DURABRAND CD-965 Personal CD Player
Out of stock |
Similar in Portable CD Players
- CD-R/CD-RW Playback: CD-R/CD-RW
- Bass Boost: Without Bass Boost
- Supported Formats: MP3
- Overview
-
Reviews
-
Compare Prices
User ReviewRead All Reviews »
You get what you pay for!
Pros
Cheapest portable MP3 player yet! Plays from CD-RW discs. Simple ID3 tag support.
Cons
Hates VBR files, short battery life, terrible CD-DA support, slow file system
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Avoid it, dish out a few more dollars for a better MP3 player.
Alright, lets start with the good... The Durabrand CD-965 is currently the cheapest portable MP3 player on the market, only $30 brand-new. Now the bad... The Durabrand CD-965 is currently the cheapest portable MP3 player on the market!
First off, this thing has serious problems with VBR (Variable Bitrate) MP3 files. When trying to play a VBR file, the lagging audio will be full of disturbing pops, hiss, and scratches. The only way I've found that fixes this is to seek through a few seconds of the track, after that it should play just fine until the next file.
That's not the end of problems with VBR MP3s. If you try to use the seek feature with VBR files, you can get all sorts of results: the time could be incorrectly displayed, you could go in reverse instead of forward (or vice versa), you could remain in the very same spot, you could end up with nothing but garbled white noise, or my favorite, you could end up halfway into the next file! It's very rare that the seek feature will actually work right with VBR files.
These problems vanish with CBR (Constant Bitrate) MP3s or CD-DA (Compact Disc Digital Audio). I don't have any complaints with CBR files, but I do for CD-Audio.
The "30-second ESP system" well... sucks for CD-Audio. It takes forever for the buffer to fill up, and only about 1/5 of that time for it to be sucked dry. Worthless! It skips just as badly as my previous CD player that had no skip protection what-so-ever.
The battery life is terrible. How does three hours sound to you? The CD-965 does feature a low battery alert, but it only gives you about a 20 minute warning.
Okay, one more major complaint. The slow filesystem.
When a disc is inserted, the unit creates an index of the first 50 files. If you try to play any file after that, it takes atleast 20 seconds before the thing will finish building a new index (meaning you'll have to wait again to play the first 50 files!)
The CD-965 comes with your standard headphones, which actually sound good for this kind of price, especially with Bass Boost on. The CD-965 also has a line-level output, which allows you to connect the unit to any reciever with a auxiliary RCA or Mini-Pin input. But, I couldn't really see anyone using this as a component of a hi-fi setup, besides, you need to turn the unit up to maximum volume just so you can hear it over your stereo.
The CD-965 also has several EQ presets, but all of them turn music into distorted garbage. Leave it on NORMAL.
First off, this thing has serious problems with VBR (Variable Bitrate) MP3 files. When trying to play a VBR file, the lagging audio will be full of disturbing pops, hiss, and scratches. The only way I've found that fixes this is to seek through a few seconds of the track, after that it should play just fine until the next file.
That's not the end of problems with VBR MP3s. If you try to use the seek feature with VBR files, you can get all sorts of results: the time could be incorrectly displayed, you could go in reverse instead of forward (or vice versa), you could remain in the very same spot, you could end up with nothing but garbled white noise, or my favorite, you could end up halfway into the next file! It's very rare that the seek feature will actually work right with VBR files.
These problems vanish with CBR (Constant Bitrate) MP3s or CD-DA (Compact Disc Digital Audio). I don't have any complaints with CBR files, but I do for CD-Audio.
The "30-second ESP system" well... sucks for CD-Audio. It takes forever for the buffer to fill up, and only about 1/5 of that time for it to be sucked dry. Worthless! It skips just as badly as my previous CD player that had no skip protection what-so-ever.
The battery life is terrible. How does three hours sound to you? The CD-965 does feature a low battery alert, but it only gives you about a 20 minute warning.
Okay, one more major complaint. The slow filesystem.
When a disc is inserted, the unit creates an index of the first 50 files. If you try to play any file after that, it takes atleast 20 seconds before the thing will finish building a new index (meaning you'll have to wait again to play the first 50 files!)
The CD-965 comes with your standard headphones, which actually sound good for this kind of price, especially with Bass Boost on. The CD-965 also has a line-level output, which allows you to connect the unit to any reciever with a auxiliary RCA or Mini-Pin input. But, I couldn't really see anyone using this as a component of a hi-fi setup, besides, you need to turn the unit up to maximum volume just so you can hear it over your stereo.
The CD-965 also has several EQ presets, but all of them turn music into distorted garbage. Leave it on NORMAL.
