I bought this CD player spontaneously because I was so disappointed at the time with the realiability of two previous CD players. I was having problems with disc skipping and overall poor performance from CD lasers. Technics has always been rated well for reliablity by CR, so I thought I'd go buy one to fill in for a while. Well, I've owned it for just over a year and it is already starting to skip on every disc usually around the time I first start playing them. To me, this is totally unacceptable performance, even for a cheap player. I owned a comparable Sony for nine years before it started doing this.

Otherwise, it is a great player for the price since it performed well in all categories besides some minor inconveniences with the features (e.g. the inability to program a track while it's playing). I would have given this player either 4 or 5 stars, but the lack of realibility over a short period of time knocks it down to a 2. Maybe it's a lemon, but it gets the review nonetheless.

Price, Features.

Loud Transport

I bought this player in 1998. It has performed well and played all the cds that I own, including CDRs. The only complaint is that the transport is loud. The changer makes a fair bit of noise and I can stand a few feet away and hear the cd spin.

When I upgrade my recvr, I will most likely purchase the SL-PD8 and only for the digital out. Great player for an incredible price!

Got it from Best Buy for $135. I use it with my Technics receiver SA-AX6. It changes disc pretty fast. I like it very much. Great deal on this price.

I've had the SL-PD888 for nine months now and have found it to be an unusual value. It plays discs that have been terribly scratched and will not play on other players and it has the best impact resistance (it takes a decent palm's slap to cause it to mistrack on the top)I have seen in a cd player for under $160, as a matter of fact, I have tested players costing $300 that could not pull these feats. High S/N ratio (100dB) and convenient fatures like spiral play (plays track 1 of disc 1 then tr 1 of disc 2 and so on) and an intro scan that searches the track and then plays a loud segment so that you always hear music.

Bought this thing in the Summer '98; I wanted a 5 disc changer and I was determined to NOT get a sony player (a difficult task to say the least). I didn't want a sony player because their buttons are smaller than a pencil eraser, and they always look like crap...
One thing initially caught my eye -- it was cheap. Then I noticed that they were actually smart about the placement of the CD tray -- it was below the display and the buttons; a common sense thing most companies seem to forget about.

It's worked great with NO problems for nearly 10 months now. Sound quality is excellent.

The scan cd's feature is pretty neat (it goes through the first minute or two of a CD and finds a loud part [usually the refrain] and then plays it for a couple of seconds), as is the spiral function (play track 1 of every cd, then track 2 of every cd, etc). But frankly I don't ever use them -- I just hit play and go about my business :).

It also came with a remote -- something everything else in it's price range was missing (~$150).

I have had this CD player for over a year now. I think it has very good quality and the features are great. The direct disk access is very convenient. Program delete function is nice too. The remote can do just about everything the controls on the unit can except for a few things. The output is clean. You can change any 4 of the cd's while the 5th one is playing. Overall, this CD player has an excellent value for the money.

It´s a good player, only miss a Digital out (SL-PD8 have this). Everything are ok

Hi, I posted a 5 star review on the SL-PD887, and I was wondering if anyone knows if this player reads cd-rw. It probably does because of the fact that the laser in it is so much better at reading scratched discs than other cd players, but wondering if anyone has done it. I just thought I'd ask because we might be getting a cd-burner and I dont think either of my portables Panasonic SL-S200 and Kenwood DPC-692 will read cd-rw. The Technics is my dads cd player. By the way I just hooked up my Kenwood portable to my dads high end 1987 Yamaha stereo unplugging the Technics and compared them and I could never tell the difference in sound between players, but the difference between these 2 was huge. The Kenwood simply sucked. I only got to hear it for like 10 seconds cuz my sister came home from school and told me to turn it down, but i could instantly tell the Technics rocked.

Just got the SL-PD888 at Best Buy for $129.99. It works, sounds good and all the features function. I would say it's a good buy for the price. Only negative is a flashing red light that shows what cd you are on.

The best thing about this CD player: it works! I am soooooo sick of CD players that have problems. I have a friend with a nice Marantz that has weak channel connectors and thus cuts out the signal every now and then. The last CD player I had was a Denon, which had better sound than this one. However, about 10% of CDs (perfectly new CDs in fact) would produce skipping noises in the signal. I took it in for repair four times, not kidding. Went to two different places even! The Technics has worked as promised for the past 9 mo. I don't like some of the controls, like not being able to program a single track while the player is already on and that pushing "random" while playing causes it to skip immediately to a random track, instead of first finishing the current track. It can't quite compete with the superb sound reproduction of high end players, but what do you want for $150?
It's getting 4 stars just for the tiny inconveniences with the features that companies like Sony and Marantz have figured out the right way. Otherwise, for $150, it's a nice player.