Customer Reviews

Panasonic SL-SV570 Personal CD / MP3 Player with AM / FM

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I'm a newbie at this MP3 thing, so the fact (apparently) that the SL-SV570 doesn't play WMA files means nothing to me, since all I wanted was an MP3 CD player. This is a basic player, though: it does not have a display that can show song, album, artist, etc. But I didn't want to spend $300 to $500 on an iPod or other MP3/harddrive contraption to do that.

This is what you get: a solid CD player than can play audio CDs, including CD-RW disks, and CDs with MP3 files, also on CD-R or CD-RW disks. What I do is put 12 to 15 audio CDs on one CD-R or CD-RW disk and then create a label that shows the albums (Tracks 1-12, Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream; Tracks 13-22, John Coltrane - Blue Train, etc.)--I use the Fellowes software and labels, which are the easiet and best to use. There isn't room on a label for the name of the tracks, of course. Then if you want to listen to the tracks sequentially, you can do that (there is a very valuable resume feature that starts up exactly where you shut the disk off previously), you can shuffle and listen to the tracks randomly, or you can use the Program feature and easily create up to a 20-track program. I use that to program a specific album to listen to. It works great, the sound quality is very good (Panasonic has a two-level XBS bass-boost feature which I almost never turn off), the volume is good, and the price is fair.

You can buy CD-Rs for as low as five cents each if you look around (although 40 cents is more typical), and you can put 700 MB on on disk. Even at 40 cents per disk, you will spend less than $23 to get the capacity of a $500 iPod. If you want to create temporary disks, you can use CD-RWs for around $1.50 apiece.

I have over 2,000 audio CDs and this is a great way for me to put 15 or so albums on a cheap CD-R, label it with the albums, and carry 15 hours of music around without worrying about losing the original audio CDs (many of which are out-of-print Jazz disks or otherwise really hard to find items), having to carry multiple disks around and load them with sweaty hands while working out, etc.

The radio, though, is not too good, depending on your location; you can forget FM stereo unless you're standing next to the broadcast tower. BUT, the radio is good enough for AM ballgames when you're at the ballpark, FM stations in mono, in most places, and is great at the gym for the TVs that they put the sound through a low-band FM station so you can listen while you're working out.

I gave the headphones to my daughter. They looked uncomfortable and anyway I only use earbuds, so I don't know about them.

You will probably want to get a CD-jogger belt that will hold the player when you're walking around, running, exercising, etc. Panasonic sells one but there are others for around $20. You really want one so you don't drop the thing. It's plastic and hitting concrete will have the predictable effect.

If you want to have a read-out and pick out specific songs, artists, etc., this is not the player for you. This is a basic model: it will play MP3 files loaded onto a CD-R or CD-RW, but it does have some good features: (i) good sound (bass and volume), (ii) excellent resume feature, and (iii) good program feature. If you need more than that, you will have to spend more money, probably. Panasonic sells basically the same model with a remote (which I wouldn't use) but without the radio for around the same price. I'm still using a cheap Panasonic (10-second skip protection only) that I bought five years ago and use every day, so Panasonic seems to hold up well.

UPDATE (August 23, 2004)

I would add one really significant issue that can cause endless frustration with this player. This model plays MP3s in strict alphabetical/numberic order, and that fouls up the order of the albums that you burn, and really messes up the order of tracks in a multi-disk set.

THE FIX: if you use MusicMatch JukeBox 9.0, specify in the Settings in the Recorder feature to name the tracks in the following order: Artist, Album, Track # (you have to check the appropriate boxes and then use the up/down arrows until you get this order; you must have all three elements--trust me after many hours of monkeying around with this). Note that this is the Recorder feature that copies your audio disk's tracks onto the computer, not the Burner feature, which burns tracks onto a blank CD. You won't see any effect from making this election until the audio files are converted to MP3 files; when the audio files are shown on your MusicMatch playlist, they have the complete information but somehow the files are tagged so that when they are converted to MP3 files, the appropriate naming then takes place. That cost me another few hours to figure out.

