Customer Reviews

Panasonic SL-SX420 CD/MP3 Player with Headphones (Metallic finish)

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

After having another Panasonic cd player for about 5 years now, I was eager to jump into the MP3 scene. After buying a RCA CD/MP3 player and having to return it because the sound quality was poor, I picked this up and have been very happy with it. Panasonic makes very good digital audio products - my previous Panasonic cd player has worked this long flawlessly, and I got it for free for test driving a mercury! Anyway... Heres the pros and cons:

PROS
-Sound quality is pretty good. It lacks the some of the sparkle that a dedicated cd player offers, but sounds much better then the RCA CD/MP3 players out there.
-Switching between songs is quick (both CD and MP3)
-Many options to play with
-Pretty good bass boost
-Included wired remote is awesome - I love it
-Super quick initial mp3 reading. Takes about 6 seconds for an entire 110 song cd.
-Battery life is excellent - 37 hour advertised. I'm thinking probably more around 20-25, but I use it while cycling, running ,etc... Haven't really paid to much attention to this. Anything over 12 is fine for me.

CONS
-Definitely buy separate headphones - the ones included are clunky, not nearly loud enough and the wire is too short. In ear buds are great.
-No ID3 Tag support - but the remote and fast song switching makes up for this. I quickly forgot all about ID3 tags.
-The metallic finish on the edge does'nt do much for me.

Overall a very good player. I would sacrifice ID3 support for a remote, speed and good sound quality any day. I recommend it!

What a great CD player!!! I initially was pretty wary of this due to the low price and a couple of the reviews here on amazon were pretty sorry, but then I read the [reviews] and was sold on the player. This is the best bang for the buck you can get in electronics these days!

1. Great Sound! Plenty loud enough. Volume from 0-25 and I listen around 10-11 on earbud headphones. Also sounds perfect in the car with a tape adapter.

2. I can't get it to skip

3. Yes it does have XBS, resume, shuffle (although even the panasonic site disagrees)

4. Cool look with slim design and very light

5. Reads mp3s Very quickly and well, Although it doesn't have ID3, it is very easy to navigate albums/tracks. If you make your mp3 CD with Musicmatch with album folders, you can skip albums by holding the track advance button for a couple of seconds. You can shuffle the whole mp3 cd or just one album

6. Remote is Perfect and you can control almost everything with it, has a clip on it too

7. Battery life is phenomenal!!! up to 48 hours with 2 alkaline and more with NiMH

Overall this is the coolest CD player I have seen, especially for so [inexpensive]. I already have purchased an additional one as a gift! If you are looking for a new cd player, definitely check this one out.

Pansonic's MP-70 with ID3 support and SV550 with digital tuner look cool too, but I really wanted the remote. Panasonic should make a model with remote, tuner, ID3 support ...! Until then I am loving my SX420!

At the price, you are more or less buying an entry level MP3 CD Player. Of course one can only expect so much from entry level - but this player goes beyond!

Panasonic's new anti-skip technology is quite impressive. I've run miles and miles with this player without ANY skips. The remote is extremely handy, and the clip helps keep wires out of your way.

I'd recommend supplying your own headphones as the ones included are a bit sub-par. Battery life is astounding. I've never had a portable device that lasts like this!

As far as MP3 capability goes - sure it doesnt have ID3 tag support, but not much does in this price range. It loads a disc of almost 200 songs VERY fast, and of course the anti skip is great on MP3's.

I came from an MP3 CD player that was twice as much money when I bought it, and the SX420 blows it away in EVERY category. I especially like the EQ settings. I use this in my car as well as while working out, and like the option of changing from a flat setting in my car, to XBS in my headphones.

This player is ALL pro's. My only complaint is that I wish they came up with it years ago!

Don't spend your money on mp3 players! This little baby plays mp3 cds, which you can easily burn off your computer. A decent mp3 player will: cost more, not have enough memory for all your songs, and the battery life will suck(literally). Keep the extra money you saved from buying this, and you'll be all the more wiser for buying this player. A note the the player itself: very light, great battery life (37 hours!), and a great remote so you can keep the player in your backpack. If you want to spend extra money, you could get a player with id3 so you know what song you're listening to; but this isn't nessecary at all (you should know what song you're listening to in the first place!). A great player, 5 stars.

