Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony D-CJ500 Portable CD/MP3 Player

This is my third CD-MP3 player and my favorite by a long shot. I have also owned a Philips Expanium EXP103 and a Pine D'Music SM200C. This Sony has the fit and finish of the Philips device, but the ID3 tag support of the Pine device.

Pros:
* Battery life. Sony claims 24 hours. I only use it for 4-6 hours at a time and in doing so I've only depleted 25% of the battery so it seems about right.
* FAST startup. It is about 10 seconds from the time you put the CD in to the time it actually starts playing. Usually MP3-CD players with ID3 tag support take much much longer.
* Great ID3 tag support. You can view the title, artist, and album information.
* Folder navigation (and shows the names of the folders as you are navigating)
* Fantastic anti-skip protection. I was unable to get it to skip without doing something that might actually damage the unit. For MP3s it actually reads the current MP3 into memory and stops spinning the CD. For the most part the CD is not spinning when you play MP3s. I assume this is how they get such long battery life.
* Good repeat options for CDs and MP3s (on MP3s you can repeat just the current folder)
* Intuitive controls
* Size: slim and very light

Cons:
* No "line out" jack (not a big deal for me, but it is for some)
* No backlight for display
* Size: while it is slim it is somewhat longer than the smaller Sony CD Walkmans. It is still smaller than the Philips and Pine players I had.
* Sort of cheap looking, especially the bottom of the unit. Since nobody sees the bottom there's no big deal. For me this is a bonus since I spend a lot of time listing in the airport. If it looks cheap nobody will want to steal it. It's not cheaply made, but it doesn't have the "cool" factor that some of the other Sony CD Walkman products have.

This is by far the best cd/mp3 player for the money. I have used it with CD-R's and CD-RW's and have had absolutely NO problems with it recognizing or skipping. I have used it for over a week while walking and working out both with CD's and MP3 mode and it has not skipped even once! Sony has really discovered something that the other CD player manufacturers have not -- their players pretty much never skip anymore.. it's really an engineering marvel.

Some people here have had a few complaints that I'd like to address:

I have had no problems with it recognizing my MP3 data CD's. I suspect those that do are using dodgy media or burners.

The lack of a line out is inconsequential...since you can very easily use the headphone jack.

Some people have complained about the 'beep'. Doesn't bother me, but if you READ the manual you will find that there are simple instructions on how you can turn the beep off.

It is true that in MP3 mode it plays back only in alphabetical order.. you cannot create your own playlists on the fly. But anyone who is familiar with creating MP3's realizes that once you convert a CD to MP3's you lose the order structure inherent to the disk. If this really bothers you add a number to the beginning of the song when you save it.

All in all I am VERY impressed with it. I'd recommend it to anyone with a CD-burner.

I am actually writing a review for the D-CJ506CK, which is exactly the same model but with the following differences:
*It is black with red backlighted display
*Comes with a car kit plus an AC adapter
Time of Ownership: 2 months

The unit looks very sturdy and well built. It has a two line lcd that displays the track name and artist in a scrolling fashion on the top line and the track number and elapsed song time at the bottom (supports ID3 tagging) It also has a battery status and play mode indicator. It plays quite loud and has an option that prevents it from playing so loud as to cause injury to your ears. It does play MP3 cds for 24 hours on two AA alkaline batteries and Sony reports 32 with regular cd's (I have checked the former but not the latter claim). In any case just buy NiHi batteries they will pay for themselves many times.
The quality of music is very good and I truly love the bass boost (2 levels). The player never skips. It comes with 2 levels of skip protection, I have never used the second one yet.
Pros:
Backlighted display when using DC or AC current (the lcd will light up for few seconds if a button is pressed when using batteries)
Very long battery life
Plays VBR mp3's
No problems reading cd-rw's burned in different computers
You can search within a song.
Easy navigation and hold button
Decent earphones
Con's (what keeps me from rating it 5 stars):
No remote control
No playlist playback
Does not recharg the batteries (not a big deal)
Bottom line: for the price and quality of the unit is is a very smart buy

Sony warns that this player may have difficulty with some CD-R and CD-RW disks, as well as with some CD writers. I happen to have burned quite a few disks with a QPS disk burner (on 3 different brands of CD-R) and none of them will work in this player without skipping a lot, MP3 disks and standard CD format. The funny thing is that the same burned disks that have standard CD tracks play perfectly well on the the Sony D-F200 and D-E350 portable players. Go figure. Anyways, try to demo one of these with the media that you use or buy from a place that is easy to return things without a restocking fee. Also, sound level is a little low, probably because Sony doesn't include their usual selectable volume limiter on this model.

Excellent for a multi formated day! You can flip between reading cd's and mp3's with ease. It's perfect for those of us who want the functionality of a cd player and the sheer memory capacity of an mp3 player, but don't know where to begin. Cool Functions: The memory function (when you turn it off and then turn it back on, it'll start right back up where you left off) is VERY cool. The folder buttons (on the Mp3 function, which it reads on its own, by the way) switches you to the next batch of folders of songs smoothly. The skip protection is teriffic (you can go to the gym with it and it withstands college student abuse rather well). The three "sound settings" are really Bass settings and the sound is VERY clear. Overall, instructions are fool-proof, easy to follow and I love it. One draw back I've noticed is that there isn't a pause button. A great purchase for the price, especially if you're going to buy just a regular cd player, why not invest just a little bit more and get something THIS much cooler?