Panasonic SL-SX420 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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Finally, a keeper
Pros
Low battery drain, good sound quality, good MP3 support
Cons
Skip protection needs some work
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
Buy this one and hold onto it.
The Panasonic SL-SX420 is the fifth or sixth portable CD player I've bought myself for use at work in the past four years. After a string of disappointments, I was starting to think of portable CD players in general as commoditized and disposable. Fortunately, the Panasonic SL-SX420 has proven me wrong on both counts.
In order for a product category to be commoditized, there has to be very little difference in features and quality between different models and brands. Desktop PCs would be an excellent example of this. In terms of day-to-day operation, there's very little difference between a Dell, a Gateway, and a Hewlett-Packard PC. The way PC manufacturers differentiate themselves, more than anything, is through their support departments.
Similarly, I was beginning to assume that all name-brand portable CD players were, more or less, the same product. There may have been differentials in battery life, sound quality, and physical sturdiness, but they were all basically the same unit.
That's why I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Panasonic SL-SX420 is so much better than anything else I've bought in a number of categories. Here's a breakdown of its superiority:
Battery Life: Until you've dealt with a portable CD player that eats batteries like they were Pez, it's hard to understand how important this can be. At first, I thought the Panasonic SL-SX420 was going to be one of these machines. The first pair of AA batteries I put into the Panasonic SL-SX420 lasted about ten hours before dying. However, I am now forced to assume those were just bad batteries since every other pair has lasted in excess of thirty hours before expiring.
Another place the Panasonic SL-SX420 shines is in the way it degrades under low power. That is to say, "It doesn't." Most portable CD players will slow down, decrease volume, or lower sound quality as the batteries get close to empty. But, with no other indication, the wearer is often left to wonder if the batteries are going or if it's their imagination.
Instead, the Panasonic SL-SX420 stays at full power as long as it can, then shuts off. This would be unnerving if not for another endearing quality of the Panasonic SL-SX420: Its battery indicator actually indicates how much batter life you have left. The LED icon has four states, each of which lasts approximately eight hours. It's scary to realize how revolutionary this is after so many "best guess" players that indicated a full battery for 70-90% of a battery's life.
Sound Quality: While the Panasonic SL-SX420 may not be a high-end system, you could fool yourself into thinking it was. CDs played through this unit sound like CDs. There is no hissing and popping caused by bad connections between the unit and the headphones.
Even better, this sound quality is consistent. As I mentioned before, it doesn't degrade as the batteries run low. What's truly exemplary about this unit, however, is that I have never had the problem where only one earphone is playing because the physical contact is bad. I don't think I've ever owned a personal anything player that didn't have that problem.
The volume control has 26 distinct settings, only one of which qualifies as "below the range of human hearing." Similarly, only the top end is too loud for my 33 year-old ears and then only marginally so.
The Panasonic SL-SX420 ships with a two-piece headset kit. The first piece attaches to the body of the unit and includes a "remote control" that allows the user to control volume, progress, and turn EQ on and off. The second piece is a standard pair of headphones--the kind you can buy for about two bucks in a close-out store.
The headphones are cheap, but serviceable. Because the kit is in two pieces, you can replace them with any headphones that fit a standard audio out jack. The "remote control" seems a little bit silly, though. The cord containing the remote is significantly shorter than even a child's arm. If you can reach the remote, you can reach the body of the unit. I suppose it might be useful if you were keeping the main unit inside a jacket and the remote outside, but I would be surprised if many people did this.
MP3 Support: MP3 Support in portable CD players has always been hit-or-miss until I got the Panasonic SL-SX420. One CD full of MP3s would play on unit A, but not unit B while another wouldn't play on A, but had no problems on B.
Of the eight CD-Rs that I've put in the Panasonic SL-SX420, all eight have worked--even one that included other files. That's just amazing.
The only complain I have about the Panasonic SL-SX420 is that its anti-skip system seems less robust than others I've used in the past. Even the normal jostling of being tucked in a coat pocket while running can make it skip. So, this is really more of a desktop unit than a truly portable CD player for me.
