SL-MP70 is a portable CD Player with MP3 Playback and Dot Matrix Display.It has a thin, round-form design for optimal portability with 2-line and 10-character dot-matrix display on top cover; plays standard CD, audio CD-R, audio CD-RW, and MP3 CD (supports ID3 tags). It`s hold prevents unintended commands (play, stop, etc.) and resume picks up exactly where the player left off. SL-MP70 includes stylish over-ear headphones and has up to 48 hours of MP3 playback from 2 AA batteries (not included).
Enjoy music with the freedom that comes from MP3 CD playback, extended battery life, and high-powered anti-skip technology. Panasonic's exclusive No-Skip technology helps prevent interruptions from jostling during active use. No Skip's unique construction uses rubber brushings to absorb shock, while an anti-skip mechanism and an anti-skip digital servo further prevent read errors. A 48-second memory reserve provides added back up.
Now, battery changes will be fewer and farther between thanks to Panasonic's PowerLast high-efficiency power system, which combines an efficient motor with low-load circuitry for playback time of up to 48 hours on two AA batteries (during MP3 playback). CD playback abilities include ID3 tag support (displays artist names and song titles with properly formatted sound files); 24-track random-access programming; repeat and resume (which picks up where the unit left off when last stopped); and skip/search and memory/recall. A hold switch prevents accidental starting, stopping, or track skipping during use or transport. The unit boasts a thin design with operation keys and LCD laid out logically on its top cover.
1 Item worked great for a couple months
Last year I bought this item for my daughter. She listens on her bed in her room and does not carry this item around. We were pleased at first. Within a few months the lid ceased to close properly and she had to listen with the unit flipped upside-down to apply pressure to keep the lid closed. A few months later it became temperamental and skipped and/or refused to play. Bottom line is that in less than a year it became unfunctional in a situation with very little jostling. I would not buy this product again. However, at the same time I bought the PANASONIC RP-HS9 Ear Candy Clip-On Stereo Headphones (Silver), and these are a wonderful and comfortable buy. She loves them.
2 Problems to be aware of.
I got one of these back when it was a new thing and cost about $60, and I have encountered the following problems:
- Scratches/engraves a ring around my discs at about 75% out from the center.
- Collects internal dust with a surprisingly fast rate compared to the non-MP3 discman I used before.
- Have to remove the disc to change batteries
- It just broke such that the spindle locks up on startup. I don't know if this is common, but it should not occur from normal wear and tear.
- Skips (in MP3 mode) when walking with it in any pants pocket other than top fron of back pockets.
3 THis is ok
This cd-player is ok, it has live, bass and regular sound, but the volume cant go so loud. I would recomend a iriver mp3 player or a sony cd player.
4 it was good for the price
well, i bought this cd awhile ago, and like with most electronic purchases, there are pros and cons. One thing i liked not about the machine, but about amazon, is that i ordered this with the free shipping option and got it in about 5 days, 4 days less than the minimum amount of days they said it would take to ship. For starters, this machine as with many other mp3 cd players dont order the tracks correctly. The way they were layed out on your computer for burning will not be the order they will be played on the cd. A pro about this machine is its battery life. 36/48 hrs. of battery life is kinda pushing it, but it does get very good battery life...however it sacrifices power to do so. as a mostly classical music listener, the music is a little softer than rock or rap, and therefore the machine would have to be turned up a couple of more knotches. However, this machine simply cannot provide that much volume. Even when i had the volume cranked all the way up in a quiet environmen (with out eq on, to save battery life), the softer parts were completely inaudible. and even with the bass boost eq level, there was basically no sound. Even worse, i use this machine on the train, so it does not give much sound over the tracks. now, u may ask, why did i give this machine a 4 if i dont like it that much? well, there are some other pros. It is not much wider or taller than a compact disk, and even though almost an inch in depth, it is still pretty compact, and very light. plus, it has a cool design. but i gave it the 4 over the 3 for me, not for you. ... And once again, consider that it gives little volume.
5 Just plain awful
If you care anything at all about sound quality stay far away. I have a very expensive pair of headphones I use with a variety of CD players on various computers, etc. Sound quality has never been an issue with any of them really. Then I got this pile of crap. It sounds HORRIBLE. The two preset eq settings don' help either. I have dozens of Panasonic products including my 1996 model portable CD player (it's huge by today's standards ad takes 6 batteries). I bought this to replace it and the new one made the old one sound incredible. Stay away.
