Hitachi DAP-771 Review

Overall Rating

- Good value for money
- Compact
- Sound quality beats players twice the price
- Good anti shock system
- Lots of extras

- Lots of extras
- Eats batteries
- Poor bass boost
- Poor supplied headphones

I bought this Hitachi DAP-771 portable cd player as a boxed set in 2003. It comes with a plethora of extras including AC adapter, headphones, passive speakers, car kit etc. The whole lot only cost £30, so i wasn't expecting fantastic quality. I was surprised to say the least. This player beats my old Wharfedale cd portable hands down, bass is crisp and the player has good progression throughout the freq. ranges. Treble is sharp without being piercing, and compliments the upper midrange well even at high volumes. The only part lacking in the sound is the lower midrange, which on my Aphex Twin CD missed a lot of detail between high bass and high mid. The supplied headphones should be binned at all costs, they are in ear but have foam on them. They sound like the foam was added as a quick fix to the harsh treble rather than being a design feature. Bass is slow and misleading. The passive speakers aren't up to much either but thats to be expected.
Overall i feel this player is a class leader in the budget portable market and even without the fairly useless extras is well worth the £30 asking price.