Radio Reviews

To me, battery back-up is essential...

I purchased this great Sony CD/Radio/Alarm Clock for my office. It works perfect as an office clock as the LED display is rather large and easy to read from across the room. The radio gets surprisingly good reception and my CD's sound great. It's pretty small in size, so fits perfect on my desk too.

In fact, I like this little Sony so much, that I purchased a white one for home use. It's a great alarm clock that is easy to set. You can have two different times programmed in, which works out perfect for the days I wake up early to go to the gym.

If you need an alarm clock or a portable CD player, this would be a great choice.

this thing is nice. The nap timer and the 2 preset alarm times are especially handy, and the sound is surprisingly decent too. Well worth my 50 bucks.

I purchased this item because I do not like to wear an armband or have a radio clipped to my clothing while working out. I was disappointed with the reception - there was a lot of static, especially during movement, when the reception would go in and out.

I found it little disturbing when running (it was always bumping on my chest and hitting my polar chestband) but its o.k. while cycling I found it comfortable to wear than any other gear. good resistance to sweat, it was always wet of sweat and still working. like all radios signal faints when batteries weaken.

I spend many hours each week gardening. I looked for a portable radio and this was the only design that worked for me... This has tiny plastic headphones without padding so it's perfect for any sport, fits comfortably in your ears and it doesn't fall out. [this one is] so small and lightweight you hardly known you have it on. I've owned it so many years I can't remember when I bought it. Mine has been dragged through the dirt and taken quite a lot of abuse, it's all beat up but like the watch it takes a licking and keeps on ticking. Reception is still excellant,... The headphones have a short wire so you won't get tangled up in it, connects to a soft orange rubbery part in back (of your neck). All in all it's very well designed and I dread the day they stop making it because I see nothing else on the market that is as practical. I even clipped a little clock to the neclace so that's hanging around my neck now as well.

There are two things I will say against it. The neclace part has a soft fabric weave outer layer. It's not durable, one side broke loose and it's now drifted down have of the length... The rubbery coating underneath is thick enough to protect the wires inside of it, the outer fabric layer is just cosmetic.

The other problem is with the headphone wires. I have another Sony Walkman radio with a cassette player and it had the same thing happen to it's headphones too. If you accidentally tug too hard on the yellow wire it must do some damage inside so now one ear no longer hears sound. Back to good old electrical tape to secure the wire to the earpiece so it won't pull away from it. It's making a connection so I'm getting sound again. I suspect it won't last much longer.

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i lost two tapes, but i won't use it again. also, the radio stations all come in with extreme static, definatly one of the worst cassete players ever created, staining the sony tradions from back in the day when they made GOOD products.

I ordered the walkman on Monday, and received it Thursday. The machine came in perfect shape and was packed very well. We live in a rural area, and the FM and AM reception is excellent on this radio. The cassette player works very well, with the sound being excellent. The presets are a bit cumbersome to set up, but once you have them, they are reliable. I consider this to be an excellent product.

The Sony Portable Cassette Player is versatile, efficient and convenient of use in clipping to a belt or slip in a jacket pocket. Sound is excellent, tone and volume adjustable providing many hours of entertainment, words and music, cassettes or radio, FM or AM, personal studies and concentration in the privacy of your walk or wherever.

This item only goes two miles.They mite say they are good for skiing and hiking but the trees reduce the miles. thank you for reading this!

do not bye them

These radios are pretty robust, solid, and do their job well. They even work with headsets for Talkabout 250s (but don't try to use the VOX feature). An excellent value for the price.

I purchased these radios a month ago. The range of these radios is outstanding. The clarity is superb. The call feature is useful and so is the scan button. There are two buttons on the side this can be confusing. The top button is used to talk and the bottom is used to turn the squelch off. (So you can monitor very weak signals) At first it was hard to get used to, but after a while it becomes second nature. Extremely great value for the price.

I'm tired of replacing my boomboxes monthly (I do house renovations and always ruin my boxes with plaster and sawdust) so I gave the Wilson a shot.

It's a great design, with the whole sha-bang safe from dust and harm inside it's own gasket-sealed toolbox. The switches and controls are tougher than I thought they would be, too. All in all, it's well-enough made and designed.

EXCEPT for the sound! It sounds so bad, compared to other boom-boxes I've owned. The speakers are at the sides of the box, facing away from each other, and the sound is the worse for it, with all the bass phase cancelled out. And, injury to insult, it doesn't get very loud. I couldn't live with such crummy sound, so had to send it back.

This product got my attention when I first saw it at Sharper Image. You won't find it there anymore, probably because it was too expensive. The Jeep Boombox is pretty neat. It has what a usual boombox has, except it's shaped like a box that you can close, which is what really convinced me to buy it.