6 Problem after about a month of use
It won't play cd-rw discs anymore: it did for about a month. Now it just spins and makes noise. Reads audio and cd-r discs fine. Great anti-skip system. Sound is a tad bit tinny but otherwise okay. I'll probably give it away because I do need the cd-rw capability; don't want to waste cd-rs whenever I want to listen to something. Mine is probably a dud because I haven't found any similar problems on the internet.
7 Do your homework before you buy it
I received this player two days ago and back it goes tomorrow morning. It did not play any MP3 at all, and we tried dozens of MP3, which played on another CD/CD-RW/MP3 player just fine. While playing CD-Rs it clanked and made other strange noises. It probably plays regular CDs but that is not the reason why I got this player. On the top of it all, IT SKIPS! I'm always very careful around electronic devices, so I didn't drop it or shake violently, but this player really skips despite all the advertising of exactly the opposite. It may be that I got a refurbished or damaged item from Amazon - whatever the cause of these problems, I'm rather disappointed in Panasonic.
Regarding the sound - I can't report on the sound of MP3 since this gadget never managed to play one of those, but being a huge classical music fan, I listened to the CD-R that it did play eventually after reading the disc very very slowly: sound is rather flat but not horrible. For this price one could not expect a Bose and for serious music lovers - at least those who prefer to hear classical finesse not just plain bass - this player, even if it works, needs better headphones. You get exactly what you pay for, and that is average in all senses of this word. I did not intend to listen to a lot of classical music on it anyway, because I primarily bought it for foreign language MP3 during the flights. For that purpose this player should be OK sound-wise. For REAL music - either get Bose headphones or a decent shelf system,home theater or car CD changer instead. In my humble opinion if one really wants to listen to quality music, especially classical, portable CD player is simply not the right choice anyway. Or,a player that can create that quality is not yet around.
8 Pleasant
I was flipping through Circuit City the other day when this player caught my attention. I like the fact it can show ID3 tags, and it's really stylish. Battery life is long, about 35 hours playing audio CDs and "up to" 48 hours playing mp3's, on two AA alkaline batteries. I'm using nimh battery so I think the battery life will even be longer. I love this cute player. I put a few favorite mp3's on a Cd-r and now I have a single player that makes me happy.
9 Great CD player with added MP3 functionalities
This inexpensive portable CD player from Panasonic combines an excellent basic CD discman with MP3 capabilities. You can play regular CD's and CD-R or CD-RW discs burned with audio CD content (i.e., "CD-DA" Compact Disc Digital Audio format), just like any CD player. When playing CD's it has two anti-skip modes, one 10-second and the other 45-second. The single sheet of user's guide says the 10-second memory mode gives better sound quality. There are two EQ settings in addition to the plain "none" level: XBS and "Live". As you would expect, as a CD discman the SL-MP70 delights with its light weight and good looks.
But you can also play MP3 files burned onto CD-R or CD-RW discs. You can burn MP3 files to CD-R/RW discs in two ways: use a program like Windows Media Player or iTunes to convert MP3 back to CD-DA, and burn the disc as an audio CD. Then what you get is exactly a regular audio CD. Or, to save time and effort -- and remember that since MP3 is a lossy format, converting an MP3 file back to CD-DA does not improve the audio quality, i.e., "garbage in, garbage out" -- you can simply drag and drop the MP3 files to a CD-R or CD-RW disc and burn them. When viewed in Windows, the CD-R/RW looks like a regular folder with the MP3 files. Then you can play these files on the SL-MP70. The player recognizes the files gracefully. (The slightly more expensive SL-MP80 model can also play WMA files -- that's Windows Media Audio format, developed by Microsoft.)
Unlike another, cheaper Panasonic discman, this one can display MP3 tags, basically information embedded in each MP3 file that has the track name, album name, artist name, etc. The SL-MP70 displays the track name and album name if they are available. If you download music in the MP3 format, chances are the guy who ripped it already put in the tags, also known as "ID3." If not, you can use a program like Music Match to edit the tags yourself.
Note that, if you buy music Apple iTunes-style from sites like Walmart and Music Match, they only sell the music in the WMA format, not MP3, so you'd need the SL-MP80 player to play them.
Some other observations:
Good - the player remembers the last track or MP3 file you played, so when you turn it back on, it resumes from the point it left off. I don't think you can turn this off with this model.
