Panasonic SLCT790

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Here comes my Panasonic SL CT790, my recipe for peace..


~~~~~~~ Design ~~~~~~~

It is a small but nifty CD player barely bigger than a CD itself and has the shape of a CD – smaller and you will have to cut your CDs in order to play them – and sooooooo light.

It is sliky silver with brushed chrome lid, about 3cms – 1 inch – in width. It has all the essential buttons on the side of the unit, ...
...are special rechargeable batteries from Panasonic rectangular and weight nothing, they are located in a small compartment underneath the CD deck, which is not such a problem since you do not have to see or change them.
Again, my player came with a charger which plugs itself onto the unit and charge the battery and though I would believe that Panasonic would not be as cheeky as selling you the unit without it, I cannot vouch for that.
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So here I am , sitting in a plane/train, travelling where my boss feels I would actually be out of trouble and be productive, sometime the ride is short, most of the time, I am stuck there for hours – try the 7.55am BA8142 from London Gatwick to Luxembourg and tell me if it now departs on time, methinks not and I won’t even mention the 6.58am South West train from Bournemouth to London Waterloo !

READ A BOOK I hear somebody shouting at me, one kind soul who has the infortune of landing on this review, well, this is good advice, but having risen from the dead 2 ½ hours previously in the Gatwick case, and with a Costa Mocca and a croissant, reading is not what my eyes are demanding, they want Morpheus, they want close, they…. **Snoring**
Happy as Larry but in planes/trains there is always some flipping helfpul person that will start blasting out of the loudspeakers to give you updates on the delay or advice ‘in case of emergency’, and whilst my eyes want close, my ears are… well, all ears really.

Here comes my Panasonic SL CT790, my recipe for peace..

~~~~~~~ Design ~~~~~~~

It is a small but nifty CD player barely bigger than a CD itself and has the shape of a CD – smaller and you will have to cut your CDs in order to play them – and sooooooo light.

It is sliky silver with brushed chrome lid, about 3cms – 1 inch – in width. It has all the essential buttons on the side of the unit, Play, Stop, Pause, Fast Forward/Rewind and a hold button which I find utterly useful.

You open the lid thanks to a slide button which is for one clearly marked ‘Open’ and has a arrow pointing toward the word, so that there is not mistaken what it does and how it does it. Also, since it slides, there is very few chances it will open up in your bag.

When I bought mine, it came with a headphones and a handy little remote control with an LCD display attached to them, so that you do not really need to get the unit out in order to Play/Stop/Forward/Rewind/Pause your CD, you can even adjust the volume right there. However I am not sure if this is standard.

The reason why this unit is sooooo small is thanks to its batteries. They are special rechargeable batteries from Panasonic rectangular and weight nothing, they are located in a small compartment underneath the CD deck, which is not such a problem since you do not have to see or change them.
Again, my player came with a charger which plugs itself onto the unit and charge the battery and though I would believe that Panasonic would not be as cheeky as selling you the unit without it, I cannot vouch for that.

~~~~~~~~~ Use ~~~~~~~~

It has a very useful 48s Anti-Skip system which means that if you were to move the player around and shake it a bit and still be able listen to your CD. The jogger in the family had told me that it will skip when running, so if this is what you want, get something else.

It is advertised with 100hrs of playback, however that includes both supplied batteries and 2 AA Batteries that you will need to attach to the unit with a container supply with the player, the rechargeable batteries only last about 40 odd hours.

The sound on all CDs I have played, including CD RW – CD burned from a PC - is fantastic, there is hardly any distorsion and provided your have good headphones, you will hardly have any background noises.

The Hold button on both the unit and remote control is what I really like. It allows you to disable all buttons so that if, by mistake, one of them is pressed, nothing happens…. And in a crowded laptop bag, these things happen more often than not… and next time you try the player, the battery is dead and you end up cursing like a trooper… So the Hold button spares you the infamous mouth washed in soap for foul language.

You have up to 4 equalizer settings, though I am not a huge fan of these and tend to stick to one that suits me best.

The sound volume is what it should be, if you like it blasting, it blasts, if you hearing is such that you can hear a pin dropping at 1 mile, it is pin-dropping.

You can also have up to 24 tracks programmed if you have a CD that have that many tracks or more and only want to select but 24.. I have never used the feature.

The batteries usually charge within 3 to 4hrs which is plenty for me, however you might find it a bit too much, but then again, compare that to 40 hours of music listening….. And as for all rechargeable batteries, DO NOT CHARGE THEM UNTIL THEY ARE ALMOST DEAD, YOU ARE RUINING THEM.

~~~~~~~~ The Buying ~~~~~~~

At the time it was the best value for money for these ‘slim as a Flockhart’ portable CD Player. Since I was always carrying a lot of paraphenalia with me on my travels, it fitting nicely in my laptop bag without overcrowding/bulging the ‘already full’ pockets.
Moreover, once out of the bag, it would fit snuggly into an inside pocket of a suit, though I found it easier to buy a small carrier/protector bag to fit it in.

I got it for under £100 and thought it was a bargain at the time. Since, the item has been discontinued by Panasonic and replaced by ST-CL800 which I have found at £120 or ST-CL700 which I have found at £80. I have seen a couple advertised on Ebay lately and they went for around £50.

Obviously the player comes with a comprehensive User Guide, but being a bloke, I have never read it and prefered pressing all the buttons 'to see what happens'.
~~~~~~~ Conclusion ~~~~~~~

Well, depending what you are looking for, this a great value for money. It is small, stylish, good playback time, good features.

I will just add that on the cons side, the button on the unit are quite small, so that if you were to try using the unit without the remote control, you might find it a bit of a struggle.

All in all, a good CD player for the man and woman on the go, carrying tons of useful stuff.
 

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