Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony ZS-SN10SILVER Compact MP3/CD Boombox with 10-key Direct Access remote control

I purchased the so called "Boombox" as a small CD player for my office. It works great. There were two specific features I was looking for in a CD player. First, I have Sony's Sonicstage software. Although the software is quirky at times, the best feature is the ATRAC compression. I've created CD's using this compression that can hold 20 full CD's on one CD! Because this compression is proprietary, only specific Sony CD players (including car stereos) can playback a ATRAC CD.

The second feature that I wanted was an aux input for my MP3 player. It's easy to hook up and the sound is awesome.

This boombox worked out perfectly and the price was great.

I had originally seen the Sony MP3/CD Boombox (ZS-SN10SILVER) on the Sony webpage. I liked what the webpage had to say about it and the functionality. The only problem with the CD player was the availability. I searched high and low and no one had stock. I finally found some available from Amazon and I was able to purchase it right away. I had had a previous experience with a different manufacturer of a CD boombox and that other brand was the worst sounding player I had ever heard. So when we received this Sony product, it was great to hear such rich sound. This was for my 10 year old son and it sounds great at a low volume and at a high volume. He was also able to use the remote control and figure out all the functionality. It is really easy to switch radio stations and set things up. Other systems are not nearly as easy. We have not used the MP3 functionality yet. We have to purchase a cable in order to hook his MP3 up. We are thrilled with his boombox and would highly recommend it over any system that you see in the local stores in your neighborhood. It offers alot and I am the most impressed with the great sound that it has to offer.

WOW! For under $100, this little gem serves well for a picnic, or a (small) home stereo...and the sound quality is REMARKABLE! I've lived with roommates with high end audio systems, and needed something that didn't disappoint now that I don't have access to that equipment. I can't get over the sound quality at this price.

And, it has a line-in for all your digital music needs.

I am very satisfied with this unit. It has great sound quality, and the mega-bass feature is remarkable. I have never seen such good bass in a small unit like this one. The FM reception is amazing; it even tunes into far away radio stations without the need to pull up the antenna. I can tune directly into my preset stations using the numbered buttons on the remote, just like a car stereo. It was able to read all my MP3 cds and I like the fact that it keeps scrolling the song title with short intervals, so no need to fumble with the remote to see what's playing. I only wish it would remember the last radio station it was tuned in, after I unplug it from the outlet. I'm thrilled with it, and highly recommend this boombox.

After much research over several months, I decided to purchase the Sony ZS-SN10SILVER boombox for my wife. The key features I wanted were
1) digital tuner for radio
2) CD Player
3) Good sound (I'm not an audiophile - just want it to be clear even at louder volumes).
4) Audio input so we can play songs from the family's iPODs and MP3 Players.

A Cassette player would have been nice for older tapes, but we don't have a lot of those so it wasn't vital.

As this model offers all of the above except cassette, is made by Sony, and had great reviews I thought it would be a winner.

When we unpacked it, it was larger than it looks in the pictures - I'd assumed it would be only about 6 inches deep, but it's more like 12.

The main reason for getting it was to listen to NPR on the FM dial. So we plugged it in, and tried to tune it in. Using the manual we figured out how to program stations - it's not intuitive, and I suspect we'll forget how to do this in future and have to return to the manual (if it can be found by then.) This isn't a big deal - just could be easier. You can add a text to describe each station as well and there are 25 or so presets. To get to a preset, there's a button that feels like a scroll wheel - you step through each pre-set to get to the one you want. Not as easy as having a set of preset buttons, but not a big deal either.

CD playback was very good - sound quality was very clear - the BASSBoost was effective as well. There are some equalizer pre-sets for different kinds of music as well as a manual option. Volume is increased and decreased digitally with settings betweeen 1 and 10 with 3 sub-levels for each level. a setting of 3 is reasonable for indoor listening, but you can go all the way to 10 and it's very clear - no hiss or other distortion.

Attaching my MP3 player with a cable (not included) to the audio input works well also, though playback was less loud than from CD.

After all this, however, we're seriously considering returning it. The radio reception is just horrible and as my wife and I are NPR fans, the key reason for this purchase was to be able to tune in and listen.

I thought a digital tuner would surpass an analog tuner in locking in the right channels - this has always been the case in the past (think of your car stereo). The Sony's tuner picks up a lot of interference, and no amount of antenna adjustment was able to overcome this for the main NPR station. Even other music stations that have strong signals in the area came in poorly, with varying degrees of hiss.

After trying several parts of the house I decided to see if the FM radio on my MP3 player, fed through the Sony's Audio In port would work any better. To my surprise this picks up the NPR station fine with no interference. Switching between the two (Radio Tuner vs MP3 via Audio In) clearly showed just how bad the Sony tuner is.

Ultimately, to be of any use as a radio, I'd have to have the MP3 player connected the entire time - and that doesn't make any sense - may as well just listen to the MP3 with headphones instead.

So if you primarily want to play CDs and get good sound output - this is probably a good choice. If you want decent radio reception though - look for something else.