Sony Walkman D-CJ506CK 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
- Supported Formats: MP3
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The ultimate MP3 discman - AWESOME job Sony!
Pros
Awesome features, flawless anti-skip, best MP3 handling, great display and more
Cons
No pause combined - but only minor complaint, this thing ROCKS
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
The most feature packed, intuitive unit I've ever bought from Sony (beyond discman too!!) This is the ultimate MP3/CD player wrapped up ina gorgeous little package - Kudos Sony
Sony's new D-CJ506CK is hands down Sony's best discman out there, with excellent MP3 handling on top of an already proven and fantastic anti-skip CD/CDR/CDRW system. Beautiful smooth scrolling display and some other nice folder-handling features similar to a PC make this hands down, my favorite MP3/CD discman out there and this is the best 100 bucks I've ever spent on portable audio!!! Finally Sony has taken the intiative to step up and build in some all-around flexibility into its product (unlike the countless "if only this damned thing could play CDRs...MP3s...." stories that us Sony fans are used to)....
The 506 is Sony's newest addition to the family of new-breed Discmans which are fully CDR and CDRW compatible AND are conveniently compatible with MP3 audio, which is a fantastic feature... With MP3 format you can easily achieve 12-1 compression without much loss to sound quality... Of course you can choose a better quality sound and still maintain 9-to-1 or 7-to-1 compression: Meaning you can fit 9 or 7 audio CD's onto ONE MP3 disc!!! You just can't beat that! The best part of this unit, as far as the MP3 features go, is that Sony has really built in some extremely current and state of the art functionality that we'll delve into shortly. The unit has a gorgeous red backlit display with a 2 line dot matrix read-out - AND it grants me another long-time wish: I scrolls track names, folder names, album names AND OR ID3 naming (on all levels) across the screen - I've wanted this for a long time!
The unit is built on the ultra-slim platform - It uses 2 AA batteries and yields 32/30 hour playback on CD audio and 24 hour playback on MP3 audio... Why do I list CD playback as 32/30??? Well, Sony built in TWO seperate formats of Anti-SKip protection with a nicely hidden setting button which is in the disc compartment, adjacent to the laser eye and accesible only when the lid is open (obviously). Setting 1 or 2 - and let me tell you, they both work awesome. Sony recomends using setting 1 for walking and setting 2 for more jarring activity like running or aerobics...which honestly is amazing because I can remember when walking was a challenge for discmans, even with anti skip. I found that I could jog even on setting 1 and hardly have any skippage problems - on setting 2 you can virtually bang the unit against a wall and still get no skips - Great job Sony!!!
Now we get to MP3 playback, which is the ultimate asset of this unit...just having a unit that plays CDs and MP3's is great... I mean to be honest, I'm happy Sony gave it the ablility to play CDR and CDRWs!!! (Remember, I've been criticizing their DVD/CD players for NOT having such features but that is another story). Anyhow, the MP3 features are very well thought out, presented and the unit has tremendous capabilities (remember, it does not STORE Mp3s it PLAYS them from a burned MP3 disc). The unit supports virtually every MP3 format you can name, from 128KB all the way up.... Even better, the unit seems to be able to handle VBR!!! This I thought was absolutely great - I mean I was very nervous about the systems handling of MP3, simply because if Sony is unwilling to build in a damned CDR/CDRW capable laser into a home DVD player, why would they go out of their way to make a poartable player so great.....Well, I was wrong - SONY DID AN AWESOME JOB. VBR In case you don't know, is VARIABLE BIT RATE technology, in which you can adjust the bit rate of an MP3 track to maintain quality sound AND good compression - Basically the program you use to rip MP3s off of audio discs looks at the complexity of different areas on the track and in places where sounds are simple, it uses a high-compression lower-quality Bit rate and in places where the track gets very dense and/or complex, it will use a lower-compression higher quality bit rate in order to keep complex places on tracks sounding nice and clean...This is a great thing: Many times you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place because before VBR you only had 2 choices; 1) you could pick a high quality bit rate, get great sound BUT wish you had more space... or 2) you could choose a high compression ratio but sacrifice sound quality abd wish it was much better! Now with VBR you have a nearly prefect balance of space-efficient compression AND the sound quality that you may have found was lacking when there was no VBR and you had a lower bit rate to save space. Obviously VBR is a very useful tool...Happily the unit handles it with no problems, at least as far as the tracks I have tried - it can read the data and shift bit-rate on the fly without hiccups or stutters... So far I tried about 40 seperate tracks of varying complexity and on variousl quality levels of VBR...all good! Kudos Sony!
