Is That a CD Player in Your Pants Or...
Written: Jan 27 '01 (Updated Jan 27 '01)
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Pros: sleek look, good sound quality, excellent anti-skip feature
Cons: no clip to attach it to clothes while exercising
The Bottom Line: This is a great CD player for use at home, but is hard to carry when exercising.
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| snowhite76's Full Review: Panasonic SL-CT470 Personal CD Player |
Last year, after a very long hiatus, I took up running again. My boyfriend jumped on the bandwagon, and off we went. There was only one little problem. He runs faster than me, so there was never anyone beside me to talk to. So, as Christmas began to approach, I began to drop hints that I really could use a portable CD player to take along with me as my running buddy. My requirements were pretty basic; it had to have a good anti-skip feature and I didn't want anything yellow which was once the predominant color of any portable audio device that could be used during exercise.
Ask and You Shall Receive
Well, it turned out that my boyfriend was actually listening when I spoke, and come Christmas the Panasonic SL-CT470 was under the tree. Right away I noticed two things. First, it wasn't yellow, but rather a very sleek sort of matte silver. And second, there was a big sticker on the package that said, "Great for jogging."
What Does it Come With?
It was a while before I actually had the chance to run with my new CD player. But in the meantime I tried it out around the house and on the plane as I flew home to the east coast and back. I loved it! It's cute, very thin and portable, the sound quality is better than others I've heard, and it's got some nice features. You can program it for random play, the usual skip and recall features, an auto-off function that saves battery power, and an external battery case that you can attach to the CD player itself. If the batteries in the player die, it automatically switches over to those in the attachable case. Pretty sweet. Believe it or not, the batteries were actually included. How many Christmas presents can you say that about? Also included was the AC adaptor so you can charge it up at home. And what seemed most important to me was the 40-second anti-shock memory.
Off to the Races
When all of the excitement of the holidays was over and I was back into my normal routine, it was time to take the SL-CT470 out on the sidewalks. But wait! There's no clip on the back of this thing so that I can affix it to my shorts. OK, that's a pain, but I can figure something out. So, I stuck it in my shorts. That lasted for, oh, about 15 seconds before I felt it start to creep down the leg of my shorts, and I was worried that passersby were staring. So, I took it out of my shorts and decided to run with it in my hand. Yeah, this really ruins your form, but you do what you have to. This worked well for about, oh, two minutes until my hands started to get really sweaty and I thought I would drop it. So, throughout my run I was continually switching from shorts to hand and back again in order to make something work, which nothing ever did. However, I will say that the anti-skip function was everything I could have hoped for. Not once in the course of running and shifting the CD player from place to place did it skip.
The Final Analysis
For sound and aesthetic pleasure, the SL-CT470 is great. CDs sound as nearly as good as they do at home or in the car. The headphones fit my head with no problem and didn't slip or require constant adjustment while I was running. BUT, the fact that there's no way to attach the CD player to your person while running makes it anything but "Great for jogging."
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): around 100
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Epinions.com ID:
snowhite76
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Location: San Francisco, CA
Reviews written: 33
Trusted by: 7 members
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