When your rap career hasn't risen to platinum, go for the gold
Written: Aug 07 '03
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Pros: Everything
Cons: Nothing, obviously
The Bottom Line: Oh, you know you want it.
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| in-dependent's Full Review: Sony Walkman D-E350 Personal CD Player |
With personal CD players, you get what you pay for. With the D-E350 you are paying for headphones, continuous skip protection, bass boost, repeat and shuffle functions, and a hold button. That's it. If you want more, you better be willing to spend more than $60. Really though, what more do you need? All the included functions of this player are absolutely necessary for optimum CD enjoyment, but there are very few features not included that I couldn't live without.
What can't you do on this Sony Walkman? You can't listen to the radio, you can't listen to MP3's, and you can't program tracks. You can listen to CD-R/RW's though, which is a big plus. It's not a techie's dream, but it does play CD's, and that's all I ask from it.
This Walkman has great sound for the price. Most portable CD players I've owned have come with horrible headphones. I've always owned cheap CD players, not counting my first, which was over $100 in 1994, but it had cheap sound quality nonetheless. Some cheap CD players do have decent sound; you just need really good headphones that cost almost as much as the player itself. With Sony, you can usually expect a bit more, but the D-E350 has the best standard headphones I've ever heard. They sound great, even at the highest volume. And it is loud. The highest setting is 9; I can't even have the headphones over my ears at 9. I usually turn it up to 9 if I feel everyone in the room should enjoy my taste in music, which they usually do. Well, they listen, I don't know if they enjoy. At 8, which is three (-)‘s from 9, is also incredibly loud. Everyone in the room can't hear, but if I listen to more than one song my ears start to seriously hurt.
All this "great sound" talk only applies to non-bass boost listening. I'll admit that I'm a kinda freaky about bass levels. I love lots of bass but distorted bass drives me crazy. I would rather have no bass than distorted bass. Maybe it's because my dad is a bass player, maybe I'm just weird, but that's how it is. So listening to a rap CD through these headphones is quite annoying. Preset bass doesn't cut it but the bass boost distorts. Luckily, there are two layers of bass boosting. First layer, little more bass, little more distortion. Second layer, lots more bass, lots more distortion. I've only had to make do with distortion on my Eminem CD’s though, my rock and poppy/punk CD’s sound great without bass boost. Perfect in fact. Oh, and you can avoid the whole distortion dilemma by turning the volume down, but who wants to do that?
Discounting my computer as a CD player, (and I do, my computer has a hard time running Winamp 3) and the crappiness that is my Xbox audio options, I've chosen my Sony Walkman as my all purpose CD player. Thanks to some rockin’ PC/Home Theater/Gaming Kinyo speakers. If slashes signify "cheap" to you then you would be right, but they sound good enough for my taste. Paired with the D-E350 they sound even better, MUCH better than my PC.
I'm one of those annoying people that must prove everyone and everything wrong. Being one of those annoying people, I am very intrigued by "ESP Max" and phrases like "continuous skip protection" that are said in conjunction with the features of this player. It wasn't long before I got slightly bored and decided to test the ESP. The real question now is how I tested it because if I just said "I works really well," you would have no idea of my grading criteria. I shook it. As fast and as hard as I could. It skipped. Of course it skipped, but that was the first time I had heard it skip. So I concluded the ESP test, switched the ESP switch to the "off" position again, and have rarely turned it on since. The fact is, you can run up a flight of stairs with this Walkman in your pocket (not exactly pocket sized, my pockets rival Mary Poppin’s purse) and it won't skip until the last stair. Without skip protection. Since skip protection uses battery power, I usually don't have it on, even if I need it. But I rarely do anyway. Except when I decide to set my unit on the subwoofer it's playing through. I can't tell you how stupid I felt after I figured out why it was skipping. But that's how good ESP Max is. Once I turn it on, no skipping. Even on a subwoofer.
Battery life is something worth sharing… I've had this CD player since December and I've changed batteries three times and gotten sick of three CD’s. I don't even think all of those batteries were brand new, and it takes millions of listen throughs for me to get sick of a CD.
My last potable CD player was literally held together with duct tape I dropped it so many times. First, I lost the battery cover, so that was duct taped. Then I broke the clasp that held it closed, so it was taped shut. Then, I dropped it again and broke the spring and hinge that opened it, so that had to be duct taped AND it didn't stay open. I also went through 3 different pairs of headphones during the year I had it. That is just an example of how hard I am on my electronics. Amazingly, my Walkman only sports one small gash across the front and a little spot where the paint was scratched off. The headphones don't even have a short in them. And no, I wasn't nicer this time. I pick it up by the headphones. I drop it all the time, sometimes catching it "just in time" by the headphone's cord. It's been lost behind my bed. And it's constantly falling off my computer's tower (which is how it got that nasty gash). I'm not amazed that it still works, because the duct tape wonder worked too, but I am amazed that it has weathered all of the falls so well. You can barely see the imperfections on its shiny gold finish.
So basically, the D-E350 has allowed me to wallow in the tiny world that is my chosen CD wherever I go with style and great sound. Need I ask for more? I don't think so and because it is my favorite and longest lasting CD player, I don't think you could either.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 60
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Epinions.com ID:
in-dependent
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Location: Battle Creek, MI
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 19 members
About Me:
"There seemed to be only darkness, and no one in it but her."
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