Panasonic SL-MP35 Portable MP3/CD Player
By: Panasonic Average Rating: 4.0 Total Reviews: 17
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by: hurdygurdypenguin On: 2005-05-01
I purchased this for $99 some 2 years ago. There are a lot of things I like about this discman and a couple of things I dislike about it.
Strenghts:
1.A good battery life. My previous Sony cd player lasted me all of 7 hours on two AA batteries. The SL-MP35 is quite generous on battery. On an alkaline (Energiser) it can last from 25-35 hours.
2.Its not as heavy as bulky as it might look. You can carry it around if like you have gigantic pockets. It has great antishock protection. I can recall six instances of me dropping it but its never skipped a beat.Also the button for ejection doesnt get pressed on its own like Ive noticed in Samsung discmans.
3.The max. volume of this device is reached at 25units. The accompanied headphones are better than the earphones provided with the much loved iPOD. They have good clean bass sound although not meant for listeners who like to get into the music. I use Phillips earphones and the volume increase is quite substantial.
4.The Hold function is a darling especially when one needs to go out on walks or just in general. The device does make a bit of sound but then most devices do that. It never heats up and at home I prefer connecting my unit via a power outlet. Its great fun that way.
5.It plays Mp3/Audio Discs. The Audio discs volume as I have noticed is lesser than the mp3 discs. It sounds wierd considering the bitrate difference but its true.I recommend all owners/potential buyers to keep this feature in mind. I understand a lot of us like purchasing music and listening to it but then its maybe a slight flaw. However , it also means a 150 track disc would sound better than a 15 track audio disc.
What I dislike about this mp3 discman is how slow it is. Ive seen other mp3 discmans and even though its faster in comparison , I think its slow.It takes approx. 15 seconds for it to initialize an mp3 disc. Audio discs on the other hands is a bit faster.The volume on this could have been louder but thats expecting a bit too much. There was an accompanying tape that allowed music to be played in cars without any mp3player/cd support. Its neat but I never used it for I love my music and have a front loader mp3 player installed.
In any case,I recommend this for people whore not sure whether they would like an mp3 discman. Ive seen the iPODs and I somehow do not like the idea of small box thatll contain all my songs. Id rather change discs , burn them , tweak em...
Anyhow , thats me. Hope you found my review helpful.
Cheers.
 On: 2004-04-21
I am very pleased with this player. I have found that I must stay away from Kenwood & Sony, they gave me nothing but trouble. This item, however, has been a dream. The only problem I face is the automatic resume function. Even after I have removed a CD and turned the unit off, it wants to resume at the last track played (even with a different CD.) I wish I could turn that function off. Otherwise, it has been a dream. It is nice and sturdy with lots of functions the newer models dont have. I found my unit at a usually overpriced Sam Goody type store really discounted due to its production date (some 3 years ago). I snatched it up since it has everything I have been looking for. I would recommend this unit to anyone.
On: 2004-01-19
I bought SL-MP35 for myself on 16th,Jan.And it just cost me 470 Yuan RMB(About 65.3USD).I chose this cause I want a CD player to learn English & German.Alought it doesnt have advanced functions,like Backlight,LCD Remote Control.I also heard some advice from other friends:They thought Panasonic product has a long play time(I saw a SONY player can sign:It can play 100Hours continuously,but its tag shows :1000 Yuan RMB is required).So I suggest:If you dont have much money,SL-MP35 can make you feel happy & comfortable.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-07-19
i love this little thing i bought mine at a costco store for 55 bucks and it came with headphones, remote and the jogging case. the headphones arent the best, but fine for me. i dont understand why others have volume problems. mine is very loud on 12! i wish it had a backlit but i cant complain for the money. i would reccomend this thing to anyone looking for a cheap but great mp3 cd player
On: 2003-07-02
Whats wrong with that guy who said this player didnt have much volume. It has a max volume of 25 and its loud over 12. That guy must be deaf. When playing mp3s, this player shows the name of the track, the artist, and the album. This feature is very helpful in finding a specific mp3 among hundreds which can be burned to one disc. Ive seen as many as 1,000 mp3s on one disc.
