short and sweet review of the Panasonic SL-CT 780
Written: Jan 03 '02
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Pros: looks cool; sounds good; lasts long (nice rechargeable batteries)
Cons: short remote wire; eq on remote only; can't turn anti-skip off
The Bottom Line: Recommended. It's a good portable cd player that does all you could ask of it and goes beyond that; just lose the headphones. The remote wire is WAY too short.
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| sebdavid's Full Review: Panasonic SL-CT780 Personal CD Player |
Some background: i work in an electronics store, therefore i know cd players. i got this one in a contest, didn't pay for it. i could see myself paying for it, though.
well, this will be a very short review, as somebody else has posted a very nice, extensive one. I'll just mention what I consider to be the most important points; they may have been touched upon already by my predecessor or not, but nevertheless you can never have too many reviews, SO:
basically, if you really don't feel like reading a lot, let me just sum it up in a couple words: this is a great player that looks cool and offers you more sound quality than 99% of people will actually need, if used with proper headphones. it is not made for heavy-duty or very sporty activity, but this is not a sports model. the remote is a nice feature, but could have easily been improved upon.
for the rest of you, who don't want to spend above a hundred bucks without mauling over and comforting yourself in your decision, here's the real meat:
-The sound is very good WHEN USED WITH GOOD HEADPHONES. as in any other sound system, a portable one only gives you as good a sound as the ultimate sound reproduction step can give you (to a point; don't waste those $10,000 Stax cans on this unit without proper amplification). therefore, if you use this player with any ol' pair of crappy earbuds, you won't get great sound. it was pretty obvious to me that the sound was far from ideal. and that is due almost 100% to the original earbuds. so right away, take them out of the box, give them to your sister, and buy new ones if you don't already have a pair. if you care at all about sound, it will be a HUGE improvement.
the train and live EQs are useless to me (I like my sound without artificial improvements, thank you), but the flat setting is very good for all music except the bass-intensive sort, and that's taken care of by the XBS EQ. the sound, when used with my Grado headphones, can't get VERY loud, as I know some of you guys like it. just buy closed headphones, you'll keep more of the sound in, or keep the original ones, they get loud. besides, you don't want to inflict too bad a treatment to your ears or they will crap out on you at 40.
-The player is very easy to use, no need to read the manual. The buttons may be on the smallish side, but I haven't found it to be a major annoyance, except maybe concerning the remote, which should be easier to manipulate without looking. but that comes with practice.
-The construction is a bit on the flimsy side. I know this isn't a sports model, but still, it is very light even though the aluminum cover helps to alleviate my fears of it breaking easily. it just feels a bit fragile, that's all. never had a customer come `ack with it saying it broke too easily. one problem: you can hear a staticky sound whenever plugging and unplugging the remote or just headphones. probably due to the current flowing from the player to the remote, shouldn't be a big issue. i had one customer come back with one headphone defect, don't know if it's related. it was definitely the remote though, as everything worked perfectly when he just plugged in headphones. he lost the EQ, however, since it's only on the remote. this was repaired under warranty, though.
-THE REMOTE WIRE IS TOO SHORT!!! The wire from the cd player to the remote should be extra long for storing in a backpack and just using the remote to operate the cd player. it's not the case, the wire is a couple FEET too short. my only major gripe with the product, probably.
-The player looks really cool and is really slim, fits anywhere CDS would fit, practically. The rechargeable long-life lithium batteries are a good idea, for space saving as much as convenience: just plug it in when you get home and the batteries are almost depleted, and voilą! you also get a battery indicator, which is very useful and could have been overlooked. the additional AA battery module that attaches onto the device is also a good idea when you go away for long periods or just forget to recharge your batteries. or when you want to try it out immediately before the initial charge... the batteries really last a heck of a long time, so don't worry about frequent recharges (i calculated about 55 hours of battery life).
-The anti-skip is very good compared to previous models I've tried, the only occurence where it would not be sufficient is while jogging. bad news is: YOU CAN'T TURN IT OFF!! so when you want to bypass the compression stage for better sound and don't care about skip protection, like when listening to music in your bed, you cannot bypass the anti-skip.
that's about it, email me at sebavid@hotmail.com to give me your comments.
Recommended:
Yes
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sebdavid
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Reviews written: 5
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