In a world of Ipods and other mini music devices, CD Players tend to get lost in the crowd. People told me I was crazy to buy a new CD player a few years ago. They all said I should buy an Ipod.
Sorry to all you Ipod people, but I still prefer the good old reliable CD player! First of all, I already have 100s of CDs. Second, Ipods take a lot of work! You have to either download the music (which cost money) or record all your CDs on your computer, which takes time. Plus, I just feel that having the physical CD is much easier. I can lend it to a friend, or play it on my computer/car/stereo. Can’t do all that with an Ipod without buying special connections or equipment. With a CD, I can just pop it out of my CD Player and into my Car radio whenever I’m on the go. Finally, when I’m in the mood to listen to something, I can just pick the CD I want and press play… as opposed to searching through an Ipod trying to find the song or the artist or (if I named it wrong) where it is stored. So if you agree with me on any of these reasons, check out this CD Player today!
The Sharper Image CX603 Personal CD Player is purchased at Sharper Image stores or via their website/catalog. When I purchased it a few years ago it was 150$, it is now marked down to 80$ which makes it a great deal! I did my research before buying this, plus I had an 80$ certificate to Sharper Image, so I knew I was getting a great quality item (Sharper Image = Quality!) This was my first Sharper Image purchase, but it wasn’t my last. I wasn’t sure how to divide this review, so I decided to list each feature that I like/use and explain it! Hope this is helpful to you 🙂 It’s pointless to talk about features I don’t know how to use, so I’ve included these at the bottom.
Features
— CD Player – It is first and foremost a CD player. Pop in any of the CDs you already have and you are good to go! Plug and Play as they say 🙂 The quality of sound is excellent. I normally have the volume set around 10 or 11, yet it can go all the way up to 42! It’s loud, trust me. Even in LOUD atmospheres, I don’t think I’ve ever pushed it past 20.
— MP3 Player – CD players don’t cost 150$ any more, but add in MP3 ability and you got a great deal! Although I don’t want my music to be exclusively computerized, I still have downloaded plenty of tunes in my day. Up until now I’ve had to burn a million separate CDs in order to listen to them, now I can burn MP3 CDs (also known as Data CDs) holding 180+ songs! The website claims you can fit up to 500 MP3s, but my songs are long so I couldn’t get there. I also think a detailed folder structure takes more space. Furthermore, your songs can be burned in any method/order you like. Arrange them into Folders by Artist/Album/Genre or just Alphabetical. Whatever you want. What’s the point of the organization? You’ll see when I explain the Controls!
— Controls on the Player – On the actual CD Player, there are your basic controls (Play/Stop, FF/Rewind, Volume up/down). Small buttons, but it is a Small CD player. Once you learn the location of the buttons, you won’t have to read them anymore anyway. When you plug this into the wall, the Stop button can also be used to Charge the batteries. Highly convenient and a little light indicates when it is done.
— Controls in your Hand – I never use the controls on the player. Once I tuck it away in it’s case, all I need are the controls in my hand. You plug the controller into your CD Players headphone jack, then plug your headphones into the Controller. If you don’t want to use the controller, you can plug your headphones directly into the player. It makes for a nice extension to your headphone length, and allows you to easily control your music. (See next section for more details)
— Headphones – The headphones that come with it are Earbuds. I don’t like them. I gave my dad my old CD player and these headphones, and kept my normal over the head headphones. I just don’t like putting them in my ears! Basically, if you don’t mind Earbuds, no problem. If you do, any headphones will work with this. I did try out the earbuds for sound quality. They work really well, but I just don’t like them in my ears. I know you get to hear it louder when they are right in your ears, but I like the soft cushiony feel of my normal headphones.
— Power – The CD player comes with 2 rechargeable batteries. The convenience is in the design! You pop the batteries in to the INSIDE of the player, and never remove them. Plug your player into the wall to charge the batteries. It is the best! No more taking batteries in and out, and no more worrying about the battery case accidentally popping open. I may be new to this techy world, but I’ve never seen batteries inside the actual player. I know they will never fall out.
