GPX C3948BI Ultra-Slim CD Player with 40-Second Anti-Shock Protection and Car Kit

Features GPX C3948BI Ultra-Slim CD Player with 40-Second Anti-Shock Protection and Car Kit

Amazon.com

You may not be familiar with the GPX C3948BI CD player, but it's a great unit and definitely worth your consideration. It's loaded with useful features, such as 22-track programming and random and repeat play modes. It comes with an adapter kit that lets you plug the player into your car's cassette player for tunes on the road and a six-digit LCD that shows the track number and time counter. And there's an impressive 40-second antiskip buffer, which GPX calls an Anti-Rolling System, to keep your tunes from jumping forward when you nudge the player.

The C3948BI itself is impressive for the price. It handled the tremulous, high notes of Dmitri Shostakovich without sounding shrill, and it delivered the thumping bass line of a Cowboy Junkies song without sounding muddy. The bass boost switch didn't produce the kind of bass you can feel, but for our taste and for a portable CD player it sufficed. At a midrange volume level we detected a slight hiss, but when we adjusted the volume up or down it went away.

Try as we might to foil the Anti-Rolling System by vigorously shaking the player, we couldn't get the player to skip while the antishock was engaged. Then we dropped it on the floor, and to our surprise this plastic clamshell-style player held together nicely. We found the controls sensibly placed, and the buttons big enough and easy to push.

Our one disappointment with the GPX C3948BI was its headphones. While they look sleek enough and have an inline volume control/remote, they were uncomfortable and produced weak sound. In fact, using a different pair of headphones, we discovered that the player was capable of better sound and higher volume than was detectable using the ones supplied. Otherwise, we found the GPX C3948BI a very satisfactory portable CD player. --Cintra Pollack

Pros:

Nice features for the price
Good antiskip protection
Delivered both high and low notes with pleasant clarity

Cons:

Slight hissing sound at midlevel volume
Uncomfortable headphones with poor volume output
No resume feature

ASVOLOVA

Wednesday, March 20, 2013