Customer Reviews

iLive IBCD3817DTBLK Portable Boombox with iPod Docking Station and CD Player/AM/FM Radio with Premium Stereo Sound and Remote Control in Black

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

UPDATE - 9/19/2007: I WROTE THE COMPANY VIA E-MAIL. AFTER A COUPLE OF E-MAILS, THEY WROTE BACK, TOLD ME THEY WOULD HONOR THE WARRANTY, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS EXPIRED, AND REPLACED THEUNIT WITH A NEW ONE. THE COMPANY STOOD BY THE PRODUCT. THE NEW UNIT IS AN IMPROVED MODEL, AND IT IS MUCH BETTER. FOR THE PRICE, IT'S AN PRETTY GOOD VALUE. AT LEAST THE ONE WE HAVE WORKS NOW. THANKS TO iLIVE FOR BEING A STAND-UP COMPANY. We purchased this unit at a Kohl's in Arkansas in April. It is a cheaply made unit. If you turn up the volume very loud, the CD player will skip, so apparently there is no anti-skip feature. That's extremely annoying. The unit began to give problems just after the 90-day warranty (imagine that!) and now it will not turn on at all. The clock display will appear if the unit is plugged in, with the time of 12:00, but you cannot set or change it. The iPod will charge, but will not play. We are going to throw this hunk of junk in the trash. I certainly cannot sell it to anyone, as it will not function or play, PERIOD. Perhaps another manufacturer has a better quality type of iPod boom box that will work well. Whatever you do, PLEASE do yourself a favor, and avoid this product like the plague! I intend to write the company over this most disapointing experience.

I just opened up my iLive Boombox and was pleased to find very few extra parts or a long list of instructions. The player is very straight forward. Evne down to the inserts required for the various iPod models - echa one is labeled. But when I insert the one for my Nano, my Nano wont fit. The docking port is off to one side while the insert forces the connection to the center. Oops. Without the insert I can connect OK but the iPod is not very secure.

I already owned one of these for my daughter. I bought a second one for the basement, and it wouldn't turn on at all. Amazon took care of replacing the item ASAP. Thank You Amazon.
However, my daughter had her's for a little over a year. Now the only way to get the cd player to play is by using the remote. The buttons for the cd player on the boombox do not function.

The kids have no problem with the sound quality. They use mine a ton in the basement, and it drives me crazy cause I can hear all their music on the first floor. So it can play pretty loudly, and clearly.

My wife won one of these at a meeting a few months ago - good thing because I would really be po'd if I'd had to put out some hard-earned cash to pay for it! It looks decent enough - although one of the grills had a small ding in it straight out of the box. It has no adapter for 3rd generation Nano's - but you can call(a non-toll-free number)and they will send you a couple of tiny foam squares to help 'secure' the current generation Nano (good luck making THAT work!). Most of these quirks I could have lived with - but what I can't tolerate is the truly awful audio quality - absolutely hideous. It won't take a high-end audiophile to recognize it either - even the worst ears out there will know this is REALLY bad. The thin and muddy sound oozing out of the speakers has absolutely no separation, depth, or character - it's just all "out there" in your face. The equalizer presets are laughable and the bass response is a whimpering after-thought at best. No way, no how would I ever buy this. It is good for me that it was a freebie - but it is bad that I can't return it. Don't waste your money here - unless you want to buy mine and I'll give you a better deal than Amazon ever dreamed of!!!

I must admit this was a blind shopping -just saw product features and buy it - as soon as I get my player, I was able to use without any problem or complain and i must say the sound is great - no complains at all like most people say - CD player, Radio and iPod Dock works fine, no noise at all. For a better sound quality i change the EQ on my iPod and that's it.

Before buy this product I saw a lot of other many products and considered this the best price / value article.

The adaptability to virtually any type of ipod is nice. I like that it has a CD player as well, as I haven't had time to rip all of my CD's onto my computer yet. The preset EQ's don't quite give me the control I want, and nothing sounds as crisp as I would like, but I knew that would probably be the case when I bought it. The CD player is really sensitive, and skips a lot, which makes me less likely to listen to CD's on it, which is a bummer. I'm generally happy with this thing, but given all the other options out there, and having purchased this online rather than in a brick and morter store where I could have tested it out ahead of time, I think in the end, I would have made a different purchase.

I read all the negative reviews on this product and purchased anyway. I love it. My fiancee just used it for a baby shower on the batteries, we play it down by the jacuzzi and pool and down at the Beach. No problem with any of the functions yet either. Product Looks great, sounds great, and was worth the purchase.

I bought this to take on my boat. The small size, broad feature list, great price, and decent Amazon reviews convinced me this was the right product. Unfortunately, this product failed miserably in the most important area: Sound Quality.

The sound is very thin and tinny. No bass, even with the built in bass enhancer set to the maximum. I set my iPod EQ to Bass Enhancer and this didn't help either. Believe me when I say I tried everything, i.e. various built-in EQs and iPod settings, but could not get acceptable sound. My wife (who admits she does not have an ear for detail) said the sound was just plain awful.

On the plus side, returning the product was easy. Amazon even covered the shipping costs. I simply selected "Does not meet my quality expectations" as the reason for returning it. I was surprised when the message appeared on my browser saying "Since this was our fault, we'll cover shipping", or something similar to that.

Bottom line, if you don't care about sound quality, then this is the box for you. On the flip-side, if you have even a slightly good ear for sound, then stay away.

This is a great boom box, I'm glad I didn't listen to all of the ticky tacky reviews that others wrote. It simply is a great boom box that you can throw in your car and take with you where ever you go to listen to your ipod and cds.

I've purchased this Boom box that has a good quality sound to it. The volume is not as loud as I thought it would be but worth purchasing for a small room.