In this way when the audio files are converted to MP3 files and are burned onto a CD, they are named, for example, Thelonious Monk - Monk's Dream - 01, etc., and then Monk's Dream (a specific album) will play in the original album order. After those tracks, then Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser - 01, etc. will play in order (the actual MP3 titles look a bit different than that, but that's the effect). If you burn multi-disk sets, you may have to play with the disks' titles a bit to get this to work, because of the way that MusicMatch edits long titles. For example, if you want to burn your Stan Getz's The Bossa Nova Years, which is on four disks, you might want to manually rename each disk Bossa Nova 1, Bossa Nova 2, etc., since Music Match can cut off the "(1 of 4)," etc. in the title and then everything gets mixed up again.

This took me many very frustrating hours to figure out, and MusicMatch--which is a great product and apparently a good company--doesn't explain this in any FAQs or online resources, although they do explain that in the Settings on the Burner you also need to uncheck the box that specifies that tracks should be burned in alphabetical order. This is irrelevant, though, since for whatever reason this Panasonic player only plays in alphabetical/numberic order. (The disk will play in the correct order on your computer using MusicMatch, but in Windows Media player on the same computer or on this player (I haven't tried any others) the tracks revert to alphabetic/numeric order. Causing one to pull one's hair out in frustration. With the fix above, it works fine.)

I've noticed a number of comments about the latch on the player, and I believe that it could cause problems. It looks and feels much flimsier than the latches on the other two non-MP3 Pansonic players that I have. I'm careful with it, since it doesn't look like it would stand up to much banging around. Another reason why the jogger belt is a good idea.

I bought this a few months ago, but already have a replacement.

The good news is that it's light, has a radio tuner and sounds quite good. The Panasonics tend to be a bit richer and warmer than the Sonys, which are more neutral. The bass is good and the digital sound is clean. The batteries last a long time.

On the downside, I dropped it 2 or 3 times -- the lack of a remote when jogging is a big minus -- and now it skips enough to be annoying. The plastic parts on the outside are somewhat flimsy.

Also, peak volume is noticeably lower compared to other players. Thats fine if you dont like headbanging music, but make sure you have "closed" headphones if you take the player outside within earshot of auto traffic.

Finally, the radio tuner, while better than that of the Sonys I've tried, is just okay. I decided I dont need radio anymore in light of the generally mediocre quality of portable CD tuners.

This player handles mp3, but not WMA, as the back of the package indicates.

I've also tried and returned a Sony "sport" player, but I didnt like the lack of a remote or the idea of using a handstrap instead of a wrap-around pouch. Still, it was well designed for people who dont mind straps. The sound was excellent and it was quite sturdy. I dont think it ever skipped.

Now I am trying another Panny, the SV 430. That one has a nice remote, but no tuner. It apparently also can recharge NI type batteries, but you have to buy a plug to connect to it. It's got a few more features too. I'll write a separate review on that.

While I test this one, I am waiting for a new RCA Lyra, with a tuner, WMA capability and a remote. What I really want are all of those features and a Sport type ruggedness. Are you listening Sony? (Panny has all of that except mp3/WMA in a new Shockwave).

I generally like Panasonic portable disc players, finding their sound more musical than the typical Sony with construction that seems sturdier. This player is no exception in terms of cd playback. (I'm not interested in mp3 so I have not tested that.)

As is typical the unit ships with only mediocre headphones. While I have heard even worse 'phones, they are definitely dull, lacking in bass, and generally unmusical. If you care about sound quality you really need to spend some money for a different set of 'phones. I am using the Sennheiser HD-280 Pro 'phones with mine.

The FM tuner is the biggest disappointment for me. Perhaps the tuner would work better in a different environment. Radio and TV reception is very spotty in San Francisco because of all of the hills. Even using the "city" function on this unit, some stations have considerable multipath distortion. Switching to mono usually gets rid of the distortion but then, of course, the music is no longer in stereo. This poor radio reception occurs with both the supplied headphones and the Sennheisers. (I mention this because the headphone cord functions as the FM antenna.)

One word of caution to users: I initially thought my unit might be defective because the sound was mono only. After reading the instructions and pressing some buttons, I realized that while my headphone jack was pushed in far enough to make firm contact it was not pushed ALL of the way into the unit. Once I put some more force on the cord, the headphone cable snapped all of the way in and the sound changed to stereo.

