Customer Reviews

Panasonic SW967 Shockwave Water-Resistant Portable CD / MP3 Player with D.Sound Technology (Silver)

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Panasonic Shockwave SW967 CD/MP3 Portable Player is available in silver and blue. Shockwave is Panasonic's name for its line of portable audio players that are more heavy duty than a regular audio player. The Shockwave has thicker plastic, more screws, rubber buttons, and a rubber gasket designed to protect it from bumps and moisture. I haven't dropped the SW967 yet but I have a old Panasonic Shockwave cassette walkman that I've dropped a few times from waist height and it wasn't damaged.
I used MAC OS X and iTunes to rip and burn MP3 CDs. I used iTunes to import/rip songs in higher quality 192 Kbps MP3 format.
Using the 192 kbps MP3 format I am able to fit, depending on song length, about 100 to 150 songs on a CD-R. If you encode the songs in the slightly lower quality but standard 128 Kbps you could fit even more songs on a CD-R because the audio files would be smaller(use less memory space). So I create a playlist in iTunes and then I burn a CD-R.
This Player has excellent battery life. Panasonic claims 100 hours of battery life with a MP3 CD if you use 2 alkaline batteries under the following conditions: EQ IS OFF, HOLD IS ON, DIGITAL REMASTER IS OFF AND A 128 KBPS MP3 CD-R. I was able to get 75 hours of battery life under the following conditions: EQ SET TO S-XBS, HOLD IS OFF, DIGITAL REMASTER IS OFF AND A 192 KBPS MP3 CD-R.
You can set the EQ to 5 settings, 3d-1, 3d-2, S-XBS, S-XBS+ and off. 3d-1 and 3d-2 make it sound like surround sound. S-XBS boosts bass and S-XBS+ boosts it even more. I found the S-XBS to work fine, setting it to S-XBS+ increased the bass too much. Digital Remaster is supposed to improve sound quality when listening to MP3s, but it also drains the batteries more. I didn't notice any improvement with it on so I keep it off. The SW967 doesn't have ID3( a tagging format that shows title, artist, album, track number, etc.,) on the display. When playing a MP3 CD it just shows Album number and Track number. When I created a playlist with 145 songs in iTunes and burned it in MP3 format to a CD-R the player shows the track number but it just shows 1 for the album number all of the time. I don't know why it always displays 1 album even though I created the play list with songs from many albums. The Shockwave has repeat, shuffle, and program play modes. This player has a AM/FM Stereo receiver built in, it has 20 FM and 10 AM station presets, something that iPods and other MP3 players lack. The reception depends on your headphones, it is OK.
The player comes with a hand strap and behind the neck headphones. One nice feature of the Panasonic Shockwave MP3/CD player is that when you listen to CDs and turn if off the next time you turn it on it "remembers" the last song you played and goes back to the song and the exact time in the song you were listening to when you turned it off. If you remove the CD from the player then this doesn't work.
I was thinking about getting an iPod but when I compared the features and price I decided to get this. An iPod Shuffle costs $100 and has no display, no radio, 15 hours battery life and holds about 100 128 Kbps MP3 songs. The SW-967 costs about $80 and has a display, AM-FM Radio, 100 hours battery life and holds about 160 128 Kbps MP3 songs. So if you don't want to spend a lot of money and you want to get a rugged versatile player I recommend this one.

I work these little sonic frisbees pretty hard and have easily gone through over half a dozen. I'd prefer to spend ten bucks less on the SW947, which had been offered by postage-free Amazon, because unless you can count on the unit to "see" your CD's and to play them without sticking and skipping, the frills--even the MP3 capabilities--are pointless. I've had this "Shockwave" model for only a month, but it appears to be as rugged as they come. Even when it's set in the 15-second rather than 45-second memory/anti-skip mode, I can't shake it hard enough to make it skip. The two Sony's that I've gone through were made more cheaply, had shorter battery life, and user-unfriendly read-outs and controls, rather than the top-side, clearly visible controls and digital read-outs of the Panasonic. My Panasonics, moreover, easily outlasted the Sony's and provided better performance and practicality. (This one is replacing a 30-buck SL-SX450 that's beginning to misread CD's after 8 months, though my Japanese-manufactured SL-PH270 is going strong after three years and a couple of fragmenting drops on cement). Both manufacturers offer units at half the price (the Sony D-EJ001 represents a new low in Sony mass-produced plastic, imo), but I've learned that the cost of the SW967 is, practically speaking, the smallest investment you can make in exchange for quality. (I'll raise my rating to a 5 if it's still humming in a year.)