Puzzling - you cannot fast search within an MP3 track, although you can do so within an audio CD track. This is not a problem unless you are like me and carry audio books encoded in MP3. These books tend to have chapters that last more than 15 minutes. Luckily for me, my commute is 1 hour each way, so I have no problem with this. Also, most music MP3 tracks are no more than 4 minutes, so this shouldn't be a major problem.
Good - Long battery life. I run this off 2 AA NiMH batteries (1800 mAh each) and I've run on the same set for over 20 hours of play and I still see three full bars on the battery indicator. And yes, the battery indicator has three bars and goes to none when the batteries are near exhaustion. This is really energy efficient, and is one thing that sets this apart from the cheaper/lesser-brand products from Classic, Samsung, Memorex, iriver, etc.
Could be better - more volume for those nearly hearing-impaired thanks to their 24x7 listening on earphones habit, easier to get to the last of 1000 MP3 files (as if you'd do that often), backlighting (but that'd surely raise the price), remote control (ditto). Really, for this price, I think we are already getting a lot of bang for the buck, and the build quality of Panasonic players is just top-notch. And no, I don't work for Panasonic or any of its agents or distributors, and nobody in my family or circle of friends does, either!
Tip - to get around the "press forward 99 times to get to the 100th song or 999 times to get to the 1000th song" problem, put a dozen songs in each folder. The Panasonic automatically designates each folder an album, and you can skip to the next album by holding down the fast-forward button.
In summary, the SL-MP70 is a stylish and very dependable CD/MP3 player. Highly recommended for those who don't need a separate MP3 player like iPod or RCA Lyra.
10 Quite good
I bought this player to take runnning. I took it out for the first time tonight, and it was great. Not a single skip! I did buy a carrier for it; I'm a klutz, and it does seem a bit on the delicate side. I did get better headphones (only reason I didn't give it 5 stars). I was prepared to, though, because this seemed a problem from the other reviews.
11 Broken after a few months
This device went haywire after a few months. When it was working, the volume was too soft for my taste. If you do buy it, definitely keep the receipt;P
12 Okay but not great
I bought this player just becos it was panasonic. The price is cheap compared to other MP3 players.
Pros:
Cheap
Its panasonic
Cons:
Headphone sucks
bass is okay but not great
plays MP3 at a low audio quality compared with other formats.
13 Best Value
*The first thing that I must mention is that the only difference between this player and the MP70 is the 80's ability to play WMA** files. If you don't need that functionality then get this player. The MP70 is about 10 bucks cheaper.
**The WMA file format is a format developed by microsoft to offer an even lower profile alternative to mp3s. Unless you really need the space on your cd you probably won't need to use WMA.
Now on to the actual review:
At first glance the player looks pretty attractive, although a tad bulky. When it was started, it took about 10 seconds to load the cd and start playing.
The audio quality was quite excellent especially if you like listening to music with a lot of bass, such as rap , r+b, alternative rock, etc; the EQ bass mode takes care of that.
The battery life does indeed live up to its claim. I still haven't listened to the cd player until the batteries have died, and I use the player quite a bit.
The only thing lacking with the player is the inadequate navigation system. To get to track 100, you have to click the skip button 99 times. Although this problem can be somewhat remedied by putting songs in specific albums, panasonic could definitely improve this aspect of the player. Then it truly would be the best.
Overall, the ML-70/80 are definitely the best bangs for the buck. Its affordable price, great functionality, and aesthetic design will provide countless hours of entertainment.
14 The Lowdown
It plays mp3s and regular cds very well.
For the few who rated it low in case of a nuclear fallout:
It's not the most sturdy built thing, but reliability makes up for that. As w/ anything in life, the better you take care of something, the longer it should last. Even Panasonic admits (in the manual), 'dropping it' is not a very good idea. I suggest getting a real case, instead of throwing it in your backpack.
Pros:
-Cd R-W/MP3 playback; ID3 tags.
-Resume(not exact point played, but plays last track heard over again; acceptable). Very important feature esp. if playing in car.
Special *Random* - Also shuffles within separate albums and not just entire disk. Pretty uncommon feature in players.
Cons:
-No separate 'line out' - earphone doubles as. It's tolerable.
-Grab a flashlight if you wanna use it in a blackout.
-No WMA support, but you can buy the model up(SL-MP80)for $10 more. Bill Gates would appreciate it.
