Sony Walkman D-E405 Personal CD Player

Santa very kindly bought me one of these lovely Sony CD players at Christmas 1998, and I haven?t once had to write to him and complain about the standard, this is another fantastic Sony.

The look of this portable wonder are not the best considering there?s a Sony badge on the front. The curves are a little? funny, and it just don?t look as sleek and delectable as later Sony Discmans, but it?s a completely ugly duckling
The main feature of this Sony is the multi functional remote control. Now, you may be thinking to yourself ?what do I want a remote control for, it?s a portable CD player, and only going to be less than a few feet from me?? Well rest assured you?ll find the luxury of a remote control very handy if you happen to have the Discman in your handbag or back pack, and you want to alter the volume or switch to the next track of the CD; going fumbling for buttons of your CD player on a busy tube train or bus is a pain. (I keep mine in my bag for college and I have the cable neatly trailing to my head.) These remote controls are very little and therefore quite delicate-don?t break it for goodness sake, replacements cost a bloody fortune- and they do lack one minor but vital factuality. A clothes clip. You can?t attach the remote to your clothes in anyway which means in winter with wearing a big coat it can become lost in your clothing, and finding something that small in an overcoat is not easy. If you?ve ever used a remote control sporting a clothes clip, you?ll known what I mean.

Another one of the most noticeable features of this CD player is that it includes Sony?s ESP2 (Electronic Shock Protection) anti skip technology. This uses some clever wizardry and complex memory buffers that reads and stores music a few seconds before it reaches the user?s ears, in order to stop the CD from skipping. The main difference between this new and improved version of ESP and the original is this one actually works, and it works very well 99% of the time. In fact you can quite happily go jogging, downhill mountain biking, or maybe even use a trampoline with this player, and provided the Electronic Shock Protection is switched on, the music enjoyment will be great sounding and uninterrupted.

This brings me neatly to the sound quality of this player. It?s fabulous, considering it?s a portable. The music is quality is very good, detailed smooth, with bags of bass, and it doesn?t sound wimpy and feeble as some other portables can do.
The earphones (ear buds) are a clever piece of engineering, their Sony Groove earphones and seem to be a little bit ?love ?em or hate ?em? earphones with many people loving them and many people hating them. I personally love them, and I don?t feel I could ever use anything different. They seem to fit in the ear so well, not coming out accidentally every time your turn your head while wareing them. They?re extremely comfortable, you forget you?re wareing them and they?re sound is very good, with the bass being astonishingly weighty for coming from something so small. They don?t leak sound too much either, which is good news for anyone whoever uses public transport.

Should you have the misfortune of breaking the earphones supplied do try to replace them with like for like parts, or if you just can?t get on with them then might I suggest a pair of Sennheiser earphones, the 400s maybe. Just don?t but nasty cheap earphones with this CD player especially don?t use earphones designed for use with a cassette player. Having low-grade earphones on any player will spoil the sound totally.

The amplifier isn?t strong enough to drive a pair of mighty Sennheiser 580s headphones, however they?re more than capable of driving a pair of Grado SR 60 headphones or the earphones supplied. (Why not go and visit my Epinion?!)

The Sony is notably packed with many features, enough to rival a Swiss Army Knife in fact. There?s a method of limiting the overall volume of the player making it sound quieter to protect hearing. (Good if children are going to be listening to it.) There about two program functions (I never use them I?m afraid) there?s a function where you can listen to the starting few seconds of each track; and there is a random track order facility. You can also restart the CD in exactly the same place you switched it off at; so you don?t have the frustration of turning off for five minutes to then have to scramble through the tracks again to find your place.

The ?Groove? aspect of this CD player corresponds with a sound setting. This player has blessed with both ?Mega Bass,? and ?Groove? sound enhancing functions. The former is great, allowing you to boost the bass level to give music a little more depth and musical substance. The latter is not so great as it boosts the bass level to the point where the earphones-which have been specifically designed to handle these intense low frequencies- distort violently. Groove is not a good idea it spoils music not enhances it, and should really be left alone in favour for old fashioned ?Mega Bass.
It?s only bearable to listen to classical music with this horrid function switched on as there?s little bass with classical music.
The Sony D-E405 CD player does have a Ni-cad rechargeable battery supplied along with it?s special charger. However the very best performance to be eked out of this battery on a full charge is three or fours hours! Even with ?dry? alkaline batteries it can only manage twelve hours of continues play. Admittedly the player?s a little aged now the anti skip does take up a percentage of a charge when it?s in constant use as the disc needs to be spun at a faster rate etc. But that battery life is quite poor considering there are players that perform for fifty hours or more on a set of alkalines.


All together a very good player from the people who co-invented the technology. It appears to have everything you?ll ever want from a portable CD player, remote, earphones, and whole host of features. There are a few problems, mainly the battery life, and the ?Groove? function, though these things they don?t really matter when you see quite how goo this player is. It?s definitely one to consider if you?re planning on buying a portable CD player; Sony is a very good brand, and this is certainly an excellent example of their expertise in the field of CD.