Recommend me a personal CD Player

[Ice]

I bought a Sony D-EJ100 today and I must say I was mighily unimpressed with the sound quality. I bought a pair of Sony EX71S headphones with it as well so I know it's not the headphones. I've been A/B testing back and forth between my proper hi-fi (NAD CD, Marantz Amp -> Headphone Out), my Sharp MD831 Minidisc and the new personal CD player. I've come to the conclusion I'm taking it back and need something that sounds a lot better. I was also very disappointed to find no in-line remote - it seems only the Canadian and US market get that...

The treble is what really gets to me. It's really tinny and undefined and seems to lack a lot of the high mids. Cymbals just all wash together and you can't hear single hits on the hi-hat or crashes, it just all washes over everything. It just sounds very empty and when A/B testing it sounds like you're listening underwater.

Basically I'm on a pretty tight budget as I only have <£100 to spend (the Sony cost me £49.99). Can anyone recommend me some good personal CD players to look at?

I'm going to try and go into a major electronics store tomorrow to try some out and I'd like to be prepared with a shortlist. Basically I want:-

• Good battery life
• Clear open sound, without sounding the treble sounding tinny
• Nothing overly warm, or distorts everything by having way too much bass instead of nice defined bass
• Something with a remote
• Something that doesn't look too bad lol

This is the first time Sony have ever let me down with an Audio product, so I'm more than happy to try out other brands.

What CD players are you guys using? I just can't afford the jump to MP3 (or the loss of quality!).

Thanks a lot,

Pete

[heavy-rotation]

This isn't going to be much use probably... but I just thought I'd mention the sound quality from my Sony CD player wasn't great either, mainly because of the EQ "features" - by default it sounded totally flat and like it was actually reducing bass and treble, at medium setting bass was ok but treble was still fairly mediocre, and at full there was far too much bass and treble became too harsh.

I also have to wonder if everyone has the same MDR-EX71S as me... wasn't particularly impressed with the sound (mostly nice treble compared to most other in ear phones though), and they're horribly uncomfortable... I find myself using some other misc £15 Sony ones I have more often.

Mind you, I'm not a huuge fan of Sony products when it comes to audio anyway

If you can stretch to £150 I'd highly recommend one of these though. As for loss of quality, use EAC with LAME --alt-preset extreme - I very much doubt you would be able to tell the mp3s from original source, especially not with EX71Ss .

[Kajun]

I don't like Sony because of the build quality - everyone snaps and breaks and costs a fortune to repair. Thanks heavy, I'll need to be getting one of those for Christmas.

[Ice]

Went out and bought a Panasonic SL-CT710 this morning (took the other one back lol). It sounds absolutely phenomenal (it sounds awesome on it's own, but compared to the Sony it's like night and day). The clarity is pretty amazing, so much so that I'm hearing new stuff on a lot of cds I've listened to hundreds of times. I can't recommend this player enough.

The EQ settings are limited (XBS, XBS+, Train, Live) but they're a hell of a lot more subtle and useful than Sony's offerings. I've got it set on XBS which just ups the clarity a little more, and makes the bass a bit more defined, not just loud and boomy. XBS+ is perfectly usable but just edges towards being a wee bit OTT for my tastes.

[Kajun]

Ooooh. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/03/olympus_mrobe/

[Ice]

20GB ain't enough tbh. I'd rather have a 40GB with no screen for cheaper. Any idea on RRP?

[MoneyPenny]

Never been that interested in teh creative range, although if you are interested in MP3 players then the iriver is getting some excellent reviews