Before reading this review, please keep in mind that my Panasonic was tested under extreme conditions and has truly been tried out. While some listen to their music occasionally, taking their sounds for a walk in the park or for a trip into the mall, I listen to mine obsessively. Living my life needs a soundtrack and this is an extension of myself, becoming very much an appendage while I do just about everything. So, saying that I've owned it for a year means that it has been used a minimum of 90% of those days.

Also, I CANNOT comment on the headphones because I loathe the type that always comes with the standard player. Anything touching my ears does not work and I have to buy replacements, needing (1) an extra volume controller and (2) better sound. I personally want the speaker in my ear anyhow, singing to me and not working like something chasing away the cold. Still, that's more of a personal choice.
So, with that in mind, I now sing the praises and the low points of the SL-SX420.

First, the player itself:
Pros: (1) This player is one of the better ones as far as construction, giving it range. Its remarkably light and yet durable, taking all types of punishment while traversing all types of terrain. Mine has taken a beating, too, and now has scratches all over the surface of it and along the sides. Still, its never hurt the play. The skip protection has never actually gone off despite the rigors of a really hard life that it has lead, and this is well after a year. So, that's amazing. (2) Its easy to operate, with all the settings nicely designed for quick find, and the operations can be minimized to increase battery power. Say, for instance, you want to sit at home and don't need extra skip protection. Well, you can turn that down and save some juice. (3) It reads MP3s. While that's normal these days, the price on this is economical for that feature. Too often players don't say what they do and you find that you can't burn a compilation of your favorite discs and listen to it. This, however, works well. (4) Batteries last FOREVER in this model. It only takes two anyhow, and I probably get anywhere from 30-46 hours of playtime off those. That, in and of itself, is AMAZING.
Cons: (1) Something that has happened three times thusfar is that a sudden jarring will knock the battery cover, located inside, open and the music will stop. If you don't know what's happened, this could possibly lead to CD scratching. I've yet to have it do that, but the process was something akin to a miracle. Still, I'm not sure if I should blame the player when its not made for that kind of hardship. (2) The EQ settings are not that great. They only cover basics, with "live" and "bass" being the only extras, so you aren't getting anything to fine-tune your listening pleasure. (3) The volume can be low, depending on the recording, which MAY let in background sounds. When I first got it, I actually thought my hearing had finally started giving out. It hadn't, however, but was instead sitting on a lower volume than my previous purchases. Buying a volume control headphone set additionally will increase it when both the player and the headphones are set at maximum but its still a bit on the quiet side.

The Remote:
Pros: Its an easy-to-use remote and the volume controls are located on it as well. Not only that, but it has EQ buttons. The design makes it nice when you are doing something outdoors, allowing you to clip it and go.

Cons: Its EASY to break. The same design that allowed for comfort allowed it to crack in half. Mine took one blow to the side and then the controls stopped working correctly. What was once the "down" on my volume became my EQ. A second blow broke it. I've never had that problem with a round remote, letting it go through quite a bit more. So, when handling you must HANDLE WITH CARE.

Basically, if you are looking for something to play around with and don't really want to spend lots of money then this works really well. Like I said, I've had mine for over a year and have been happy with it. Its never skipped, never scratched, and has held up to thing that would batter most human beings. That doesn't mean I haven't found flaws within its construction, mind you, but I've rarely had that happen with anything. -TorridlyBoredShopper

this is a quite good mp3 player for a decent price; however you don't have id3 tags and so you have to search each title by its number.. annoying; the design of the unit is cool and I liked also the remote command;

One mayor problem with the 420 is that you can't search within mp3 tracks; very very annoying; you always have to skip back or forth a whole song; this is not the case with normal cds.

