Home > Consumer Reviews > JVC RVNB20W MP3 CD Boombox with iPod Link

KABOOM is a great sound system. It has its flaws which include the total lack of a graphic equalizer. This is a heavy monster with all its batteries loaded. The KaBOOM carrying strap is more joke than anything even remotely useful. The speakers rock. The base is awesome. The presets are nice but I would really think customers would like the option to customize their sounds. Most folk like to mix sounds to suit their unique individual tastes and listening spaces.

Most of all I brought this particular version of Kaboom without its tape mongering cheap cassette recorder. Why should any customer spend good money for a woefully cheap badly designed cassette tape shreading beast like those I have seen in the Kaboom series.

Granted some of the higher priced models have other options some will find useful and by all means buy those units for the other bells and whistles you might want. I am just saying if all you want is a good portatble system that reliably plays CD's, MP3's, Radio's and does other basic things this is all the Kaboom you should ever need. I strongly suggest you avoid the Kaboom series of systems if you are big into listening to cassette tapes because, I have lost too many of my awesome tapes using Kaboom's to mention. I love the Kaboom sound but, I was thrilled to see Amazon.com selling a Kaboom System that let me avoid their worthless cassette recorder I jumped at it.

I took a star off my rating because, the Kaboom system forces you to lose all your pre-sets when you remove the power cord. I think Kaboom systems should employ a small cheap to buy 9 V back up or other battery to hold customer settings like computers use. I do not forgive bad engineering and creating a system designed so it does not hold user settings when power is interrupted is unforgivable. Kaboom is a good sound and a solid system in general but the JVC engineers need to read and listen to what its customers have said here so they can improve on what is a good thing in their Kaboom Series of Boom Boxes.

You can read here that obviously Kaboom has a great and loyal following of customers of all ages. Kaboom earned its kudos but should not just sit on its success. Companies that fail to constantly improve by listening to its loyal customer base soon parrish are you listening JVC, if so you know what your engineers have to do to better the Kaboom ownership experience.

If you like some bass in your music then this boombox is for you. The overall sound quality and clarity rivals some home theater systems. It is kinda big for my liking but very sturdy. For those of you complaining about how you lose the radio presets when you unplug, there's a battery backup system that'll prevent this. You simply put 3 x AA batteries in the same place where the D batteries go. I don't know why JVC doesn't simply integrate a memory chip that's commonly found in lower price boomboxes like Sony ZX-S10 S2 is beyond me. Another complain is that I would prefer a foldable handle rather than a strap which is somewhat cumbersome. Other than that, no real issues. Once again, the sound is just "ridiculous!"

In 1980 I bought a JVC RCM70JW BoomBox. I will pass it on to the grand kids. It still works great. However, the new RVNB20 is the latest and greatest. Big Bass & Clear highs. It has all the hookups you could need to play your favorite music. Super product.

Purchased this for my wife for Christmas. She had a very old JVC boom box and loved it but it has started to fail after 10 years or more.
First set this up and compared it to the very old JVC. High notes are exaggerated and no real treble control. Bass is exaggerated but at least you can turn it down. But the midrange is almost missing, unacceptable. We were considering living with it since very few true boom boxes are available now. Then we compared the radio reception of the new unit to her old JVC which no longer has an antenna. The new Boom box needed the antenna fiddled with for every FM station and still did not pick up many. Her old JVC with no antenna picked up all the local stations with no issues. Also the this unit uses a twist latch for the CD cover, which is inconvenient compared to the old system that just latched shut and had a mechanical push button that opened the CD compartment.

We did not try it with an iPod since that was not why we bought it. I have to admit that it is becoming impossible to find a good sounding boom box since the iPod's have taken over the world.

No surprise but we returned the unit. Very disappointed.

This unit stands out of the crowd of all other boom boxes I've come across. Bass power is amazing and at times excessive. But it can be turned down, so that's not an issue. The problem I see is that the middle-range sounds are very subdued. The front speakers are not powerful enough and too small to match the bass power in the mid-tone range. I wish JVC used front speakers with larger diameter cones to compensate for this.
Another major issue is it's weak radio reception in FM diapason. Only the most powerful stations will give you acceptable sound and won't be drowned in noise. But hey, who buys a boombox to listen to the radio? And for the dance music that it's designed for, it's a wonderful unit. Not perfect, but so far the best I've found.