Sony Walkman D-CJ500 Personal CD Player

Pros: MP3 Folders, durability, price
Cons: substandard headphones, MP3 read delays

THE DETAILS

Weight: 7 3/8 oz. without the batteries
Size: 6 5/16" x 1" x 5 1/8"
Power Requirements: 2 "AA" batteries (DC 4.5V)

I finally decided to stop fooling around with the cheapo units and get a decent portable. I...

Pros: Awesome battery life, great MP3 playback, nice looking, and cheap!
Cons: New less than a year ago, with rapidly changing technology it may already be outdated!

INTRODUCTION To start things off, let me explain my past experience with Sony MP3 products. In my car, I had the Sony DEH-P740MP mp3/cd stereo (see my review). The excellent technology behind that led me to look for Sony when I bought a ...

Pros: price, durability, quality, folder searching, display
Cons: a little large

I received the Sony D-CJ500 Disman for my birthday after asking for a discman which would also play CDs of my mp3's. I went to futureshop to check out the different models and prices and the selection was rather limited. Anything under $200 was...

Pros: plays MP3 files, AC adapter included, long battery life, good quality product
Cons: non thus far

I love my Sony Walkman. I love the fact that it can play MP3 files. If you are someone who downloads ...

Pros: MP3 Capability and great skip resistance
Cons: Poor sound quality, slow MP3 response

When my old portable CD player (a Sony Discman from around 1994 or 1995) and the portable MiniDisc player that I used at the gym both died on me within a two-week period, I decided to get a single new player that would replace both broken ones....

Pros: Small, lightweight, good battery life, affordable
Cons: Gaps between mp3 songs, takes a while to read multi-session discs

I've had mine for about 6 months and I've been totally satisfied. I listen to it mostly while walking or riding my bike using mp3's on cdrw for the most part. The skip protection is excellent, although it has skipped a couple times on me for no reason....

Pros: Low Battery Usage, Design, fits in pocket
Cons: Head set has bad base.

I purchased this MP3 Player from Future Shop in August. I paid $120, but the regular price was $150.

The have used my MP3 player endlessly since I got it. It is easily portable, fits in the pocket and the durability is awesome. The sound...

Pros: nice-looking, light weight
Cons: ID3 tag display support weak

I bought this unit primarily for its ability to display ID3 tags. It doesn't do that. I'm running iTunes 3 on my iMac under OS X 10.2 (Jaguar) to burn my MP3 CDs. There are many versions of ID3 tags for MP3 files. This CD player supports only version ...

Pros: Affordable, simple, fine sound quality.
Cons: Bulky.

I needed an MP3/CD player after owning a CD writer for nearly a year. So after searching around Goo ...

Pros: Long battery life. Good CD Playback
Cons: Limited Mp3 playback didn't work for me. Might work for you.

Pros: Folders, low-bit rate MP3 compatibility, battery life (+24 hours), battery type (AA, NiMH compatible).
Cons: Sound quality, piercing BEEP, no pause button.

The D-CJ500 is one of the products where you can't tell what you're not going to like about it until after you've bought it and played with it at home for awhile.

My review is summed up in the pros/cons but I'd like to explain the sound quality issue: Same 128 kbps MP3 files on different players sound perfect, but on the D-CJ500, the highs are distorted. Its especially noticeable on cymbal hits. This problem alone would make it a "no-buy".

Also, the piercingly loud "BEEP" that acknowledges button presses can be turned off (see the manual) but for people who power it from the 12V lighter socket, the "off" feature doesn't really work - you have to remember to turn the beep off each time you turn on your car. Trust me, you're not going to remember to do this, and you're going to be blasted every time you hit a button.

Beware of the later generations of this same player - they added all the latest "fashionable" controls like scroll wheels and jog dials, only to make the interface nearly unusable. C'mon, you're Sony, get it right!

Pros: Nice battery life,good volume level,and nice skip protection
Cons: No backlit screen.

I just bought this today(i know it is discountined)

IT IS NICE!before i had a rio but dropped it and it broke.NEVER GET A RIO.I dropped it once and it broke.This has held up pretty well.Fits in my pockets of my cargo pants,good skip protection,and plays mp3s wells.Plus,I love the id3 tagging.The pause is pretty unique like sony does it.Keeps the amount of buttons clustering the cd player to a minimum.Nice CD player and i reccomend it for anyone who would like a nice cd player 4 under 100$.

Pros: MP3 capabilities, good sound quality, nice blue color
Cons: No pause button, takes a while to read MP3 CD's

After being very satisfied with another Sony Discman, I decided it was time for a new one. After research, I found this one. It was a good price (I paid $100), had MP3 capabilities, and it even looked pretty cool! Anyway, when it came in, I put an MP3 CD in. It took a while to read the CD. After it read it, I pressed play, and it told me how many files and folders were on the CD. The sound quality was great, and on the display, it shows the artist and song title. To save battery, the CD stops in the middle of an MP3 song. I then put in a regular CD, and it also sounded great. I definitely recommend this CD player.

I drive alot, and I like to make my own MP3 programs, recording things off TV and Radio to listen to in the car. (Commercails drive me nuts!!) This MP3 player sounds great playing back MP3's recorded at AM sampling rates (24 KHz mono). Every other player in class sounds positively awful at these recording rates. I mean UNLISTENABLE. I might be the only 1 in the world who's interested in this, but since I like to fast forward through the commercials, I like the fact that FF on the Sony jumps forward about 1 minute per second. The fast back goes about 5sec per sec. Also unlike many other MP3 players, the buttons are not difficult to press. On the RIO, for example, the FF button is about the size of BB, and it's so close to the stop button that it's quite difficult to actually press FF without hitting stop.

I have only owned three portable CD players, the first one was a SONY discman way back when it was a new thing. That player lasted me for over 7 years. My second was some no name brand that I bought for about $30 at Kmart. That one didn't last a year. My latest player is this one. When I saw that I could get another SONY at the same price I paid over 8 years ago for a much better player I grabbed it. This is a great player and I would recommend it to anyone. If you have $100 to spend, buy this!