Pros:

Shaped Like a box for convenience

Has CD Storage of 6 CDs

Can be bought in 3 different colors

Is affordably priced

Cons:

It's very heavy

Takes a lot of batteries (if you even want to take it anywhere)

This boombox is AWESOME!!!!!! It plays CD, cassetes, and even the radio! It also has an extra spot to store CDs! If you need a new boombox, one that's easy to carry around, I wounldn't recommend anything but this boombox!!!! And you can even get it in colors, instead of boring ol' black or silver!!!

I'm tired of replacing my boomboxes monthly (I do house renovations and always ruin my boxes with plaster and sawdust) so I gave the Wilson a shot.

It's a great design, with the whole sha-bang safe from dust and harm inside it's own gasket-sealed toolbox. The switches and controls are tougher than I thought they would be, too. All in all, it's well-enough made and designed.

EXCEPT for the sound! It sounds so bad, compared to other boom-boxes I've owned. The speakers are at the sides of the box, facing away from each other, and the sound is the worse for it, with all the bass phase cancelled out. And, injury to insult, it doesn't get very loud. I couldn't live with such crummy sound, so had to send it back.

This product got my attention when I first saw it at Sharper Image. You won't find it there anymore, probably because it was too expensive. The Jeep Boombox is pretty neat. It has what a usual boombox has, except it's shaped like a box that you can close, which is what really convinced me to buy it.

Pros:

Shaped Like a box for convenience

Has CD Storage of 6 CDs

Can be bought in 3 different colors

Is affordably priced

Cons:

It's very heavy

Takes a lot of batteries (if you even want to take it anywhere)

This boombox is AWESOME!!!!!! It plays CD, cassetes, and even the radio! It also has an extra spot to store CDs! If you need a new boombox, one that's easy to carry around, I wounldn't recommend anything but this boombox!!!! And you can even get it in colors, instead of boring ol' black or silver!!!

This product does not have good FM reception. It will not receive clear FM signals from radio stations I normally listen to within a 35 mile radius. Otherwise it is compact, sound is good, nice features but very poor FM tuner. I returned this item for a refund.

This CD player has 3 ways to hear your favorite music, CD, tape and radio player. You can make mix tapes from your CDs or you can play mix CDs you made on your computer. This compact and affordable stereo system is great for any dorm room!

I bought one of these for use in my bedroom. The system has very good sound for a relatively small, inexpensive system and the remote works well - easy to find volume adjustment in the dark (by touch, not lit). Can turn up the volume sufficiently to fill the room without distortion. This is a very nice system where cost, sound, size, and portability are important.

Nice unit for a room or office.

The chrome finish combined with the 32,000-color TFT screen is a nice touch and ahead of it's time. However over owning this product for about 15 or so months I have slowly explored some of the features and made some disappointing discoveries. None of the "defects" with the device make it inoperable, however it just makes the Sony MEX-5DI irritating to own and the unit somewhat fussy.

Here are some of the problems in the sequence which I found them: 1) Two pixels solid blue (will not change). 2) Startup screen that used to display "Sony" simply turns on to a white grayish screen and seconds later goes from grey to bright white to the normal screen (repeats every hard and soft restart.) 3) When in CD mode combined with the "image view" of the CD jacket mode (the most complicated of the different available view modes) when switching source the image freezes. 4) Upon exiting the "Sound" menu, the screen freezes up. 5) The XM logo in XM mode disappeared and I can't get it back.

Most of the problems I have described are just irritants. Some problems can be alleviated by simply restarting the unit with a hard restart (holding the off button down.) However if you plan to compete with a $600 piece of equipment, I would probably pick a different brand. I spoke with their Sony customer care rep and they said that because I owned the unit past the initial warrantee I would have to send them $125 flat fee to look at it. Forget that... Talking to the Sony people was just about as irritating. I called them once about a year ago and again yesterday. Their answers apparently are canned off a flowchart. Most of the solutions involved resetting the CD player with the reset switch or turning the unit off which again alleviates the problem until the next time the unit freezes. For $439 I can buy the M9900 model which hopefully they worked the bugs out.

None of the problems I mentioned were enough alone to send the unit back, but for such a large investment, was a disappointment.

Let's start by getting the obvious out of the way. This cd player is gorgeous. From the chrome face and lcd screen, to the amount of features the Mex-5di offers, it's quite an amazing head unit. Cd/mp3 playback quality is great, but keep in mind that the Mex-5di has no built-in amplification, so for good sound quality you'll also need good aftermarket amplifiers.

The motorized cd tray is a nice touch, and coupled with Sony's G-protection, you'll never hear another distracting "chirp" of the cd skipping when you drive through a pothole.

Also nice is the ability to personalize your cd player with pictures and short movie clips. Sizing the movie clips for playback takes some work however, as the image cannot be over 64x64 bytes and cannot be more than 10 frames long. The Mex-5di is more flexible with still pictures, and will automatically size pictures to fit the display.

