Customer Reviews

Sony D-CJ500 Portable CD/MP3 Player

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is my third CD-MP3 player and my favorite by a long shot. I have also owned a Philips Expanium EXP103 and a Pine D'Music SM200C. This Sony has the fit and finish of the Philips device, but the ID3 tag support of the Pine device.

Pros:
* Battery life. Sony claims 24 hours. I only use it for 4-6 hours at a time and in doing so I've only depleted 25% of the battery so it seems about right.
* FAST startup. It is about 10 seconds from the time you put the CD in to the time it actually starts playing. Usually MP3-CD players with ID3 tag support take much much longer.
* Great ID3 tag support. You can view the title, artist, and album information.
* Folder navigation (and shows the names of the folders as you are navigating)
* Fantastic anti-skip protection. I was unable to get it to skip without doing something that might actually damage the unit. For MP3s it actually reads the current MP3 into memory and stops spinning the CD. For the most part the CD is not spinning when you play MP3s. I assume this is how they get such long battery life.
* Good repeat options for CDs and MP3s (on MP3s you can repeat just the current folder)
* Intuitive controls
* Size: slim and very light

Cons:
* No "line out" jack (not a big deal for me, but it is for some)
* No backlight for display
* Size: while it is slim it is somewhat longer than the smaller Sony CD Walkmans. It is still smaller than the Philips and Pine players I had.
* Sort of cheap looking, especially the bottom of the unit. Since nobody sees the bottom there's no big deal. For me this is a bonus since I spend a lot of time listing in the airport. If it looks cheap nobody will want to steal it. It's not cheaply made, but it doesn't have the "cool" factor that some of the other Sony CD Walkman products have.

This is by far the best cd/mp3 player for the money. I have used it with CD-R's and CD-RW's and have had absolutely NO problems with it recognizing or skipping. I have used it for over a week while walking and working out both with CD's and MP3 mode and it has not skipped even once! Sony has really discovered something that the other CD player manufacturers have not -- their players pretty much never skip anymore.. it's really an engineering marvel.

Some people here have had a few complaints that I'd like to address:

I have had no problems with it recognizing my MP3 data CD's. I suspect those that do are using dodgy media or burners.

The lack of a line out is inconsequential...since you can very easily use the headphone jack.

Some people have complained about the 'beep'. Doesn't bother me, but if you READ the manual you will find that there are simple instructions on how you can turn the beep off.

It is true that in MP3 mode it plays back only in alphabetical order.. you cannot create your own playlists on the fly. But anyone who is familiar with creating MP3's realizes that once you convert a CD to MP3's you lose the order structure inherent to the disk. If this really bothers you add a number to the beginning of the song when you save it.

All in all I am VERY impressed with it. I'd recommend it to anyone with a CD-burner.

I am actually writing a review for the D-CJ506CK, which is exactly the same model but with the following differences:
*It is black with red backlighted display
*Comes with a car kit plus an AC adapter
Time of Ownership: 2 months

The unit looks very sturdy and well built. It has a two line lcd that displays the track name and artist in a scrolling fashion on the top line and the track number and elapsed song time at the bottom (supports ID3 tagging) It also has a battery status and play mode indicator. It plays quite loud and has an option that prevents it from playing so loud as to cause injury to your ears. It does play MP3 cds for 24 hours on two AA alkaline batteries and Sony reports 32 with regular cd's (I have checked the former but not the latter claim). In any case just buy NiHi batteries they will pay for themselves many times.
The quality of music is very good and I truly love the bass boost (2 levels). The player never skips. It comes with 2 levels of skip protection, I have never used the second one yet.
Pros:
Backlighted display when using DC or AC current (the lcd will light up for few seconds if a button is pressed when using batteries)
Very long battery life
Plays VBR mp3's
No problems reading cd-rw's burned in different computers
You can search within a song.
Easy navigation and hold button
Decent earphones
Con's (what keeps me from rating it 5 stars):
No remote control
No playlist playback
Does not recharg the batteries (not a big deal)
Bottom line: for the price and quality of the unit is is a very smart buy

Sony warns that this player may have difficulty with some CD-R and CD-RW disks, as well as with some CD writers. I happen to have burned quite a few disks with a QPS disk burner (on 3 different brands of CD-R) and none of them will work in this player without skipping a lot, MP3 disks and standard CD format. The funny thing is that the same burned disks that have standard CD tracks play perfectly well on the the Sony D-F200 and D-E350 portable players. Go figure. Anyways, try to demo one of these with the media that you use or buy from a place that is easy to return things without a restocking fee. Also, sound level is a little low, probably because Sony doesn't include their usual selectable volume limiter on this model.

