Panasonic SL-SV570 Personal CD Player
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Similar in Portable CD Players
- CD-R/CD-RW Playback: CD-R/CD-RW
- Bass Boost: With Bass Boost
- Anti Skip Buffer: 45 sec.
- Supported Formats: MP3
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as an mp3 CDR player, awesome hardware; nonexistent software
Pros
Great hardware, plays all MP3 formats, never skips. Excellent battery life.
Cons
No control or useful display in MP3 mode.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Excellent as an MP3 play-it and forget-it music player, not good if play order or control is important.
I've been looking for a good player for a long time which would play the mp3 files I've ripped and stored on CDR's. While earlier iterations have proven partially successful, there have always been limitations: VBR's wouldn't play, certain bitrates wouldn't play, and portability was limited. I ended up getting an iRiver flash player, which I love, although at 256Mb I can only store a few albums at a time, and it's a bit of a chore changing what it holds.
And I can play my fixed-rate 128 and 192 discs on my DVD player. But I've had my eye out for a long time for either a boombox or personal player which could deliver the goods.
The good news on this Panasonic is that it plays EVERYTHING I've thrown at it .. from fixed 32 (ripped radio shows) to VBR. And all on the same disc. And it's D-Sound anti-skip system is better than I could have imagined .. I play it at every conceivable angle, including vertical and upside down, in my backpack, in my jacket or pants pocket, while walking vigorously, and it has never missed a beat. Amazing! The same anti-skip system works just as well for CD's as well.
Incredibly, the radio works really well too. I get great reception without fade-outs on both AM and FM.
Battery life seems very good. It takes 2 AA's and they say 75 hours for MP3, which probably means about 10 discs of any type total play time. I have no idea how much power the radio draws. I've yet to put brand new batteries in, since I have a drawer full of AA's which no longer drive my digital camera. But when I put these used batteries in the Panasonic, I'm getting 20-30 hours of MP3 play on a pair. And even after they first fail in the Panasonic, I turn the player off, then back on, and they are good for another hour or two. Sometimes two or three times.
And if you've ever had any Panasonic product with an AC adapter, it works beautifully in this player (not included in this model, though I think there's an upgraded version with AC adapter and car kit).
The controls are a bit delicate, and can get easily switched on or off while in a pocket or backpack. For that reason, it's really important to use the "hold" switch to stop functionality.
That's the good news. The bad news is that there is NO useful functionality on the MP3 side. The only information you get is how many files exists (at startup), and what file number you are on, and how long it's been playing. That's IT. No tags, no file name, no control, no fastforward or rewind, no folders, no playlists, no randomization. Pretty much all you can do is play what you've got in the order it happens to be on the CDR physically. You can skip files sequentially ... scrolling one at a time to the file number you want. That's pretty much all you can do. It DOES have a switch which allows resume .. meaning that you will pick up in the middle of a file where you left off last time, which I like a lot.
So, it's great for playing through your discs if you don't particularly care about the order of play. Problems with trying to physically get files in a particular order on CDRs have been documented elsewhere. It is virtually useless for books on tape. Live recordings and anything else requiring specific order of play are not recommended. And if you can't remember what was on the disc, you're going to have to wait till you get to a computer to take the disc out and look at the filenames and tags. But if you want to make a couple of good walking or workout discs, and just play through the 7-10 hours of music it gives you, its fabulous.
There is more control when playing CD's. And you can preset the radio stations nicely and easily.
The cost is reasonable for such good quality on the hardware side. If this was my only MP3 player I'd be frustrated, but this complements my iRiver, my computer, and my DVD player nicely. I still wait for the whole package .. a boombox or portable player with a MusicMatch-like interface and control, and the other features that this product has.
And I can play my fixed-rate 128 and 192 discs on my DVD player. But I've had my eye out for a long time for either a boombox or personal player which could deliver the goods.
The good news on this Panasonic is that it plays EVERYTHING I've thrown at it .. from fixed 32 (ripped radio shows) to VBR. And all on the same disc. And it's D-Sound anti-skip system is better than I could have imagined .. I play it at every conceivable angle, including vertical and upside down, in my backpack, in my jacket or pants pocket, while walking vigorously, and it has never missed a beat. Amazing! The same anti-skip system works just as well for CD's as well.
Incredibly, the radio works really well too. I get great reception without fade-outs on both AM and FM.
Battery life seems very good. It takes 2 AA's and they say 75 hours for MP3, which probably means about 10 discs of any type total play time. I have no idea how much power the radio draws. I've yet to put brand new batteries in, since I have a drawer full of AA's which no longer drive my digital camera. But when I put these used batteries in the Panasonic, I'm getting 20-30 hours of MP3 play on a pair. And even after they first fail in the Panasonic, I turn the player off, then back on, and they are good for another hour or two. Sometimes two or three times.
And if you've ever had any Panasonic product with an AC adapter, it works beautifully in this player (not included in this model, though I think there's an upgraded version with AC adapter and car kit).
The controls are a bit delicate, and can get easily switched on or off while in a pocket or backpack. For that reason, it's really important to use the "hold" switch to stop functionality.
That's the good news. The bad news is that there is NO useful functionality on the MP3 side. The only information you get is how many files exists (at startup), and what file number you are on, and how long it's been playing. That's IT. No tags, no file name, no control, no fastforward or rewind, no folders, no playlists, no randomization. Pretty much all you can do is play what you've got in the order it happens to be on the CDR physically. You can skip files sequentially ... scrolling one at a time to the file number you want. That's pretty much all you can do. It DOES have a switch which allows resume .. meaning that you will pick up in the middle of a file where you left off last time, which I like a lot.
So, it's great for playing through your discs if you don't particularly care about the order of play. Problems with trying to physically get files in a particular order on CDRs have been documented elsewhere. It is virtually useless for books on tape. Live recordings and anything else requiring specific order of play are not recommended. And if you can't remember what was on the disc, you're going to have to wait till you get to a computer to take the disc out and look at the filenames and tags. But if you want to make a couple of good walking or workout discs, and just play through the 7-10 hours of music it gives you, its fabulous.
There is more control when playing CD's. And you can preset the radio stations nicely and easily.
The cost is reasonable for such good quality on the hardware side. If this was my only MP3 player I'd be frustrated, but this complements my iRiver, my computer, and my DVD player nicely. I still wait for the whole package .. a boombox or portable player with a MusicMatch-like interface and control, and the other features that this product has.