In conclusion, it's a decent mid-grade brand player.
Your search is over.
15 Delicate
The player looks sharp, sounds great, has a great music title display, and is nice and compact.
But it's fantasically delicate.
I was typing on my laptop with the player on my lap when I moved my legs and accidentally dropped the player to the ground. I'm not that tall; it only dropped a couple feet--but that was enough to break it. Its spring to keep the player shot immediately broke, and I had to use tape to keep the player shut.
Days later, the player stoped playing CDs.
Caput!
I regret purchasing this player, and recommend you purchase another one.
16 EBB!(excellent, best buy)!
I bought this because of these features:
Panasonic brand name (still made in Japan;)
Price ...
MP3 capability
Lcd display
Size
I've had positive experience with this brand before, my old cd player (lasted almost 5 years!) Looking at other options, they seemed to be a sea of off name brands made in off name countries. As far as sound quality, get some decent brand headphones, I sure did. Matches perfectly with the Sennheiser HD 497's and they sure put shame to the supplied phones! Mp3 capability? Hasn't been a problem with variable rate WMA's, and of course depends on the source & volume level of the original recording, bit-rate, etc. Fragility? Well, get yourself a carry case. Skipping? No, nuh-uh not here, I literally bounced the unit flat and on end with the the beat of the song! Cons? Not much here either, although coulda used a backlight and little arrows for the volume while it's in the carry case. All around recommended.
17 amazing value and quality
i purchased this product for about 60 dollars. its sturdy does what its told and has amazing battery life. here are some pros and cons about this device.
pros:
color scheme pleases the eye
can use with just one hand
quick reading, does a 143 file cd in a few seconds
sturdy(i dropped it once and it acted up for about a half hour and was back to normal)
48 hour battery!
buttons don't get pressed if its in ur pocket. i love that.
cons:
there are few but the biggest problem is no artist id3 tag, you basically only get album and track name, this can be rectified by naming the mp3 file after the artist, but really i shouldn't have to it should just do it.
the volume control is digital which is a personal problem for me, i like to move the knob.
the headphones that came felt awkward but i just used my old earbuds.
other than that its amazing, one thing however that you will need if you purchase this is a program like "tagscanner" or "the godfather" to rename and edit the id3 tags.
18 no skip, but no radio
The skip protection on this player is the best I ever heard. The sound is good, and it has several basic and extra features. But I'm really disapointed that it didn't have a radio. For $$, they could add a radio. My overall advice would be to look a bit harder, and find another player with a good price and a radio.
19 Great value overall, but don't you dare drop it.
The first two weeks I loved my new toy. Great battery life, plays all my burned discs, much cheaper than an iPod, has built in ID3 tagging, intelligent interface, attractive casing. All these things made me love this player. I never even bothered with the useless headphones which came with it, and have been using my Koss PortaPro's exclusively.
Then I dropped it, maybe 3 feet, onto a hard surface.
The close button flew off and skittered out of my sight.
Picture yourself walking down the street, enjoying the fresh air and listening to your favorite song. Then having your otherwise perfect night interrupted so you can scour the grey sidewalk for a light grey piece of plastic. It isn't fun, without a flashlight.
Without this tiny piece, the player will not stay closed. If you're lucky enough to find it, you can unscrew the unit and figure out how to put it back together. This will void your 1 year warranty. If you're not lucky, don't have a small phillips head screwdriver, or don't want to void your warranty, you'll have to tape the player shut and deal with a small piece of plastic jiggling around inside of the unit. Not fun, either way.
I luckily found the piece and put it back together. However, I've noticed that a moderate bump to the close button will stop play and shut off the unit. This is more than annoying. The close button almost came off once more, and tonight, in a dark restaraunt, I had to scour the sticky floor for the close button.
So, if you never drop electronic equipment, I highly recommend this mp3 player. However, I doubt anyone like that exists.
***UPDATE***
as of last month, the piece holding the cd player closed is missing, and the player is being held together with duct tape. Looks horrid. & the player shuts down randomly. Not worth your time, folks.
20 I love it
this is a very good cd player i love it. it works for me. sounds very good, shows when it needs new batteries. I love the music notes on the screen this. is my Favorite cd player i have ever had. makes a good present. easy to work.
