minusflo's Full Review: Sony PSYC® D-NF430 Personal CD Player
It is nice to know that with all the digital audio players available out there be it flash memory-based or hard disk-based, Sony still continues to make portable CD players (PCDP) that have the amazing sound they are known for. Before going into details, I have listed below the features/specs as found on the packaging:
- 15 mW loud sound on each channel.
- plays regular CDs as well as MP3 and Sony's ATRAC sound files.
- long playing time of around 41 hours with a single AA battery.
- FM/AM/TV tuner
- parametric equalizer.
- slim design.
Sony has always been known for and up to this day, in my opinion, is still the golden standard when it comes to sound quality for their portable music devices. Their popular discmans over the years have always led the pack in terms of sound quality. This new model practically has all the features one would want. Long battery life for just a single AA battery lasting about 30 hours using Energizer alkaline and playing CDs only. The manual says it plays longer with ATRAC files up to 41 hours which I have not verified, yet.
The CD player is about the size of a regular CD and is as thick as two CD cases. It comes with a remote control and Sony fontopia E808 ear buds. Various functions can be chosen thru a menu tree by pressing the menu button. I must admit it takes awhile to get used to the menu tree to adjust different settings such as playback mode, equalizer, g-shock protection, etc.
One amazing feature I found is the sound quality manipulation thru the parametric equalizer that has 4 fixed and one customizable. It also has Clearbass that emphasizes more the bass tones without sacrificing clarity. I found the customizable equalizer a little hard to modify as you have to go though combination of buttons to adjust the low, mid and high tones. Once you get the hang of it though, contouring the sound to suit your taste is a wonderful feature. The CD of Brian McKnight had strong presence, wide soundstage and an overall lively sound through this player. Diana Krall's jazzy vocals came through with amazing definition and clarity as well. The included earphones are okay but are not advisable for outdoors as sound can easily be drowned by outside noise.
If you have higher grade headphones like the 500 series of Sennheiser and AKG, then you will not be disappointed. Although the volume maybe loud enough to drive those higher impedance headphones, using an external or portable amplifier like any of the CMOYs out there will bring out the best of those headphones. Sennheisers sound signature seem to complement Sony's as both my Sennheiser PX100 and HD-497 sound marvelous.
The FM\AM tuner works decently as it can receive signals even inside my apartment. The tuner also has bass boost function to enhance FM music.
Overall, this is an amazing portable CD player with nothing really wrong worth writing about. Yes the menu tree can be improved especially on contouring the customizable equalizer but once you get used to it, you will love how you can match the sound setting to the headphones you are using. HIGHLY recommended!
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