Audio Reviews

I love my little Sony Walkman (WMSR1)tape player and recorder. It's compact in size, but big on sound. It has numerous useful functions and looks great in black and silver as well.

I use it all the time. You can play tapes, record on blank tapes, or listen to AM/FM radio. The quality of play of music and audio books is outstanding. Every note, every word, clear as a bell(and in stereo) through the adjustable headphones it comes with. It's useful for recording important meetings, reminders to yourself, or your favorite radio programs. You can listen to it on speaker instead of the headphones as well, but doesn't sound as great. I don't get as good reception on the FM as the AM, but moving it around helps somewhat.

Other features included are a detachable belt clip,the microphone and a little stand(which may also be attached to your collar or pocket),"Mega Bass" which may be turned on only with use of the headphones and an Automatic Volume Limiter System(to protect your ears).

It's a great price for all the functions it performs. It's a good thing to have in emergency situations(as we here in earthquake country know well)and runs on 2 AA batteries.There are also easy to follow instuctions if needed, where you will also find a 90 day limited warranty and Sony's on line address for any questions.

Lots of good things come in this small package...enjoy...Laurie

I have been listening to books on tape on this player for three years. It's light and portable for carrying around the house. It's nice not having to wear headphones. And it runs for a long, long time on only two AA batteries. I highly recommend it.

I was looking for a mini tape recorder in order to use it at the University. My main search was for a product with a small and powerful microphone, and now I think that I choose the best choice. The sound I recorded was clear and almost without unexpected noises. Additionaly, the radio broadcast are easily heart. I recommend this walkman. I think you will never change your mind once you test it. Thank you SONY. You did it again.

Replaced a Denon 3200 with the Yamaha, and immediately noticed a substantial difference in bass output and channel seperation. It also blows the Denon away with DTS and DD listening options. I have an Onkyo, 2 Denon's, and the Yamaha (OK, I'm a Home Theater Junkie! ), and the Yamaha is now my favorite, and it wasn't the most expensive! My wife says that music sounds much better with the Yamaha than with the Denon it replaced. Definitely a 5-star receiver.

This is such a feature-ladened high quality Dolby Digital Receiver that is blows the others away! My last receiver was a Denon, but I will tell you that this is heads and tales above the Denon. This Yamaha receiver is able to accurately reproduce the Dolby 5.1 format in all of its glory fully enabling the expressive power of Dolby Digital!

This receiver is packed with quality sound and real punch! You will listen to incredible realism in the 5.1 channel configuration. Couple this bad boy with a DVD some Klipch Speakers, a good TV, Top Gun and your "good to go" Mav! A great buy!

Hello my name is cornelius tinderwitt,I am a retired insurance adjuster and tend to spend most of my time gardening and avoiding the better half, although which half is debatable.anyway to make along story short I've recently come into some money and have been in the market for a new pollen mask. It seems my dearly beloved( by who is any ones guess)mistook my old one for a coffee filter , and ever since then I've had to postpone re-tarring the roof. However I've just received my new mask in the mail and the world has revealed to me its hidden pearl once again. Thank you 3M once again I am in your debt.

Allergies are a killer, especially in the spring when so many home-renewal projects hit. Clean up the yard? Do a little woodwork? Painting? Maybe you're blessed with a lack of allergies, but I for one am often impaired by that sort of thing. So if you have to knock down the Scotch Broom that is infesting the yard, or some other high-pollen-count invader... one of these can be quite handy.

Well put together and a solid product. Glad to see Amazon carrying it.

If you've ever worked in a dusty environment, these little dust pollen masks are just superb, and often necessary. If you work in either an enclosed environment where there is sawdust, sand, drywall compound dust (the worst), smoke, hair, these little babies can be life-savers. I keep a few in the glove box, just in case there's a fire nearby or I plan to do some construction work.

These are, however, not good to be wearing if you are dining in an elegant restaurant or going to the opera. I have seen people cut little holes in them so they can smoke, though. This defeats the whole purpose of the mask, as they are brilliantly designed to keep out particulates and contaminants.

No doubt about it, everryone should have some of these around, just in case.

This is the cheapest stereo radio cassette recorder that you can get. The quality is excelent. It records tapes, plays tapes, record radio directly to the tape, records voice via flat mic (the one on the front) or other external mics (not included) and plays radio. Super Bass is very usefull. The real thing looks better than the photo on Amazon. Headphone is kinda big, but very good. I was going to buy a tape recorder only, but when I found this item at this price, I couldn't resist. BEST BUY !

Amazing little unit. I am highly impressed with it's versitily. There are very few cassette player/recorders that allow you to tape not only voice recordings but you can tape directly off of the radio. The stereo mic (which I also thought was included in the package) has yet to be found! The search continues....

Good value in a compact unit, excellent FM reception. The built in mike is adequate; however, the package stated that an option stereo mike was included, which it was not and so far I have not been able to find one. A drawback since I wish to use this unit on an upcoming trip to SE Asia to record ethnic music. Otherwise I an very impressed w/ this little unit.

I purchased this item with an extended 2 year warrantee through Circuit City. I am a voice performance/opera student and use it to tape lectures and voice lessons.

