Can anyone recommend a small affordable portable CD player that's competent at tracking with a decent anti-skip buffer and handles the signal peaks. I want something to leave on my desk for listening to CDs at work without having to lock it up.
I ask because years ago I bought a portable CD player from Radio Shack that was really impressive for what it was and the reasonable price...we used to use them for source material thru the PA they sounded so good.
But as they're closing Radio Shack stores now I picked up a new Memorex MD6451BLK without warranty for cheap. What a total piece of junk. It tracks better if tilted somewhat vertical, and the musical peaks distort regardless of the volume setting. It sounds like the first analog preamp stage doesn't handle the full output capability of the DAC. Yet you can turn up the volume and get plenty of clean output if the material is quieter. And what's most frustrating is that this is an engineering error that could have been easily have been corrected FOR FREE if some dummy had ever just bothered to run a test disc with square wave thru it. I'm disgusted. This was "engineered" by someone who could not even set levels to match stages.
Maybe it's time to give up on the CD format and convert all my CD PCM to apple lossless or something.
This is the first CD player I've ever owned that I was really massively disappointed with. Junk.
I'll miss the convenience of being able to stop in at Radio Shack and pick up a common part, but their prices were never good, and their brand holds no respect.
On the other hand, the leads on my crummy old Micronta bench DVM were getting stiff and it has no modern features, so I picked up a handheld at the store closing, and I'm pleased with it after getting accustomed to it. It doesn't seem to react fast, but gives much better stable RMS readings and has a lot of nifty features like duty cycle and frequency counter. Of course it's not high-frequency with the stock probes, but it has the button to zero the probe resistance etc. Good switches and buttons, good leads.
I got some mediocre headphones at 40% off normal radio shack price, though I could get the same ones from Amazon for less. Which just shows that Radio Shack normal price was typically about 50% too high.
I ask because years ago I bought a portable CD player from Radio Shack that was really impressive for what it was and the reasonable price...we used to use them for source material thru the PA they sounded so good.
But as they're closing Radio Shack stores now I picked up a new Memorex MD6451BLK without warranty for cheap. What a total piece of junk. It tracks better if tilted somewhat vertical, and the musical peaks distort regardless of the volume setting. It sounds like the first analog preamp stage doesn't handle the full output capability of the DAC. Yet you can turn up the volume and get plenty of clean output if the material is quieter. And what's most frustrating is that this is an engineering error that could have been easily have been corrected FOR FREE if some dummy had ever just bothered to run a test disc with square wave thru it. I'm disgusted. This was "engineered" by someone who could not even set levels to match stages.
Maybe it's time to give up on the CD format and convert all my CD PCM to apple lossless or something.
This is the first CD player I've ever owned that I was really massively disappointed with. Junk.
I'll miss the convenience of being able to stop in at Radio Shack and pick up a common part, but their prices were never good, and their brand holds no respect.
On the other hand, the leads on my crummy old Micronta bench DVM were getting stiff and it has no modern features, so I picked up a handheld at the store closing, and I'm pleased with it after getting accustomed to it. It doesn't seem to react fast, but gives much better stable RMS readings and has a lot of nifty features like duty cycle and frequency counter. Of course it's not high-frequency with the stock probes, but it has the button to zero the probe resistance etc. Good switches and buttons, good leads.
I got some mediocre headphones at 40% off normal radio shack price, though I could get the same ones from Amazon for less. Which just shows that Radio Shack normal price was typically about 50% too high.