Sony Walkman D-E226CK Personal CD Player
- Bass Boost: With Bass Boost
- Anti Skip Buffer: G-Protection By Sony
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Slick, stylish, and above all, functional.
Pros
Stylish, functional, minimalist design. Easy on batteries, powerful.
Cons
Poorly placed ESP button, design may be a bit too minimal for some.
Recommended it?
Yes
The Bottom Line:
A slick, minimal, and very functional little piece of technology. If you want a cool looking, easy to use, and good sounding CD player, look no further.
Well, it finally happened. My old war horse of a Panasonic personal CD player finally gave up the ghost. Now, since I will wither and die without a constant source of Oakenfold and Daft Punk, I decided to go on a hunt for a new source of portable CD music. I was prowling the cold, deserted streets of the Wal-Mart (hey, they do have good prices) electronics section, and spied this little wonder from Sony. At around $70 including a full car kit, I figured why not, and bought it. It has it's good points and it's bad, and here's my breakdown on just those.
The Look: Part of what attracted me to this player is the way it looks. It has a dully shiny metallic finish, and small, unobtrusive buttons and display. The entire player seems to be a product of someone who knows what they are doing in the design department. Everything is very minimal and slick, from the tiny yet crisp LCD display to the nifty splash walkman logo.
Functionality: As I've already said, this player is both minimal and functional. The volume is controlled through a pair of buttons, which I find to be a very handy feature. Often, I would have my player in a backpack or pocket, and the rotary knob for volume would get bumped, causing my eardrums to meet in the center of my skull. Now that Sony has used buttons that can be disabled with the hold lock, that is no longer a problem. Also, every function of the player is handled through 5 buttons on the front of the player. A "sound" button controls Bass Boost and AVLS (Automatic Volume Limiting System). Another is a menu function for shuffle, repeat, memory, etc. features. Finally, we get to the actual buttons to control tracks and whatnot. First off, there are no pause or skip forward buttons. The play button doubles as a skip forward button (handy way to save a button there) and there is no pause feature whatsoever. Rather, the stop button powers down the player entirely, and an automatic resume feature returns you to where you left off. While the layout and function of the buttons sounds rather cumbersome, I found it to be very slick and intuitive after a few minutes of use. Plus, the handy resume feature saves on the batteries. The one gripe I have with the control layout is the placement of the ESP control. It's a small switch inside the player, under where the CD sits. This was quite a pain, as it required me to turn off the cd player and pop out the disk if I wanted to turn ESP on or off.
ESP: Yes, this player does have ESP. It can read your thoughts, and will try to murder you if you think about replacing it. No, actually it's ESP (Skip Protection) feature is top notch. It's rated for 25 seconds, and delivers on every bit of it. I've dribbled this thing like a basket ball across a couch and it did not skip until a full 25 seconds had passed.
Battery Life: So far, it has been quite good on batteries. Battery life is advertised at 24 to 25 hours, depending on ESP settings and useage. So far, it seems to deliver every second of that.
Sound: Of course, a CD player is worthless if it doesn't sound good. I can say without a doubt that this little sucker is powerful. The cheesy stock headphones were the first thing to go, and I replaced them with a pair of MDR-G52 "Street Style" headphones. With minimal Bass Boost on, the player will cause your eardrums to meet in the center of your head if you are overzealous with the volume controls.
Other Goodies: The player comes bundled with a nice assortment of Car Kit goodies. It features a DC converter, a plugin for a cigarette lighter plug, and a tape adapter. While these are nice, they are somewhat useless, as most cars come stock with a CD player nowadays.
Overall: A very well designed, good quality product. While it does not feature some of the whiz bang new capabilities that other players sport, the D-E226CK is still a very well made product, and a bargain at it's price. If you need a car kit solution or just a high quality personal stereo, this little sucker is your answer. The only downside to the player I might see is that some people might miss it's lack of a pause feature, along with it's other minimalist design traits. Aside from the poor placement of the ESP switch, there is really nothing bad I can say about this little gadget.
The Look: Part of what attracted me to this player is the way it looks. It has a dully shiny metallic finish, and small, unobtrusive buttons and display. The entire player seems to be a product of someone who knows what they are doing in the design department. Everything is very minimal and slick, from the tiny yet crisp LCD display to the nifty splash walkman logo.
Functionality: As I've already said, this player is both minimal and functional. The volume is controlled through a pair of buttons, which I find to be a very handy feature. Often, I would have my player in a backpack or pocket, and the rotary knob for volume would get bumped, causing my eardrums to meet in the center of my skull. Now that Sony has used buttons that can be disabled with the hold lock, that is no longer a problem. Also, every function of the player is handled through 5 buttons on the front of the player. A "sound" button controls Bass Boost and AVLS (Automatic Volume Limiting System). Another is a menu function for shuffle, repeat, memory, etc. features. Finally, we get to the actual buttons to control tracks and whatnot. First off, there are no pause or skip forward buttons. The play button doubles as a skip forward button (handy way to save a button there) and there is no pause feature whatsoever. Rather, the stop button powers down the player entirely, and an automatic resume feature returns you to where you left off. While the layout and function of the buttons sounds rather cumbersome, I found it to be very slick and intuitive after a few minutes of use. Plus, the handy resume feature saves on the batteries. The one gripe I have with the control layout is the placement of the ESP control. It's a small switch inside the player, under where the CD sits. This was quite a pain, as it required me to turn off the cd player and pop out the disk if I wanted to turn ESP on or off.
ESP: Yes, this player does have ESP. It can read your thoughts, and will try to murder you if you think about replacing it. No, actually it's ESP (Skip Protection) feature is top notch. It's rated for 25 seconds, and delivers on every bit of it. I've dribbled this thing like a basket ball across a couch and it did not skip until a full 25 seconds had passed.
Battery Life: So far, it has been quite good on batteries. Battery life is advertised at 24 to 25 hours, depending on ESP settings and useage. So far, it seems to deliver every second of that.
Sound: Of course, a CD player is worthless if it doesn't sound good. I can say without a doubt that this little sucker is powerful. The cheesy stock headphones were the first thing to go, and I replaced them with a pair of MDR-G52 "Street Style" headphones. With minimal Bass Boost on, the player will cause your eardrums to meet in the center of your head if you are overzealous with the volume controls.
Other Goodies: The player comes bundled with a nice assortment of Car Kit goodies. It features a DC converter, a plugin for a cigarette lighter plug, and a tape adapter. While these are nice, they are somewhat useless, as most cars come stock with a CD player nowadays.
Overall: A very well designed, good quality product. While it does not feature some of the whiz bang new capabilities that other players sport, the D-E226CK is still a very well made product, and a bargain at it's price. If you need a car kit solution or just a high quality personal stereo, this little sucker is your answer. The only downside to the player I might see is that some people might miss it's lack of a pause feature, along with it's other minimalist design traits. Aside from the poor placement of the ESP switch, there is really nothing bad I can say about this little gadget.