I was delighted with my new Panasonic SL-SX420 CD player when I first received it as a gift. I used it several months to play music while walking before noticing that songs on different CDs began to skip. The skipping got much worse and over time. Upon inspecting the back of the CDs, I discovered that all of them had three circular rings of scratches. These scratches have ruined all of my CD's, including those from an expensive box set. What an expensive lesson!

The CD reader is rough and raised so high that it comes into contact with CDs. On my boom box CD, I noticed that the CD reader is lowered below a smooth oval opening, making the reader impossible to touch unless you poke your finger into the opening.

This CD player is a great choice, especially for its price. Here are the pros and cons:

*Pros*

1. Quick to load the CD (at least for an MP3/CD player)
2. Good extra features -- for example, the EQ, and shuffle options.
3. The remote is very easy to use and easier to access than the actual player itself, especially if you have the cd player in a bag.
4. Excellent sound quality and the EQ adds extra effects that make it better.
5. Good volume if you get better headphones.
6. Good battery life
7. It's cheap!!!!!

*Cons*

1. I wasn't too crazy about its colors, metallic light blue.
2. The headphones weren't too great.
3. No ID3 tags. That wasn't too big of a problem for me because usually i knew what song was playing. You can always write down the order of the songs on a peice of paper.

BUY THIS CD PLAYER
YOU WON"T REGRET IT

This is a decent MP3 player for the price. The sound quality is pretty good (when I connect using a car kit or otherwise) but the headphones are (surprise surprise) total trash; when I'm riding the subway, I can barely hear the songs despite going to maximum volume. Also, if you have an MP3 CD with over a hundred songs, it's annoying to skip forward and backwards searching for a song since there are no ID tags. And this is just nit-picky on my part but the metallisized teal-colored plastic arc on the cover piece of the player unit isn't doing much for aesthetics..it just looks kinda cheesy.

Don't get me wrong--for the price, it's a good deal and the sound quality is pretty good--it has a cool equalizer so you can play around with sound presentation. It's a good deal if you have a decent set of headphones and are willing to deal with lots of skipping back and forth on your MP3 CDs.

For just about 4 years straight I had an earlier version of a Panasonic. It was my first and only player I had ever used in my life. It was the greatest CD player anyone could have. Great bass boost, great anti-skip, loved the resume button. One day I played a cd and it kept distorting and skipping the music because there were a couple scratches. It was then that I finally accepted that it was the player, not the cd, and that it was time to upgrade. So I took on the task of looking for a new player. I went through just about every cd player that had ever been manufactured in the past 3 years. My goal: same great anti-skip, same great bass boost, practically everything as good as the previous one plus maybe a couple extra features. I came back to Panasonic because Sony and others just wouldn't cut it. This particular cd player had it all. With the least cons on their list, least cons on MY list, and the features that I wanted (and then some), I couldn't make my decision any clearer. Well I bought it and put it to the test. I put in a cd with the most meat, most bass, most sound and played it. Perfect. The sound was incredible, it was just like I was playing it on my surround system. Now I checked the necessities, I looked for an anti-skip button but didn't find it. I looked in the instructions and didn't say anything about it. I started getting worried and disappointed...that is until I dropped it (on carpet), and nothing happened. I then realized that you no longer had to engage the anti-skip, it was automatically on. I stopped it and came back only to discover the same song I left on...the resume was automatic too! The live and standard boosts work brilliantly with different types of music too. I soon forgot all about missing my old player and looked forward to keeping this one for 4 years, or even more. Now for the vitals...

Pros- Slick look. Remote is easy to use and a real advantage. Bass boost better than ever. Anti-skip doesn't eat up batteries. Sound is fantastic. Doesn't skip when you drop it. Doesn't skip for minor scratches. Dust doesn't interfere with the sound. Volume is controlled by buttons so you don't go deaf from the volume being accidentally blasted because it slipped in your pocket. MP3 feature works great. Slick look. Great buy. All in all just a good cd player to get to upgrade from your old ones.

Cons- Forget the headphones. Battery life isnt long, but reasonable. No "press" button to pop up your cd, you have to rip them out (one feature I miss from my old one)....