Panasonic SL-SX270 Personal CD Player

I read around a lot, including at epinions, and decided that this player was what I was looking for. I purchased it from an online retailer. I immediately liked the attractive, not gimmicky and tacky, color and trim of this CD player. I was impressed with the players tiny size when I took it out of its packaging and was even more impressed it also had a diminutive AC adapter to match. The player sounded great with every CD I own using the "S-XBS" equalization setting, which is the setting always to use. The Train equalization distorts the music by boosting the low end and clipping off the high end. Avoid it. The normal equalization mode lacks a serious low end, which brings up my second complaint: as with so much other equipment, the headphones aren't bad, just mediocre. They sound all right but aren't very well-made and are rather uncomfortable when listening to them for an extended period of time. I would have like to seen more outputs, such as a line-level output, a digital output or a second headphone output, but that's unfortunately beyond the price range of a player in this category. A decent pair of headphones makes this player far more enjoyable. The polycarbonate body keeps the player light and resistant to easy breakage, but of course there are limits to what impact a polycarbonate body can withstand, but I've had no accidents with this player.

The battery life of this CD player is excellent. I'm still on my first set of batteries after more than 20 hours of listening and they show no sign of dying soon. The 40 second anti-skip works perfectly. I do not jog with this player but I take it on many bus and car rides and it has yet to skip. The anti-skip does not degrade the music quality in any significant way, especially on headphones. Of course, the anti-skip feature can be disabled easily and sounds great on a set of real speakers.

The button layout on the lid is very easy to use, with the buttons having a perfect amount of firmness with a hold switch to avoid any accidental button pushing in a backpack. The player is usable even in darkness as the buttons are in distinct locations. The LCD is attractive and shows the current track number, track length, and enabled options in an easy to read font and size. The repeat feature allows the repeating of one track or the entire CD and a switch on the CD can enable a random mix of songs from a CD. It is also very easy to program the track listing of your choice. The instructions on how to use this player are simple, concise, and use good illustrations.

The car kit (ONLY included with SL-SX271C) works as advertised and sound quality is good except for the unavoidable low hiss that is always present in a tape player.

This player is excellent for people who want a decent player at an attractive price but aren't interested in a gimmicky color scheme and simple want something that WORKS! Who needs looks when this has what really matters in a CD player: the SOUND!