Home > Consumer Reviews > Coby Portable MP3/CD Player with AM/FM Radio - Black (MPCD471)

I should have paid more attention to the reviewers who said it WOULDN'T play computer-burned CDs, no matter what Coby claimed. I never got it to play one, even tried CDs burned on different computers. The CDs played just fine in my car, but never on this player. And even worse, after a total of no more than 30 hours using this player, most of that using the flash drive function, it no longer recognizes "store-bought" CDs. A complete waste of money!

We bought this as a Christmas present for our six year-old. The controls are simple, and with the USB feature and a cheap 2 GB flash drive, I can load loads of story CDs into it and change them when she gets bored for another batch.

The only issue I had was with the order that tracks play on the USB drive - after a lot of experimentation and frustration, it turns out that it plays them in the order they were copied onto the drive - simple once you know!

Fantastic little unit - and no problems with skipping CDs like the previous reviewer.

I want to thank Martin for his review which avoided me having to figure out the play method of the unit on USB drives. The unit works well, has good volume and sound (at least by my ear). Since the tuning and voulume knobs are in the rear, you have to feel for them, but they work well and it isn't picky about geting a good signal. I was a little surprised at how small the unit is.

The USB port works well, but the display only tells you which track and how long you are into that track. At $30, I didn't have a right to expect too much, but was pleasantly surprised.

Edit as of May 2009:

This unit is in my wood shop so I admit the problem I'm now having may be related. The volume is not working properly. You choose a volume and later I can hear it go up slightly, then you can't turn it down regardless of moving the volume knob all the way down. I don't sand much (prefering other methods) so that isn't it and I've tried blowing out the knob with slight air pressure - that too was to no avil.

After a few hours, it will go silent meaning the volume knob is working again. Don't know if this is a problem with this player, or if it's just mine, but felt I should mention it.

i purchased coby usb boombox as a xmas gift. my son-in-law has been enjoying it ever since he has it in his office and he enjoys the mp3 connection.

While always wary when buying low-priced electronics, this player has proven to be worth more than its low price. While not for audiophiles, it has proven itself amazingly reliable. The audio quality is definitely better for spoken word recordings than music, as anyone should expect. All in all, it is a surprisingly good value.