21 Great in some ways, terrible in others
This could have been a great CD player. The most noticable thing about this CD/MP3 player is the skipping. I have thrown it against a tree and even banged it on the wall with no slight showance of skipping or damage. This is a very sturdy CD player. This CD player also is very small (though not the smallest in this competition). A few problems with it, however, is that the sound quality is not even up to par, the LCD screen is very small (making it difficult to find which track you want/are on if you are on an MP3CD), and just in my opinion, I think it is ugly.
Trust me, audiophiles look elsewhere. This is a very dismal sounding player.
Fasionists, look elsewhere. You can get an iRIVER with much better looking paintjobs and much better overall looks to them.
Overall, I can only recommend this player to people that want music that do a lot of laboring work or are very active people. But then again, wouldn't you want better searching when you want to play an Mp3 out of the 300 you can have on one CD? And wouldn't you also want something smaller if you were that active so it wouldn't be a pain to drag around? My point is made.
22 Be careful
This player does not come with a USB connection for downloading music. I'm sending mine straight back because of this, though the sound quality seems okay.
23 Amazing CD player . . and now it's even working!
UPDATE:
A lot of people on Amazon have complained that this player has problems playing Mp3 files. Mysteriously, other people are not reporting any problems at all. Personally, I was finding that my tracks were broken up into hundreds of pieces, with a pause between each piece -- very aggravating (and some files weren't playing at all), and Panasonic offered no customer service advice on this.
HOWEVER, I eventually figured the problem out. (1) Make sure your files are encoded in a STANDARD Mp3 format. Variable Bit Rate (VBR) Mp3 files will often fail or be perceived by this player (and other digital music players, such as some Mp3 capable DVD players) as being "multiple tracks" (thus the broken-up tracks I was experiencing and the stutter and pausing others noticed).
Now, let me note: VBR is a great Mp3 format that conserves disk space while preserving high-quality sound. It's also a very popular format -- so if you're downloading music online, a ton of the tracks you've downloaded are probably VBR Mp3s (they'll just be labeled as Mp3 files, so you can't immediately distinguish a VBR from a normal Mp3). Also, even if you're ripping your own CDs at home, it's possible your ripping software is using VBR. Check your settings! Many problems seem to come down to the Panasonic's inconsistency in being able to read VBR Mp3s.
Now, if you make sure that you rip everything (or convert all of your old files) as normal Mp3s, the Panasonic SL-MP70 Portable CD/Mp3 Player will work much better. Also recommended: This player seems to work best with Mp3 files encoded at a bitrate of 128 or 192. These are the standard encode rates, so that should be fine for most people -- but, again, check your files to make sure this is where most of music is at. Smaller bitrates (lower-quality files) will sound pretty crappy on this player, and high-quality files can take a while to load on the Panasonic, creating another pause.
A final piece of advice: if your CD burning program gives you the option to "Prefix the List Order to the CD File Name", then DO IT (I'll explain in a second). Also, if you don't want the player to pause between each album change and each artist change, then do not choose to "preserve folder structure" in your folder burning options.
The benefit of preserving a folder structure is that you'll be able to easily flip through your artists and/or album folders to find the music you want to listen to.... but browsing with the Panasonic can take a little time, so by choosing "None" under "CD/DVD Folder Naming", you'll burn all of your songs in a row, allowing you to just hit "play" on your player and then sit back and listen to ALL of your music without having to push more buttons, mucking around.
One of the only easy-to-use Media Jukeboxes that allows you to do much of the above is the J. River Media Center program. Currently, I'm using the 10th version of this software (called MC10). On this version of MC, in the burn window, click on "options" and you'll be given the CD/DVD folder and File Naming options. Choose "None" for the folder structure (as described above) and then choose "Custom" for the file structure (which will give you the option to "Prefix the List Order to the CD File Name," which will keep your files organized in the order you want them to be on the CD (otherwise, the Panasonic will read them in a different order; for instance, it might order them alphabetically by track name instead of by artist, since you've abandoned the folder structure; but the "prefix" option will keep everything right as rain).
Although I ended up loving this CD/Mp3 player in the end, I should admit that eventually I just went ahead and got an iPod, which is much simpler and user-friendly.
------------------------------------------
OLD REVIEW:
If anyone has any advice regarding the following problem I'm having with this Mp3/CD player, it would be much appreciated. If you don't have any advice, then you might want to read the info below before you buy this player (which is a GREAT player except for the following problems). If the situation is ever resolved, I'll post the results here. Please email me directly if you have any ideas.
