Customer Reviews

GPX HM3817DTBLK Vertical Home Music System with CD Player (Black)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

I ordered this as a Christmas gift for my tin-eared octogenarian father to listen to his Lawrence Welk (yecch) CDs. I boxed it up less than 5 minutes after it arrived, so it can be returned.

The sound is so screechy it hurts your ears right down to your toes. Absolutely no bass response. Can't think of one music genre that would sound even mediocre on this system.

It looks cool, can fit on a shelf or be hung on the wall, and it has a smoked plastic door over the CD that rises via a motor, so I generously gave it two stars. However, the things that look like speakers on the outside of the grilles are fake, just inert hunks of plastic made to look like tweeters. Shame on GPX.

Please don't waste your money. Buy a system that you can listen to and inspect in a B&M store.

I ended up buying an iSymphony micro-system from Radio Shack for a similar price, but it has a remote control, bass boost, and a surprisingly rich sound for the price. Dear old Dad was happy beyond belief at how great his "music" sounded on it--he stares at the unit while the music plays the way folks watched their radios in the forties...spooky, but he smiles all the while. That made my Christmas merry!

This stereo is a good size for thr desk or any small place. Be aware that the speakers do not attach and there is no bal control for the speakers. Sound is not very bassy but the speakers are small...4" dia. but otherwise they sound good. Nice features , remote is small and handy.
I still recommend this stereo for the Money.

This stereo is so cute. The sound is great. The display is very bright which may bother some people and delivery was super fast.

Shipping was very fast about three days. Box and CD player looked to be in good shape. I plugged it up and pressed the CD open button and nothing happened. I checked to see if it was taped closed for shipping and it was not. I pressed open again and it did open and started smoking from both sides of the unit and was extremely hot to the touch. After it cooled I received my return authorization label and two day later it is headed back to GPX.. Never but this unless your home insurance is up to date and you have extra time to play the shipping and receiving game for a week.

Soi was looking for an ipod clock radio for my nightstand at home. I had one on my desk at work and wanted another one similar. Most of the ones I looked at didn't have an AM/FM radio.. what's up with that? Anyways, was in the store the otherday and came across this little system on sale for $30.00.. considerably less than some of those ipod clock systems were going for. So I thought, hmmm.. "it plays cds, has radio, clock and jack for ipod." Let's try it! So i took the ipod clock radio home and put it on my nightstand, and set this little system up on my desk at work. I couldn't be happier. Mine is actually silver in color, which is good, shows up less dust! For being played at low volumes... sounds pretty darn good. No this isn't your 5.1 home theater system, but for a small cubicle, played at low volume.. sounds pretty good. Has a preset equalizer, remote control, cool looking backlit display, plays my cdr's, am/fm radio, clock with alarm/sleep function. It's very compact so it fits on my desk perfectly, not bulky at all. The system has an overal nice weight to it, so it doesn't feel totally cheap. The system itself as well as the speakers also have rubber tabs on the bottom to keep from scratching any surfaces or slipping. My only complaint is that when you turn the system off, the volume level resets itself to around level 15 so, you have to immediatly turn it down before playing anything if you are in an office setting like I am. The EQ remains where you always leave it, which is good. This unit also comes with the required wire to connect your ipod/mp3 player as well as also boasting an earphone jack. You can even plug another type of component into the rear aux rca jacks. So if you have a standalone cassette player, dvd or anything else... it's ready! I wouldn't trust this unit to fill a medium to large room with sound, but a dorm, or small office space such as my cubical.. it's perfect!

We purchased a Gpx Vertical Home Music System for both of our kids at Christmas. They are very attractive and have a lot of features for the price.

The unit comes with a multi-function remote and cable to hook up an MP3 player. The remote is simple to use. Our five year old mastered it in just a few minutes. The cable plugs into the earphone jack of your MP3 player so it works with any model, even the IPod Shuffle. My kids love this feature because they can listen to their favorite songs without the hassle of changing CDs or the discomfort of wearing earplugs.

Set up is simple. The main unit and speakers also have slots so they can be mounted on a wall if desired.

The sound quality is acceptable, but not great, which is why I only gave the system three stars. Add better speakers and this could be an outstanding system. Also, there are no tone controls, only four preset equalizer settings that you can choose. This last is a minor concern; if you want absolute control over tone settings you should expect to pay a lot more.

Overall we are very pleased with this system. This is a very good system for children and young teens and is perfectly adequate for those adults who don't need audiophile quality.

Update 06-01-10: Still doing fine, no problems. Original battery in the remote. Kids love it.

Update 06-27-09: Still doing just fine. The lack of battery backup for the settings means that we aren't keeping the clock adjusted. No problems at all.

We bought this for our eight year old son. It is exactly what he "needed" and he won't out grow this anytime soon.

Thankfully it has an AUX-IN and the cord is included. It means anything with an ear plug jack can pipe sound through this stereo.

Now don't get me wrong - it isn't perfect. When you turn it off it resets the volume level. Not a bad thing except it comes back on too loud. Our son figured out that he could simply switch over to CD and then turn the unit off. That way it was silent when he turned it on again before he resets the volume. Sure we shouldn't need to do this but it was $40...

Another complaint is that if power is interrupted AT ALL everything resets to factory defaults. All that would require would be a big 29 cent capacitor added internally. I wish they had added one. I might once it is out of warranty. For this reason it won't be a reliable clock radio. We had high hopes initially. Anyone who has shopped for a clock radio -with digital tuning- knows how tough it is to find something like that. 99% of them are digital time and analog tuning.

It has pretty good FM and AM reception. The remote works from across the room. The issues I read about the alarm being wonky aren't apparent on the system we purchased.

The display is too bright but then he has taken to placing a book or model car in front of the display to block the direct light it creates. On the flip side he doesn't need his night light anymore b/c this stereo's display does the same job. The display does not dim when the unit is off. Another minor dig against it.

Bass: there isn't much. If this is a key point for you it will require better speakers than this. Sounds about the same as a $40 boombox. Very clear, not much bass. You probably could hook up a subwoofer... VBG!

We have seen this same stereo at WalMart sold under the name Durabrand if you like to shop there. We prefer to not shop there. Anyhow same price. Same quality. Was good to be able to play with it in person.

This is a fair product for the price. I really like the auxiliary line! It is small and compact and has a good sound. The only real annoyance I have with the system is that it will always reset the volume to the factory settings every time the stereo is turned on - and it is louder than I like. Other than that, I think it is a good little stereo.

I did not purchase this itea from Amazon, however I thought to warn any who might want to!

I purchased 2 of these stereo's, one for each of my daughter ages 5 and 2. After just a few weeks of playing cd's, neither of them work any longer. I can't tell you how upset I am because this is not the first time something of this has happened with this particular brand.

A few years ago I bought a portable DVD player and the same thing happened! After a few weeks the darn thing stopped working stating it had an error.

Anyways I plan to take the stereo's back to where I purchased them and I will never buy anything from this brand or any of it's sister brands again!

DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS PRODUCT!

Had this less than a year. After a few months it wouldn't play a cd unless u turned it on its back then you could set it back upright. Then it just completely stopped playing them period. I guess u get what u pay for.