Alba PDC467

I bought this cheap alba cd portable as a stationary player to use at my desk. For an entry player I was initially impressed it featured a lineout port, bass boost and also played burnt audio. I was equally impressed with the sound quality. After replacing the rubbish included headphones for a better brand, I genuinely couldn't differentiate between the alba and an '£80 Sony.

Build quality is what you'd pretty much expect, an acceptable paint job without any rough edges. A basic but handy lcd and even metallic buttons which felt positive to use.Programmability options were fully featured- random , repeat, 20 sec intro- it was all there.

Unfortunately, as anticipated, that's as good as it got. The thing only lasted 3 weeks before it developed problems and started skipping. I treated the player with care, it was stationary most of the time. In fact the only time I actually moved it was to replace rechargeable batteries which lasted on average around 10 hours.

I attempted cleaning the CD lens with alcohol but this made no difference. Whether the fault was caused by the usage of slightly lower voltage rechargeable batteries, as oppose to alkaline, I don't know (the manual recommends against them). I 'd say that it's false economy to purchase anything from this company or others similar (eg; Bush or goodmans). Most of these entry players don't feature any kind of jog proof protection and the components are obviously pretty nasty. Even the slightest tug on the headphone cable causes them to skip- don't even consider using as part of a car kit.

I suspect this review wasnt worth typing but for those wondering, the prospect of a bargain is always tempting- it's fun to try new stuff out, not so much fun when it ends up in the bin and not even worth the expense of returning.