Sony ZS-X3CP S2 Sports CD/Radio Boombox (White)
See it at Amazon.com for $499.99Average Customer Rating
(3.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
Most Helpful First | Newest First (3 out of 5)my s2 has seen the worst
I was deployed to Kuwait/Iraq earlier this year and decided to pick one of these up in the states at my mobe station before flying out here (I'm still here). I have a lot of mixed feelings with this product. I have also put this product through endless abuse and have a good idea of its downfalls.
The two places I use this player is indoors, in barracks but usually in a living tent. The other place is on missions, I bring this in the hummer or whatever vehicle I'm in to listen to music on long drives (since we don't normally get radios in the vehicles). On these trips, the system has to put up with hot weather ranging from dry to very humid, a lot of dust and sand (sometimes in sandstorms), exposure to sun, and long operation (sometimes over 8 hours in a day).
The system has mostly held up. Indoors, the sound is pretty decent and has some good bass. My biggest complaint with the sound is lack of eq control. On trips, with all the background noise and movement, the ESP holds up really well (hardly ever skips), turning off the bass-boost clears up the sound at loud volumes, and the jog stick works well. One problem that I have had in the past few months though, is that it starts acting up sometimes and will skip on any CD. It doesn't always do this, but there have been a few days where it just couldn't play a CD without severe skipping throughout each track. It seems to get worst on the final tracks. Indoors, it rarely does this. The headphone amp works great, I can crank up the volume pretty high on some high power consumption headphones with no problem. The jog stick comes in handy at night or when I'm not looking.
By far the biggest problem is reading mp3 files and CDRs. My unit has read certain mp3 discs ok, but it has problems reading a lot of my mp3 discs. It also has problems with the slightest spec of dust. Even with some brand new burnt CDs it has problems. I have a Philips exp431 mini cd mp3 player, and it can read the same CDs much better. If there are any scratches, it can skip over them and will never skip since it reads the whole file at once rather than continuously spinning and reading like the Sony does. If the Sony gets caught on an mp3 file, it emits a horrible hissing and scratching sound and often locks up or freezes on the file. It gets annoying. If this system could read files like my other mp3 player and hold up on other CDRs without skipping, it would get 5 stars. I almost wish I bought the Philips mp3 boombox instead. It doesn't look like it can handle as much abuse, but I feel that their method of reading mp3s is far superior.
The units took a lot of beatings, dirt, water, moisture, and heat, and it still works. If you are looking for a really tough CD boombox and don't care for mp3s so much, then buy it. Out here, we have seen a lot of other boomboxes and mp3 boomboxes from companies like RCA and cheap brands sold in the PX that couldn't hold up in the conditions out here and quickly broke.
(3 out of 5)They almost got it right....
Like many out there, whenever I buy any electronics, I first look at Sony products. So when I saw that Sony had released an MP3 boombox, I was really excited. I ripped 10 of my favorite CDs at 160 kbits, burned them onto a CD-R, and raced down to [the local store] to check this thing out !
From a style standpoint, this player is awesome. It's lightweight, it looks cool, and it's real easy to carry around. Thank you Sony for creating products that recognize our desire to rip, burn, & play MP3 on CD-Rs !
I then placed the CD in the tray. It took about a minute or so for the player to run through the 150 songs on the CD and catalog them into its memory...no big deal, I can wait.
But when the sound came out of the speakers, I was very let down. The speakers that Sony put in this thing are very, very average. The sound is not full range at all. It's got Mega Bass, but you hardly notice that it's on. The fidelity doesn't compare at all to sound that comes out of my current Sony boombox, which is about 3 years old.
Sorry to disappoint folks, but I'd have to say "thumbs down." For [money] perhaps I would consider buying. But at [more money], I would expect much more from Sony. It seems to me that the price tag covers the cost of the Sony deign team to dream up its great design & MP3 compatibility...... you are definitely not paying for the components inside.
In closing, if you do not intend on turning this thing up loud to play at the beach or in your back yard this summer, this boombox, may be for you. But if you expect a full range of sound and want to crank it up at a party, look elsewhere. Hopefully as future generations boomboxes are released from Sony, they will improve upon this product.
Believe me....I'm bummed out that [less money] Oritron MP3 model sitting next to it sounded better....
(5 out of 5)Don't Believe the skeptics! This boombox rocks!
I researched mp3 boomboxes for a long time before I purchased and decided on this one as it seemed to be the most stable. When it was finally released, I went to the local BestBuy and purchased it. Smart choice!! The unit has worked aboslutely flawlessly on everything I have tried on it. Even my first attempt worked wihout issues. It works great with folders, meta-tag info display, with several different display options. I personally like to make folders for each artist on my CD's, and this has been great for that. I've tried several different brands of CD-R, CD-RW all of them worked just fine. I've read post from a few people who say they had some mp3 cd's that would not play....I seriously believe they created their CD's wrong, as one guy said, his would not work on the store model, yet their mp3 cd worked fine. Granted the power transformer is a bit bulky, and the little navigation joystick...I think I would rather have push buttons, but small drawbacks. Overall, I'm very very very impressed.
(5 out of 5)Does exactly what I wanted
Very nice little boombox. Easy to haul around and operate. Sounds good although the MegaBass seems to have no affect whether it's on or off. Plays MP3s without a hitch. Has a random play feature which is very nice when you put an MP3 disc in with over 200 songs on it. You basically never have to swap the disc out unless you use it a lot. Radio works very nice. Pulls in stations in rooms in my house that other radios can't. I recommend this player without reservation.
(3 out of 5)Searching for a Marine solution.
I have purchased not one, or two, but three of these units! Each has survived in the harsh marine environment for less than a year. The problem always lies in the same two areas. The jog switch is not only difficult to use. It is the first thing to suffer from water intrusion. Why they would put such a device on a water resistant unit is beyond me. Obviously the seals cannot be made sufficiently water resistant. The second issue is where the power cord plugs into the unit. This is a standard plug arrangement, and not in the least water resistant. The metal portion of the plug remains visable upon installation.
Admittedly, the environment I use the unit is very harsh. I leave it on the deck of my sailboat where it receives light rainfall and ocean spray. I have been unable to find any water resistant unit other than Sony products. Sony used to make a Sports boombox that was yellow and extremely well built. It lasted me five years on the sailboat! That unit stayed on deck all the time. Even in heavy rainfall and sailed through a Tropical Storm while playing CDs!! It also came with a DC power adapter which is convenience for plugging in the boat. The new models do not.
The answer may be the expensive option of installing a complete audio system. However, that is expensive, requires wiring to be run through the boat, and, worst, requires putting holes in the boat to mount speakers.
In the meantime, I will purchase one more Sony Sports boombox because I like the price and the product before if fails to the elements. A hundred bucks a year for having tunes on the boat is worth it. This time, however, I am going to try the cheaper version without the jog switch, and treat the power connection with water resistant electric grease.