evans@mhuxt.UUCP (crandall) (06/11/85)
Matsushita has announced a 4.96" x 4.96" x 1.26" CD player to be marketed in the US as the Technics SL-XP7 this August (6/10/85 Electronics Week). They claim that the unit tracks better than the Sony D5 and is in the 90db rather than 85db class. Did anyone see it at CES or does anyone know anything else? I'm very impressed with the Sony units (I have a CDP-302) and was looking for a portable. The Sony D5 is neat, but the Matsushita may be better for the same bucks (they both list for $300). Steve Crandall ihnp4!mhuxt!evans
kek@mgweed.UUCP (Kit Kimes) (06/12/85)
I was able to see the new Technics SL-XP7 at the Summer Consumer Electronic Show. They had several working models that we stood in line to listen to. They sounded good but the background noise made any critical listening impossible. The earphones that they had them hooked up to were also less than top quality. The unit by itself isn't a whole lot smaller that the Sony D-5, but when you put it in the battery pack case, the total is quite a bit smaller than a comparable Sony unit. They call the pickup system the FF1 for fine focus single beam. This system features the new Technics Accu-Servo System which uses extensive digital circuits to achieve a superior level of reliability and accuracy that they claim was a problem with other single beam systems since the focus error signals and tracking error signals were derived from the same beam. This system is supposed to overcome that problem. They also tout their friction free 4-wire suspension which is supposed to resist physical shock better that the Sony unit. Another feature is their CCF (combined-collimator focus) lens. They claim that by supplementing the objective lens with a collimator function, performance is improved while reducing the size of the unit. I like the LCD display a little better that the Sony unit and it is programmable but I don't know how much of a selling feature that will prove to be. I can't imagine a person doing a lot of programming with buttons this small. It uses a 16 bit linear decoding scheme and 44.1 Khz sampling frequency which I imagine means analog brick wall filtering although the man demonstrating them and answering questions said he didn't think so. It comes with an AC adaptor and cables to hook up to your home system. The battery pack is optional. They claim it is good for 3 hours of playing time and it takes 8 hours to recharge. Hope this helps. Oh, one more thing, they probably won't be available until late summer or early fall. Kit Kimes AT&T Consumer Products Montgomery Works Montgomery, Il. 60538-0305 ..!ihnp4!mgweed!kek