Good Bass, Excellent apperance, barely ever skips.

Groove Bass makes some music distorted and drowns out vocals.

This is a good Cd player for the money. I saw that people were complaining about static from your shirt messing it up....dunnno what they are doing with it but I havn't had any problems with it and I listen to it while I work out almost every day. It does skip after about 40 seconds of constant jarring. But if your going to be jumping or running for over 40 seconds you probobaly shouldn't be listening to Cd's. None of the products I've tried come close to the ESP level of Sony's ESP 2. This is the best product for the money on the market today....that is if you don't rub it against your clothes or do jump rope. I could do with out the Groove Bass feature but you can always turn it off.

Similar Products Used:

A couple Sony Discmans

Good sound, extras like rechargeble batterys, AC adapter and remote

very poorly built, lasted less then a year. The groove destorts the sound and is useless with most CDs.

I was looking for a good sounding CD player to replace my older Panasonic Discman. I had thaught I found one with the sony 405, it sounded great, but after about 8 months it started to turn off without warning. Another less significant problem was the volume control didn't work properly. I took it in to be repaired a week before the warenty ended and they said they couldn't find anything wrong. They resoddered all the connections but still the problem perssisted. I could have taken it back to repair shop and told them they didn't fix it, do it right, but with the warenty over it would have been more trouble then it was worth. So I sold it to a pawn shop for $30 and baught a new one. I feel sorry for the sucker who baught it next. That same day I went out and baught another Panasonic.

Similar Products Used:

A couple of Panasonic players

Battery, remote

Weak built. (all plastic!!) Headphone cracks within one month.

I've had two sony's. Both of them had the same problem: the rads are made out of plastic. If you use your discman daily, it will be broken within seven months. Like mine did and a lot of my friends' also. Well I find that unexaptable for a discman with a price of $95.
The sound is average. The Mega bass makes it more round and clear, but the groove creates far to mutch bass. It breakes your headphone if you use it all the time! (no kidding!) The groove suppresses the trebble, so the clear sound of a cd will be gone.
The shock meganism is great. You can walk, ride a bike, whatever you like. The diskman will continue like nothing is happening. It doesn't use much more energy in ESP mode, so I had it active all the time.
The controls are conveniently arranged, but the stop-button is connected to the play-button. You can easally press stop in stead of pause. The play-mode and enter-key are too small. Hold is not smooth enough. (you have to do that one with your nails)
So: The Sony wears out FAR TO FAST! If you want a discman that lasts longer than one year: don't buy a sony.


Jaap.

Similar Products Used:

panasonic and Aiwa

I recently bought the D-E401 from K-Mart for $89.99, and I rather like it. Now, I may be a bit biased (considering I used to have a D-171) but I rather like this CD player. The ESP2 isn't perfect, and it's definitely not made for jogging or anything like that, but at least they come out and say that on the front. I only listen at home and in the car with it, and for those uses it's perfect. The only thing I don't really like about the player is the Groove bass option. I listen to a lot of rock where the bass is already high and Groove makes it sound a little distorted, sometimes drowning out voices or other instruments. Most of the time I keep it on the regular Mega Bass. Cosmetically, it's wonderful. The sleek silver look is really nice. If you want a good regular-use CD player, this one is one to consider.

Sony's ESP2 has taken Sony to new lows in product performance. The Anti-shock is characterized by electronic screech (similar to a needle slideing across vinyl) whenever the unit tries to recover. At any pace quicker than a snail, the unit runs for the ~20-40 seconds of anti-shock memeory and then begins play/stop/play/stop repeatedly until the unit gives up (if you haven't already) and shuts off.
In addition, the unit is susceptible to static-electricity from your clothes. One time the static shock managed to trigger the stop sequence.

Sony tried to repair my unit twice, replaced it with a new one, repaired the new one once, and the unit still does not work as advertised.

I borrowed a Panasonic SL-SW505 from a co-worker, and ran half a block to the bus without a single interuption in play. In fact, my old Sony D-242CK 3-second anti-shock aoutperforms the D-E405!

Overall Rating? Negative 5 stars

Conclusion? Buy a Panasonic!

Groove, style

ESP, longevity

Was a good cd player for like 4 months, then it decided to turn off, all the time with the even the slightest movement, not built to last.