Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony S2 ZS-X3CP MP3 CD Player With Radio

This is quite an expensive portable stereo, but is simply of a much higher quality all round, than the other offerings in other stores. I liked the fact that the stereo does not have a tape deck as I don't own any cassettes and its nice not to pay for something that you will never use. The case is extremely tough, stylish and well put together, its even splash proof! The CD player plays MP3s too which is great and the backlit LCD is large enough for you too be able to search through folders on MP3 cds. The sound quality is excellent for a portable (similar to a small midi system) and you can't tell the difference between MP3s (128bit) and normal cds. The battery life is great too at 14hours cd playback (6 D cells or HP2 batteries).
Overall I would totally recommend this portable. It is very well made and sounds great from either the cd player or the radio. The only down side for some people, will be the lack of tape deck, but on many portables these days the quality of the tape deck is quite poor. Top marks Sony!

Sony really has out done itself with this item! It's light weight, easy to take anywhere and has a sound the surpasses any portable cd player I've ever heard! It gives you a bass boost and speakers that run the entire front to back length of the player which gives you the sound of a big stereo system and the capablity of playing mps files! It's a winner! (and it looks so cool!)

Picked up one of these at a discount after toying with the idea of buying one for a year or so. The looks are weird; and the CD lid is cheapie; and there's no line in, but radio sensitivity is way above average on both bands-much better than you'd expect in this price range(or higher), Sound quality is good, the bass boost is useful; and it's fairly easy to run out of the box(only had to look at the instructions to find out how to manually preset stations). The display is small, but presents information well. There's also a silly "Graphics" mode that will appeal to Windows Media Player fans. It shows dots and lines that have nothing to do with anything, could be a laugh if you leave it on and someone notices it, you could yell that they broke your stereo.

Get your hands on the original sporty design. Don't be fooled by imitations in cheap catalogue shops!

Looks the biz, sounds OK-ish, plays mp3s!! Superb.
The MD player in the S2 series is also an excellent buy!