Price Paid:  $149.00 from Best Buy?

Summary:
I got the 860 more than a year ago after my old Aiwa and personaly looked through thousands of choices and liked the idea that this one was said to be industructable. My old Aiwa had always had great sound with no battery life or anti shock. This player won't skip and lasts 20+ hours. As for industructable, i've droped it numerus times but finaly gave it the test a month 4-5 months after owning it. I was running in the wooods in spring, my dog took of and i fell holding it in the posision its made to be with the strap. The player took the brunt of about 180lbs of me it obviosly didn.t work and i was pissed about the 150 bucks. I noticed it was the case, it was crused and the cd couldn't spin, i took out the guts and pushed the aluminum case out and it has been working ever since. I've seen how sertain people can't judge good sound but i seem to notice it, making it hard and expensive to pick out equipment. This player certainly isn't top of my list for sound as it lacks distinktion and real clarity but what it gives up it makes up for in durability. P.s replace head phones emediatly to hear what sound the 860 does have

Strengths:
extremly durable battery life anti-shocks looks and life

Weaknesses:
Not full or perfectly clear or distinctive sound headphones price

Similar Products Used:
Philips Aiwa Sony Rca Others

Summary:
This is a very nice player. All my friens have cheap diskmans and always have problems with them. Whenever I was with this one guy he would tell me to change the song and when I touched the player it turned off and he said "Oh yeah it does that" I will not mention the company name but it rhimes with PONY. I always tell him just pay more now and you wont have any problems with a more expensive player.

I only have one real complaint, the headphones. Being a drummer I like to hear the full extent of the music. When it is poor quality it's simply not as fun to listen to.

Strengths:
Everything but headphones.

Weaknesses:
Headphones sound tinny and have zero bass. Needs a light

Similar Products Used:
Earlier panasonic models

Price Paid:  $100.00 from BestBuy

Summary:
I owned this product for over a year, and for the most part, I have nothing but great things to say about it. However, that is for the most part. Recently, I was riding a bus and I dropped the player, now since it was billed as a tough cd player, I picked it up and thought 'no big deal' but I opened it up to look at it just in case. Unfortunately, the battery case inside had had the top snap off, but the unit still played, so I was not too woried. When getting off the bus, though, the player was knocked out of my hand, and when I got home, I took a look at the inside again and discovered that the push button cd release(which I had thought was a great feature) have broken and the player could no longer spin the cd's and hence couldn't play them. For the most part, the player was great. The anti-shock was superb and the fact the player could be splashed with water was great, but on this one fateful day, I found that we can no longer trust the good people at panasonic. . .not really, but I would anyone wanting to buy it to watch out for this feature.

peace and love

Strengths:
Good Controlls
Good Sound Quality

Weaknesses:
Flimsy

Similar Products Used:
Aiwa cross trainer
sony sport

Price Paid:  $150.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
One of their shockwave line, the SL-SW860 has a metal outer casing with waterproof gaskets and locking clips. It has a 9mw+9mw amp into (I think) 16 ohms. It's got 40 second shock protection and gets 25 hours of battery life from 2 AA's (with volume on max and antishock on).

THE INTRO
When I first bought this unit, it was back in July of last year, just before my introduction to HeadWize. My first thoughts on the player reflected my idea of audio at the time, my first reaction being "hey, the bass is way too weak!" Not being completely stupid, I understood that the bad sound was due to the terrible headphone the player came with. And when I say terrible, I mean it. Those vertical headphones sucked ASS. Now, I wasn't completely stupid but I was pretty stupid all the same, so my next purchase was a pair of sony vertical headphones for the player. Despite the fact that they sucked, I thought they were okay and I began to get attached to the shockwave. I liked (and still like) how solid the unit feels. It looks and feels, in my opinion, the way a portable cd player should.

THE SOUND QUALITY
This, of course, is the most important thing with a portable. Personally, I really like the sound of this player. I've listened so several sonys but I really hate that tinny, brittle treble...in contrast my 860 has a much mellower sound that I like. Like many portables, the internal amp may be inadequate for some. I find that it powers my Grado SR80's well (and they look cool together too!), but many times the volume is maxed. Level 6-7 is usually adequate for me however.

Right now I just want to take the chance to remind everyone how important your headphones are with a portable. If you're going to get this player think about spending some money on a pair of good headphones to go with it. I spent $100 on the above-mentioned Grados, and they are awesome as portable phones. They do a great job of bringing out all this player has to offer. But, you could also spend $25 on some koss ksc-35's or sportapros. They have great sound for cheap phones, particularly the ksc-35's. I whole-heartedly reccomend that you take a look at them when you purchase a portable. Both are good rock headphones, but the grados sound good with everything.

THE CONSTRUCTION/BUILD QUALITY
As I said before, this player is unbelievably tough. I used to have a JVC portable, followed by an RCA. Both were plastic in construction like just about every other player on the market. I always disliked their flimsyness, and I also feared dropping them a lot. Whenever I did the top would pop open and the cd would go flying. NEVER has this happened with my sl-sw860! It laughs at asphault and I think it actually enjoys adding another battle scar to it's banged up casing. Once I dropped it about three feet onto concrete. I had gotten it rather recently so I didn't know if I'd broken it or what. The only effect it had was a scratch in the plastic joint in the back. The cd didn't even come loose. And it certainly didn't open. MAN was I impressed! Right now, even after it's literally gone rolling 20 feet across the floor on several occasions, the only damage I can see is a few nicks and scratches to the metal case, the scratch in the plastic, and a dent near the corner. It's also pretty heavy, which I think implies good construction.

