Although you can get more expensive units (£200+)that can store 6 gigabytes of music with no moving parts, mp3/cd players like this Goodmans are aimed more at the budget listener who's sufficiently technologically savvy that they know they can get up to a dozen or more MP3 albums onto a single CD and wants to be able to listen to them on the go. Like a lot of people, I've been slowly transforming my collection of several hundred vinyl albums into digital format, and in many ways this player is the ideal choice for such a situation.
On the hoof, cd's with MP3's recorded onto them play almost perfectly, with only the occasional skip or jump experienced when walking at a normal speed around town, with the unit stored in a rucksack. The story's not so good, however, with regular CD's. These tend to bounce around like crazy, making for an irritating and frustrating experience. To my knowledge, this discrepancy between MP3 and regular music tracks is down to a technical issue concerning the way such readers read the information off the cd.
So if you're looking for a cd player to use on the go with regular cd's, forget it. So why not just buy a portable MP3 player
Because of the amount of info you can get on a disc, dummy. Battery life is only about 2 hours with an MP3 disk, but you can easily pick up a pack of 4 budget rechargeables for less than a fiver these days. Plus - get this - the player RECHARGES THE BATTERIES FOR YOU. Yes, it's true. So no worries about buying a charger! Neat or what?
Sound quality is surprisingly excellent, with a second volume control on the supplied headphones. So if you want a budget MP3 solution and have the means to burn discs, this is a great little machine. If, however, what you're looking for is a regular CD player, look elsewhere.