Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips AT9500 Portable CD Player with Digital Tuner and 45 Second ESP

I recently learned that the word 'icky' was used during the Jazz Age to refer to music that was not jazz, and to the people who liked it. Though I like old jazz, I also like icky music. Recently I have been listening to operas and Haydn's chamber music.

I recommend this portable CD player highly. When I bought some Bose headphones. I was afraid they would reveal the weakness of the player. No, the sound is still good. If all sound reproduction is a more or less convincing lie, this CD player is very persuasive. If it colors the sound (and I don't think it is really reasonable to say it does), it is only to make the sound warmer. High notes are sweet, and the bass is convincing. Even harpsichords sound beautiful because all the overtones are there. I have a boom-box from Philips too. Its sound is wonderful. (Incidentally, I'm glad I got the headphones. The noise-cancelling actually made a jack-hammer outside the window into a small sound, yet I heard the telephone ring, as I was listening with pleasure to one of Haydn's string quartets.)

The radio works well, but not where I live, which is in a basement apartment on the side of a hill. If I place the cord of the earphones just right, I get static-free reception. If I use it outside of the house, it's mostly fine, except among tall buildings.

This is a great cd player. Batteries last an honest 25 hours. Even with the skip protection turned off, to save battery life, it still skips very little. The radio is very sensitive, it gets weak or distant stations that my Koss cassette radio could not get. Price wise, I don't see how you could do better than get this unit. Enjoy it, I certainly am.

Ordered a cheap memorex mp3-cd player which broke, then ordered this one and have had no problems! The FM tuner is great because if their is a lot of static or interference, you can switch it to MONO mode which cuts back on the interference and keeps some sound quality. Even though it doesn't have MP3 support I would still recommend it. A+.

OK, it sounds very nice! But why did Amazon say there was a "built in" rechargeable battery (some reviewers said so, too). I think that Amazon was reporting on a different model, maybe the AZT9505 instead of AZT9500. This model only has battery compartment, necessitating separate batteries (rechargeable or otherwise, alkaline or other). All in all, features are swell and I'm %500 better off having ditched my cassette player. I really appreciate the power-saver mode, too.

I found the hold switch to be very useful.. it prevents the player from turning on (or shutting off) accidently when it travels in your backpack. Very pleased overall.