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A Portable CD Player

by Uzerman

Before making a purchase, know where and how you are going to use your CD player and then choose your accessories accordingly.

There are many things to consider when making the decision of which portable CD player to buy. I decided to buy my first portable CD player last summer and thought I would just walk into a store, pick one up and go to the check-out counter with it. When I went to the store, I was very amazed at how many different brands and types of CD players there were.

The following are some of the questions you will need to ask yourself and points to consider before choosing the CD player that is best for you.

Where will I be using this CD player the most?

What types of CDs will I be listening to?

What types of power source will I have access to?

What types of activities will I be doing while listening to my CD player?

The reason you need to think about these questions is that it will make a big difference in the type of player you choose. The power source is very important to consider. If you are planning to use your portable player while you walk, jog, ride the subway, bus or train, or any other activity that leaves you without a power source, then you will need to consider what types of batteries the player will take. Most portable players run on AA batteries, which are easy to find and inexpensive. Other players come with specialized batteries, which are hard to find and expensive when you do find them. There are several brands and models, which come with re-chargeable batteries that can be charged when you turn the player off while plugged into an electrical outlet. This can be an inexpensive choice, but if your batteries go dead when you are away from a power source, then you are out of luck. I prefer the ones that take the AA batteries; I keep two fresh batteries in my CD case at all times, so when it goes dead, I can pop out the dead ones and put the new ones in.

If you are purchasing a portable player to convert a cassette player in your car or home, then batteries aren’t necessary. I bought my portable player so that I could listen to my CD’s in my car, so I needed a player that came with a car cassette adaptor and a car cigarette lighter adaptor. The cassette adaptor looks like a regular cassette tape, except that it has a small electrical cord connected to it and the other end plugs into the CD player. Then the car cigarette lighter adapter plugs into your car’s cigarette lighter at one end and into the CD player at the other end. Once both of these connections are made, operate the CD player like you would ordinarily would.

If you want to convert a cassette player in your home, you would basically need the same cassette adaptor as listed above, and an AC adaptor, which allows you to plug into an electrical outlet. The cassette adaptor that I have allows you to move the small electrical cord so that it is on the end (for when you are pushing the cassette straight into a car cassette player) or on the top (for loading into a home stereo). I have not used my portable CD player with my home stereo because: I already have a CD player with my stereo and by looking at the directions, it looks like too much trouble making all of the necessary connections between the stereo, the CD player, the wall outlet, and the speakers. However, if I didn’t have a CD player with my stereo and bought the portable CD player as a permanent solution, it might be worth the trouble since I would hook it up and leave like that. But since I use my player in my car, I would not want to have to hook it all up, just to unhook it the next time I wanted to use it in my car.

Another accessory to consider is the headphones. All of the portable CD players I have seen come with headphones, some are very cheap in quality, and some are of very good quality. Again, you will need to consider where you will be using your portable player. If you plan to use your player primarily with your car stereo or home stereo, then don’t pay an extra high price for expensive headphones. If you will be using your player with the headphones most of the time, then you might want to buy a player that comes with better headphones.

Most of the better known name brand portable CD players now have an anti-shock feature, but this feature’s name is different from brand-to-brand. On mine it is called “ESP Plus”, which stands for “Electronic Shock Protection”. What this feature does is allow for skip protection, so that you can use your portable player while doing activities. How it works is the player “reads ahead” so many seconds of the CD, so that when the player gets bumped, it jumps to the memory so that your music continues to play without an interruption. How many seconds of memory ahead varies; most have either 3, 10, 20, or 40 seconds of memory, but I have recently seen a model that now has 100 seconds of memory. There is usually a button on the player that you press to activate the anti-shock feature. I rarely use mine, since I usually have my player set on my car seat, but I did test it and it works very well (mine is 40 seconds) and there was no skip at all. If you were using your player while walking, jogging, etc., you would want to use this feature. If you are using the player on a flat surface, you do not need to use this feature and you really wouldn’t want to, especially if you are running it on batteries, because the memory uses more energy.

Some players also come with vertical and horizontal shock sensors, which would be useful for someone using the player while walking, jogging, etc. These sensors will allow you to use your player while lying horizontally on a flat surface, or hanging vertically from a hand or belt strap.

Another option you need to consider is the type of CD’s you will be playing on your portable player. There are some players that will play your store-bought CD’s, as well as, re-writable, recordable, and MP3 CDs. Obviously, if you are into mini-discs, you would need a player that plays that size CD.

And last, but not least, there are a lot of convenient functions on a player that are nice to consider, such as, Skip/Search Forward and Backward, Pause, Bass Boost, Repeat/Random, Auto-Shut-Off and Programmable CD Memory. I really like having the Repeat feature; I can choose to have it play songs randomly, which is very nice, especially in the car. On short trips, I might only get to hear 3 songs and without the “random” button, I would probably only get to hear the same 3 songs off of a particular CD. With “random”, I get to hear randomly selected songs from all parts of the CD. A very useful feature for me is the Programmable Memory. I can program up to 22 tracks for the player to play. This way, I can choose which songs I want to hear, and which ones to skip over. I may have a CD that has six songs I really want to hear, so I can program the player to only play those six songs. This is very convenient and easy to use.

Other considerations when buying a portable CD player, which may not actually come with your CD player, are a carrying case or a hand or belt strap. There are many different carrying cases out there. I found that the most convenient for me was a carrying case that has a top compartment for the CD player itself, so that my player is protected while being transferred in and out of the car, and the bottom section has the sleeves for storing about 30 CDs. Each compartment has its own zipper to keep the compartments safe. Hand or belt straps are good for when you will be physically moving around while listening to your player. (6190 p.s.)

Комментарий:

purchase – покупка; to consider – взвешивать, обдумывать, продумывать; portable – переносной; check-out – касса в магазине самообслуживания; counter – прилавок; to amaze – изумлять, поражать, удивлять; reason – причина; to jog – подпрыгивать; to ride – ехать (в автобусе, в трамвае, на велосипеде, в поезде и т.п. ); subway – метро; to run – работать; re-chargeable – перезаряжаемый; to plug into an electric outlet – вставлять вилку в розетку; dead – неисправный, недействующий, неработающий; out of luck – не повезло; to pop out – высунуть; to convert – переоборудовать, перестраивать; to come with – быть снабженным чем-л., подходить; cord – шнур; to load – утяжелять, нагружать; to hook – подключать (свет, газ, телефон); headphones – наушники; skip – прыжок, скачок; bump – глухой тяжелый удар; anti-shock – противоударный; Backward – назад; Boost – добавочное напряжение; Random – выбранный наугад, случайный; беспорядочный; zipper - застежка-молния.