Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic SL-SX480A Portable CD Player, Blue

You are probably reading the reviews of this product to figure out whether it would be a good purchase decision. And if you're like me, you've read reviews of many similar portable CD players and found that just about all of them have so many mixed reviews it's almost impossible to tell which ones are TRULY better than the rest. I will be as fair and honest as possible in this review.

So I just made the plunge and bought this Panasonic SL-SX480 (blue) CD player. And truly, the sound IS AMAZING. D.Sound alone makes this CD player worth the purchase. The bass boost system here has four settings: Off, S/XBS, S/XBS+, and Train. I found Train to be pretty worthless. S/XBS delivers a sound comparable to any standard Sony Walkman out there, and S/SBX+ turns your standars earphones into a simulated 4-speaker surround system! Amazing! Sounds like the quality that I receive from my home and car stereo systems.


It is this amazing sound that makes the next part of my review all the more difficult to write.....

The anti-skip feature is poor at best. "No Skip" is a gross exaggeration. As I use this CD player while at work, I noticed within the first hour of use that my CDs were skipping about once every other song or so. This is even on discs that are brand new with no scratches. Puzzled, I referred to my user manual and checked to make sure that the 45-second anti-skip was turned on. It was. I went a full 8 hour shift with these clicks, pops, and skips frequently occuring, irritating me more each time. Finally, I decided to just take it back.

I replaced it with a Sony D-EJ010 (white). Took that one home and put a CD in it, only to find that Sony's idea of "Dynamic Bass" utterly pales in comparison to D.Sound. I felt like I was listening to a cassette, the tones and bass were so poorly represented.

So I took the Sony back and bought a new SL-SX480, hoping that the skipping, clicking, and popping that my previous one suffered from was just a glitch in that particular player, and not a problem with the model itself.


So I just brought my new one home, put in a CD that I just bought a week ago (no scratches).

And it skipped.


You be the judge. Buyer beware however. What you gain in incredible sound, you sacrifice in playability of your discs. Be ready for some skips. Should this problem continue, I'll just go back to Phillips, which have not let me down yet.

Also, the CD player itself is very light and thin, I have not dropped it yet but I cannot imagine that it would be very resistant to hard use.

Okay... I'm not the hippest kid on the block. I'd had the same CD player that I'd bought when my tape player broke. But like everyone else, I still download or record mp3's of all my favourite songs. I couldn't bring myself to plop down hundreds of dollars to get an mp3 player (iPod, etc), but carting around a handful of CD's and not being able to listen to mp3's was trying. I finally broke down and purchased the Panasonic SL-SX480a which plays both CD's and mp3's recorded onto your CD-R. It's all I need.

Sure, there are "cons", but I don't need an AM/FM radio that has one or two static stations. I don't need a display that tells me what song I'm listening to. And how lazy do I have to be to need a remote control. I must tell you though that although you can fast forward through songs, it does not allow you to fast forward through an mp3. But then why did you have that song anyway?

This player has everything I want and need. It has great sound with an equalizer for increased bass. It has 100-second skip resistance and the two AA batteries last quite a long time (according to specs it's 33 hours which adds up to lasting me weeks for the few hours I listen to the CD player per day). It's a little larger than the size of a CD and about one inch thick. The sound is great and you can set it to play on Random and Repeat.

I was thrilled to finally get rid of my old CD player that had batteries that lasted less than 10 hours, had only 10-second skip protection, couldn't play mp3's, and weighed as much as a can of Spam.

For this price, the quality cannot be beat! Enjoy!

P.S. - the headphones that come with this are huge padded ugly things, circa 1986. So you'll want to get some headphones that you actually like. But you're not buying a CD player so that you can get free headphones, are you?

Wow, another home run from Panasonic, along the same lines as their price-performance world-beater of a home theater receiver, the digital switching SA-XR55/57 which at $200-300 easily creams most home theater receivers up to $1000!

Like the xr55/57, this sx480 also uses digital amplification to produce startling clarity and tonal balance...audiophile sound quality at a staggering bargain-basement price! I compared this to my sister's Sony CD portable which cost several times more, and the Panasonic positively wiped the floor with it. Granted the Sony had slightly better ease of use, but for sound quality and value it was just no contest.

Unlike the other reviewer, I have not experienced any skipping problems at all.

A very pleasant surprise was the sound quality of the headphones, which admittedly are big, bulky, fugly and unhip...but the sound quality was excellent, especially the bass---I did not need to resort to any of the EQ settings for enhanced bass at all, and easily surpassed that of a $14 pair of aftermarket Phillips headphones (which I bought because the packaging said they have neodymium magnets, which are used in many audiophile speakers). Very surprising, since usually most OEM headphones that come with portable players are awful, just like OEM speakers in a ministereo or in a car. The only drawback is that the headphones themselves are a bit tight

However, I do have a pair of Grado SR80s on the way which should be an even greater improvement...I figured with how little this player cost, I could easily afford to splurge on some great 'phones!

(It will be hilarious if there's no huge improvement and I end up shipping back the Grados, though...stay tuned!)

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UPDATE: yep, the Grados were worth every penny! See my detailed review of the Grado SR80s. Thirty bucks (at Wallyworld) plus about eighty bucks for the cans (on sale at Cambridge Soundworks dot com) is still a bargain for truly audiophile sound quality.

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UPDATE #2: just experimented with a Chu Moy headphone amp...and guess what? It actually DEGRADED the sound quality!!! Yep, loss of detail, narrower soundstage, less space around the instruments. This digital amp technology of Panasonic's is really amazing.

I've owned this CD player for 3 weeks by now. The sound quality is great, and I'm also very satisfied with the anti-skip function - I have walked around a lot with the player in my pocket, and have not seen a single skip so far. The battery life is less than stated, but is still at least 40-50 hours with Duracell batteries in.

I read some of the reviews for this product and I agree that it is a very good value for the price. It also has great sound, equalization and the ability to play MP3s. However, it does have some drawbacks to consider:

-- Very small buttons that are close together.
-- A battery compartment inside the player where the disc goes. This increase the probability of scratching or altering the position of the lens.
-- No radio, which isn't a problem for many people, but may be for some.

Overall, I think this product is very good and it is light weight. There are some claims that the batteries last significantly longer than other older models, but I haven't noticed this.

This set sounds particularly good with SR60 headphones. I have tested many combinations and this is a real winner. These headphones aren't necessarily pretty, but the sound/price ration is terrific. They are not good headphones for athletic activities, just for very PURE enjoyment:

SR60