SLSX460 Okay sound with a major flaw
Written: Sep 21 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Almost analog sounding, warm punchy sound
Cons: Audible buzzing sound in right channel
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| Mark_W's Full Review: Panasonic SL-SX460 Personal CD Player |
I purchased this CD player on a recommendation from the Headroom website. It replaces my Sony D777 player, which has a broken remote. The Sony player (without an amp) is characterized by clear, light sound, lacking in bass, and an un-ergonomic design. The Panasonic SLSX460 is lighter and slightly larger than the Sony, has all the controls on the unit’s top, and has a surprisingly warm, punchy sound. I was especially impressed with it’s round, realistic reproduction of drums, which often sound too much like drum samples on CD (compared to live music or analog). The headphones that came with the Panasonic have a tinny, flat sound, and are uncomfortable and a little ugly. I tested the unit with a pair of Sony MDR V6 phones, Sony E848LP earbuds, and Sony EX70 canal phones, all of which do not require an amplifier. None of these phones really needed bass equalization, although the S-XBS bass-boost feature on the player is not as bad as some have stated. Unlike Sony’s bass-boost which increases bass and high-treble bands to unpleasant levels, Panasonic’s S-XBS seems to soften the treble’s focus while increasing the bass a little less than Sony’s does. The S-XBS sound is fuzzy and unfocused, and the LIVE function seems to be a kind of cross-feed circuit, mixing the left and right signals in the middle of the stereo image, I suppose to fix the audio problems inherent in listening to stereo mixes through headphones. All the LIVE function seems to do in practice is compress the stereo image and boost the midrange.
With no equalization the Panasonic SLSX460 has a warm, almost analog sound, which is a welcome relief after years of hard-edged digital sound from my Sony. It also has a nice flat sounding frequency response, with a very smooth mid-range, un-edgy treble, and bass that pops. However, there is a major flaw in this unit, I wonder if anyone else reviewing it has noticed: there is an audible buzz in the right channel, which to my ear sounds like the CD transport motor introducing noise into the audio signal. This, to me, is unacceptable, especially at this price. While I am impressed with this player’s sound, the buzz can be heard during quiet portions of the music and between tracks. This makes the printed claim of a S/N ratio of 98db for this unit obviously false. If anyone has one of these players and cannot hear this buzzing in the right channel (meaning all I got was a faulty player), please e-mail me so I can get a replacement unit.
mswynne@hotmail.com
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Mark_W
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Reviews written: 5
Trusted by: 0 members
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