I don't know why everyone gave this nice piece of engineering such poor rating! I bought this player from Circuitcity after reading all the positive reviews, and overall I think I made a 'sound' decision. The design is small and sturdy (nicely fit in my backpack), the sound quality is good enough, and feature set is okay for a player in this price range. Not that it's perfect, but than all portable audio players have their pros and cons.

Pros:
1. Nice looking blue-themed design :-)
2. Good sound quality, specially with X-SBS enabled
3. Supports MP3 files from 32-320 kbps (including VBR), as well as multi-session CD-R/CD-RW
4. D-sound: Digital amplifier and digital remastering for cleaning up poorly encoded MP3 files
5. City mode and mono/stereo selector for cleaning up patchy FM reception (FM reception is resonably good in San Diego)
6. Awsome battery life (~60-70 hours with MP3 playback), supports rechargable AA batteries, and has a battery life indicator
7. DC input jack for using the unit in indoors/cars
8. In MP3 mode, you can restrict the playback to a single album only

Cons:
1. No ID3 tagging display/search
2. The display has no backlight

However, I guess the pros far outweighs the cons.

I purchased this after having one of the defective Virgin Pulse models. The MP3 audio quality is excellent and battery life is great. There is no display for the audio tracks or backlighting, but given the high sound quality I find this an acceptable trade off. The headphones produce outstanding sound, but are uncomfortable - I'd recommend replacing them with something else. Most people already have a favorite pair anyway. AM/FM with presets is a nice feature and one that I use occasionally. It is perfect in size and VERY lightweight.

I've had A LOT of CD/MP3 players as they frequently get dropped at the gym. This is the first player I've had (of many makes & models) that I would buy again without hesitation. I would have given it 5 stars, but am marking it down by one for the uncomfortable headphones and lack of display.

I bought it last week but I am a little bit disappoinnted. Why:

1. the sound is pretty flat. The XBS is powerful but the rest is like a background. No equalizer is available so nothing can help.

2. the behind the neck headphones are horrible. They do not fit to your ears so you do not hear the music if you are outside or not in a quiet room. Tehy also slip and I have the feeling they are made for big headed people with big enough ears like Shrek for example.

3. Without a remote control you will find it dificult to operate because you have to take it out everytime you want to adjust the volume or skip forward. The buttons are small and almost the same so there is no way to adjust it without taking it out of your pocket.

4. The radio is good even though you cannot listen to it were there is no coverage.

Overall it is good if you are not a sound quality maniac like me. I have a cheaper RCA which sounds better. Changing the headphones won't help either.

This cd player didnt skip while i was running, but the latch that keeps it closed broke off and i had to wrap a rubber band around it to keep it closed. This also happened to a buddy of mine, and a few other people i spoke to who bought this same cd player at the PX.

I bought this mainly for use in listening to long (45 minutes to 1 hour) mp3 audio files that I have burned to CD of sermons, lectures, and audio books. One very good feature this has is, when the unit is stopped and powered off, and then powered back up for the next use, it will start at the exact minute and second where it was previously stopped. This is very nice when you are 38 minutes and 21 seconds into a 55 minute mp3 file. The downside is, this player is not capable of searching through mp3 files. So, if you do not press "stop" prior to powering the unit off, it will not register where you were within the mp3 file when stopped. In the case of this unit, you then have no way of getting back to the 38 minute spot within that file, besides listening through to that point again. I had to return my unit because of the lack of this feature. Other than that, it is a very nice item.

General quality of the player is good. Of course the FM tuner will not work wewll, portable ones with antennas built into the player never do. And the reason they invented the CD player was to solve that problem. But every other aspect is good. I listen to it on our boat in choppy water, no skips yet. The only problem I have had is that the latch on the cover has broken. Everyone I see with this player has a piece of tape there too. It seems to be a design flaw.

Compared to the Sony CD/MP3 player that i used to have, this Panasonic is awful.
- very cheap feel to the unit as a whole. the hinged cover is especially low grade. feels like it is held onto the rest of the unit by a thread.
- sounds ok, as long as you use other headphones. the ones provided lack clarity and punch. moreover, they fall off very easily
- most of the controls on this unit sit in a row along the edge. the buttons are all of the same shape, and in low light, it's difficult to tell the various push buttons from one another. (volume up, volume down, track up, track down, play, stop).