It also comes with an external power pack. This uses 2 AA batteries and can be plugged in to the player. I’ve never used this yet, BUT here is why it is nice. If you are ever going on long flights or trips, you won’t be able to charge your player. However, carry around a few packs of AA batteries (or buy them wherever you are) and attach the external power pack and you’re all set to keep listening! With the Rechargeable batteries, external power pack and AC Charger, you will virtually always have available power to run your player. I plug in the AC Charger when I’m home or sitting around b/c I’d rather not use the batteries if I don’t have to.
— Design – “All-format audio CD player is barely bigger than the disc itself!” It is small, what else can I say! Diameter is only a little bigger than my cds. Height is less than 1/2″! Amazing. This also means it is very lightweight. According to the specs, 7.25 oz. I never feel it weighing me down when I carry it around. It also means you have to be careful not to lose it. It just makes you look like a techy! It is a sleek silver that makes people say “wow! where’d you get that” Then they see the “Sharper Image” logo all over it. It definitely looks like you spent a lot of money, and if you are looking to impress or buy a gift, it’s the perfect choice! (I would love almost anything from Sharper Image as a gift!)
— Cases – I really like the case that comes with it. The CD player slides right in with no trouble, and I am able to zipper it in a way that only leaves room for my headphone cord. On the go? They provide a nifty little black bag that fits the headphones and the control. I store those in the bag, and tie the bag string to the CD player string so they are always kept together.
Controlling your Music
I would like to break down all the things I do with the handheld control to make playback exactly what I want.
— Standard controls – On either side of the controller there are the standard play/pause/stop and hold buttons. This is why you can listen to your player without ever touching the player (except to change the CD). A circular pad holds the volume/skipping controls which also double to search the menus
— Display – On the controller, the LCD display shows the Track #, song length, Battery Life, CD type, etc. Other stuff here that I don’t really know about, like KbPs and KHz, are also displayed. The most important feature to me is the scrolling song title/artist. This works for any CDs that have their titles tagged, or any MP3 CDs that you create. You’ll always know exactly what you are listening to. Further, if you are using MP3s, you can go through the entire Folder structure (which you created earlier) to skip to your favorite genre/artist or whatever you are looking for.
— Playlist – We all like to make our own playlist. Sometimes even though you like all 180 songs on the CD, you are in the mood to listen to just a dozen of them. Set up your playlist by scrolling to each song, then just play through your playlist!
— Play Mode – Repeat one song, repeat one cd, play random songs, or just go straight through. Easily set it to whatever you want.
— Resume – I set it to resume at “last point”. This means even after the CD player is turned off completely, I can hit play and resume from exactly the track I was listening to. You can set it to always start at the beginning, but why would you want to?
— Visuals – Set the Language, turn on the tagging/lyrics, set how long it takes to scroll the song, set the backlight timer. I played around with this for a while, but now all the settings seem perfect.
— FM – I was aware of the FM feature since I purchased it but I never tried it out until a few months ago. I am currently using it and the signal is great – even in my building where my cell phone won’t work 🙂 All stations seem to be accessible and it sounds real good. This is a great feature.
Things I don’t know about
As I am not a technical guru, and don’t use these features a lot, I’m simply listing them for your own info.
AntiShock – set it when you are in a bumpy car to prevent skipping
Sleep Mode – Set it to turn off in 30, 60 or 90 mins.
Equalizer – set it to Flat, Jazz, Pop, Rock, etc. I really don’t know what this does. I assume it improves the playback of the type of music.
Bass/Treble – Adjust as needed.
Test it thoroughly
The reason I say to test out all the features is because when I originally bought my CD player, the charge button/stop button did not work. At first I thought “oh well, I’ll use the controller to stop it” then I realized I’d never be able to charge the batteries since the stop button is also used to charge. I took it back the next day and they replaced it b/c of their 30-90 day return/exchange policy. I also purchased the 3 year warranty just to make sure nothing else breaks. It’s been about 2 years and I have yet to discover any problems with the replacement.
Conclusion
Whether you care to learn all the features or not, there is enough nice things in this little CD player to make it very worth the purchase, especially now that it’s down to 80$! I wrote this whole review without having ever read the manual. This shows the player is easy to figure out, at least for someone like me! I actually do want to learn how to use the extra features more, but I don’t like to read manuals 🙂 You’ll get your money’s worth out of this CD player either way.
