This machine comes is teen-friendly colors—Disco Yellow, Pulse Red, and Move Blue. I’m talking BRIGHT colors with lots of gray/silver and white is swooshing patters (think athletic shoes and sporty). It’s very oddly shaped—like a boombox that’s been squished to fit in a smaller space, and actually, that’s sort of, what it is. It’s an alarm clock with all the trimmings—digital AM/FM Radio, cassette player/recorder, CD player and with the added features of a remote control and MEGA BASS. This was purchased to replace my weak first attempt at a new clock/radio for my son (http://www.epinions.com/content_111044169348). This one has absolutely everything he was looking for and a few things he didn’t think of.

The cassette player was an added bonus—he’s been listening to books on tapes for years but has always had to drag an old player into his room which he set up next to his alarm clock and CD player—this didn’t leave much room on his bedside table! Now he’s got one machine and room to spare. Granted, if this one breaks he’ll be back to a dual machine, but we’ve had excellent luck with Sony’s in the past so we’re confident this one will last.

THE UNIT
It’s not huge, but it isn’t a tiny thing either. Bigger than your average clock radio at 10” x 16.5” x 6.5” and heavy! This thing, fully loaded with batteries, weighs over 8 pounds. Granted, you don’t carry this around on your shoulder, and I like a radio that won’t pull off the table when I roll over in bed with the earplug in my ear, so the weight isn’t a problem for us. My son doesn’t use an earplug so he doesn’t have this problem, but he likes the bulk and weight of the machine and believes it makes for a sturdier unit.

It has Sony MegaBass which people love or hate—I like it, but many people think it just muffles the music. Luckily, it’s easy to turn on and off so you can have it your way. The 4” speakers (there are two mounted near the front and off to each side) do a great job for their size—the only way to get better sound is to put on headphones or spring for a Bose.

It has a built-in antenna (AM) and a telescopic for FM (something necessary where we live). With the telescopic, we’re able to receive stations that before only came in during the day—this is a great improvement over all of the internal antennas we have around the house. It’s only 2.3 watts per channel—this may be a drawback for some, but it works for us.

RADIO
My favorite feature is the digital tuner with up to 30 preset stations 10 AM and 20 FM. My radio has 5 and some nights 5 just isn’t enough, ok, 30 is probably too many, I don’t even know if we have 30 stations here, but it’s nice to know they’re there should you have a use for them. Programming them is easy—search for the station you want to add and once there press and hold the program button until the sound “blinks”.

ALARM CLOCK
There are so many features they almost forget to mention that it does have an alarm clock. Wake to music/CD/radio or buzzer—the prerequisite sleep mode (timer which plays your media for a preset amount of time and then shuts off) are here as well. It doesn't have a dual alarm and doesn't have a crescendo alarm which is my preference (starts out soft and continuously gets louder until turned off). The clock/alarm functions are certainly secondary to the entertainment pieces of this unit. There is a real clock/radio that looks much like this one but the time display is much more prominent. We didn't choose that one because it doesn't have the cassette player.

CD PLAYER
This one is CD/CD-R/RW compatible which means it will most home-burned CDs. It has the normal CD functions--Program/Shuffle/Repeat , a 1 Bit D/A converter that is supposed to give a clearer playback, and 20 Track RMS Programming (so you can pre-program up to 20 tracks on a CD to play back in any order). We haven’t figured out if the 1 Bit makes a difference and haven’t figured out why we’d want to use the RMS Programming, so I can’t make a judgment on them—sorry. It doesn’t have anti-skip protection but then it doesn’t have a handle to carry it around either so it doesn’t seem necessary.

CASSETTE PLAYER
Record from Radio/CD or play pre-recorded tapes. My son’s a huge Harry Potter fan and has listened to all of the books several times. This player is a huge improvement over the last. It manages to leave out some of the hiss of a normal tape player—it’s not CD quality but then the medium can’t reproduce CD quality—it’s the best that it can be. It could be because this is a 4 track, 2-channel stereo cassette, the older one has been in the family since the kids were little—about 15 years ago, I don’t think they made them in stereo back then.

SOME FEATURES ARE JUST FOR FUN

Customizable LCD: Ok, three colors for the LCD display is very silly and something my son loves! You can pick a different color for each function—blue for the CD, green for the radio, Etc. All of the functions for that piece of your machine are displayed in that color.

Remote Control: I guess if you want to be able to access your radio from across the room this would be a great option, but everyone I know keeps the clock next to their bedside—what was Sony thinking?

BATTERIES
It can become portable by adding 6 C size batteries—this would be an expensive way to wake up every day. Using the CD player, you’ll run through those batters in about 7 hours—if you’re a radiohound, you’ll get about 20 hours. We don’t use ours as a portable so it’s plugged in 24/7. We did insert 2 AAA batteries in the remote to try it out and 3 AA batteries for the clock/alarm back up should there be a power failure.

FINAL THOUGHTS
It took a bit to get used to its strange shape and even longer to get used to the eccentric controls. They make sense after you use them for a while, but with so many functions, it just means more buttons. The way it looks is exactly why my son loves it. The sound is better than the average clock/radio but not as great as a full-size boom box. We expect this one to be around for quite awhile.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX
Power cord, remote control, user's manual, and warranty information. (Nicely Sony has replacement parts--that's one of the reasons we like them--several times in the past a boombox has become unusable because the cord was lost. It's simple to order replacements and reasonably priced).

Technical Data (aka the stuff I know nothing about but someone might be interested in)
• Digital Filter: 8 x Oversampling
• Digital to Analog Conversion: 1 Bit
• CD Frequency Response: 20-20000Hz, 1,-2dB
• Tuner Frequency Range: AM: 530-1710kHz, FM: 87.6-108MHz,
• Power Output: JEITA 2.3W/Channel
• Antenna System: AM: Built-in Ferrite Bar Antenna , FM: Telescopic Antenna
WARRANTY
1 year parts and 90 days labor



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 79.99