I usually organize/tag all of my Mp3 tracks with Media Center 9, and then I burn copies of various artist folders onto CDR using Adaptec DirectCD (drag and drop the files, then format the disk to be read on any CD player or CD drive).
Now, when I place the data disk in any PC, my folders and files are in perfect order and playback fine. When I use Media Center to access or import the data disk, everything is really terrific -- the data and tags import back into Media Center perfectly. Everything works fine using a number of other Mp3 programs and on various computers and players.
However, when I try to play the same data disks in my Norcent DVD player or on my Panasonic CD/Mp3 walkman (Panasonic SL-MP70 Portable CD/Mp3 Player) . . . ALL of the files are split up into multiple tracks. A data CD that is supposed to have 189 individual Mp3 song files will now have 999 tracks.
With the DVD player this makes it very difficult to navigate, but playback at least sounds fine. With the Panasonic Portable, however, there is a PAUSE in-between each track . .. so not only is it tough to navigate the 999 tracks, but you also end up with 999 pauses . . . which is insane.
My question: is the way I'm labeling/organizing/tagging these tracks in MC9 causing the problem? Or is it the way I'm encoding (I've tried both VBR and regular Mp3, with no results)? Or is it the Adaptec DirectCD that's splitting the tracks (and if so, why can MC9 still read the files without these additional 999 track breaks)?
This is extremely frustrating, since this "999 track pauses" makes listening to Mp3s more or less impossible.
The Mp3 Id3 tags, however, work great, and the battery life and menu and everything else about this player is wonderful. As is battery life. Great! AAA+++! And it looks cool, and the headphones are decent, and if you buy or own better headphones then the sound on this player is really wonderful. But why buy an Mp3/CD player that destroys Mp3 files in this way? You might as well just buy a normal Cd player. But maybe it's just me . . . I haven't found anyone else who's had this problem, and Panasonic's tech support has yet to get back to me.
24 da best
this cd mp3 is one of the best mp3s i have had!!
25 A High Quality MP3 Player
...So, here is the good and bad stuff about this product:
Good -- Reads MP3 and Audio CDs, it has three settings for a bass equalizer, the battery life is LONG! You can program many tracks to play in a certain order, you can repeat and shuffle songs, the anti-skip system works, and you can view the tags of MP3 songs. Also very classy looking and EXTREMELY LIGHT.
Bad -- Unfortunately, you can't fast forward or rewind MP3 cds, just audio cds. The tags are hard to create correctly, so just try a lot. The major disadvantage- this unit is very fragile, and breaks easily.
26 My Long Search Is Over!
I have been through 4 portable CD players in the last month (I have a good excuse though) and I have to say that I have finally found a great little machine that delivers just about everything that I am looking for at a really great price.
My trusty Panasonic SL-SX270 died last month after 2 years of pretty heavy abuse. I replaced it with a Sony Psyc that died (with no abuse) after only 3 weeks. I then exchanged that for a Sony D-NE510 ATRAC3/MP3 CD Walkman and I was appalled by the poor sound quality. It was the worst I have heard on any portable unit. I decided to give the Panasonic SL-MP70 a try and I am glad that I did!
The sound quality is great for this price. I have not even upgraded the headphones yet (although I plan to do this) but I am already very pleased with the sound. The highs are bright and the bass is nice and deep. The sound is very full and there is good seperation. This unit delivers very crisp and clear sound and I have turned the volume all of the way up using the s-xbs bass preset and have not had ANY distortion. Part of the reason for this is that the headphone output is not as powerful as some other units floating around there ... so if you are a volume freak this might not be for you. However, at 8mw per channel output it has more power than its sleeker (and more expensive) counterpart the Panasonic CT700 which is only rated at only 6mw. Also, I really like to listen to stuff loud and while I know there are more powerful units out there I find this to be just the right maximum volume. Another reviewer commented on how quiet the MP3 playback is ... I did not find that to be the case at all ... it is the same as CD playback. It all depends on how loud the original MP3s are burned at. If you have quiet MP3s they are going to stay quiet on this unit.
This unit also has great battery life - supposedly 50 hours and that sounds about right. The ID3 tag support is great (although I wish that there were more than 10 characters displayed.)
OK here are the negatives ....
No back-lit display (would be nice if you could push a button and see what was playing if you are in the dark.)
Can't play WMA files (the SL-MP80 can and it is only about $... more and I think all of the other specs are the same. For me I don't like WMA so I didn't want it.)
