( 29 reviews )
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Posted: Aug 15 2009
I was looking for a luggable boombox that produced good audio and could be used in the living room for a time (to replace my stereo after my audiophile Dahlquist speakers died), and for my wife to use in the kitchen when she's cooking, and for the occasional barbecue. I was actually prepared to spend up to around $400 to buy a high quality item. But I found out that such a thing does not exist. My laborious "research" settled on this Sony. The biggest challenge for anything with small speakers is to produce a decent bass note. Bass notes are felt as well as heard, and the speaker has to move a lot of air. Since this boombox made a special point of having a dedicated "power woofer" I thought that this one was my best shot. This turned out to be true. The specifications say 20-20000Hz (+1/-2dB), which at the bottom end is serious subwoofer performance. I just don't believe that. However, it is decent. When you put the power woofer on, a bright red light ring comes on. If anyone has instructions on how to drill a hole in the cover and snip that light source out of the circuit, please tell me in a comment here! Overall I'm happy with my purchase. It's 5 stars for value, but I docked it a star owing to several utterly stupid design annoyances. I have put up a picture above, of this thing sitting on a standard 88 key piano keyboard, so that you can get an idea of its size. The left of the player is lined up on middle C. I've added several size referents, including for your amusement what was once the standard but is now politically incorrect -- a packet of c*g*r*tt*s. I don't know why that other guy put up 19 useless close-up pictures as if this player was some kind of piece of art. Pros: 1. Very nice sound. I'm listening to Cecilia Bartoli's Mozart arias as I write, and it's good. I tried out a CD of test frequencies of 40Hz to 15000Hz, and they all did well. There was an uneven kind of rattling at 40Hz. It could have been the Sony plastic resonating, or the whole shebang rattling on the table. I didn't pursue the matter, and I did not crank it up to see if it would shake the walls, as on a thing this small you risk blowing the cone out... I'm happy to get some decent bass. When I put rock 'n' roll on, it sounds good. I listened to Bach's Goldberg variations (quite spare solo piano) and it was surprisingly crisp -- I'm completely satisfied. 7. Radio fine on nearby stations. I live near San Jose, CA, and I listen to several weak stations like the UC Berkeley radio station 40 or 50 miles away. It get's them fine also. But I have not done a serious radio test. 3. Many features that you don't need me to list, like mp3 capability, aux-in, etc. Cons: 1. Hideous, and embarrassing for a grown-up to be seen with. Everyone has a dig at me when they see it, though my son's college friends say it's cool (perhaps with a tinge of irony?). 2. Top slopes downward to the back, and so you cannot rest CD's on the left side, where the cassette tape player is. This might make it look racy, but since this beast takes up a lot of horizontal area, it is quite annoying. You can see this in one of my pics. 3. The LCD display is so ludicrously small (roughly 1" square total) as to beggar belief. And it's not lit. Very hard to make use of. 4. On my first day with it, during silent patches of the Goldberg variations, I could hear the CD spindle squeaking. I could not bear the effort of sending the monster back, but I am avoiding playing that CD until I stop caring about my new purchase! Maybe it's stopped? Maybe it was just my example. You can't hear it with a normal music CD. If you had it by your bed and listened to quiet music as you drifted off, it would drive you mad. The point is that this is not an expensive thing, and it's somewhat cheaply made, so don't expect something fancy. 5. The CD player is top-loading. If you press the pimpled corner while it is playing, it springs open and the spinning CD rattles around furiously. Let's face it, there are oodles of reliable loading mechanisms on $20 CD drives, so there is no justification for this. 6. Infuriatingly, there are no painted marks on the CD buttons -- only an indented triangle or square for example, so it's hard work to see which button you want to press. Now you know why I have thought I'd stopped the thing and opened the top while it's playing... I solved the problem by putting a bit of my wife's (light colored) nail polish into the indentation. Summary: Somewhat shoddy finish. But great sound for a boombox, and for that price. If this is the sort of functionality you are looking for, I recommend it. I would buy it again tomorrow.
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Posted: Aug 1 2009
Everything is great - design, sound and radio. Fantastic quality of the sound, radio stations are clear and easy to set. This boombox is bigger and heavier than I expected but it worth every dollar I spent on it.
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Posted: Jul 3 2009
We bought this boombox primarily to use by the pool. It is large, great sounding with strong bass and loud. The portability allows us to use it elsewhere including the garage. Will not use cassette, but radio and cd/mp3 are very good. Also like the mp3 input jack and its location near the bottom of the unit (set the Ipod next to the boombox on the table). The red light around the woofer is bright, but I think it looks kind of cools, especially at night. Would definitely buy again/recommend.
