Sony MP3 CD Player Review

Introduction

After amassing a huge collection of MP3s (over 1500) I absolutely had to have a player for my car. Well, now I have two, one for my car and one for Barb's. We've been using them for a month or two and now can't live without them. We went the "portable with car kit" route since that was the most economical option at the time (May 2002).

Sony D-CJ01

Sony's first portable MP3 CD player. On the good side:

• Still going strong since May 2002
• Optional Remote
• Line Output
• Track Skip feature
• Shuffle with Resume on Power Up
• Works with a car kit
• Runs for 24 hours on alkalines
• Built-in NiMH charger
• Has no trouble with any of the MP3s I've thrown at it

On the bad side:

• Shuffle algorithm is roulette style (you'll hear the same songs frequently)
• Although it will resume on power up, it forgets where it was if you plug or unplug the adapter (very bad if you intend to use a car adapter)
• No fast forward or rewind through MP3 tracks
• No LCD backlight
• No car kit
• Not firmware upgradeable

Update

I replaced this player in my car with a Sony CDX-MP40. This player is now in the living room connected to some PC speakers.

Sony D-CJ506

This model and the D-CJ500 and D-CJ501 are identical, but the D-CJ506 is black and includes a car kit (cigarette lighter adapter and cassette adapter). On the good side:

• Backlit LCD
• Track Skip feature
• Can fast forward and rewind through MP3 tracks
• Shuffle with resume on power up
• It doesn't forget its place if you plug or unplug the adapter (or turn the car off)
• Runs for 24 hours on alkalines
• Has no trouble with any of the MP3s I've thrown at it
• Car Kit included

On the bad side:

• Died after 1.5 years
• Shuffle algorithm is roulette style (you'll hear the same songs frequently)
• No Optional Remote
• No line out
• No built-in charger
• Not firmware upgradeable

Update

Barb's Sony D-CJ506 bit the dust November 2003. We purchased it May 14, 2002, so it lasted about a year and a half. In the middle of playing, it would suddenly stop and say "no disc". Cleaning the lens had no effect. Appears to be a mechanism problem. We replaced it with a newer model.

Conclusions

Both are great players and have served us well. The main problem that I'd like to see resolved is the roulette style shuffle algorithm. Using a true "card deck" style shuffle algorithm would be more useful if you have CDs filled with random songs. To deal with this problem, I wrote a little program that adds two random characters to the front of each MP3 filename. This gives a much better randomness when played in alphabetical order.

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