After the
D-FJ401 CD/Radio Walkman I owned was retired out of wear and tear, I decided that the D-FS601 (the sports model of the D-FJ401) would be the perfect successor. After two weeks of having this player and a large amount of traveling with it, I can safely say that this player is a wise investment for heavy users such as myself.
Like with all of Sony's "Sports" line, the player is in a sturdy orange on white case which is plus over the silver of the standard line (and a big improvement on the old yellow/black sports scheme). The tuner structure of the D-FS601 is on par with the D-FJ401, same number of presets and same AM/FM/TV/Weather structure as well as the three "express" favorite station buttons. Working the CD player at first can be somewhat confusing, play/FF/Rewind is done by a little joystick at the top right of the player while to insert/remove CD's a metal latch on the side has to be pulled. However, I found little difficulty in using this after getting used to the structure of the player. The other big improvement has been the addition of a velcro hand strap that allows easy carrying when jogging or working out; when in the left hand it allows for CD control with the thumb.
If I could come up with one downside about this player, it would be that in designing this they forgot to put in a pause button. Yes, when someone is jogging the last thing on their mind is pausing a CD, but there are times even when working out when it would come very much in handy. However, this minus isn't much of an issue compared to the pluses that this player offers. The sturdiness of this CD player alone is worth the price, if that is a factor in making a purchase please get this as soon as you can.
