Rating: 
Summary: my s2 has seen the worst
Review: I was deployed to Kuwait/Iraq earlier this year and decided to pick one of these up in the states at my mobe station before flying out here (I'm still here). I have a lot of mixed feelings with this product. I have also put this product through endless abuse and have a good idea of its downfalls.
The two places I use this player is indoors, in barracks but usually in a living tent. The other place is on missions, I bring this in the hummer or whatever vehicle I'm in to listen to music on long drives (since we don't normally get radios in the vehicles). On these trips, the system has to put up with hot weather ranging from dry to very humid, a lot of dust and sand (sometimes in sandstorms), exposure to sun, and long operation (sometimes over 8 hours in a day).
The system has mostly held up. Indoors, the sound is pretty decent and has some good bass. My biggest complaint with the sound is lack of eq control. On trips, with all the background noise and movement, the ESP holds up really well (hardly ever skips), turning off the bass-boost clears up the sound at loud volumes, and the jog stick works well. One problem that I have had in the past few months though, is that it starts acting up sometimes and will skip on any CD. It doesn't always do this, but there have been a few days where it just couldn't play a CD without severe skipping throughout each track. It seems to get worst on the final tracks. Indoors, it rarely does this. The headphone amp works great, I can crank up the volume pretty high on some high power consumption headphones with no problem. The jog stick comes in handy at night or when I'm not looking.By far the biggest problem is reading mp3 files and CDRs. My unit has read certain mp3 discs ok, but it has problems reading a lot of my mp3 discs. It also has problems with the slightest spec of dust. Even with some brand new burnt CDs it has problems. I have a Philips exp431 mini cd mp3 player, and it can read the same CDs much better. If there are any scratches, it can skip over them and will never skip since it reads the whole file at once rather than continuously spinning and reading like the Sony does. If the Sony gets caught on an mp3 file, it emits a horrible hissing and scratching sound and often locks up or freezes on the file. It gets annoying. If this system could read files like my other mp3 player and hold up on other CDRs without skipping, it would get 5 stars. I almost wish I bought the Philips mp3 boombox instead. It doesn't look like it can handle as much abuse, but I feel that their method of reading mp3s is far superior. The units took a lot of beatings, dirt, water, moisture, and heat, and it still works. If you are looking for a really tough CD boombox and don't care for mp3s so much, then buy it. Out here, we have seen a lot of other boomboxes and mp3 boomboxes from companies like RCA and cheap brands sold in the PX that couldn't hold up in the conditions out here and quickly broke.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware MP3 CD-RW faults
Review: I was surprised to find that this Sony box was not able to play a particular ordinary CD-RW with about 65 MP3s written on it. (It was able to play a different one with about 150 MP3s.) A much cheaper unit was able to play both CDs, but skipped, which was what brought me to look at this one. Loading the CD-RW with 65 MP3s caused the unit to spin up, show that it was reading an MP3 disc, count to 65, and then suddenly shut itself off when it should have started playing. Two different units in two different stores showed this exact behavior. I was unable to figure out what the difference was between the two CD-RWs that caused this to happen. Bottom line: buyer beware! This unit looks cool and the navigation works well, but it could easily end up disappointing you when you bring it home to play your MP3s. My search for a MP3 CD boombox as reliable as my Rio Volt portable player moves on...
Rating: 
Summary: Audiophile's Choice
Review: I've recently owned this, and so far, I'm satisfied with its features. I got this because of its latest technology: MP3 playable. This time, Sony has finally got it right by having this unit the ability to shuffle music when playing MP3s. This is what I like best because, no one wants to listen to MP3s in the same order all the time! I'm glad that this is now available in this boombox. Good thing I waited. I also like the fact that it displays the folder name and the song title (up to 64 characters) that is currently being played when playing MP3s. Mega Bass sounds fine, which is nothing new anymore, but still a must. I give this four stars instead of five because, it doesn't come with remote control. Also, this doesn't have a cassette player, but this is almost not applicable by many people now in these days of CD-burning. Overall, the sound quality is good, but it could be better.
Rating:
Summary: Great design, good sound considering...