I have dropped it innumerable times. It has been thrown in a bookbag with overstuffed books over 5 years of undergrad work and now grad. work. I have even used two adaptors at the wrong voltage and fried the adaptors; yet the player works perfectly. One time it hit the ground so hard it partly came apart; but I just gave it a firm 'tap' and it fit back together just right. Other than purely superficial marring, my cassette player/recorder is PERFECT.

My lectures came out clearly enough to be able to study from them, and my voice lessons do not have a significant amount of distortion, so I have a catalog of years of study with fairly high quality recordings (not audition quality obviously).

I am especially fond of the speaker function, where I can play it out loud if I am in private and not have to use headphones. Also, the "pause" function would be great for students like me who don't have time in their lives to baby their stuff; if it goes off in your bookbag, nothing plays or records, it is just in perpetual "pause" and seems to use much less battery power. I also LOVE the battery sensor, which tells you how much battery power you have left.

The only downfalls I can note are that the reverse and fastforward buttons are not marked clearly enough.

It's a handy tool for students. This portable recorder is well equipped for the contemporary student and with the auto reverse/playback capability, it is second-to-none in performance.
I have one, and would like to replace it for my academic use.

Good looking, easy to use, andthe sound is perfect - and I wear hearing aids! The tape recorder works exactly the same as it does on a normal size table model and the playback sounds exactly like the original. Using the microphone was simple with excellent results.I was delighted with my Alwa!

I am a teenager, and you know how teens like thier music. I just got the system and i am already falling in love with it. It has a whole @#$! load of bass and is very clear. I highly sugest it. 3 thumbs up. LOL

This is an Awesome system to own. What attracted me to this item was that is was compact and consisted of all the features I was looking for like the 5 cd changer, high wattage, woofer and surround speakers and the digital feature. The price was within reason and you will get plenty of listening pleasure. The bass and the sound are excellent. I highly recommend this product. You won't be disappointed.

Real audiophiles will likely laugh at me for saying this, but I have never had a really good stereo before and I wanted to treat myself (of course, if I had waited 10 days I would have gotten it at the new lower price). This system is a dream. It is easy and fun to use and it sounds GREAT!! I had the whole house vibrating when the volume was only set halfway to max. I really thought it was a great buy and now that the price is lower it should be harder to resist.

This seems like a very good microphone, but there were NO directions in the box! NO website on the box, NO phone number on the box. A google search brings up the website for Audio-Technica, but why should a customer have to go through that to find out who they are???? There are a few sketchy directions on the box.....Only complaint so far: when you put in the battery and try to replace the little plastic lid over it, it is hard - maybe impossible - to get the lid to close securely (may have to tape it over the battery) I played with it for an hour.....So they need a better-fitting, easier-to-replace lid over the battery compartment......Otherwise, I would recommend this.

This microphone is uniquely designed and lays flat on your desk. It doesn't have to be near your mouth to pick up the sound clearly. Unlike other microphones, especially the kinds with stands and a stick, this microphone does not get knocked over, turned away, or have to be adjusted. I use this microphone to have voice conferences while playing games like Planetside. So far, this is the best microphone I've ever had!

This is the best mic! It is a good shape, easy to use, simple, small, good quality and perfect for any home mic use! I LOVE mine!

I have no complaints. I studied the features before I bought it
and had no surprises. It does what I intended it to, and doubles
as a body mic when wanting to record some schmuck running his/her mouth. Use Ni-MH Rechargable batteries and save. Maha
Energy makes a couple of great AA/AAA rechargers, and when you have as many AA/AAA toys as I do, it is cost effective. Smart Chargers are the way to go. (auto shut off, then trickle)

I bought this product just a few hours ago. I asked the manager at the store if I could return it if I was not satisfied. Well, to tell the truth, I am so satisfied that I think this is worth more than the $ that I paid for it. I can pick up loud noises almost 4 rooms (in a house) away and I can easily pick up regular voices from 25-30 feet and have near perfect clarity. It gets a little softer as you move further away but it is definately a good investment.

The product answered to everything that waited. I was looking for a recorder to use in the university and to record the classes, Sony ICD-BP150 simply surprised me, the quality of the sound is incredible, same when we used in way LP is perfectly audible. The time to record in high quality were enough to record the classes. I already used the recorder in way LP to record seminars and the recording was very good, the resources as Index, Bookmark is very good to organize the recordings as well as the 5 Folders (A,B,C,D,E) that use to divide the matters that I record in the classes, puts each matter in a different folder and I transfer for the computer. I can maintain like this all of the organized classes in folders for subsequent study.
It is very comfortable of to handle and to transport, I already got used to carry it.
The software that accompanies the recorder, transfers the files in a very fast way for the computer, where we can still get better more the quality of the recordings.

I concurr with most of what the others have written here. The STR-DB930 is very well built and a bargain for the price. The STR-DB830 also deserves consideration. The receiver's amp has low distortion across 5 channels at full audio bandwidth. The RCA connectors on the rear of the unit are gold plated (a nice and unexpected touch). I recommend that you investigate the price/value offered by this receiver if you are considering a home theater purchase.(www.oade.com) supports DTS (see www.dvdexpress.com for a selection of DTS audio-only disks) and Dolby Digital decoding.

