what's the best portable cd player?

[Bolero]

I bought an inexpensive panasonic portable cd player about a year ago, now it skips like crazy & will only play properly if I stand it up 90 degrees. laying flat it skips.......even though it's supposed to have a 40 second buffer.

I'm also curious about the whole "anti-skip" concept.....I seem to remember reading that the buffer works by compressing the audio, storing it & playing it back, much like an mp3.

are there portables out there with anti-skip that don't compress the audio?

thx!

[-=Rudy=-]

My Panasonic has two anti-skip settings...they warn of degradation when using the longer buffer setting.

[Dan C]

I believe Sony has made or still makes an anti-shock system that physically absorbs shocks rather than compress the audio.

Dan C

[-=Rudy=-]

As cheap as memory is, there's no real need to compress it. I would like to find out if my Panasonic compresses the audio in its lower anti-shock setting or not. The only thing they warn about is the longer anti-shock setting degrading the sound. To have it switchable, on or off, is nice. Since I don't subject mine to any more shock than what you'd find on the front seat of a car (in a cushioned case), I have no need for 45 seconds. Then again, I'm using mostly MP3 CDs in the car anyway....moot point! ;)

[SVL]

In general, if I was buying it today, I would get a portable that can:

play CD-R and CD-RW
play MP3 CDs

has a defeatable anti-shock system
has no or defeatable AVLS (unless I was buying this for a child).

Then I would immediately replace the included headphones with something decent from Koss, Sony etc.