Customer Reviews

Coby CS-MP23 MP3 Portable Mini Stereo Speaker System

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

Sometimes I like to listen to an audiobook in a quiet place but I don't feel like wearing earphones so I searched for a mini speaker system. Hence, I found this product and bought it. Just got it today. It is just what I was looking for. The volume is loud enough for a fairly quiet, private place to listen. The construction seems solid. The sound quality is so-so yet I can still enjoy listening to music through it if I desire to. It actually seems a little bit thick and heavy compared to my iPod Classic but it will do its job nicely.

I bought this for $5 at Walgreens. It runs on one double A battery, and is very portable. Truly the sound wuality isnt that great, but it is really worth the money. It is about 3in long, and 1 inch wide, and can fit into any pocket. I am generally not pleased with coby products, but i would recomend this, becuase it is well worth the seven bucks.

Even brand new with a fresh battery, this device has a very weak, tinny sound -- basically useless to me even to listen to voice-only podcasts.

I bought this (Coby CS-MP23) simultaneous with the Coby CS-P14, and a Walgreens "GoStereo" generic version (I don't think it even has a model name on it), all for the same price (see another review here for the price). The MP23 and the GoStereo were from Walgreens, and the CS-P14 was from an electronics store. The one I kept was the generic "GoStereo" version from Walgreens. The CS-MP23 uses a single AA battery, but was slightly less loud with worse sound quality. All three had very bad volume, and not-so-hot sound, even for voice. But the GoStereo won in both quality and volume categories (it uses two AAA's), although it is a skosh bigger in terms of volume.

I bought this so I could listen to NPR news while traveling using my MP3 player FM function. It's fine for that, but have no illusions about listening to any kind of music. Even at modest volumes only a few feet away, it just won't cut it. Three stars for voice, one for music, two average.

These speakers are not even worth the plastic wrapper that it comes in. I brought these speakers for my instinct sprint phone so that I can listen to music while I did school work, but the build in speakers on my phone sound louder.

Pros:
- Price: excellent

- Compatibility: The compatibility for this item, unlike a lot of ipod accessories, is excellent because it will work with any portable music player device that has a headphone jack, which is pretty much all of them. So as long as the device can physically sit in the headphone jack, it should work for you and it does work for me Coby mp3 player as well as my brother's Sony mp3 player. It should work for all generations of ipods too, barring a physical impediment from it sitting properly in the headphone jack.

- Sound quality: I used to have a Griffin speaker adapter like this for my old ipod and the sound quality from the Coby is much better.


Cons:
- Volume Control: There is no volume adjustment on the device itself, so you have to adjust the volume using the mp3 player. That isn't a problem in itself, but it doesn't get very loud, so don't expect to be playing this over a loud noise source like outside.

- Battery power: This isn't really a pro or con, it just is. The speaker uses one AA battery and has its own on/off switch, so it isn't powered from the mp3 player. This is good in that the mp3 player battery lasts longer, but I often forget to turn off the speaker when I remove it from the mp3 player and end up draining the AA battery fast. It would also be simpler for me if the mp3 player and the speaker used the same battery type so I didn't have to carry extras of both battery types. There is no indicator light telling you whether the device is on or off.

- Size: it isn't that large really, maybe the size of two thumbs, but I was a little surprised by that size as my old Griffin ipod speaker was the half the size. It isn't so large that you would have any problem carrying it around.


Overall, I highly recommend this.

Terrible quality! I would return them but it would cost more to ship them back than they cost to purchase....not worth the plastic they were shipped in. I would have given it 0 stars if that was available.

I purchased the speakers to replace the Macally ones I had lost. This looked like it might do the job for a lot cheaper. Oops! You get what you pay for (+shipping). Quality is a little thin but constant distortion and crackling make this just a throw away item. Don't bother.

Got it yesterday. Didn't work. Just creates an annoying sound. Comes in the annoying package that just makes it a pain to return. Here is $7 I'll never see again. A shame they don't give you the option of zero stars. Amazon however is the best. Never had a problem with them, it's definitely about the product, not the seller.