Panasonic SL-MP50 Portable CD/MP3 Player

by Panasonic

Product Details

Product Manual [351kb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 5.2 x 5.1 x 1 inches ; 6.6 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005UD2D
• Item model number: SLMP50
• Batteries: 2 AA batteries required. (included)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Get ready for some sonic fun! Panasonic's SL-MP50 plays regular audio CDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs, plus MP3 CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Since an MP3 CD holds up to 10 hours of nearly CD-quality music, it's easy to enjoy tons of tunes on the go with this handy portable. Plus, with a 40-second anti-skip buffer for regular CDs, and a 100-second anti-skip buffer for MP3 CDs, count on enjoying all that music virtually skip-free.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, but not for eveyone, February 18, 2002

By 

"stfc7000" (NH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic SL-MP50 Portable CD/MP3 Player (Electronics)

I got the player 2.5 months ago, the day after Christmas. Before I bought it I did quite a bit of research on it. Some where I read that someone had a problem with leaving it in the cold for a while(afterwards it didn't work). Since I do pack packing type stuff i brought it with me and left it in the car all night up in the white mountains during the winter and it was fine.

It plays CD-R's pretty good, where if I listen to it all day there might be one or two glitches. CD-RW's are a different story. They will glitch every 5-6 songs. I blame this mostly on my 4X CD burner. I burned a CD at the 1X speed and it glitched every couple seconds, so if I had a better burner I think that this problem would most likely go away.

I really like the headphones that came with it although I makes no sense to buy the player just for the headphones. They are quite bassy and provide absolutely no white noise.

The only thing that i wish that it did was seek within a song with a mp3 disc. I miss that option a bit more than I thought I would. Something that some people might want is the mp3 tag compatibility. This doesn't have it, instead it shows the album # and the track # when you press the memory button. I prefer it the way it is, with the number system because I don't have to type up the tags for the 270 songs that are on the CD. I now carry 2 MP3 CD's with me instead of the 35 that I would have to carry to have the same amount of music with me.

Most MP3/CD players have a long startup time. This one does not. it only takes 15-20 seconds compared with a minute or two with some other players. It has a 40 sec anti-skip for CD's and a 100 sec anti-skip for MP3 CD's. Battery life also beats all others that I found with a 14 hour battery life with 2 AA's on a MP3 CD, 35 hours with 2 AA's on a regular CD.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Never Purchase This!, July 14, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Panasonic SL-MP50 Portable CD/MP3 Player (Electronics)

I've purchased this product in January. Since then, I've had some problems with the sound quality. I got this replaced a month after, and I still had the exact same problem, which means that the problem would be evident in every product. I cannot recommend this product to anyone. When it's playing MP3 discs, it would frequently make this weird and loud hissing noise in the middle, which I found extremely frustrating and annoying. Furthermore, this product is fragile unlike other 'skip-proof' products. This product is a battery drainer. A fresh, newly-charged NI-MH battery would only last about 3 hours on this product. So I don't know if this will be a choice for anyone. From using this product, I vow myself to never buy any Panasonic product again.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good buy for good price, March 16, 2003

By 

spikey_korean (seattle, wa United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Panasonic SL-MP50 Portable CD/MP3 Player (Electronics)

you can actually find this player running around [$$] other places. this player came out with the big audio company players came out, so it was rivaling mainly sony and aiwa. riovolt already had a substantial stand in the marketplace, though its sound technology wasn't as advanced as the competitors. b/c of the time it came out, its battery life was pretty standard, 12/mp3 35/wav. sony's mp3 products are way behind in this category. as for sound quality, it packs a punch, and can be complemented by a good pair of headphones. the con to mp3 cds is the amount of mp3s you can stuff into a cd. average mp3 size is 3mb, while a average cd size is 700mb, which equates to 233 songs! that is about 12 hours of music! anyways, another con is the fact that there are no id3 identification on this player, though it is implemented on higher models. id3 identification is nice to know what song to skip to, but since an mp3 cd is just copied as data cd, it's organized alphabetically anyways. i've dropped this player many times, and it's still held up. also, the buttons are easy to figure out. you're able to categorize mp3s into folders, which you can organize any way you please, ie. genres, decades. you are able to skim by folder, or by tracks, and you're able to randomize in folders, or tracks. overall, i've been pleased with this player for over a year.