Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This is a Sony boombox that includes a CD player, a tape deck, and FM/AM radio. It can also take in sound from an external source through a 3.5mm audio-in jack in the back. Sound quality is good for the most part, especially for the price, although expectations shouldn’t be too high. The bass is a little weak for me even with the "Mega Bass" on. I tried headphones and it did a lot better. The unit's about a foot wide and about 3/4 foot deep, which makes it a good fit on a desktop. One thing I like about the CD player is it can play CDs with mp3 files burned onto them, in addition to playing regular audio CDs. It's also got features like repeat and shuffle tracks, and even lets you create your own "playlist". Some of the controls were not obvious so I actually had to read through the manual. Such as, on an mp3 CD, you can change the folders with the Tune +- buttons. You can fast forward and fast reverse songs by holding down the track change buttons (the double arrows). The CD player does not have a recording capability. On the other hand, the tape deck can record sound from the CD player, radio, or the audio-in. The tape deck has one shortcoming in the lack of auto-reverse. This was not a deal breaker for me however, since tapes are becoming obsolete and I'll not be using the tape deck a lot anyway. I was able to play music coming off my phone connected to the boombox’s audio-in jack, but the volume was so low it had to be cranked way up. It’s also got a 3.5mm headphone jack in the back alongside the audio-in jack. The radio offers both AM and FM with 30 presets. The unit can use 6 C batteries if you are planning to take it on the road. Other than that, the boombox doesn't really come with bells and whistles. No remote, no USB port, no equalizer, no clock. One thing I wish this unit had was those flashing LEDs that some of other boomboxes have. They could actually be nuisance for some people, but my 2 year old son used to love the LEDs on our old boombox that kept him entertained. For the price of $49.99 however, I think you can do a lot worse. Compared to other boomboxes in the same price range, you can't go wrong with this one.