The headphones are full-frequencied, light, comfortable but made to stay in place. Still, if you really want to trip out, match this player with a set of Koss UR-40's (not expensive for the quality), set the player's eq to 3d-2, and put on some authentic jazz. For me, it's like returning to the old Birdland and sitting right in front of Coltrane's quartet.

One minor irritation and how to avoid it: Manufacturers, including Panasonic, have been putting the battery compartment inside the player and under the CD, which has led to two problems: 1. CD misreadings when the compartment door is not closed securely enough; 2. the flimsy plastic tab on the battery door breaking off after too many battery replacements. For this reason, I'd strongly recommend purchase of the Panasonic ni-cd rechargeables indicated in the instruction sheet, as they can be charged while in unit.

This portable CD player is excellent, excellent, excellent. Everybody always plays up the Sony's but this player far exceeded my expectations with its shockwave base and sound clarity. There's no skipping while on the move which is nice. The one bad thing I could say is the headphones still can't top sony's headphones. Yet I think this player with a pair of sony's highly rated headphones and you have a perfect CD/MP3 player.

This portable cd player is my 3rd Panasonic cd player in 5 years. All are of awesome quality with excellent sound but this one is the best one yet! The 3-D second stage sound effect is quit impressive along with the extra-bass+ affects. ( I only wish thay could have included "Train" another Panasonic innovation which vibrated the headphones with boosted bass, impressive man!) Controls are extremely easy to master and the overall size of this unit appears to be a little smaller than the Sony units and it has 3-time the features! I love the adjustable hand hand grip. If portable CD players don`t have this feature thay are pretty worthless. Would I buy another Panasonic portable Panasonic CD? Count on it!

I knows the in-thing now are I-pods but for my convenience and simply because I enjoying listening to 60 and 70's folk and bluegrass, the Shockwave was worth the price. The delivery was fast, which didn't surprise me. The clarity is first rate. I've dropped it a few times (not on purpose) and found it to be a tough item. Some of the otheer comments concerning the earphones made me wonder if I would have to invest in some expensive extras, but I found that it won't be needed. I recommend it to any walkers/joggers or amateur writers who like to listen to good music while they're creating.

Bought this a week ago for about $70 and it's exactly as I'd wanted. Rugged construction and skip protection for jogging, excellent sound quality and every feature (CD player, MP3, and AM-FM) for a very reasonable price. The only drawback is the FM reception which, I understand, may depend more on the length and position of the headset wire than the player itself. I'm very satisfied.

I'd give it a five, but I have to be unbiast, and count in the headphones.

I've had this player for several months now, and I still love it. One of my kids swiped it to use at the gym (until someone gave her a player), the other one keeps walking off with my headphones to use with her mp3 player and, occassionally, when I wasn't looking, she absconded with the whole thing to play her cds in her bedroom.

-It really is durable. I've only dropped it once, onto the kitchen floor, but it was fine. My daughter also dropped it at the gym and she was impressed that it didn't break the player or mess up the disc.
-I like the sound. I'm no expert, but I think it's fine, and I like the choice of eq's.
*The headphones do not block out sounds at all, which means that you hear anything and everything else over the music, unless you listen to it really loud, maybe. The lowest volume setting (#1) is still too loud,in my opinion- there is no "silent" volume level.
*The one thing that I really don't like is that the screen has no back-light. I never thought that would be a problem, but it can be if you want to play it in dark-lit environments.

-I LOVE this player.
*Those are the only negative things I can think of, and I'd still settle for those negatives to have this player. I'd choose it again if I had to choose, with a better set of h-phones, of course. I would like, someday, to upgrade to a better pair of headphones which aren't so "un-soundproof".

Untechnically, I really like the look of it as well. It's not too "un-cool", not too "feminine" or whimpy looking, and not ugly at all.

This is an excellent MP3 player. I walk with it almost every day, and it never skips. I'd buy it again.

I've never owned a portable CD player before but this one works very well. It never skips and sounds excellent. And it feels sturdy.

This is great! I wanted one that is durable for my daughter, she walks everwhere and it is bounced in coat pockets, bags etc. She is very pleased and so I'm I. Looks nice and sounds great, plays all cd's burned off computer too. Worth the money!