Customer Reviews

Boss Audio 534UA In-Dash CD/MP3 Receiver with Drop-Down Front Panel

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Sound, power output, FM tuner, CD player are all fine, very good.

Front panel USB is great. Plug in an MP3 player, iPod, or flash drive, and in a few seconds it's playing and your info is on the radio display. The >>> and <<< buttons will skip through your MP3s. Plus, you'll be charging it, if that's the way yours works.

In fact, you can plug in one of those great little USB reading lights, or a USB cell phone charger, or whatever else might fit.

If you don't have USB, plug in the earplug output to a jack in the front of the radio with a patch cord, listen to MP3 player, old Walkman, portable DVD, laptop, portable shortwave, Sirius or XM.

Problems? The volume control has big diameter, but almost like a coin. Needs to stick out more, hard to control. And the curved shiny face is all reflection if your radio aims up a little, like the one in my Honda. Small gripes. Everything else I like.

I bought this radio on amazon for $80. I was searching for a radio with a USB port for playing mp3's from a flash drive. It works pretty good. It does have a slight buffer under-run type of issue. What I mean by that is the first mp3 will start playing, then some hesitation while a buffer is loading, then the song will continue to play. This seemed to occur during the first track, and then once again, several tracks latter. I was impressed that this radio searched and found mp3's on my flash drive that was loaded with other stuff, like data files of different sorts. For the low price, I can't complain to much, BUT I'm thinking that I probably shouldn't have been so frugal and just spent more on a better radio. When I used the AUX input, I was very satisfied. The AUX input will not suffer from buffer underrun, so if all your looking for is something to plug your MP3 player into, then you'll be happy with this radio. I also found that this radio had a higher power output than the factory radio of my 2008 Matrix, and the sound quality is good. So, it does have good amplification and quality.

Bought this to mount in our boat. So I was looking for a cheaper priced stereo with a detachable faceplate and MP3 / Aux input. This one works well, dim display but it doesn't affect it's performance for us. If it we're in a car then I'm sure it's good enoungh. The face plate is hard to mount for some reason, other than that it's worked and sounded great. I'd recommend it for someone looking for a decent inexpensive stereo.

I was looking for a cheap radio for my civic; when i saw this one i couldnt believe it...your hardly find another radio better that has usb, mp3 and all stuff this radio has at this price...
The only thing i didnt like of it is the display, just show few word...but it doesnt matter!!! i just want music!!!!

I have brought 3 of these radios and all of them worked perfectly, also they have a wonderfull design.

Works exactly as listed. Only we don't use MP3s in it. We put music on the thumb drive and plug it in the front.

My husband has his thumb drive. I have mine and my son has his. No reason to worry about scratching the CD.

Great system.

Didnt read any cds.
I decided to use it only with usb drives. Didnt work either. I emailed customer service, they said the usb is only for drives of 512 mb or less!! I only have 1, 2, and 4 gb drives.

So it only worked for fm radio, and i have to plug my mp3 player through the audio input to listen to my own music. Thats the only way i could use it. I cant return it or anything since i live outside the US.

I've been living with this for two weeks. I think it's a great product. Sound quality is superb. AM and FM radios work fine. The full-size USB Type A port finds all the MP3s on my flash drives. The big volume knob is easy to find and use. I love the basic functionality - I can easily listen to all digital media, not just commercial CDs like my old car CD player which cost $600 in 1997.

But this stereo comes with several annoyances. The front panel displays a visualization of your audio in red lights. It doesn't affect night vision, but it's cheesy and distracting.

Two buttons that I never use - mono/stereo and loudness - are big, red, and backlit. Buttons I often use - mode, next/prev, band - are small, unlit, and hard to find. Disp - to show the clock - is particularly awkward. To alternate between AM and FM stations you have to cycle through the three FM bands - to jump from FM1 to AM means pressing mode,mode,mode. The scheme for locating songs by name is hopelessly complicated, but it might occupy the front seat passenger for the better part of a long trip. Removing and replacing the front panel is a little tricky, and the latch doesn't have the positive feel of my old stereo. This device does NOT support the Ogg Vorbis digital audio format. It works fine with my 1GB and 2GB USB drives.

The product works great, and it's a terrific value at the current price, but the user interface wants improvement.

If you don't care about sound quality or features and just need a simple receiver to play your music from CDs or USB flash drives this is good for the price. However, you cannot expect this to have the quality of other more expensive brands.

I live outside of the united states and bought this radio through a friend who visited the states. when I got the radio it did not work, and a proffesional technician checked it and confirmed that the system is out of order. I wrote a mail to ANTonline service and did not get any answer.