 On: 2003-06-26
Okay, so heres how this player breaks down:Pros MP3s - Great length of play, most sound fine, fast loading CDs - Standard features, as expected Durability - Well it lasted a year, see below. Worked after the drop. Batteries - Nice that you dont have to open it up and pull out the disc to change the batteries. Sound - digital control is nice. Cons MP3s - Doesnt play all songs, some get cut off. I often listen to books on cd -> mp3. This is exactly how windows media player cuts off these same files, when winamp plays them just fine. These are encoded by the lame encoder and should be fine; however, it seems when this player hits a certain thing it will skip to the next track (especially with VBR) or it will continue to play after the track is done. Sometimes if you play the same file again, it will play fine, which is quite odd. Since this player doesnt allow fast forwarding through mp3s this is really irritating With no support for ID-3v2 tags and partial support for ID-3v1 the mp3 support still leaves lots of room for improvement. Also, trying to sort files such that they play in a specific order is a pain. I finally had to make the id-3 tags the same as the file names, with 2 leading 0s. Also, when on random, the same file will play twice or three times quite often. Having only 24 spots for programming isnt sufficient, I use this player every day for 8 hours a day, and stopping to re-program every 30 minutes is unacceptable. CDs - This player starts playing at the beginning of the track rather than the point at which you stopped. CDs use more battery power also. Durability - This morning I dropped this on the joint between the top and the bottom. The drop was only about 2 feet, and the top of the clamshell fell off. When I tried to put the spring back in and re-attach the top, the plastic snapped. While I may get another Panasonic, it wont be this model. Sound - No options other than super bass. The volume is quite low. If you use the headphones that come with it, the sound is a little better, but still it should be louder. Controls - finding the correct buttons on the player can be difficult in the dark. Controls on the headphones would be nice (and is on another model.) Overall -
For the price, its decent, but dont get it if youre looking for a mp3 cd player that gives you real control.
by: Anonymous On: 2003-01-28
I have to admit that I like loud volume on music, though I can listen to music at normal human levels as well. This player, however, doesnt even go past whispering volume. Its alright If you listen to your music in a very quiet room but I tend to use it mostly on subways and outside. This moring I was walking down the street and couldnt hear it over the sound of the wind blowing. That is not good. I also have some very nice headphones that I got thinking it would solve this problem. It didnt. Right now Im trying to find ways of getting it to go past 25. Im thinking 50 at least.
Equally frustrating is the pause between tracks when playing MP3s and the stupid dancing musical notes that serve abolutely no purpose that I can think of.
My model number is SL-MP353J - Maybe the problem is fixed in later models as I cant think of why not too many other people seem to be bothered by the volume issues.
On: 2003-01-22
Brilliant little unit, whith the looks of a way more expensive system. Its quite sturdy (dropped it twice and no problems) and the anti-skip system wont let you down even if you jog for the Navy Seals. Some pros and cons:
Pro: Lightweight, looks good, excellent battery life (40hrs on 2AA), it charges rechargable batteries (not included) in the unit - unlike most other brands, it reads into the directories of the CD so you can sort (and search) according to folder.
con: You cant fast forward MP3 songs (although,I believe only the really expensive MP3-CD Players can do that), it takes about a second to load tracks between MP3s which can be a little irritating if you listen to open-ended songs. Oh yeah, and if youre picky about in-ear headpieces,set yourself back about .. bucks for mean looking Deejay-style headphones. And it ... in the night or dark because it has no backlight to shine over the single line LCD screen (which takes some time to read through a song name).
Recap: All and all a great unit with great sound quality and features. For its price tag you really cant go wrong.
On: 2002-11-26
I was looking for a CD/MP3 player that wasnt too expensive, and I have no need for all the extra gadgets and controls of the more expensive players. I had experience with my husbands Panasonic portable cd player and loved it, but I was looking for a player that would handle my MP3 cds. I found this little player and it is excellent. As with my husbands player, the battery life is the best of any portable player Ive used. The player has handled all my MP3s cds perfectly (I use iTunes to create my cds). Others have complained about the volume, but Ive had no trouble. The volume goes well above my tolerance limits - and I have no trouble hearing the music on the Metro train or the bus. If youre looking for a basic player for you MP3 cds - this is the one to get. Long battery life, and compatibility with all the MP3s on a cd seems to be an issue with many other players - but not this one. I very highly recommend this player.