Review: If you compare this box to others with the same compact size, the sound is superior. Considering the 4 inch drivers and no subwoofer, this unit produces pretty good bass. I've noticed that the speakers are ported at the rear, so placing the unit a few inches away from a wall or other flat object helps somewhat. Also the MegaBass on this unit is more useful at lower volume levels, similar to the "loudness" contol that used to be nearly standard on stereo components. I think this portable will appeal especially to two types of users. First, people who work indoors and want to listen to lots of their own music and can't pickup a radio station they like or have low tolerance for commercials. Second, this thing is great for those of us that like audiobooks. The resume function picks up right where you left off and you can pack some serious hours onto a CD. Ear shattering volume and window rattling bass aren't really a priority for these types of listening. Those who want to blast out a party with sound or work at a construction site etc. may want to look for something different, but for some of us this unit is perfect.
Rating: 
Summary: Beware of file names longer than 61 characters.
Review: If you record audio books etc. be sure to read inside the back of the instruction book BEFORE you buy. Under the heading "About "MP3"" there is a list of Sony Requirements for an MP3 file. One of these is "Maximum number of characters for a file name: 64 including quotation marks and 3-character extension code". Try and play a file with a name longer than this and the Sony will not even admit that the file exists. Unfortunately I did not read this until after the return period expired. Sony used to make fine products.
Rating:
Summary: Great sound for a small boombox
Review: Just got this today - it has great sound for a small speakers.
The megabass was good considering it does not have any subwoofer.
The bass port in the back helps. I don't know about the other reviewers, but I have experience with playing mp3 cds with different devices. This one works good. If it is skipping with MP3 songs, it is because it was burned at a faster speed. If you want good compatibility with other mp3 cd players, it is best to burn at 2x speed. I like the way you can stand it up. Perfect for the back seat of a truck or car. As for the person complaining about the brick power supply, it's because this will let you use a dc power adapter for the car and be able to plug it into the power port.
Rating:
Summary: They almost got it right....
Review: Like many out there, whenever I buy any electronics, I first look at Sony products. So when I saw that Sony had released an MP3 boombox, I was really excited. I ripped 10 of my favorite CDs at 160 kbits, burned them onto a CD-R, and raced down to [the local store] to check this thing out !
From a style standpoint, this player is awesome. It's lightweight, it looks cool, and it's real easy to carry around. Thank you Sony for creating products that recognize our desire to rip, burn, & play MP3 on CD-Rs !
I then placed the CD in the tray. It took about a minute or so for the player to run through the 150 songs on the CD and catalog them into its memory...no big deal, I can wait.
But when the sound came out of the speakers, I was very let down. The speakers that Sony put in this thing are very, very average. The sound is not full range at all. It's got Mega Bass, but you hardly notice that it's on. The fidelity doesn't compare at all to sound that comes out of my current Sony boombox, which is about 3 years old.
Sorry to disappoint folks, but I'd have to say "thumbs down." For [money] perhaps I would consider buying. But at [more money], I would expect much more from Sony. It seems to me that the price tag covers the cost of the Sony deign team to dream up its great design & MP3 compatibility...... you are definitely not paying for the components inside.
In closing, if you do not intend on turning this thing up loud to play at the beach or in your back yard this summer, this boombox, may be for you. But if you expect a full range of sound and want to crank it up at a party, look elsewhere. Hopefully as future generations boomboxes are released from Sony, they will improve upon this product.
Believe me....I'm bummed out that [less money] Oritron MP3 model sitting next to it sounded better....
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent CD/Radio/MP3 Boombox
Review: looks, plays, and works amazing, a must buy!
Rating:
Summary: so ,so Sony
Review: Not a bad unit , sound is so, so( only megabass control)good mp3 set up shows folders, files and name of songs ( what you labeled them when you burned the cd, cd-r or cd-rw)no cassette player, very light weight and stylish,if you have the bucks to burn the Sony has its place.
Rating:
Summary: Mp3 does not work that well
Review: Purchased this unit a couple of weeks ago and had to send it back. First of all the sound was only so-so. I was not too surprised since the speakers are of an average quality but i have heard better from similar speakers. The unit has a 10sec buffer for antiskip which was nice except when it came to playing my mp3 CD's it would skip the first 10sec of the track and start playng with the counter starting from zero. I tried several mp3 encoded CD's and they all did it even though they CD's would work fine on my Riovolt SP250. The replacement unit did the same as well. Close but no cigar!
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