...
PACKAGING
The player comes in a blue and black box with the white Panasonic name in the top left corner and a large picture of the player down the left side. The box features messages in 6 languages. It has a pull up top and inside is plenty more cardboard! It was well wrapped so there ... Read review
Advantages: Good basic player Disadvantages: reliability lets it down
...black box with the white Panasonic name in the top left corner and a large picture of the player down the left side. The box features messages in 6 languages. It has a pull up top and inside is plenty more cardboard! It was well wrapped so there was no chance in it moving around the box, and a separated area in the box for the adapter. It as a Pan European Guarantee in 17 languages, each of which are just as confusing and difficult to claim with. ... ...accident, misuse, wear and tear, neglect, incorrect adjustment or repair, improper instillation, adaptation or modifications, improper or inconsistent use, or damage in transport then they will not cover it through guarantee! I’m sorry, but is there another way it can break?!?!
There is also a very detailed 8 page instruction manual, even showing you which way up a CD needs to be to play!
I was given this player to keep me occupied on my many long bus and train journeys.
THE PLAYER
This is a Japanese mp3 and CD player, which comes in a silver and blue top with a grey base. It is 13cmx13cmx2½cm which is about average size, so its more bag sized than pocket sized. It comes with an adapter and ear bud type headphones. It only has a small display area, so only displays limited information on it, such as which track and album or how long the song has been playing for. There are also little icons to display what modes you have it on, which are discussed later. The buttons are fairly small, so not fab it you are fumbling about in the dark or going under a tunnel, or if you have any arthritic type problems that makes it difficult to press small buttons. The overall appearance is nice and suitable for male or female.
WHY USE MP3 OVER CD?
MP3s are compressed audio files, so instead of having about 20 songs to a cd, you can store up to about 170 songs on a cd. The downfall here is that you need to have a computer with a cd writer or at least be friendly with someone that has. The player also does not come with any software to help you with this, but I would recommend Nero as a burning program. The audio data needs to be encoded as mp3 or cda (normal cd data) otherwise it will not play e.g. wav or midi files. I’ve found this player to be compatible with all my cd-r and cd-rw cds.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality is good, however the volume controls are at set amounts, so it can be annoying if 1 setting is too quiet and the next is too loud. There is the option to put on S-XBS, which boosts the low frequency and basically adds a bit more bass. Its good sound for pop, classical and rock, but may not be so good for anything heavier as the bass doesn’t really go that high.
SONG SELECTION
If you have burnt all the songs onto the CD as is then it will tell you how many songs there are on the CD as soon as you've put the CD in and you can choose your options from there. However it also has the option of having 'albums' where you can burn the songs in different folders and only choose to listen to 1 folder at a time. You can then choose to change the options so that you can listen to all the songs within the folers. This means that you can listen to your songs randomly within the 'album' or all the songs on the CD. There are all your normal options with any player – play, stop, pause, skip forward, skip backwards. You can also set it to repeat the 1 song over and over, repeat the mp3 or CD over and over or the random function I mentioned earlier. You can also put a sequence of up to 20 songs in its memory, but I still haven’t had the patience to bother to work out how. There is a limit of 999 songs to a mp3 cd and / or 999 albums, but unless you are listening to 15 sec clips then I cant see anyone ever outdoing this.
OTHER FUNCTIONS
‘Hold’ function allows you to stop turning it on by accident which is a great function to if you bump the player around in your bag all day like I do, because there is nothing more annoying than going to listen to a song and finding your battery has died because it’s been singing to itself for the past couple of hours!
POWER SUPPLY
This player has 2 power options - battery or mains. If you are running it from battery then it takes 2 AAs and has 40 hour playback with non-rechargeable batteries on mp3 songs (30 hours with CD data) which is enough for even the longest journey! An AC (230-240 V) adapter is supplied for mains use so you can listen to your mp3s for as long as your little heart desires. The problem with this is that the player is then permanently on standby, so you have to turn it off at the plug so that it is not ‘live’ and eating up your elecy bill. There is a little battery icon on the display so you know when its about to die on you. I’ve just been reading through the instruction booklet and just realised that you can actually recharge rechargeable batteries inside the mp3 player, although I don’t have any rechargeable batteries to try this out with.
PACKAGING
The player comes in a blue and black box with the white Panasonic name in the top left corner and a large picture of the player down the left side. The box features messages in 6 languages. It has a pull up top and inside is plenty more cardboard! It was well wrapped so there was no chance in it moving around the box, and a separated area in the box for the adapter. It as a Pan European Guarantee in 17 languages, each of which are just as confusing and difficult to claim with. It basically states that if it gets damaged by fire, accident, misuse, wear and tear, neglect, incorrect adjustment or repair, improper instillation, adaptation or modifications, improper or inconsistent use, or damage in transport then they will not cover it through guarantee! I’m sorry, but is there another way it can break?!?! There is also a very detailed 8 page instruction manual, even showing you which way up a CD needs to be to play!
RELIABILITY
This is the second of this player I’ve had – I had a battery leak in the first one, so I got a replacement. I use it a large amount, and unfortunately this player developed a fault after about 6 months. Sometimes it does not acknowledge the battery, or when it gets jolted will turn itself off and refuse to accept there are batteries in it, so you have to pull the batteries out and start again. This can be a real pain when you are on a bus constantly going over speed bumps etc! Its also not a long time to have it before developing a fault.
