Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

As another reviewer mentioned this is not an Atrac player. This did not affect my score, however. The motor noise is the loudest I've heard from any Panasonic/Sony portable player; when the unit starts up or tracks a song, the noise can be loud enough to disturb my (sleeping) partner. When listening to quiet classical passages one can hear noise/hiss in the background which is not on the source CD. (And yes, I did turn off G-protection but that did not help much.) For pop/rock/electronic music this is not really noticeable. Sound quality is better than MP3 but not as good as CD players from 5 or 10 years ago. Highs seem clipped and bass is muddled. Be sure to read the instruction on how to change the optional settings. (Press display and play when nothing is going on.) Alas, the audio CD player continues to get pushed aside by the army of iPods and MP3 players and what should be a mature product has declined in quality but not in price. Update: With my Sony V6 headphones, I compared this player to my 11-year old Panasonic SL-SW404. Wish I hadn't. The DNF340 sounds so muddy by comparison, especially in the bass but even the highs sound clipped. (Both units were set to a "flat" sound.) Interestingly, the DNF340's sound quality was on par with my iPod 8gb Nano - we're comparing a commercial music CD to an MP3 - so maybe Sony really is consciously cheaping out components to the level of other electronics in hopes that people don't notice.