Philips AZ3300 Top Load CD Boombox

Rating:
Summary: Huge "bang" for the bucks.
Review: I am incredibly impressed with this product - so much so, I bought a second one. It plays mp3 files as well as wma files, which I didn't expect (wma, that is). The sound coming from the little box is beyond what I would consider acceptable for the money spent, and the way the remote is stored is really clever. NO COMPLAINTS at all, I just love it.

Rating:
Summary: Huge "bang" for the bucks.
Review: I am incredibly impressed with this product - so much so, I bought a second one. It plays mp3 files as well as wma files, which I didn't expect (wma, that is). The sound coming from the little box is beyond what I would consider acceptable for the money spent, and the way the remote is stored is really clever. NO COMPLAINTS at all, I just love it.

Rating:
Summary: MP3 and WMA what?
Review: I purchased one of these, primarily on the basis of one of the reviews here, which claimed the player would play wma or mp3 discs, which was a feature I would have liked. Of course, I was suspicious because no where else on the internet, in any other product review or description, could I find this confirmed as a product feature. I don't know where that reviewer got his AZ3300. So, short of the fact that my own AZ3300 will play neither mp3 or wma CDs, otherwise it seems so far to be a perfectly fine player. It appears to be well built, and looks and sounds good. If it wasn't for my elevated expectations, I don't see why it wouldn't deserve 5 stars. But if you expect this to play wma or mp3s you are going to be very disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Worth considering.
Review: I wanted a sturdy portable cd player to enliven my custodial route with loud music and language instructional CDs. My search started with a few basic considerations, namely that the player had to:

1.)be of durable construction, because it's going to take some bumps, get cleaning solution splashed on it, etc.
2.)have a remote that allows me to rapidly switch between tuner presets.
3.)come from a reputable manufacturer, which, generally speaking, is a company willing to guarantee their products for at least a year or more. In a stroke, the likes of COBY and Memorex were swept from the running. Later, dudes.
4.)be relatively inexpensive.

These requirements narrowed the field considerably, leaving me with the usual high-quality offerings from Sony, Panasonic, both Japanese, and also the Dutch electronics giant Philips. I chose the Philips boombox because of the favorable customer reviews and, of all things, it's appearance. Yup, I bought it because it looked cool. And when it arrived, it looked almost as cool as in the picture--heavy-duty rubberized carrying handle, funky elliptical design, rubberized bass ports in back, all suggesting a careful design process.

But there are flaws, such as the the small, hard-to-read display surrounded by a cheap-looking mylar-coated plastic "frame." That's dumb; they should have copied Sony's time-tested approach and gone with a simple but comprehensive gray LCD panel instead of having a couple of large numerals and two small ones on a muddy olive-drab background. The other major mistake they made was not grouping all the buttons together on a single plane. As it is, the layout is scattered and unintuitive. In the realm of industrial design, unintuitive is bad. But since Philips is obviously making an effort to build brand identity by making stuff look radically different from the competition, they have in this case made some ergonomic gaffes. Well, whatever. Maybe most consumers won't care. Oh, and there's no headphone jack--big, dumb omission there.

On the plus side, the radio tuner works well and is not as susceptible to interference as my old Sony. The remote stows inside the CD tray; that's an excellent idea. Build quality is well above average and very rugged. And the speakers produce relatively rich, clear sound that compares favorably with other stereos in this price range. It's no Tivoli but it's also half the price of one, and it plays CDs.

If you can live with the shortcomings listed above, then this stereo is a good choice.

Rating:
Summary: Nice and sturdy boombox
Review: Nice looks, cheaper than the equivelant Sony and does the job just as well. It's able to play my CD-R's and music burned from iTUNES.com (aac -mp4). It also has a nice little remote.