Panasonic SL-MP70 Portable CD/MP3 Player Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)This inexpensive portable CD player from Panasonic combines an excellent basic CD discman with MP3 capabilities. You can play regular CD's and CD-R or CD-RW discs burned with audio CD content (i.e., "CD-DA" Compact Disc Digital Audio format), just like any CD player. When playing CD's it has two anti-skip modes, one 10-second and the other 45-second. The single sheet of user's guide says the 10-second memory mode gives better sound quality. There are two EQ settings in addition to the plain "none" level: XBS and "Live". As you would expect, as a CD discman the SL-MP70 delights with its light weight and good looks.
But you can also play MP3 files burned onto CD-R or CD-RW discs. You can burn MP3 files to CD-R/RW discs in two ways: use a program like Windows Media Player or iTunes to convert MP3 back to CD-DA, and burn the disc as an audio CD. Then what you get is exactly a regular audio CD. Or, to save time and effort -- and remember that since MP3 is a lossy format, converting an MP3 file back to CD-DA does not improve the audio quality, i.e., "garbage in, garbage out" -- you can simply drag and drop the MP3 files to a CD-R or CD-RW disc and burn them. When viewed in Windows, the CD-R/RW looks like a regular folder with the MP3 files. Then you can play these files on the SL-MP70. The player recognizes the files gracefully. (The slightly more expensive SL-MP80 model can also play WMA files -- that's Windows Media Audio format, developed by Microsoft.)
Unlike another, cheaper Panasonic discman, this one can display MP3 tags, basically information embedded in each MP3 file that has the track name, album name, artist name, etc. The SL-MP70 displays the track name and album name if they are available. If you download music in the MP3 format, chances are the guy who ripped it already put in the tags, also known as "ID3." If not, you can use a program like Music Match to edit the tags yourself.
Note that, if you buy music Apple iTunes-style from sites like Walmart and Music Match, they only sell the music in the WMA format, not MP3, so you'd need the SL-MP80 player to play them.
Some other observations:
Good - the player remembers the last track or MP3 file you played, so when you turn it back on, it resumes from the point it left off. I don't think you can turn this off with this model.
Puzzling - you cannot fast search within an MP3 track, although you can do so within an audio CD track. This is not a problem unless you are like me and carry audio books encoded in MP3. These books tend to have chapters that last more than 15 minutes. Luckily for me, my commute is 1 hour each way, so I have no problem with this. Also, most music MP3 tracks are no more than 4 minutes, so this shouldn't be a major problem.
Good - Long battery life. I run this off 2 AA NiMH batteries (1800 mAh each) and I've run on the same set for over 20 hours of play and I still see three full bars on the battery indicator. And yes, the battery indicator has three bars and goes to none when the batteries are near exhaustion. This is really energy efficient, and is one thing that sets this apart from the cheaper/lesser-brand products from Classic, Samsung, Memorex, iriver, etc.
Could be better - more volume for those nearly hearing-impaired thanks to their 24x7 listening on earphones habit, easier to get to the last of 1000 MP3 files (as if you'd do that often), backlighting (but that'd surely raise the price), remote control (ditto). Really, for this price, I think we are already getting a lot of bang for the buck, and the build quality of Panasonic players is just top-notch. And no, I don't work for Panasonic or any of its agents or distributors, and nobody in my family or circle of friends does, either!
Tip - to get around the "press forward 99 times to get to the 100th song or 999 times to get to the 1000th song" problem, put a dozen songs in each folder. The Panasonic automatically designates each folder an album, and you can skip to the next album by holding down the fast-forward button.
In summary, the SL-MP70 is a stylish and very dependable CD/MP3 player. Highly recommended for those who don't need a separate MP3 player like iPod or RCA Lyra.

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Enjoy music with the freedom that comes from MP3 CD playback, extended battery life, and high-powered anti-skip technology. Panasonic's exclusive No-Skip technology helps prevent interruptions from jostling during active use. No Skip's unique construction uses rubber brushings to absorb shock, while an anti-skip mechanism and an anti-skip digital servo further prevent read errors. A 48-second memory reserve provides added back up. Now, battery changes will be fewer and farther between thanks to Panasonic's PowerLast high-efficiency power system, which combines an efficient motor with low-load circuitry for playback time of up to 48 hours on two AA batteries (during MP3 playback). CD playback abilities include ID3 tag support (displays artist names and song titles with properly formatted sound files); 24-track random-access programming; repeat and resume (which picks up where the unit left off when last stopped); and skip/search and memory/recall. A hold switch prevents accidental starting, stopping, or track skipping during use or transport. The unit boasts a thin design with operation keys and LCD laid out logically on its top cover.

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