ANYTHING ELSE? Unfortunately this player is not compatible with ID3 tags, which is displaying the info on the song while it is playing, but then at least you can play guess that song! Although you wont know if you got it right until you get home… It has a heat resistant material in it so it’s ok to leave it in a hot car although I wouldn’t recommend leaving it on top of the radiator because even if the player withstands it, you CD might not. It is not water or splash proof so you really have to be careful with it in the rain, and no listening to mp3s in your bathroom! It says it’s designed for use in moderate climates, so I guess that rules out Scotland in the winter! lol
For more information call 08705 357357 or go to www.panasonic.co.uk
I cant seem to find anywhere online that sells these anymore, so if you wanted one my best suggestion would be to look on ebay.
TO SUM UP
It’s a nice little player but its pretty basic by the standards of some of the players coming out now. It also has some reliability issues, so I probably wouldn’t recommend it unless you couldn’t buy anything better.
Advantages: excellent performer, last forever Disadvantages: extra base not very effective.
...so they offered me the Panasonic SL MP3 CD to keep me happy, even though it was a few pounds more expensive than sony's. I took it grudgingly thinking panasonic wont be as good as sony.
Never have i been so wrong, till today 2006,this Mp3 CD player has not turned off on me once. The CDs I use with it now are stil compatible with its sofware. I use Dvd discs for MP3 songs holding Up to 8,000 songs and the player is still reading every song. I have ... ...that has not aged or needed updataing or replaced apart from this player.
I must admit i have given the poor fella a hard time these few years but he never let me down yet. Even though the player has not let me down however the adaptor and headphones that it came with have both been replaced twice, they just stopped working. ther is and xtra bass feature button which from day one has not really added much bass to the music. the rest of the features ...
khanagewot 21.05.2006
· Read full review
Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Panasonic CD / MP3 player
Sound Quality
Ease of Use
Look & Design
Range of Features
Value for Money
Similar reviews »
Reviews which might be of interest for "Panasonic CD / MP3 player"
Advantages: good sound quality, good D sound anti-skip system, earphone remote control, plays mp3 and wma Disadvantages: doesn't support ID3tags
I have had the Panasonic SL SX420 for awhile now, and I am very happy with its performance. I was looking for a cd/mp3 portable player that would be sylish, with long lasting batteries and with a good anti-skip system. SL SX420 offers all of it.
The player has a similar design as other Panasoniccd players with the main function buttons (memo, mode, eq, play, stop, ff, rew, nad volume)on the front of the player. The only functions that are on the side of the cd player are hold and open button. Some of the functions (volume, hold, eq, play/stop, ff, and rew) are also on the remote control which really makes it easy to control the cd player when you have it in your pocket or in your backpack.
The sound quality of the discman is excellent and very clear. It has s-xbs, s-xbs+, live, an normal eq settings. The volume goes all the way ...
Advantages: MP3 playback and long battery life Disadvantages: The random function doesn't work properly
Whenever I?ve had to choose a CD player like this, for me or for a present, the first thing I look at is the battery time. This is what first led me to this player, it advertises 30+ hours of CD playback and 48 hours of mp3 playback (these are for non-stop playback, with no skipping. Using the skip a lot will reduce battery time and giving it resting time between playbacks increases battery time.) Those numbers seemed pretty amazing to me from just 2AA batteries. So I bought it....
The round shape looks great and I can?t see how a CD player could get much smaller. It feels very well built, and it takes very big bumps (unusually big) to get it to skip. The remote control is useful for whenever you are carrying it around in your pocket or a bag and don?t want to have to reach into your pocket and fumble around for the buttons ...
Advantages: plays WMA and MP3 Disadvantages: uncomfortable ear piece (just buy some decent headphones)
For many years I wanted an MP3CD player so that I could burn all my MP3s to CD and play them when I go on holiday, but I was thrilled when I found the Panasonic SL SX425S for just £70 which could not only play MP3 but the much smaller WMA - which are roughly half the size but remain the same quality as the MP3
You can cram as many songs as you like onto a CD-R or CD-RW and it will play them, although beware when playing WMA the battery power can go down pretty quickly!
The general layout and style is good, and it looks very attractive, there is also a useful "Hold" button so that when it goes into your pocket you don't change the song by mistake. There is also a great little inline remote control which you can use to quickly access you favourite songs. The system is very easy to use and even without reading the instruction manual ...
Product Information for "Panasonic CD / MP3 player" »
Audio system
Sound Output Mode
Stereo
Sound Effects
S-XBS
Heat Resistant
Yes
Features
Hold button, rechargeable capability, auto power off
Cd system
Type
CD / MP3 player
Media Load Type
Slot-load
Playback Modes
Programme play, resume play, skip playback, random play / shuffle, all tracks repeat
Supported Bit Rate
32 - 320Kbps
Sample Rate
32 kHz, 44.1 kHz, 48 kHz
Shockproof Memory
45 seconds
MP3 Shockproof Memory
100 seconds
CD Track Programming
Yes (24 tracks)
CD-R/CD-RW Compatible
Built-in
CD-RW Compatible
Built-in
Supported Digital Audio Standards
MP3
Connections
Connector Type
1 x headphones / remote control ( mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm )
1 x DC power input
Manufacturer's product description
Panasonic brings a beautiful design and a wealth of features to this SL-MP30 portable CD player. Boasting the compact size and the heat-resistant polycarbonate body, the SL-MP30 is capable of CD-R/RW and MP3 playback and features No-Skip system (100-sec backup memory for MP3, 45-sec backup memory for CD-DA); 24-track random access programming; repeat (1/all/random), skip/search, memory/mode; S-XBS (extra bass system), MASH 1-Bit D/A conversion system, and more.