Sony CFD-E95 PSYC Boombox (Red)

Rating:
Summary: NO DISC Issue with me as well
Review: We got the item 2 months ago and we were very pleased with it. Three days ago I received the message "NO DISC" while trying to play CDs. Any CD will give me this message, there is no such thing like one CD is the source for the problem. Interesting as well is that I went back to fry's to exchange it and there is 0 left on the shelves. I presume that Sony did re-call or if they were all sold many, many are still to complain...i will search for service in my area to take it for repair...what a hassle. --This text refers to an alternate option.

Rating:
Summary: One stupid "feature" ruined the product for us
Review: We got this to play tapes for our babies because it looks reasonably appropriate in their nursery yet has decent sound quality unlike typical tape players for babies.

Unfortunately it has this annoying bright flashing display that comes on at random times when the unit is turned off, e.g. at night when the babies are supposed to be sleeping. I'd imagine people of any age would be bothered by this light flashing in their bedroom every night. It flashes random colors for several seconds then the word "...HELLO." scrolls across the display. When it gets to the end it wraps around and for an instant it says "O....HELL" which is exactly what I'm thinking: "oh hell, the idiotic radio is flashing again; I better unplug the piece of junk before it wakes the kids".

IMO, a product that you have to remember to unplug after every use is unacceptable.

-Bill

P.S. Product developers everywhere take note: You have to wonder why Sony added this "hidden feature". Presumably it's to make the product stand out while on display in a store (but my kids' room at 2am is not a store) and to call attention to a useless "advertised feature" of this boombox: the display can light up in different colors (I guess it can be red when you're playing a CD and green for the radio and orange for tapes or something like that). Oh boy. My guess is Sony had a perfectly good boombox design on the drawing board, then some over-eager engineer came along and said "we can get red/green/orange LEDs for only 5 cents more than plain red ones" and it all went downhill from there. A plea to engineers everywhere: don't add useless features just for the sake of adding features. You may think you're showing off but you're just being an idiot. This could've been a good product.