Panasonic SL-SX460 Personal CD Player

Audiophiles consider the SL-SX460 is one of the best-sounding, sonically accurate portable CD players for a great price, especially paired with high-quality headphones or earphones. But what about the rest of us whose ears aren't used to $15,000 home stereo systems? Well, you will notice the difference in sound, but even if sound quality isn't #1 priority on your list, this CD player offers other compelling features in a stylish, value-packed package.

For starters, this player is very thin, small (about the size of a CD and 1" thick) and very light. The design is nice, classy, and restrained, and you can get it in silver or light blue. I have the light blue and it's a nice, metallic color with subtle sparkles. The LCD display is on the lid, on top of the player, with small buttons for controls on the lid as well. Battery life is incredible: The player comes with 2 rechargeable Panasonic AAA Ni-MH batteries which can be recharged by simply plugging the included AC Adapter to your CD player: no separate battery recharger needed and you can listen while you charge! Attaching the optional (included) battery holder (holds 2 AA batteries that you can "screw" on) yields battery life of up to 40 hours, Panansonic claims. From experience, I can say that those numbers are believable: I listen on the train/subway (with anti-shock on) on my commute and I can go for a few weeks without changing/charging the batteries. For battery life alone, this CD player is totally worth the price.

But Panasonic wasn't satisfied with mere battery life, and neither should you. It comes with 40-second anti-shock memory (as you know, activating this feature eats more batteries, but worth it for playing while you're walking, jogging, or in your bumpy car). I have never had a CD skip in this player, no matter how hard I tried to make it skip short of throwing it on the floor across the room. This player also comes with 3 EQ settings: X-Bass, Live, Normal (off). It's best to leave the EQ in Normal: the X-Bass setting is way too bassy and probably best suited for sub-standard earphones lacking bass in the first place, and the Live setting might be nice for 30 seconds, but it really feels like you're in a big stadium and the sound lacks low-end and is way too "airy." Other features included are Resume (will play from the last track before power off), Hold (prevents accidental button pressing), Memory/Recall (basically, track programming), Repeat One/All, and Random Play. Pressing the stop button twice turns off the unit, otherwise it will turn itself off after a few minutes after you stop it to save from accidental battery drain (a nice feature).

The player also has a line out plug, appropriate for plugging into a headphone amp or into powered portable speakers. There is no eject button, per se: a little plastic tab in the front keeps the lid locked; sliding it to the right opens the lid with springs open. One disadvantage is that one cannot "lock" the lid and it may be possible to knock open the lid accidentally. I never did, however. Also, the lid is made of heat-resistant plastic, but it is easily prone to scratches. Also, the SL-SX460 does not come with a carrying case which is probably why my player is all scratched up. The included headphones are a joke (see picture on the left showing the CD player in silver with the included headphones), probably worth $0.25, so toss it and invest at least $20 on a decent pair of phones. I spent almost $300 on my earphones (Etymotic ER4S), but then I'm a bit crazy and you don't have to take it that far... :)

As for the sound, if you're not an audiophile you won't notice that the SL-SX460 produces a very good, flat (that is, all frequency ranges are equal) sound until you've tried other inferior CD players, even those costing up to twice as much. If you do compare, you'll notice that your ears and head are less tired from listening to these, even after extended periods of time, which is the Average Joe's Way to gauge that the sound is probably very accurate and flat. It's worthy of hooking up to a home stereo system (using the line out jack) because of its sound quality.

As a side note, this player plays CD-R discs (I use TDK, Imation, and Memorex, burned with Toast 4 on a Mac) without any drama. Some CD-Rs that don't play on my home stereo system plays fine in the SL-SX460. CD-RW discs, however, does not play, as with almost all other players out there currently.

And on top of all this, the price is right. I got mine for $100 in Chinatown about 1 1/2 year ago with no mechanical problems yet.