One of the Better Portable CD Players
Written: May 21 '04 (Updated May 22 '04)
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Pros: Very fashionable and trendy aluminum top cover. Great sound and nice remote with backlight LCD.
Cons: Has no resume function and no LCD display on the unit. Battery life is so-so.
The Bottom Line: Lives up to the JVC name for true-to-life audio performance.
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| minusflo's Full Review: JVC XL-PG59 Personal CD Player |
The world of personal/portable CD players seems to have been dominated by Sony, Philips and Panasonic, lately and for added functionality most models that come out are able to play MP3 files.
If you are looking for a traditional CD-music only player like me then this model by JVC is one of the best around. JVC used to be big in the portable CD players and they often come out with new models as fast as Sony or Panasonic. It seems that their focus on this type of audio product has shifted lately and it is hard to find their units available in big stores like Best Buy. The XL-PG59, I believe is one of their higher end portable CD players and I found them at Sam Goody for $65 (tax included). Let us proceed with the review.
THE GOOD
Here is a quick rundown of its features:
1) Slim design with fashionable aluminum top cover.
2) Has an LCD remote control with nice blue backlight.
3) Comes with an AC adaptor and NiCd rechargeable batteries.
4) Battery life is about 3 hours for the rechargeable and 15 hours for alkaline.
5) Comes with a back-of-the-head street style headphones.
As you can see from the image, the styling is sleek due to its nicely brushed aluminum top cover and its slim design. The unit is practically no bigger than a regular CD and is capable of playing CD-R/RW. However, it can only play audio CDs and not MP3 files. For the sound features it comes with a bass-boosting feature called Hyper Bass Sound (HBS) that has levels 1 and 2. For hip-hop and rock music the level 2 is suitable while for pop and jazz type of music, I recommend level 1. HBS is similar to Megabass of Sony but with HBS, the higher notes (treble and mid-bass) are not deluged by the emphasis in bass which I found to be a major weakness in my Sony portables in the past. The backphones supplied are better than average but if you really want to hear the clarity of the musical instruments you would be better off with Koss headphones that have titanium coated elements like the Porta Pro models.
Battery life is not comparable to today's standards of 40 hours with the Sony's and Panasonic's but since it came with rechargeable batteries, battery life does not bother me much as I recharge every night. Besides, the 15-20 hours for alkaline batteries would last you two weeks of at least 1 hour of music per day. I also think the portable unit gives out more wattage (in millies) to the headphones than Sony because at middle of the volume, music is already loud. This is very important if you want to replace the headphones with bigger resistance rating (meaning larger ones with closed-type construction) for a richer and bolder sound.
Lastly, although the remote is a bit bulky, it comes with a cool blue backlight that makes reading easy on the eyes. The unit plays CD-R/RW with no problem.
THE BAD
Having said all the nice things about this model, there are few items that I believe can improve the design like adding a resume function would be nice. The length of the remote is shorter than the length of the headphone wire. This makes it less convenient to place in your back pack or waist bag. Also the battery power indicator appears only when the battery is almost exhausted, it would be better if that is on always so you would have an idea when it is about time to replace. It would also be cool if the unit has an audio line out port that is separate from the headphones port so one can hook up 2.1 speakers from Creative and Altec Lansing as those speakers often come with their own amplifiers.
Overall, the unit lives up to the name of JVC and at least at par with Sony on sound quality.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 65
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Epinions.com ID:
minusflo
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Location: Illinois, USA
Reviews written: 24
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Works for a surfactant company. Enjoys reading reviews from various and diverse topics at Epinions.
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