cd players and portable electronics are becoming more and more disposable commodities. neither panasonic nor sony's products are solid and reliable across the line. this is especially true of sony, among whose products only flagship (i.e. top of the line) products are built with the same care and quality that used to grace almost all of sony's products in the past. i'd recommend perusing the message board at head-fi.org to get an idea of some good PCDPs (portable CD players).