumstick batteries, why don't they make room inside the palyer for 2 more of those? Then you could charge all 4 at the same time.
Speaking of gumsticks. I wish somebody would make a stand alone charger for these things. My player has to be tied up charging batteries for most of the day if I run both pairs I have dead. There is no way to charge one pair while using the other pair.

 

[Eagle_Driver]

The text in italics is what my responses to your post are:

Quote:

Originally posted by Sentral Dogma is anybody else here one of those people that doesn't like the risk of buying used, but also is totally frustrated with modern pcdp's? peeves about modern pcdp's: 1. Everything's about the remote. I think remotes are bulky, annoying, and don't serve the purpose of making it easier. Its just another thing to accomodate. TOO MANY FUNCTIONS are being relegated to the remote ONLY. remotes would only be useful if they were wireless, but that's not economically feasible, so they should focus on making cdp's the old school way, everything on the pcdp, buttons not being too complex nor too simple. Actually, having everything on the PCDP itself would only drastically increase the size and weight of those units - to the point where we may need Superman just to carry that so-called PCDP. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a bit, but really, the resulting PCDP would be larger than a Grado RA-1 headphone amp - and heavier than a Headroom Cosmic amp sans batteries.) The only other alternative to big, heavy full-featured PCDPs is reasonably small, reasonably light PCDPs that are very bare-bones in features (i.e. no features or controls other than Play, Stop and Volume - and with a display that displays only the track number). Now, who wants either of those choices? 2. optical line outs: lame. the optical hole gets dirtier and dirtier. i mean its a portable. what's the point. and of course we alll want real line outs. I agree that the PCDP manufacturers are cutting costs by not including true line-outs (or including no line-out at all) on their units. And the newest Sony PCDPs make you accept an optical output just to even have a line-out at all; those without an optical output have no line-out at all whatsoever (which means that the only audio output on the Sony PCDPs without an optical out is the headphone jack). 3. compressed anti-shock that can't be turned off. Actually, i think we should make a list of those pcdp's that do this, so they can be avoided. The list of the PCDPs that have compressed anti-skip circuits that cannot be turned off are mainly from Panasonic (most low-to-mid-level models and almost all US-market models), but may include some other brands. There's more. feel free to vent.

 

[aos]

Quote:

2. optical line outs: lame. the optical hole gets dirtier and dirtier. i mean its a portable. what's the point. and of course we alll want real line outs.

??? There are barely any optical outs on PCDPs today and I for one would want more. How can you NOT want optical out? Besides I haven't seen ANY PCDP that doesn't have combined line out / optical out in the same jack. You're not losing out on line out, it's all in the same jack. Besides, if you complain that you want line out in the name of better sound quality, you can surely understand why others want optical out for the even higher sound quality.

Also, I've been using my PCDP for a year mostly with optical out and it still works fine and is not dirty.

(And this is my post #1000)

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally posted by Sentral Dogma is anybody else here one of those people that doesn't like the risk of buying used, but also is totally frustrated with modern pcdp's? Yes and the fact that there's just not much out there if you live in a small country. peeves about modern pcdp's: 1. Everything's about the remote. I think remotes are bulky, annoying, and don't serve the purpose of making it easier. Its just another thing to accomodate. TOO MANY FUNCTIONS are being relegated to the remote ONLY. remotes would only be useful if they were wireless, but that's not economically feasible, so they should focus on making cdp's the old school way, everything on the pcdp, buttons not being too complex nor too simple. You cannot put everything on the unit cause then it won't be slim anymore. But they can at least put "on/off" "forward-backward skip" and "volume" buttons on the unit. That way if you lose the remote or it breaks or you just don't feel like using it you can still operate the basic functions. Besides, I own the iRiver ChromeX. Because everything is on the player AND it runs on AA's. I do not need a remote and a slim player. It would be nice if they made a fat, everything on the player, runs on AA's high end model. But I guess there's no market for it There's more. feel free to vent. Just saw a couple of nice pics of the imp-550's remote. It's too small to fit every headphone jack. So they suply a nice extensioncord so any 3.5mm jack will fit. I think this is crazy. One more thing that can break or get lost. What if you need the extensioncord for your headphones and it breaks after three years. Then your PCDP is useless unless you buy another extension cord, hoping it will fit. But where do you find an extensioncord only 20cm(=very short) long? No-one sells a very short extensioncord, they will laugh at you.

 

[Lisa]

Quote:

Originally posted by Mr.PD Speaking of gumsticks. I wish somebody would make a stand alone charger for these things. My player has to be tied up charging batteries for most of the day if I run both pairs I have dead. There is no way to charge one pair while using the other pair.

Audiocubes does I think.
I saw a link somewhere.

Gonna look for it and if I find it I'll send you PM.