Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony D-E356CK Walkman CD Player with Car Kit

I actually picked this player up on a whim as I needed something to keep me entertained for a 48 hour bus trip.

Some of the good features I found in this machine were.

1) I've found the player to be quite good with anti-skip no matter where I go. I don't even have the ESPMax on most of the time and I still get very few pops and skips while going down bumpy roads or just walking briskly.

2) The sound quality on it isn't all that bad, the headphones that the kit supplies are workable and fairly comfortable.

3) The battery life on it is quite lengthy if you're just using the bare minimum settings. (No ESP on or bass on) I only had to change the batteries during my bus trip once.

4) Love that hold feature, I can stuff the deck in my pocket and not worry about the volume cranking itself up on me.

5) Resume feature is a plus, saves having to find another button on the deck.

6) Decently Built. I've stupidly managed to drop the player on solid floors two or three times and the machine hasn't [burned] out on me yet. Although I find there's an increased lag when the machine is checking for a disc.

Some Not So Good Features

1) Lack of a real "search" function. I like to skip through parts of the songs so I can get to one particular point. A little frustrating.

2) No backlit LCD, makes it hard to tell if you're on the right song.

3) The sound quality I found when plugged up to the car adapter degraded a little but that could be because of the stereo system in the car itself.

4) Resume feature can be frustrating in that if you want to start the song from the beginning you gotta go on the hunt for another button or if you accidentally open the player it resets itself so to speak.

All in all, the player has been treating me fairly good, I was most impressed with the quality and the price that I paid for it.

Although I didn't spend a whole lot of time researching different portable CD players, I did look around at different features and, of course, prices. Sony had a reputation that I liked, as well as a car kit package with a nifty little remote so I didn't have to search for buttons while driving. The price was reasonable so I bought it. I have been extremely dissapointed in my decision. The CD player skips. Often. I called Sony because it was still under warrenty and they advised me to ship it to them since no one in my area (or state) can service it. So I pay to have it shipped and 3-and-a-half weeks later it is returned to me with a note that they replaced the motor drive. It still skips. Unfortunately, it is no longer under warrenty. If I want it fixed, I can pay to have it shipped back to them and pay to service what is obviously a defective player. Overall, I am even more frustrated with the service than I am with the CD player. I will think twice before buying any Sony product let alone another CD player from them.

I like Sony products, but was disappointed with this one. I've had it for about 5 months and the skipping keeps getting worse and worse. It also has recently started to stop playing for a few seconds then kicking back in - very annoying. No dropping or damage of any kind has occurred to the unit, so I can only assume it's poor maunfacture quality, and, of course, all this started to happen after the warranty was up. I do like the remote, but it has an annoying loud beep when used. I'm shopping for another car ready CD player to replace it - it won't be a Sony.

I bought this CD player because I needed the car kit, and this package was reasonably priced, and I'll admit that the 'remote control' was sort of appealling.

PRO:
(1) skip protection is decent
(2) Battery life is good
(3) Unit itself is well designed, durable.

CON:
(1) No search - it only allows skip ahead or back. You may not search around a lot on a track, but I do. And I get pretty frustrated.
(2) For all the bragging they do about its skip protection, I still skip a lot. Given, it's better than previous portables I've owned, but the advertising had me thinking I'd picked up the best CD player ever. It still skips.
(3) By far my biggest complaint is that my unit does terribly with CD-R's. This is highly problematic because I make my own mix CDs. I can't listen to any of them on this unit. I thought it might be CD-R brand specific, but 3 different brands of CD-R's all did terribly (including Sony brand). It just skips through the whole song on every track. Utterly frustrating.
(4) The remote control is terrible. It's awkward to use, and what's worse, generates even more wires to clutter you up while you're driving.
(5) As previously mentioned, beeping is very annoying and loud and lack of backlighting problematic at times.

My impression:
I think that this unit is decent if you can find it for pretty cheap, but it certainly is not a good CD player. I've had good luck with Sony in the past, so I'm having a hard time understanding why I've had it so bad with this one. When I get the funds, I will be buying a higher quality discman to replace this one. If you're going to pay full price for this unit, you've been misled about this product, and if you've already bought it at full price, see if you can return it.

I first tried this CD player when my friend bought it. The sound was incredible!!not just that, but it was totally anti-skip. i shook it, dropped it, and even flipped it over and no matter which way it was, the music never skipped!! i give it 5 stars!!!