Battery life again is more than enough - 32/30 hours on CD depending on G-shock anti skip setting (level 1 or 2) and you get 24 hours of MP3 audio on one set of batteries either way....The unit is efficient and hands down great. The headphones supplied are standard headphone type - no earbuds and no 'turbo-type' in ear headphones. Consequently, the bass handling is much better and clearer, plus the unit has 2 additional bass modes to enhance bass transients and peaks...Personally I think it sounds best on either no bass or just bass 1 - bass 2 seems a little to exagereated, but this will be useful for bass-heads and for people listening to rap or hip-hop or heavy trance genre stuff where you want that extra bass to keep you movin'....any way you cut it, this unit handles it all.
On a last note, back in MP3 section, I have to say, the way the unit handles files is quite impressive - The units brain looks at MP3 discs AND folders AND subfolders and also uses all levels of ID3 naming on scrolls it across the dot-matrix screen. The screen has a gorgeous Red backliting LCD AND dsiplays track names, album names, folder names etc etc etc... It even looks at the disc's folder structure just like a computer, and therefore on the discman you have a track + & - feature AND a folder + and - button pair, so navigating through a CD with many folders and sub folders and MP3s scattered throughout is NOT such a chore. Any folders without MP3 are ignored, so even if you have a partial data-CD WITh MP3 you can play the MP3s and the CPU in the discman conveniently ignores the extraneous data which is non-MP3... This darned thing is just unbeatable. Many people have complained that there is no pause button on many of Sony's newer dsicmans...Honestly it doesn't bother me, PROVIDED there is a resume key - you stop the disc and then you hit play again and it resumes from where you left off... Sadly the newer generation units typically have no pause feature... Either way, it doesn't bother me too much- with all the stuff they've packed into this thing they've more than compensated and the player auto-resumes.
Clearly, this is the best Discman I've ever purchased - I paid 109.99 at Best Buy and now knowing how much is built in I would gladly pay alot more...this unit is great and has granted every piece of my Discman wishlist I could just about imagine... the only part missing is a cell phone inter-link and a neck massager built into the headphones!!! You just can't beat this unit and in my opinion is an absolute must have for anyone who has any use for a portable Cd player... Absolutely fantastic job by Sony - Bravo!
The 506 is Sony's newest addition to the family of new-breed Discmans which are fully CDR and CDRW compatible AND are conveniently compatible with MP3 audio, which is a fantastic feature... With MP3 format you can easily achieve 12-1 compression without much loss to sound quality... Of course you can choose a better quality sound and still maintain 9-to-1 or 7-to-1 compression: Meaning you can fit 9 or 7 audio CD's onto ONE MP3 disc!!! You just can't beat that! The best part of this unit, as far as the MP3 features go, is that Sony has really built in some extremely current and state of the art functionality that we'll delve into shortly. The unit has a gorgeous red backlit display with a 2 line dot matrix read-out - AND it grants me another long-time wish: I scrolls track names, folder names, album names AND OR ID3 naming (on all levels) across the screen - I've wanted this for a long time!
The unit is built on the ultra-slim platform - It uses 2 AA batteries and yields 32/30 hour playback on CD audio and 24 hour playback on MP3 audio... Why do I list CD playback as 32/30??? Well, Sony built in TWO seperate formats of Anti-SKip protection with a nicely hidden setting button which is in the disc compartment, adjacent to the laser eye and accesible only when the lid is open (obviously). Setting 1 or 2 - and let me tell you, they both work awesome. Sony recomends using setting 1 for walking and setting 2 for more jarring activity like running or aerobics...which honestly is amazing because I can remember when walking was a challenge for discmans, even with anti skip. I found that I could jog even on setting 1 and hardly have any skippage problems - on setting 2 you can virtually bang the unit against a wall and still get no skips - Great job Sony!!!