by: kikotl On: 2002-11-24
This is the latest portable I use and considering the abuse I put them through so far so good; it has already survived a mini drop and still works fine. I like the features this modestly priced unit offers with a couple of exceptions. The headphones should be replaced although the supplied headphones are adequate if you are not too picky. The other irritant is the volume. I like my music loud so that Im completely absorbed . If you turn this unit up all the way it is not loud enough for my ears. Im of the opinion of another reviewer who thinks it is probably ok for most people. I just like to be able to give certain songs that over the edge sound without distortion. The little fanny pack that comes with it is is ok but not very big and hence there is not much room for extras. Another thing I found annoying is that it does skip on occasion with heavy pounding and considering it is supposed to be a "jogging" model this was a letdown. It is a nice intermediate model with the good outweighing the bad. Another thing is that there is no nightime display. For the price you cant go wrong and this should compensate for the shortcomings.
On: 2002-11-20
This is really a very good player. Sound is quite good (Philips Expanium has slightly better quality of sound, but its much more expensive). It can read all types of disks I have (including 700- and 650 megabytes, CD-R and RW). Tags are displayed correctly, headphones are fine. It has enough functions (like programming and shuffling tracks). For its price this is a perfect player.
On: 2002-09-18
... The player I bought ... and came with a nice jogging pack that is sort of elastic. No AC adapter but that is no problem these days since most people have rechargeable NIMH AA bateries for their digital camera and the battery life is good on this player. It also came with a wired remote control which is also nice to have. The remote does not have a display but if you are jogging it doesnt matter. I agree with others that it isnt loud enough, even for the included headphones. I dont think there is anything like it for the price. It played all of my MP3s and they are all from various sources using different encoders. Im going to do a lot of traveling on planes and jogging a lot so Ill be putting this player through a lot of use.
On: 2002-08-17
I bought the "Jogger" version which is the same unit but with a neoprene carry case and an in-line remote control. ...Terrific decoding of MP3s, no problem handling CBR, ABR, and VBR types at all bitrates. Sound is identical to full-WAV CDs -- clean and crisp. Headphones are inferior, but those are easily replaced. Plenty enough volume. Minor annoyance is a 3-second pause between MP3 tracks as the tracking head seeks out the next track. Next generation will eliminate that I bet. Dot-matrix display is clunky but far better than nothing. Reads ID2 info as well. All in all, a great way to take your CDs full of MP3s on the road.
On: 2002-07-11
Good features, great price. The sound quality is good although not very loud. I had some skipping & static noise problems with MP3 CDs. When played on my DVD player the songs played fine. Also the skipping and static noise were not consistent. A "problem" song played again would play fine.
Otherwise a fine player and a good value for money.
On: 2002-06-23
Im new at CD burning and I wanted a good solid unit without spending a ton of money. After reading many reviews and reading the problems with units skipping or not reading MP3s, this unit has none of the problems. It doesnt skip even if dancing. You can burn MP3s without worring about if it will read your files. The headphones are about average but not horrible by any means Sure I would like to have equalizing capabilty besides bass boost as will as an AC aqdaptor, car adaptor, and rechargable batteries (available as extras). But then it would cost more than [money] or be of less quality. I gave it 5 stars because I dont believe you will find a more solid working unit for the money. Its nice hassel free enjoyment.
by: Anonymous On: 2002-06-16
I recently purchased this item because of the convenience of cd/mp3 players, the low price, and a name brand. For cd players panasonic and sony are definitely the two top brands. cd/mp3 players are very convenient because u are able to put 200-300 songs on one blank cd, which costs almost nothing AND it plays regular CDs too. PROS -very good price
-name brand, reliability, durable contruction
-great sound quality
-VERY good battery life, especially for cd/mp3 players
-convenient -Great skip protection, never skips
-looks cool
- ease of use
CONS - one line display, makes navigation slightly slower
- display isnt backlit, this cud be problem in the dark because theres no way u can remember what number every song is on an mp3 cd with 200+ songs on it.
- doesnt go quite loud enuff for me, shud be loud enough for most people though.
- the headphones it comes with arent by any means bad, but i find the ones that came with an older sony player of mine get better sound.
- doesnt support wma files. Overal this is a very good mp3 cd player, especially wen u take the price into consideration. The good definitely out ways the bad with this model. Dont spend all your money on an expensive one, when this one works just as well. Definitely stick to panasonic or sony for your dicman needs though.
On: 2002-06-15
This is a good product but the headphones arent that great. Just go buy another pair and then you are quite set.
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