Durablity, price, slimness, and it works realy well

EQ & X Bass

This unit is one of the best on the market. Batteries seem to last forever( if you use the extra clip)Price is good and the quality is great. But the EQ and X Bass are the only down faults, they seem to make all the music sound bad. I would and have recomened this to my friends.

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Discman

Amazing size and gorgeous looks.
Pretty decent and handy remote.
40-second anti-shock and 40+ hour battery life.

Absolutely useless EQ settings.
Headphones are standard generic ones that can be found in cheap walkmans.

This is an absolutely gorgeous player - with it's varied brushed and shined aluminum faceplate. The remote is extremely handy, but not as good as the shiny metalic one (with display) that comes on the more expensive Sony and Panasonic models.

Going along with everyone else on this topic - the EQ settings are an absolute joke. The super bass setting is too harsh (distorts bass heavy sounds completely) and the live setting is useless.

The anti-shock and the mechanisms are fantastic - I can walk or jog for a while without missing much of a beat. The player is also as light as anything I've seen in this pricerange.

Overall this is one of the best players I've ever used. This is a great value, but then again, I bought the player for 119.99 (I love NYC:).

Very light and small, perfect for carrying in your school bag and for listening on the bus. All the major buttons are in one place, and easy to find. The battery life meter is very handy, as is the attatchable thing for 2 AA batteries.

The LCD screen doesn't light up

A very cool CD player for a first portable CD player. I bought this one from a friend who decided to go for a MiniDisc player, and I couldn't be happier. It's great for bringing to school to keep me occupied on the bus and the extra long battery life is fantastic. My only real complaint would be that the LCD screen doesn't light up, which makes using it in the dark a little tricky. Other than that, a pretty good CD player!

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Sony Walkman

Neutral sound, compactness

A bid thin on the midrange, a little bright on the top

Most of the portable CDs now a days are designed mostly to play pop music, with over emphasis on the bass, and the treble. When playing anything other than pop and rock and roll, these players sound very unnatural.

THe SX-460 and the SX-510 are probably one of the more neutral sounding portable CD players. Although I find them thin on the midrange, and a bit bright on the top, the overall presentation is acceptable. The anti-shock function and all the EQ modes degrade the sound quit a bit, so I would suggest not to use any of them whenever possible. The additional battery case is a big plus.

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Sony

this is a very compact player which is strong, has many features such as 3 eq 40 sec anti shock, very crisp highs and tight bass. a great player for someone who is after good quality at an affordable price.

comes with very cheap earbuds, and the sxbs eq makes the music sound muddy and undefined. i recommend using no eq and get some good headphones such as sennheiser hd600. very pricey but well worth the money.

i am very pleased with this product it has with stood many knocks and falls and still works perfectly. i recommend as it has many features, can be hooked up to an amplifier and played through a stereo as an option. all in all it is a very high quality piece of equipment. as you would expect from panasonic. if you love music and want something that sounds great and is very small. then i suggest you buy this cd player.

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none

I just compared Sony to Panasonic yesterday, and decided on the Panasonic SL-SX510 ($150). Warmer than the Sony, nice brushed aluminum lid (not plastic),Volume/Track Wired Remote that attaches between the headphones and the player (allows adjustment even if the CD Player is in a bag etc.), a few EQ settings, 40 Second Anti-Skip (works very well, I tested it), holds 2 tiny rechargables (included) and allows outside attachement of 2 more (battery case included). In theory, you can play this unit for 40+ hours continuously. I liked/needed the remote but, without it, I think the kid brother of this model is $120. This unit -- WITH the internal batteries included -- is absolutely TINY and FEATHERWEIGHT. I listen to both classical and rock. Get a pair of Sony MDR-V6 headphones ($70) to replace the cheap ones included, and you are in business. Personally, I don't need a portable unit to do more than this one can.

Strengths:- Remote is simple to use
- Battery life is superb
- Antishock is superb
- design is superb

Weaknesses:
- The xbass system tends to distort most music's bass (I've tried it with 5 diff't headphones), so it isn't very useful, the Groove on Sony's sound better for dance/techno music.
- THe remote should have a clip to attach it to your clothes or something, it can be annoying with it dangling

I really like this CD player. It's small, it's light, it's durable, and it has outstanding battery life. The sound quality is excellent,and the remote is very handy (although it could use a clip to attach to clothing). The only real negatives I can think of are the equalizer settings and the LCD display. The S-XBS setting is waaaaaay to bassy. The Live setting is utterly useless. I miss the old bass setting (XBS) from my last Panasonic CD player (that didn't have quite as much bass). Also, the LCD display does not light up in the dark. That should be a necessity. Overall, this is a very good player. Once I get my Grado SR60 earphones, I'll be able to tell how really good the sound is...

