Price Paid:  $110.00 from etronics.com

Summary:
In the beginning, the cd player was awesome. It had great sound, and the features, especially the bass enhancer, were great. Now, over time, it has really started to decline in performance. When held vertically, the cd hits the lid and makes weird sounds. The cd also spontaneously stops playing and stalls. The remote is really great, though. It is really convenient. The player has taken only moderate abuse in my backpack, yet it still frequently has problems. The extra batteries also is great, giving great battery life, but it dangles. If you do buy this cd player, get new headphones.

Strengths:
Good sound and bass, great remote, awesome battery life.

Weaknesses:
Makes loud sounds when it plays, stalls in play, bad headphones(bad sound produced, short wire)

Similar Products Used:
Philips

Price Paid:  $120.00 from friend hooked me up

Summary:
for all those people who gave this product such a low rating...you got a lemon. ive had mine for 1.5+ years and it great. it never skips, the battery life is forever, looks good, handy remote, etc. the headphones suck...but dont they always when you dont buy it separately, sound quality isnt the best...you dont get the long lasting battery life for free, and distortion at high volumes...but most of us want our hearing intact later on in life. as for the extra battery case, who cares the battery life is long as it is.

Strengths:
g protection remote lcd screen battery life design light and compact rechargable batteries carrying case

Weaknesses:
headphones sound quality...minimum

Price Paid:  $140.00

Summary:
Alright, I got this PCDP back in the days I thought my Jensen street styles were the most amazing thing on the planet (good thing those costed the low low price of free).

Onto the review:

I immediately chucked the stock headphones on the unit knowing it sucked and my street style was far superior (hey it was...) and started listening... but that was when I thought "It couldn't get better than this". I've got some Grado SR80s and some Sony EX70s for them now and here are my impressions of the cdp...

Look & Feel:
It looks slim, certainly is nice to look at and when in public it looks like you outclass everyone with such a shiny looking CDP... nice and slim, all that stuff Sony is actually good at. Aluminum case is nice (though I wish the whole thing was aluminum) and it fits easily anywhere (like my pockets). It feels pretty solid too, due to the aluminum casing...

Sound:
The sound quality, is, well, mediocre. A mere 5mw x2 outputs are featured as its wimpy amplifier (but hey, you need to cut corners to get high battery life). Lack of liveliness is present and the highs are unnatural. It all sounds 'closed'. Megabass varies with the headphone you use, with my Grados, megabass level 1 is good, though with my ex70s any megabass will make the whole experience sound boomy. Double megabass is overkill, sounds very poor. However when using the unit as a transport, it is pretty decent (skips the crapo amplifiers).

Physical Quality:
Sure it is aluminum but the interior just sucks. It does not accomodate the cd properly, if I shake it a certain way I can scratch the cd on the cd player, you can even hear the scratching noise. The unit also has a bad habit of screwing up reading the cd and outputting static when it is held a certain way for a while. This usually happens when I put it in a bag of some sort, or my pocket, you have to keep the unit facing upwards/vertical to make this not happen.

Battery life:
Battery life is good, once you get some NiMH or alkaline batteries that is.

Features:
First off the stock headphone incldued deserves to be burnt to a crisp, some feature there, included headphones... The remote is unfortunately not aluminum, it feels pretty shoddy in construction but works well. The back lit LCD is cool... recharge circiut is nifty... I wish it had equalizers or something like that so I can tweak the sound a bit.

Overall it is definetely not worth it for the money, I somehow wished i bought the much cheaper Panasonic 470 portable which gets good reviews.

I wouldn't recommend this pcdp but I wouldn't say it absolutely sucks... Now I just need to wait for it to break (like the infamous headphone jack of Sony pcdps breaking) so I can buy a better pcdp.

Strengths:
Looks/physical qualities and poteintial for great battery life

Weaknesses:
See review...

Price Paid:  $160.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
I don't know why I purchased this unit in the first place. Sony' reputation, product quality, and customer service, are all jokes. I don't think that Sony puts any sort of consideration into the quality of their products anymore. I think that they are only concern that their product have a nice design and color scheme to them, and the EJ-815 is a prime example of this happening. I purchased this unit and I was very impressed by its performance. Not anymore. The CD drive has crapped out on me. When trying to read the inner-most part of any CD I put into it, the CD drive will become stuck and can not read the rest of the disc because it can not move, making it virtually unusable. The headphones also stink. The bass output on the unit it good, but too strong for these headphones. At the loud volume settings, using the Mega-Bass is not recommended. The headphones will make a popping noise that is not too pleasing to the ears. Then there is also this static noise that is heard sometimes that is not too pleasing either. The ergonomics of the unit is the high point, along with its battery life(using the battery adapter), but the adapter dangles, it does not screw on or attach itself to the unit like the Panasonic units do(Panasonic makes better products in my opinion). Overall, stay away from this unit, unless you want to fork over money to Sony to fix this unit over, and over, and over, and etc...

Strengths:
Slim design, backlit LCD display, remote.

Weaknesses:
Bad CD drive, battery adapter dangles, if turned on its side the CD will run against the lid of the player, it's Sony...

Price Paid:  $109.00 from appliancesource.com

Summary:
This is a great player, never skips, no distortion except at maximum volume with bass turned all the way up. It is very slim and light. The backlit display kicks @$$. The remote is very good, and well laid out. My only gripes are this: get some new headphones, the ones that come with it suck big time. Also the mega bass sucks, dont use it. Also the leather case that comes with it is good, but the cd player doesnt seem to fit all the way. But other than that, this player is very good, and I think it is a great purchase. The whole cd player comes with a remote, headphones, leather case, adapter, 2 rechargeable batteries, external battery pack (which brings the battery life to 76 hours). It plays cd-r's, and has never skipped on me, NEVER!!

Strengths:
Sound, battery life, design, slim, remote, backlit display

Weaknesses:
headphones it comes with, mega bass

Similar Products Used:
Sony D-EJ611