No line-out (which would be nice if you wanted to hook it up to a portable amp to drive some really nice headphones and get a little bit more power.)
Can't play Variable Bit Rate MP3s (at least not to my knowledge and I don't think that it's that great of a loss.)
Can't fast forward through MP3s (that would have been a nice feature but you can't have everything.)
Even though I just listed a bunch of negatives I still say that (for me at least) they are all minor ones and the positives more than outweigh them. I seriously doubt that you are going to find a better sounding machine with the functionality of this unit in this price range. I am completely happy with mine (and very relieved at finding a nice unit after my bad experiences with the new Sony models in a similar price range.)
***UPDATE***
I need to add the following. I dropped this machine from about 3 feet and as another reviewer promised, buttons really did fly off. Luckily I was able to open up the unit and put everything back in place but this is really unacceptable. These are portable units after all and should be able to take SOME abuse. I lowered the my rating from 4 stars to only 3. This machine still sounds great but it is really a shame that they skimped on the build. I considered returning mine but I am still satisfied with the sound and features so I will keep it. I am just going to keep it in a case as much as possible.
27 Worthless for Audiobooks
Although the battery life is truly impressive, DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT FOR LISTENING TO AUDIOBOOKS IN MP3 FORMAT! - you can not fast-forward or reverse (that works only for audio CD's), and the bookmark function remembers only the track number, not the position in the track.
For short tracks like music, this may be one of the best units out there. For ~1 hour tracks like most audiobooks, you will be gravely disappointed.
28 Probably the best right now
For a nicely designed CD/MP3 player look no further than the Panasonic SL-MP70. Its design is award-winning, and there are a lot of things you can play on this thin player. Head phones are basic stereo type but better than most included head phones from other companies. If only they made the packaging better and more environment friendly, i'd give them 10 stars!
29 A VERY GOOD MP3 PLAYER
Everything about this mp3 player is perfect. From the Visual perception (Looks great) and unbelieveably light (check out others, you'll see how heavy they are), plays ALL kinds of CD's supporting mp3, wav, and wma. Titles of Albums/Tracks/Time of the song is supported as well. AND THE BATTERY CONSUMPTION IS VERY LOW. I use rechargeable batteries (as you know, they are not ever as strong as alkaline) and i change them every 3 - 4 days. My old CD player needed new batteries every 4-6 hours, very weak.
Why did i give it 4 stars? Dropping it once....caused a scratch....dropping it twice caused buttons to fly off....
so i warn everyone...please be careful with your mp3 player.
An excellent product if it can be taken care of delicately. (I got it returned but immediately bought another one).
30 Good Buy
Light weight, easy to use, many good features, great price.
The only bad thing is that depending on the quality of the MP3 recorded on disc, the volume at which you can listen to it becomes limited or very low.
Sound quality from MP3 vs. tracks on disc is evident. So if your a freak about sound quality, you maybe a bit disappointed.
I like it, but frown a little on the sound performance depending on tracks from MP3's only.
31 Great product for cheap price!
Panasonic has done it again with another great product. This MP3/CD player is a great one. It has a cool look to it and fits nice in my hands. It is also really light. The LCD is amazing, it is big and writes everything clearly. The MP3 playback is a great feature, you can catagorize your MP3's into different albums, and this player will play them all very well with no problem. You can search through your songs really easily. This player is really easy to use. I haven't tried it long enough to see whether it really plays 48 hours of music as its battery life, but if thats true, thats awesome.
Pros:
Cool Look
ID3 tag is clear
Easy to use
Battery life
MADE IN JAPAN
Cons:
cheap headphones come with it
can't search druing MP3 playback
32 Pretty good!
This CD/MP3 is excellent. Nice cool look with awesome features. The sound quality is good if you use good headphones, the headphones... that came with it [could be better]. The MP3 playback is really good and the LCD is awesome and clear. Overall, this is an awesome product for the price.
33 Inexpensive and works
Considering its price, this is a remarkably decent CD player. The screen is large and legible, and the sound quality, while not outstanding, is better than most similiarly priced CD players. That said, the MP70 isn't without its problems; the centre button array feels loose and slides around easily, the plastic feels cheap, and the included headphones are mediocre at best. For all that, though, the above strengths and the exceptional battery life and full support for Mp3 audio and CD-R/W discs make this a solid purchase.
