Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips MC50 3-CD Changer Micro System

If you like the design of this model (and I do!) than I would recommend to go for the Philips MC-70. After listening in the store to both this MC-50 and MC-70 I did buy the MC-70. Sound quality is great from both sets but with that extra power and the wOOx bass boost in MC-70 my choice was quickly made. Incredible Surround function makes a difference, it really creates spacious sound, even when you put the speakers close to each other.

The CD changer is OK after you get used to the system. I am used ONE tray with easy access to all 3 CD's but here they made the system smaller and you have to press TRAY 1, TRAY 2 or TRAY 3 seperately to access the CD's. This means you have to remember in which tray you have inserted your CD!

Tuner and tape works good, as in all sets.

If you want to use this set in the bedroom, Philips has a nice package of features:

- a nice DIM function for the display.

- clock and timer for waking up including a SNOOZE.

- SLEEP function to drift off.

All in all, great set for the den, bedroom and even the living room. If you put it in the living room, go for the MC-70.

I was in fact looking for the AIWA XR-EM71 unit but could not find one. Because I needed soms mini or micro system in my office I tried to look for an alternative in the same price range. I went home with the MC-50. The unit is beautiful and decent with light blue front lights. For the price you get a lot of options you won't find on other systems. There is a timer (you can use the system as a clockradio/CDplayer !), sleepfunction, RDS, 3 CD-changer suited for CD-R and CD-RW discs, RDS-news search, Incredible Surround sound, digital out, wooden speakers, remote control, plug and play, 40 tuner presets and 40 programming CDtracks, clock display function, Dim-function, tape recorder, subwoofer plug. The incredible surround option is a nice feature that gives the impression of surround sound. However I've found that this option is not always that good (depending on the sort of music you play). The RDS-news option interrupts the CD-player or tape recorder when a news transmission is detected and switches to tuner mode. At the end of the bulletin the system switches again to the last resource and resumes its last operation. It's a pity that this option works only once for each activation ! The CD-changer is a little noisy when changing discs but that's common with most CD-changers. Even expensive multiplayers make soms noise when changing discs (however the marantz multiplayers are as far as I now the most silent discchangers available: you hardly hear the discs changing !). The speakers are very well build and give a crisp sound. All in all I'm very satisfied with the MC-50.

A few months ago I went searching for a decent boombox or small sound system for my home office. I couldn't find anything I really liked and settled on a midsize boombox. After a week I was so disgusted that I returned it (sorry, Sony - the tuner was that bad!). I tried this system out in the store and was extremely pleased. It tunes in all the stations I want and then some. The tuner has a great auto station preset feature. The sound is excellent for the size - actually very enjoyable. It doesn't sound 'cheap'. It has good bass and treble (both separate and adjustable). The MUTE button is great to have when the phone rings. A readable backlit display, intelligently designed remote, 3-CD changer (1 gets old fast), tape player and other bells and whistles round out the system. It's beautiful too. All I can say is 'Way to go, Philips!'

I just bought the Philips MC-50 and I love it! Excellent sound quality and nice design. I bought it after returning the SONY MHC-MG110 model back to the store (the one that comes with 60 CDs, 150 watts...whatever ! it didn't cut it for me) because of the poor sound quality. I am very satisfied with my Philips MC-50, and by the way it comes with regular "treble" and "bass" buttons and no stupid preset equalizer settings.
Philips MC-50===>Great Quality, Great Design, Great Price

The Philips system is a great buy for the price, but does have a few drawbacks. The speakers are necessarily small in this class of equipment and, therefore, lack adequate bass response in comparison to larger speaker systems. The Philips system does have an output for a user supplied powered subwoofer, and I recommend that this be a serious consideration for a potential buyer. The setup for the tuner is quite confusing, and the automatic setup is totally worthless, so that the user has to figure out how to do it manually. The remote functions are also confusing.