This GPX boombox gave me a good lesson not to pinch pennies when buying electronics. I got what I paid for... which was not much.

The Booooody:
It's a smart and sort of futuristic looking boombox, isn't it? The black plastic body is a heck of a dust-trap, though. You aren't supposed to use cleaning agent on it, but to wipe it clean with moist cloth... But like a black shiny car, the dust seem to seek this thing out.

The unit itself is small and quite light, which should make for a good portable boombox. The catch is... if you jolt it, it skips.... so there goes the idea of playing it while you and it are on the move. It does come with retractable handle and can run on 8 C-size batteries (housing at the bottom of the unit).

There is a headphone outlet hiding in the back.

The CD housing unit is on top with a rather ill designed hatch. Guys are advised to leave some nail on a finger to assist in lifting it. If you've got big hands (Men's gloves size M or larger) you might find it tricky getting the CD in and out of this thing without getting your hand caught in it.

There is something not quite right about how the CD fits in this contraption. About 33% of the time, if you leave the CD in after having turned off this stereo, when you power back on again and hit 'Play', the thing will go on a free spin and refuses to acknowledge anything on it. You'll just have to remove the CD, re-insert, and then it will behave like a rational CD player again.

That big round blue dial at the middle is really too brightly lit when the power is turned on. It isn't always easy to read what digital display is on it, however. The bigger track number/radio frequency is just easy enough to see (this gets harder with time as the dial plastic cover starts developing marbles), but the really tiny and thin display of what function is being used (repeat, random, etc) is really hard to see.

This unit is also a digital AM/FM radio with built in antenna. I haven't been using it in that capacity much, but when I do it receives the FM signals OK.

Playing music on it:
It plays commercial CD, CDR, CDRW, and MP3. It plays most of the things on my custom-mixed CDs with tracks sent from friends in Europe. The MP3 files usually play OK, but WMV files download from the net would likely not play. The stereo doesn't just skip these non-playing tracks, however. It would just pretend to be playing the track silently while I rail at Apollo (the god of music) for having hexed my previously pleasant listening experience. I wish I can tell you why some MP3 play and why some don't, but I haven't a clue myself.

Also, if your custom CD is holding MP3 files arranged in folders, it will skip the entire folder if you try to scroll to individual track. So you can't just play a specific track on a folder, but have to play all the tracks in it.

Sound quality:
There is soft but persistent humming noise from the player itself when playing CD. Usually I can easily tune this out during the day, but it is more distracting at night when there is less background noise... especially if I'm playing quiet sort of music... like a bel canto opera.

The sound you get from this unit is fine if you didn't pay more than $30 for this thing. There is no bass boost or equalizer. I play mostly classical music or opera on it. It doesn't remind you of being in a live auditorium, but at least the sound isn't scratchy or distorted.

If you enjoy louder music like the Beethoven symphonies or rock music, however, the sound you get from this thing will be rather underwhelming.


Some Other Issues:
This unit gets quite hot after playing continuously for more than an hour and then it'd starts skipping. When I listen to a 2-plus hrs opera on it, the final tracks would sometimes be skipping or it would just get stuck and replays a passage over and over. Unfortunately, a lot of opera ends with the soprano killing someone or herself... or just dropping dead from natural cause right around then. It gets rather surreal hearing Astrid Varnay dancing herself to death as Elektra over and over again on this stereo... As if that opera isn't already morbid sounding enough when played straight through.

Power cord outlet (120V AC/60 HZ) from the stereo is not tight (it can rock horizontally). After a while it starts cutting off power and it becomes a touchy game of working the cord to the right position in relation to the stereo before I could power it back on again. What is the right position? I don't know. It depends on the god of Boo-box's mood. And when the god of Boo-box is having a bad cord day, you're in for a very irritating experience.

Warranty:
There's a 90 days manufacturer warranty on the boombox (under normal conditions only (they don't specify what exactly this is) where GPX will repair or exchange for equivalent product for no charge. At least that's what the card that comes with it says. Unfortunately the darn faulty cord outlet problem didn't make itself known to me before it expired, so I couldn't tender this warranty thingy.

Overall, this is a good enough boombox for a casual listener who doesn't mind the persistent humming and skipping when hot antic, who will also be using this thing as a stationary CD player (since it reacts with real attitudes when jolted). Otherwise, if you can get a significantly better player for $20 more, I'd say go for that. This cheap player has aggravated me often enough that I wish I had gone for a more expensive but also more reliable and less temperamental boombox instead. It is a diva worth ditching.

This is my first review for the 'Electronics' category, and it is dedicated to CaptainD, whose Challenge Yourself 2007 is a write-off worth tackling in my book!

Recommended: No

Amount Paid (US$): 37