This is a sport player, and one thing customary of sport models is the water resistant casing. Basically it involves rubber gaskets around the lid, as well as rubber covered buttons. There are also little flaps that covered up the headphone jack, line-out, and A/C adapter out (I pulled those off though since they were sort of annoying). I doubt it's really resistant but it does make me feel like it's safe to pull the thing out in the rain (and we get plenty of showers here in Oregon).

Finally, there's the size. I had a friend who owned the Aiwa "cross trainer" portable cd player. It's the same idea, it's got waterproof gaskets and a locking mechanism (I'll get to the 860's clips in a sec). The thing about the aiwa is... that thing is thick! With that bulky, useless locking mechanism (it opens all the time whether you want it to or not) it's easily twice as thick as my 860. No good, IMO. I love the 860's size. It's thin enough to be stuck in a pocket, mainly because the batteries are stuck behind the cd (instead of below it like with many players including the aiwa). There are many players that are smaller, but this is fine for me.

And, last but not least, the clips. You might think they're gimmicky, but they work. Never have they opened on me unless I wanted them to open. Like everything else about this portable, they feel very secure. By this time, I think you know how I stand on the construction quality of the SL-SW860.

BATTERY LIFE, PLAYBACK, ETC.
Ever since I bought this player I've been impressed with its playback capability. It can read cd's better than my home system, and it's never skipped. Its 40 second shock protection is great

As far as responsiveness goes, the unit is actually rather slow to start. I've clocked it at about 8 seconds from being completely off to starting the music. After that though it gets things done rather fast. You can skip songs instantaneously, same goes for going from the end of an album to the beginning. The slow startup might be due to the player conserving power to increase the battery life (like the MZ-R90), but I don't really know. Hmm, this might be a good time to talk about the battery life...

I can never remember. Where are the sony md recorders now? The gumstick battery lasts for about six months, then the player's internal nuclear power plant kicks in? ;) Well, the 860's batteries last for 25 hours and that's more than enough for me. I usually don't have to replace the batteries for a while, maybe every other week or so. Although this player's battery life is shorter than some models, consider this: from what I've heard, when sony tests their players' battery life they have volume at zero and shock protection off. When Panasonic tests theirs they have volume at full with shock protection on. So that's the shortest the batteries will last.

One thing I feel this player lacks is playback settings. The RCA had the ability to have the songs count down, and I miss that a bit. But it does have resume, random, and (of course) normal. Not many... I do wish it had more.

THINGS I FEEL THIS PLAYER IS MISSING
I'm still wondering if panasonic is going to replace this player with a new and improved model...If they do, here's the changes that I hope they make. First, I want a backlit display. Second, as I just said, I'd like to see more playback settings. Just like every other headphone fanatic I wish they'd up the internal amp to 15 or maybe 20 mw instead of the current 9mw amp. Perhaps they could improve the battery consumption to compensate or something.

Of course, I really don't have any big problems with this player. I think it's worth every cent of its $150 price tag, and have no regrets over buying it. Just remember: if you need tough, this player has you covered.

Strengths:
See Below

Weaknesses:
See Below

Similar Products Used:
JVC cdp, RCA cdp

Price Paid:  $130.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
I had posted a review before, on 6/26/00 under the name "Randy L.", but I would like to update my rating. After several months of owning the SL-SW850, I noticed some weaknesses -- some minor, some major. The minor drawback is that the player's headphone output began to "clip" with bass-heavy music even at moderate volume settings. The major drawback is that $150 (for the SL-SW850's successor model, the SL-SW860) is an extremely stiff price to pay for a portable CD player that offers only the most rudimentary features (except for the 40-second "joggable" anti-skip feature): basic portable-CD-player controls, no remote, no backlit display, and no battery-level meter. Also, the player has a resume-play feature that is poorly executed: The player resumes play from the beginning of the last track that was played (unless the last track played is the last track on the CD), and if you resume play with the CD player's power previously turned off, the player unexpectedly switches to the "repeat entire CD" mode. (The Sony D-EJ815, which I bought today, automatically resumes play from the exact position where I had manually stopped play; its resume-play feature can't be switched off.) And don't tell me about the headphones that come supplied with this model: I don't want to talk any more about them!

You pay a stiff premium for a shiny, water-resistant metal-clad case. Feature-wise, this CD player is the equivalent of the $60 Panasonic SL-SX270! So why pay $90 extra for a "sports" CD player with no additional features? So that potential buyers who shop at the big superstores can be suckered!

Overall, the SL-SW850/860 is a good CD player, but I think it is a bit overrated. If I have $150 to spend on a portable CD player, I'd rather buy the Sony D-EJ815 (discontinued but still available at retail) or the Panasonic SL-SX510 than the Panasonic SL-SW860.

Strengths:
Good anti-skip performance, decent battery life, water resistance

Weaknesses:
Audio distortion even at medium volume settings (especially in the bass), abysmal stock headphones, clunky resume-play feature, rudimentary features, very high price

Similar Products Used:
Sony D-EJ815 (I have just purchased it today)