Regarding the remote, I really like it. Of course I have all Sony components save for a tape deck so my system is pretty integrated. When you consider Sony's S-Link function this integration becomes really attractive. Imagine having one's non-technical spouse simply putting a DVD in the DVD Player and having the TV turn on automatically and switch to the proper input and also having the Receiver turn on by itself and switch to the correct DVD input and audio decode mode. You can't get more turn key than that and that is what Sony's S-Link is designed to deliver.

The remote is back lit, and the two-way feature is great because it actually can tell you what mode the Receiver is in when you manipulate the remote.

Build quality is great, you will need to make sure the unit has good ventilation as it does generate heat but I don't consider that to be unexpected given it's size and power capacity.

One thing I was dissapointed with was the analog recording of the digital feed. I was trying to make a cassette recording of a CD for use in my car. When you feed a digital source into the receiver you cannot make an analog recording of it (though you can make a digital -DAT- recording of a digital source). I thought this was a little silly since once out of the DAC it still has to propagate the signal to the pre-amp in the receiver. Still, I was able to make an analog recording of the analog signal put out by the DVD/CD player and it sounds great.

Another helpful feature was the multi-channel decoding indicator. This is a bright blue LED that lights up when the receiver is doing what you bought it for, producing that GREAT 5.1 sound put out by DVDs with a Dolby Digital audio track. When I first setup my DVD/Receiver combo the sound wasn't there. I needed to manually configure my DVD to ouput a digital Dolby Digital and DTS signal (maybe someday this will be the default mode). It took me a while to figure it out but when I did, wow, the sound was incredible and the blue indicator on the receiver was comforting visual feedback. Some DVD media is setup to automatically output a straight pro-logic signal unless you manually select the DD or DTS track. If I start playing a DVD and the blue light is not on I know that I need to make the selection manually. (Fortunately this is becomming less common as most DVD players will look to select the track with the most channels automatically but the DVD media needs to be made compatible with this process by the publisher)

If you are considering a top end STR-DE series receiver I would recommend you get one of the STR-DB units instead. They are far supperior and not much more $.

Sony isn't known for their receivers, but the STR-DB series seem to be the exceptions. They are build extremely well (they weight a ton) and have very high quality components. I recently got this receiver to complete my home theator system and couldn't be more pleased. The power is extreme (I've never moved the power past 4, and that was incredibly loud, yet it doesn't go to 11!) but the sound is extremely clear to my Paradigm speakers. It has more inputs that you can shake a stick at, and automatically detects the sound mode when I play DVD movies. Movies are incredible when played from a DVD, and the sound is just like theators.

The only drawback to this system is the remote, which is a fancy two-way one. It comes programmed to work with most components, but this doesn't seem to include my Pioneer DV-05's menu or cursor buttons, which make it almost useless for it. Unfortunatly since it's a two way remote, if I wanted to replace it, I'd have to spend alot for one of the fancier remotes. If my components had been supported the remote would have been excellent however, so your results might vary.

Overall, this (and it's little brother the STR-DB830) is probably one of the best receivers you can get for the money.

If you want it with multi room capability go with this one, otherwise the DB830 is a better buy. Looks and sounds a lot better than the DE series. I'm not a big fan of SONY(receivers) to be honest, but the sound,features,looks and the way this receiver was constructed is to good to pass up and it's an outstanding receiver for the money! I could'nt ask for more, i don't miss THX cert. at all. i just hope there are lots of DTS DVD's out there.

This walkman is awesome! It's sound is un-matched! The headphones are really cool! The only problem with it is that the radio stations do not play very well. I have to constantly move the walkman around to get a good perception. If you don't care about the radio feature, but need to play your tapes, go for this one!

I have two older model Walkmans and I dropped both of them by accident and the cassette tape player feature no longer works. To my surprise, when I went to several local stores, I couldn't find a similar Walkman for sale. I guess with the i-Pods and other new technology, the tape players are being phased out. I bought a newer model Sony Walkman at Target and the sound quality of the tape was so awful I took it right back. These players that only use one battery have terrible sound quality I've found. The FM radio stations had terrible reception, too.

I found this Sony WMFS499 Sports Walkman for sale here on Amazon.com and purchased it and I love it! Since I use my Walkman for walking and running, I need a durable player that can withstand being dropped and getting damp in the rain, and the case on my new player seems indestructible. The sound quality of both the FM radio and tape player are fantastic! I decided to buy another one to have as a spare in case I lose this one. That sounds kind of crazy, but having a good tape player for exercise is important to me and I don't want to ever risk being without my Sports Walkman.

Bought this because my previous Walkman died after many good years of service. Nothing lasts forever and my old one took many a bump and drop. So I approximated this model would be a good replacement. I was right. It's a nice heir to the line of Sports Walkman's. Like the clasp, the lap counter is a nice feather and the mega bass really helps with the right music. This is a fine product. You will not be disapponted.