Excellent for a multi formated day! You can flip between reading cd's and mp3's with ease. It's perfect for those of us who want the functionality of a cd player and the sheer memory capacity of an mp3 player, but don't know where to begin. Cool Functions: The memory function (when you turn it off and then turn it back on, it'll start right back up where you left off) is VERY cool. The folder buttons (on the Mp3 function, which it reads on its own, by the way) switches you to the next batch of folders of songs smoothly. The skip protection is teriffic (you can go to the gym with it and it withstands college student abuse rather well). The three "sound settings" are really Bass settings and the sound is VERY clear. Overall, instructions are fool-proof, easy to follow and I love it. One draw back I've noticed is that there isn't a pause button. A great purchase for the price, especially if you're going to buy just a regular cd player, why not invest just a little bit more and get something THIS much cooler?

Well, what can I say... This is a great mp3 player. The sound is the best of the best. The headphone is bassy and clear, althought I personally like earbud. The body of the player is a little bigger than the others(samsung, panasonic), but so far, it is the lightest. The player support ID3 tag and can start in 10 sec(pretty fast!).

This player is the best, but not the best deal...I also prefer a remote control(there is no slot for remote), but, hey!none of the others have. Other than that, it also lack an AC adoptor and a hand strap (I can't believe sony did that!)

The feature of the player are average, despite it has an 2 level G-protection, it doesn't have an line out (wow, Im seriously disappointed!)

The playback of the player are very smooth, all the cd I wrote works fine on it. For stability, so far I haven't encounter any problem.

Any way, it is the best player without considering the accessories, features and the price. If you want the best quality sound, this is the one to go. But,if you want a player that full of feature and a lot of accessories, it's not gonna happen!(The new samsung cd yepp has a lot of features, and panasonic is much smaller! Both of them are cheap!) So, if you want a cd mp3 player, you decide!

When I purchased this CD player, I was just expecting it to be another average player with o.k. sound. But when I began listening, I discovered how wrong I was. This player has such great sound quality, it almost sounds like you are at a live concert! ALso, the G-Protection is absolutelyl amazing. You could play football with tis thing and it still wouldnt skip. This player also has an exceptionally long battery life (that is compared to may standards. Although you may not want to take my word for this because I myself have only owned two players). It is also great that with MP3 files, you can fit about 200 songs on a single CD so you barelly ever have to change CDs. The only reason why I wouldn't rate this player 5 stars is because... it is a little on the pricey side, and that means that I had to clean quite a few more bathrooms. Overall, this is an extrordinary player.

I just bought this thing a couple of days ago and all I can say is: Wow! When I bough this thing I had only 2 things on my mind no Rio Products! and MP3 compatible. The reason I bought this player is because my Rio 600 busted after only a year of operation (another reiview). I was torn betwenn an MP3 compatible CD player or an actual MP3 device. Based on cost, the CD is clearly the better option. A cd can hold at least 700MB, to get that kind of memory in a actual MP3 player prepare to drop at least [$$$]. Here is the coolest part, the player reads the song, stores it to memory and stops the motion of the CD! About 5 seconds before the end of the trak it starts loading the next song into memory! That's how it gets 24 hours of battery life.

As far as sound quality goes, its excellent. This thing actually sounds better than my Rio 600. The only problem I have with it is that the Bass Boost function doesn't work too well on the upper level (2 of 2). Other than that minor probelm, excellent.

This has the best sound I've ever heard on CD's and mp3's. it plays them great at 128k. I hear little details in each song that I couldn't hear otherwise. the cd quality, on the other hand is even more outstanding. When burning CD's be careful to use the right burning format, also, make sure to do it in disk at once, otherwise it will split each song into 5, but if it's done right, it works flawlessly, I've never had a problem with it. The batteries last as long as sony says they do, but my only complaint is that the CD stops when the an mp3 is going, and when the song is over, it has to start spinning to read it again, and it takes too long to switch songs with low batteries, but its a lot faster with brand new ones. This thing is great, I get all my songs from the internet, and burn 200 of them onto a cd. Its incredbly easy to navigate if you put the songs in folders, like the bands.

I got this thing a week ago and loved it when I first used it. The battery life is awesome, and the cd player starts the music up much quicker than most cd players. The volume is a little low, and that is the only problem. It is a great cd player, and anyone with a cd burner and 15 or more cd's should have this.

Pros:
:The music starts much faster than most mp3-cd players
:Very durable
:Long battery life on 2 AA's (24 hours mp3-cd, 32 cd-audio)
:G-Protection
:Plays very loudly
:Sony brand
:Cool design and color
:Controls are very easy, once figured out. (the stop button is pause)

Cons:
:It plays loudly, but needs to be louder
:Controls take some getting-used to

This is no doubt the best cd player on the market, mp3 or not. I have 163 songs on one cd, they start so quickly, and it is great for working out, too. Recommended to anyone and everyone.