Panasonic SL-MP80 Personal CD Player
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Similar in Portable CD Players
- CD-R/CD-RW Playback: CD-R/CD-RW
- Bass Boost: Without Bass Boost
- Anti Skip Buffer: 45 sec.
- Supported Formats: WMA MP3
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Handy but not too handy.
Pros
Utilitarian solution for playing MP3's in car, while biking, etc.
Cons
When you see "utilitarian", think "bare minimum of helpful features".
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
For a cheap CD/MP3 player, not bad. Features and usability take the hit for appending the word "cheap".
It seems like everything in stereo equipment today is made or broken on the features. So here they are:
--playback of mp3's on standard / burned CD-ROM/R/RW's
--will ignore 'other' files on a CD than mp3's (and audio tracks)
--buttons allow skipping from album to album on MP3 discs
--random, repeat, repeat 1, and 'program' for extra playmodes.
--reads ID3 tags on mp3's.
However, the features are not as rich as that list may imply. The resume feature starts play at the beginning of the last-played track, not the moment where you stopped. The ID3 tag reader displays only about the first 25 characters of the artist and title, so some of the long-winded ones get cut off with a tilde (~). As you might expect with cheap MPEG decoder hardware (cf: older Apex DVD players), you can't seek through that part of the song you hate. The program playmode is the 'select, then hit program' type, which on MP3 discs is a waste of time for all but the most obsessive. M3U playlists don't seem to work, they get passed over like text files and other miscellany.
Battery consumption is not too bad but not too slow either, and you consume more juice playing MP3's than CD's. Most of the retail packages do not include an AC adaptor or car adaptor, but this is a negatively-centered 6v connection, which worked perfectly with the adapter from an Aiwa portable I had before. This player features one of the biggest wastes of manufacturer money I've ever seen, an 'animation' (trust me, I am using that word very loosely, more accurate would be "slow switching between 4 different frames") of musical notes hopping around while audio CD's are playing. A design team somewhere:
A: "Boy, we need all this display room for MP3 information. what are we going to do with it during audio CD play?"
B: "I know!! We'll put little musical notes jumping around! It'll be so cute, and it'll keep the attention of those 2 year olds out there, because they can't concentrate on mere audio stimulation."
A: "God you're brilliant. Hold me."
Despite my poking fun, this has been a pretty reliable CD player (so far, had it about 5 months). I took it on a cross-country driving trip in an extremely cramped car, and 3 days of getting roughed up in backpack pockets, gummi-worm lined floorboards, and car-door pockets made no difference in operation. Some people are put off by the gimmicky design, particularly the circular main control button, which, admittedly, is not the best for no-look driving track changes (though the play side has a raised button on it like the f and j on your keyboard, which helps). The display is not backlit at all, making night usage not so fun. Overall, though, okay for utilitarian music playing when you need to have more than 79 minutes at your disposal.
--playback of mp3's on standard / burned CD-ROM/R/RW's
--will ignore 'other' files on a CD than mp3's (and audio tracks)
--buttons allow skipping from album to album on MP3 discs
--random, repeat, repeat 1, and 'program' for extra playmodes.
--reads ID3 tags on mp3's.
However, the features are not as rich as that list may imply. The resume feature starts play at the beginning of the last-played track, not the moment where you stopped. The ID3 tag reader displays only about the first 25 characters of the artist and title, so some of the long-winded ones get cut off with a tilde (~). As you might expect with cheap MPEG decoder hardware (cf: older Apex DVD players), you can't seek through that part of the song you hate. The program playmode is the 'select, then hit program' type, which on MP3 discs is a waste of time for all but the most obsessive. M3U playlists don't seem to work, they get passed over like text files and other miscellany.
Battery consumption is not too bad but not too slow either, and you consume more juice playing MP3's than CD's. Most of the retail packages do not include an AC adaptor or car adaptor, but this is a negatively-centered 6v connection, which worked perfectly with the adapter from an Aiwa portable I had before. This player features one of the biggest wastes of manufacturer money I've ever seen, an 'animation' (trust me, I am using that word very loosely, more accurate would be "slow switching between 4 different frames") of musical notes hopping around while audio CD's are playing. A design team somewhere:
A: "Boy, we need all this display room for MP3 information. what are we going to do with it during audio CD play?"
B: "I know!! We'll put little musical notes jumping around! It'll be so cute, and it'll keep the attention of those 2 year olds out there, because they can't concentrate on mere audio stimulation."
A: "God you're brilliant. Hold me."
Despite my poking fun, this has been a pretty reliable CD player (so far, had it about 5 months). I took it on a cross-country driving trip in an extremely cramped car, and 3 days of getting roughed up in backpack pockets, gummi-worm lined floorboards, and car-door pockets made no difference in operation. Some people are put off by the gimmicky design, particularly the circular main control button, which, admittedly, is not the best for no-look driving track changes (though the play side has a raised button on it like the f and j on your keyboard, which helps). The display is not backlit at all, making night usage not so fun. Overall, though, okay for utilitarian music playing when you need to have more than 79 minutes at your disposal.