Now we get to MP3 playback, which is the ultimate asset of this unit...just having a unit that plays CDs and MP3's is great... I mean to be honest, I'm happy Sony gave it the ablility to play CDR and CDRWs!!! (Remember, I've been criticizing their DVD/CD players for NOT having such features but that is another story). Anyhow, the MP3 features are very well thought out, presented and the unit has tremendous capabilities (remember, it does not STORE Mp3s it PLAYS them from a burned MP3 disc). The unit supports virtually every MP3 format you can name, from 128KB all the way up.... Even better, the unit seems to be able to handle VBR!!! This I thought was absolutely great - I mean I was very nervous about the systems handling of MP3, simply because if Sony is unwilling to build in a damned CDR/CDRW capable laser into a home DVD player, why would they go out of their way to make a poartable player so great.....Well, I was wrong - SONY DID AN AWESOME JOB. VBR In case you don't know, is VARIABLE BIT RATE technology, in which you can adjust the bit rate of an MP3 track to maintain quality sound AND good compression - Basically the program you use to rip MP3s off of audio discs looks at the complexity of different areas on the track and in places where sounds are simple, it uses a high-compression lower-quality Bit rate and in places where the track gets very dense and/or complex, it will use a lower-compression higher quality bit rate in order to keep complex places on tracks sounding nice and clean...This is a great thing: Many times you find yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place because before VBR you only had 2 choices; 1) you could pick a high quality bit rate, get great sound BUT wish you had more space... or 2) you could choose a high compression ratio but sacrifice sound quality abd wish it was much better! Now with VBR you have a nearly prefect balance of space-efficient compression AND the sound quality that you may have found was lacking when there was no VBR and you had a lower bit rate to save space. Obviously VBR is a very useful tool...Happily the unit handles it with no problems, at least as far as the tracks I have tried - it can read the data and shift bit-rate on the fly without hiccups or stutters... So far I tried about 40 seperate tracks of varying complexity and on variousl quality levels of VBR...all good! Kudos Sony!
Battery life again is more than enough - 32/30 hours on CD depending on G-shock anti skip setting (level 1 or 2) and you get 24 hours of MP3 audio on one set of batteries either way....The unit is efficient and hands down great. The headphones supplied are standard headphone type - no earbuds and no 'turbo-type' in ear headphones. Consequently, the bass handling is much better and clearer, plus the unit has 2 additional bass modes to enhance bass transients and peaks...Personally I think it sounds best on either no bass or just bass 1 - bass 2 seems a little to exagereated, but this will be useful for bass-heads and for people listening to rap or hip-hop or heavy trance genre stuff where you want that extra bass to keep you movin'....any way you cut it, this unit handles it all.
On a last note, back in MP3 section, I have to say, the way the unit handles files is quite impressive - The units brain looks at MP3 discs AND folders AND subfolders and also uses all levels of ID3 naming on scrolls it across the dot-matrix screen. The screen has a gorgeous Red backliting LCD AND dsiplays track names, album names, folder names etc etc etc... It even looks at the disc's folder structure just like a computer, and therefore on the discman you have a track + & - feature AND a folder + and - button pair, so navigating through a CD with many folders and sub folders and MP3s scattered throughout is NOT such a chore. Any folders without MP3 are ignored, so even if you have a partial data-CD WITh MP3 you can play the MP3s and the CPU in the discman conveniently ignores the extraneous data which is non-MP3... This darned thing is just unbeatable. Many people have complained that there is no pause button on many of Sony's newer dsicmans...Honestly it doesn't bother me, PROVIDED there is a resume key - you stop the disc and then you hit play again and it resumes from where you left off... Sadly the newer generation units typically have no pause feature... Either way, it doesn't bother me too much- with all the stuff they've packed into this thing they've more than compensated and the player auto-resumes.
Clearly, this is the best Discman I've ever purchased - I paid 109.99 at Best Buy and now knowing how much is built in I would gladly pay alot more...this unit is great and has granted every piece of my Discman wishlist I could just about imagine... the only part missing is a cell phone inter-link and a neck massager built into the headphones!!! You just can't beat this unit and in my opinion is an absolute must have for anyone who has any use for a portable Cd player... Absolutely fantastic job by Sony - Bravo!