I can happily say that I expect to keep the Panasonic SL-SX420 until some misfortune befalls it, at which point, I will probably buy another.
In order for a product category to be commoditized, there has to be very little difference in features and quality between different models and brands. Desktop PCs would be an excellent example of this. In terms of day-to-day operation, there's very little difference between a Dell, a Gateway, and a Hewlett-Packard PC. The way PC manufacturers differentiate themselves, more than anything, is through their support departments.
Similarly, I was beginning to assume that all name-brand portable CD players were, more or less, the same product. There may have been differentials in battery life, sound quality, and physical sturdiness, but they were all basically the same unit.
That's why I was pleasantly surprised to find that the Panasonic SL-SX420 is so much better than anything else I've bought in a number of categories. Here's a breakdown of its superiority:
Battery Life: Until you've dealt with a portable CD player that eats batteries like they were Pez, it's hard to understand how important this can be. At first, I thought the Panasonic SL-SX420 was going to be one of these machines. The first pair of AA batteries I put into the Panasonic SL-SX420 lasted about ten hours before dying. However, I am now forced to assume those were just bad batteries since every other pair has lasted in excess of thirty hours before expiring.
Another place the Panasonic SL-SX420 shines is in the way it degrades under low power. That is to say, "It doesn't." Most portable CD players will slow down, decrease volume, or lower sound quality as the batteries get close to empty. But, with no other indication, the wearer is often left to wonder if the batteries are going or if it's their imagination.
Instead, the Panasonic SL-SX420 stays at full power as long as it can, then shuts off. This would be unnerving if not for another endearing quality of the Panasonic SL-SX420: Its battery indicator actually indicates how much batter life you have left. The LED icon has four states, each of which lasts approximately eight hours. It's scary to realize how revolutionary this is after so many "best guess" players that indicated a full battery for 70-90% of a battery's life.
Sound Quality: While the Panasonic SL-SX420 may not be a high-end system, you could fool yourself into thinking it was. CDs played through this unit sound like CDs. There is no hissing and popping caused by bad connections between the unit and the headphones.
Even better, this sound quality is consistent. As I mentioned before, it doesn't degrade as the batteries run low. What's truly exemplary about this unit, however, is that I have never had the problem where only one earphone is playing because the physical contact is bad. I don't think I've ever owned a personal anything player that didn't have that problem.
The volume control has 26 distinct settings, only one of which qualifies as "below the range of human hearing." Similarly, only the top end is too loud for my 33 year-old ears and then only marginally so.
The Panasonic SL-SX420 ships with a two-piece headset kit. The first piece attaches to the body of the unit and includes a "remote control" that allows the user to control volume, progress, and turn EQ on and off. The second piece is a standard pair of headphones--the kind you can buy for about two bucks in a close-out store.
The headphones are cheap, but serviceable. Because the kit is in two pieces, you can replace them with any headphones that fit a standard audio out jack. The "remote control" seems a little bit silly, though. The cord containing the remote is significantly shorter than even a child's arm. If you can reach the remote, you can reach the body of the unit. I suppose it might be useful if you were keeping the main unit inside a jacket and the remote outside, but I would be surprised if many people did this.
MP3 Support: MP3 Support in portable CD players has always been hit-or-miss until I got the Panasonic SL-SX420. One CD full of MP3s would play on unit A, but not unit B while another wouldn't play on A, but had no problems on B.
Of the eight CD-Rs that I've put in the Panasonic SL-SX420, all eight have worked--even one that included other files. That's just amazing.
The only complain I have about the Panasonic SL-SX420 is that its anti-skip system seems less robust than others I've used in the past. Even the normal jostling of being tucked in a coat pocket while running can make it skip. So, this is really more of a desktop unit than a truly portable CD player for me.
I can happily say that I expect to keep the Panasonic SL-SX420 until some misfortune befalls it, at which point, I will probably buy another.
