Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony CFDG505 CD Radio Cassette Recorder Boombox - Black

I ve always loved boomboxes and have owned dozens of them over the years. I have the Sony G55 that I still use,but Im always on the lookout for something bigger better and more powerful, and this is it. I tried it out in a local Best Buy, tuned to the local FM station and I was blown away by the deep bass and seperation. When you can notice that in a crowded store thats a good sign. I also wanted a line in for my portable dVD player and my roady2 from XM and I am very pleased.

I wlways loved the "virtual surround" on some of these but I couldn t find any unit with this kind of sound, virtual surround and a line in, but this sure comes close.

Only complaint is the lack of a lighted display,but I can live with that. With four different sound settings, the super woofer and a line in jack this is as closeto perfection I ve found in a boombox.

It may seem like this is just another boombox in a never ending list of products whose faces change each year. On the surface this unit has cheap plastic parts, a big ugly 'X', and a silly little display that is about as exciting as a clock radio from 1982. The parts such as the CD door could easily be destroyed by a one-year-old (meaning, the child would not find it very difficult at all).

So, why would anyone want this $100 hunk of plastic? And why was the unit I purchased the very last one on the shelf? And why in the world is it missing features like "MP3 playback", and includes archaic features like "cassette deck"? You've got me! Fortunately, none of this matters.

For the purpose I bought it for--plugging in a portable music player--this is the box that puts all the others to shame. For such a low price I doubt there is any product in the world that delivers this kind of power and bass response. Featuring 2 4" speakers AND a 4" subwoofer this unit is ready to churn out a wide range of hip-hop, dance music, and much more.

To put it bluntly this 20 watt system (4W + 4W @ 3.2 ohms, 12 W @ 4 ohms) sounds huge and is a perfect companion for a device such as an iPod. I consider this product fierce competition to some of the weak sounding speaker systems alluringly sold along side iPods. With a simple cable (1/8" stereo to 1/8" stereo, NOT INCLUDED) you can plug any portable audio device into this boombox.

Sony has successfully filled this corner for years, offering cheap boomboxes with good bass, and the very important "line-in"! Oh, and it comes with a remote control, plays CD's and CDR's, and has an AM/FM radio. It's fairly heavy and has a deep footprint: 20 13/15 x 12 7/8 x 9 1/2" (530 x 327 x 241mm). Despite any oddness, for this price I can't imagine being happier.

I agree with the review that is written underneath this one~ when you recieve it, it is not attractive and you wonder "Where in the world will I put this thing so it doesn't look like a space ship just landed from Venus?" But when you turn it on.... It just dosen't matter. It has the best sound I have ever heard from a portable and you will have no need to own any other type of stero. If your looking for a CD player, this is the one.

I'm 47 and I have owned alot of sound equipment in my day. This is a good sounding boombox with A CASSETTE PLAYER! When you are my age, at some point in life you must have owned vinyl records, 8-tracks, and compact cassettes. So if you're like me, you don't want to be bothered throwing away all of your tapes and replacing them with CD's. But what to play them on? Good luck finding something that sounds great and that you don't have to search used vintage stereo equipment stores or pawn shops to buy. Now this thing looks stupid, and I feel really old when I look at it (because this product was obviously meant for the younger crowd), but I can get past that because of how good it sounds. Not to mention that I don't have to replace all of my cassettes now. I cannot vouch for it's quality as I know things are made much more cheaply these days, but I plan on being very careful with it so I can KEEP MY TAPES and have a great sounding box on which to play them.

The boombox is freaking magnificent! However, there are two features that I wish the CD player had: 1. The ability to select specific tracks, and 2. The ability to fast-forward within a track. If those features were incorporated, it would be PERFECT!