Value= 4 stars. It's not the most expensive CD player out there, but it's still more expensive than others.

Rating= 4 stars. I'd give it 5, but the equalizer settings flat out suck. Plus, I'd really like to able to see the LCD display in the dark.

I replaced my old Panasonic CD portable about three months ago with an SL-SX510. My overall impression? It's ok, but I'm not sure I'd buy the same model again.
------Associated equipment----
Headphones: Sennheiser MX5 earbuds, Etymotic ER-4S, Grado SR-60's
Outboard Amp: Headroom Airhead

------Size------
So small and light! This is what caught my eye. It's about as thick as two CD jewel cases and has a beautiful brushed aluminum lid. Anyone with a technofetish will fall in love with the look of this player.

------Durability------
It's definitely small and durable. My last Panasonic was one of the Shockwave models which I bought because I spend a lot of time travelling. I never had a problem with the Shockwave---never dropped it, never even scratched it---so this time I felt safe going with the smaller, more delicate-seeming SX510. Well, right off the bat I dropped it twice from waist height, once on concrete and once on a wood floor! Other than a scratch or two, it still played. A few days later, it slipped from my hands at the top of my stairs and I watched in horror as it bounced down fourteen steps! Miraculously, it worked as before. So there's no faulting this model's durability.

------Anti shock feature------
It has 40 second anti-shock memory, but I've never really had to use it because the player only skips with a large jolt. Normal walking doesn't affect it. Since I assume that the anti-shock process uses some kind of lossy compression scheme, I'd rather not use it anyway. Strangely, it seems to skip more when the batteries are low. I have no idea why.

------Battery life------
It runs about six hours on the AAA rechargables. To tell you the truth, I've fallen back on using the attachable AA battery pack that comes with it because I keep forgetting to plug it in. Design flaw: in order to recharge the AAA internal batteries, you have to take the external AA battery pack off the unit. The DC input is beneath the battery pack. Silly.

------Sound------
The lack of flexibility in controlling the sound of the SX510 is my major complaint. Specifically, there are three preset "EQ" positions---normal, live, and S-XBS---and I'm unhappy with all but the normal setting.

*Normal*
This setting is fine, with more bass than I remember with the old Shockwave I had, but this may be due to the fact that I use a Headroom Airhead amp.

*Live*
Live provides an artificial, completely unlistenable "big hall" effect. I never use this. It makes music sound thin and tinny, draining all life and warmth from it. Why would they include this?

*S-XBS*
I've found that the earlier bass boost process, XBS, increases the bass output just the right amount to compensate for small headphones like earbuds. Using any bass boost with headphones like the Grado SR60's, for example, is overkill, but with earbuds, it's almost essential. XBS accomplished the boost without affecting the other frequencies. Everything managed to stay in balance. Remember the loudness button on older mass market stereos? Well XBS is a little like that---just a little more where and when you need it.

In contrast, S-XBS is very destructive. It boosts the bass to a point where it becomes flabby and bloated. The bass smears into an indistinct mess, and any definition it might have had is lost. Worse yet, it markedly attenuates both the highs and midrange. The timbre of the instruments is totally veiled. Thinking about that mass market stereo again, it sounds like the bass tone control is turned all the way up and the treble control is turned down completely. I realize that there are some out there (dance and techno freaks?) that want this kind of over-the-top bass, but for me it's too much, and a definite step backward.

------Other features------
For those of you who want to use an outboard amp like the Airhead, the EQ function works through the line out as well as the headphone section. This would be a good thing under normal circumstances, however, you may discover as I did that the EQ settings are not something you use much anyway. See http://www.prodcat.panasonic.com/shop/product.asp?sku=SL-SX510 for full SX510 specs.

------Biggest complaint------
Most definitely it's restricting the EQ bass setting to S-XBS. Panasonic should ditch the useless and horrible-sounding live setting and replace it with XBS. That way, you would have a choice of normal, XBS, and S-XBS.

------Bottomline------
If I were to do it again, despite some very good features, I'd probably look for a model that had an XBS setting that worked through the lineout.

long play time, Anti-shock memory, remote control

none

Very good product for person who listens lots of music. Small and nice looking.

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