Most important to keep in mind is the fact that the short movie clips and slideshows will play back WHILE DRIVING, and it is completely legal for it to do so.

I do however have one complaint about this cd player, and that is the lack of a detachable face. For one, anyone who sees you drive by will most likely see your bright expensive cd player shining back at them. Sony did come up with an alternative method to deter theft, but without giving away what it is... let's just say it won't work, and without an alarm system on your car you'll spend a lot of time worrying about the safety of your cd player.

Also, I live in New England and in the winter the temperature in the car will often times drop below freezing. Without a detachable faceplate, the liquid crystal display is subject to the elements and it will freeze. This won't be a problem unless you turn the unit on while the temperature in the car is below freezing. When the Mex-5di's display turns on while the crystals are frozen, the rapid heating will cause the crystals to expand and crack, ruining the display. So remember to keep the unit off for a good 10 minutes while the car is warming up.

All in all, the Mex-5di is a top-notch cd player. If Sony came out with this same model tomorrow with a detach face, I would sell my Mex-5di and buy the new model. But as of right now, this cd player is hands-down the best on the market.

Very functional with excellent sound, clarify, and esthetics. Very clean look out front but lots of solid gear under the chrome hood here.
Use of MP3, CD and including the memory stick is a nice touch. Lot's of flexibility here.
Fun to take photos and download them for display. Doesn't record like Sony's most expensive model but why would you want to? For the additional $500 I would rather see see this unit include a LCD display for a in-dash roll out monitor for a GPS system. Also the ability to change the LED lighting from blue to green or red and an optional black to the chrome plated cover would be welcome additions. That said, this unit is top notch or it would not be residing in my Lexus SC400's $6K system. I hooked this Sony MEX-5DI up with Boston Acoustics' top-of-the-speakers front and rear with 2 ea. additional 10" BA sub woofers in the trunk. I used 2 ea. Extant X-series amps to finish off and power the entire system. Many people tell me it's the finest system they have ever heard. That pretty much speaks for itself in my view.

The nature sounds on this item were not very good. There was no was to adjust the volume on these sounds and the bird sound would wake the dead and scare them back to life.

This radio did a remarkable job in waking me up to the sounds of nature. It was a great buy and I recommend it 4 thumbs up.

I was looking for an alarm clock that would wake me up gently to nature sounds and this one is great. There are three sounds you can use: ocean, running brook, or birds. One previous reviewer thought the birds noise was too loud. I would say it is the loudest of the nature sounds but in no means does it scare me awake, like a true alarm would. It is easy to program and hasnt failed to wake me every morning on time since I bought it. I good buy for your money.

Perhaps longer...at least the worst in recent memory. Let's outline the basics

1. The overall design looks like a scale model of a digital billboard you'd use with a model train set - nothing Martha Stewart would allow thrown over her security fence much less invite inside. (Mine as of 5 Feb was White of a somewhat different shape.)

2. The actual display functons..dimmer, etc. are OK. The pain in the touche comes from setting the alarm. (assuming basic time setting is a one-time event - like breaking a bone.) My wife, a nurse, needs different settings and spends much too long next to the bed clicking the damn clock to get 20hrs past the last setting...

3. The Coupe de Grais is the GD alarm itself. You have the basic NORAD buzzer calling the pilots to defend the homeland - loud enough for two, non-connected rooms. (no dimmer here!)

And then the perhaps the Enron deal of the whole thing: the flipping sounds of nature. Perhaps recorded before man walked upright with technology developed during the period.
Ever listed to a crystal set? ...trust me it sounds better than this.

Summary: This is a real piece of S.... not deserving a slot in Amazon. I see this as a great item for yard sales in areas without power, as a fund rasing device for the Taliban Relief Fund, or to use as a testing device for mental patients ready for release - it comes with a 3lb. hammer to go with it. (the test of how sick they still are depends upon how long it takes them to 'kill the clock'.)

I didn't return it because we'll put it in a guest room especially when someone comes who we don't wish to stay too long. Good hunting - look elsewhere.

...The color is very nice, but it is definitely a lot lighter than in the picture. I would have preferred that the snooze button was either larger or a different shape than the other buttons to make it easier to find while I was still "half asleep." The nature sounds are a good way of adding variety to your alarm...but after some time they would get tiring because they don't sound extremely natural. The display can be somewhat difficult to read at certain angles since the numbers are facing you at a slanted angle. The quality of the radio feature is decent, but don't expect anything spectacular. This alarm clock does the job for me...I have woken up each time the alarm went off. This alarm is loud enough for most people, but, if you are the type who needs an extremely loud alarm to wake up, it would be best to look elsewhere.

this item is perfect no complaints at all