A DVD player by any other name is... a great CD player!
[Note: When I purchased this to play CDs, it was going for $37 on Amazon (in 2009). At it's current price I'd be more hesitant to recommend it. In fact, in late 2014 Amazon listed a "smart" Sony BluRay player with remote and hundreds of sites (incl. Netflix and Amazon Prime) for $40. Given the problems I've had with a recent Roku, I'd recommend that purchase for DVDs (BluRay and non), CDs, and access to all internet streaming services (with the exception of Apple.] At first it was hard adjusting to the limited means of playing my old LPs, especially with belts on turntables wearing out, styli going bad, etc. But equally discouraging was the discovery that, with the exception of those cheapo disc-sized players sold at the drugstore for twenty bucks (made by GPX, Emerson, Coby, J-Win, etc., and guaranteed to last a week or two), the major companies--Sony, Panasonic, etc.--had given up on CDs as a medium altogether (young people rarely buy CDs anymore). So I was beginning to despair of finding something other than my computer drive for playing CDs. Then the idea came to me (slow and late, as usual). Why not look for an "ordinary" DVD player, if one still exists (it won't be long before even the "upconverting" models are history). This Sony is less expensive than the disc-sized portable players I had once used--and it's no more than the size and weight of 2-3 of those little frisbees. Incredibly compact, yet coming with an ample-sized remote and features like component cable connections (in addition to composite ones), compensation for different formats (4:3 vs. 16:9, video vs. movie), even a convenient timer button for determining the time used and remaining on an individual track or the entire disc.) I don't plan to use it with a monitor, though its size and weight would make it the machine of choice for travel--whether on a vacation or to the old tube set in the basement. It'll play CDs, MP3 discs, DVDs, and practically anything else you throw at it, and it's just passed a couple of road tests by playing slightly damaged CDs that had jammed my car's player. It's hard to square something like this Sony with the large and expensive DVD players that first began appearing just 6-7 years ago. It's a black, sleek sliver of a thing, but it performs with the best of them (perhaps even including some upconverting models). Unless you plan to upload all of your CDs as compressed files stored in your computer (I know someone who did so but can't stop kicking himself now), this item at under 40 Prime may be just the ticket. Read more
