Sony PSYC Walkman D-EJ100PS Personal CD Player

I really love my Philips CD player but lately it's been acting up and shutting down for no reason. I know this is the first sign of it being on its last leg so I started looking for a replacement CD player to take with me to the gym. I wanted something that was easy to use, would have extended bass features and if possible, be waterproof. When I started looking around I was baffled at all the different types of CD players and decided to go with something from Sony since I've usually had good luck with their products. When I saw the Gleam on sale I figured that would be the best bet for my needs and personal tastes. Now that I have had this for a few months I can say that this is an awesome portable CD player that will keep up with you no matter how active you are. I did have to sacrifice the waterproof feature but it's done a great job or retarding moisture and sweat while I am working out. The real test will be how it handles the heat this summer ...

Sony Psyc CD Walkman

The Sony Psyc is a mid level CD player - not the best on the market but not the worst either. One thing you need to know about this up front is that it does have some trouble reading CD R's and CD RW's but I'll get into that later. This runs on two AA sized batteries and doesn't have a recharging system. It does come with a plug in wall adapter that can be used in place of batteries but you will want to make sure that you don't have batteries in place when you plug this in or things could get ugly. I did this accidentally [I thought I took the batteries out] and the unit got very hot. I'm not sure if it would have done anything to the batteries but I wasn't taking a chance; I unplugged it and let it cool off before I tried to use it. The Psyc has a small digital LCD screen that tells you the track number you are on, time of the song and how many remaining songs there are on the disc. When you start it up it reads the disc and displays the total number of tracks as well as the total play time after which you have to select if you want it to play them in order or play them at random. Operating this is very easy and the buttons are completely user friendly.

I like the flat buttons too; normally I complain when things have flat buttons because it's hard to 'feel' which button you want to push if it's inside a jacket or it's dark but in this case it's a real blessing. You have all the usual buttons - play, rewind, advance, stop, pause and don't forget the hold button. This is great if you want to make sure that the unit doesn't get turned on accidentally or you want to keep it on and playing. This is the perfect feature for all portable CD players to have because you can have it inside something and not worry about your music getting interrupted or having the player turn on and waste the batteries. There is a battery save function too, this means if the unit is on but not playing a disc for five minutes it will turn it off to save battery life. The cover of the player opens nicely but it doesn't flip open the whole way; this might present a problem for some people but for me I am use to it since some of the other portable CD players I've owned open the same way. The "lock lip" on the front of the unit ensures that once you close it, it is going to stay closed. This is nice if you drop it or an accident happens; you won't have to worry about your disc flying out or there being any damage to the player.

The Psyc comes with a pair of Sony MDR-G05 headphones. These are the over-the-ear headphones that slide into your ear but are held in place by rubber and plastic loops that go around the back of your ear. These allow you to have a full range of mobility and stay in place better than vertical ones that have a headband. These have a good sound to them and handle the extended bass well but they aren't something that is going to last for more than a few months. To me these are at the bottom of the food chain where the MDR's are concerned; they look nice and match the black color of the CD player but I can see that these are going to be tossed in the garbage in a few months. They aren't cheaply made but they don't have the sturdy and solid construction that the MDR's are known for. You can get a good bit of volume from these without any crackling, hissing or popping and they sound pretty good with whatever style of music is played on them. Since I listen to everything from opera to heavy metal these have gotten a trial by fire and so far they've passed with flying colors. When it comes time to replace them I will go with another Sony MDR but you can bet it won't be anything from the G0 series.

About the only negative about this CD player is that it has trouble reading some burned discs. When I used Nero to burn songs from MP3's it could read the smaller tracks but it seemed like anything over four minutes and I would get an error message on the screen, it wouldn't play the track or it would just advance to the next song. I tried the burned discs on my computer as well as another portable CD player and it played fine so I think there may be some kind of problem with the Sony Psyc reading the songs. Outside of that this has no problems reading other audio discs and even if there are some small scratches on the face of the disc, it still plays them. This does have the anti skip feature that makes it nice when you are running or exercising; when I dropped or bumped this it didn't miss a beat. The package insert says that this has a thirty second skip time frame but I can't say for sure if that hold true or not since I've never had any problems with the unit stopping or freezing when it's been dropped or bumped.

Battery Life

Sony claims that you can get 40 hours of battery power from two AA sized batteries. Personally, I think this is stretching the truth. If you don't fast forward through tracks or scan things then maybe you will be able to get 25 - 30 hours but it is impossible to do that with most CD's. I was curious to see how much use i could get from two Duracell batteries so I tried to keep track of the amount of time I used it at the gym. I got about a week and a halves worth of use out of them but that is about two hours a day so I figured I was getting about twenty hours from two batteries. That's not too bad and I am sure I could get more use from them if I didn't skip through tracks or leave it running when I went to the bathroom or while I was changing clothes but still, that is a far cry from the 40 hours that they claim you can get. I've never used rechargeable batteries in this so I can't comment on if they work better or not.

Warranty

You get a one year warranty on workmanship and ninety days on parts and labor if a repair needs to be made to it. Since this has the anti skip feature to it you might not know if there is something really wrong with the CD player so make sure that you try it out under a few different circumstances [jump around while using it] to make sure that everything works on it. Since most stores will replace a defective item with an even exchange [meaning there is no restocking fee] you shouldn't have to get in touch with Sony unless the display starts acting funny or there is something wrong with the laser after the first few weeks. So far I haven't had any major problems outside it not reading some songs but you can't expect it to read every burned track.

Price

I found this at an online site for $55.00 and it seemed like a great price to me. I did see this at places like Target and Wal-Mart for about the same price but missed out getting it at Amazon.com when they had it on sale. Is it worth it? If you want something that has the anti skip feature, extended bass, easy to operate buttons and nice headphone then yes, it is worth it. This doesn't have a backlit display, it isn't water proof and it does have trouble reading some burned discs but outside of that it is worth the price but honestly - you can't expect to get all the features you want if you aren't going to spend an arm and a leg in the process.

The Bottom Line

So far I am pretty pleased with how this has performed and I am glad that I decided to go with a Sony product. It has a really nice look to it and it keeps up with me when I am working out, running or exercising. I would have liked to have gotten one that was water proof but that would have meant about twenty or thirty dollars more. If they do make the Psyc in a water proof version then chances are I will end up getting it and passing this one on to one of the boys. This is durable enough to handle the abuse that they give electronics and I am sure that this would be one of the few that would last through the "brood torture test". For the money this is a solid unit that plays CD's for about twenty hours without needing the batteries changed.


As always, thanks for the read!

~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~

© 2005 Freak369


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