Customer Reviews

Philips MC50 3-CD Changer Micro System

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

 

 

If you like the design of this model (and I do!) than I would recommend to go for the Philips MC-70. After listening in the store to both this MC-50 and MC-70 I did buy the MC-70. Sound quality is great from both sets but with that extra power and the wOOx bass boost in MC-70 my choice was quickly made. Incredible Surround function makes a difference, it really creates spacious sound, even when you put the speakers close to each other.

The CD changer is OK after you get used to the system. I am used ONE tray with easy access to all 3 CD's but here they made the system smaller and you have to press TRAY 1, TRAY 2 or TRAY 3 seperately to access the CD's. This means you have to remember in which tray you have inserted your CD!

Tuner and tape works good, as in all sets.

If you want to use this set in the bedroom, Philips has a nice package of features:

- a nice DIM function for the display.

- clock and timer for waking up including a SNOOZE.

- SLEEP function to drift off.

All in all, great set for the den, bedroom and even the living room. If you put it in the living room, go for the MC-70.

I was in fact looking for the AIWA XR-EM71 unit but could not find one. Because I needed soms mini or micro system in my office I tried to look for an alternative in the same price range. I went home with the MC-50. The unit is beautiful and decent with light blue front lights. For the price you get a lot of options you won't find on other systems. There is a timer (you can use the system as a clockradio/CDplayer !), sleepfunction, RDS, 3 CD-changer suited for CD-R and CD-RW discs, RDS-news search, Incredible Surround sound, digital out, wooden speakers, remote control, plug and play, 40 tuner presets and 40 programming CDtracks, clock display function, Dim-function, tape recorder, subwoofer plug. The incredible surround option is a nice feature that gives the impression of surround sound. However I've found that this option is not always that good (depending on the sort of music you play). The RDS-news option interrupts the CD-player or tape recorder when a news transmission is detected and switches to tuner mode. At the end of the bulletin the system switches again to the last resource and resumes its last operation. It's a pity that this option works only once for each activation ! The CD-changer is a little noisy when changing discs but that's common with most CD-changers. Even expensive multiplayers make soms noise when changing discs (however the marantz multiplayers are as far as I now the most silent discchangers available: you hardly hear the discs changing !). The speakers are very well build and give a crisp sound. All in all I'm very satisfied with the MC-50.

A few months ago I went searching for a decent boombox or small sound system for my home office. I couldn't find anything I really liked and settled on a midsize boombox. After a week I was so disgusted that I returned it (sorry, Sony - the tuner was that bad!). I tried this system out in the store and was extremely pleased. It tunes in all the stations I want and then some. The tuner has a great auto station preset feature. The sound is excellent for the size - actually very enjoyable. It doesn't sound 'cheap'. It has good bass and treble (both separate and adjustable). The MUTE button is great to have when the phone rings. A readable backlit display, intelligently designed remote, 3-CD changer (1 gets old fast), tape player and other bells and whistles round out the system. It's beautiful too. All I can say is 'Way to go, Philips!'

I just bought the Philips MC-50 and I love it! Excellent sound quality and nice design. I bought it after returning the SONY MHC-MG110 model back to the store (the one that comes with 60 CDs, 150 watts...whatever ! it didn't cut it for me) because of the poor sound quality. I am very satisfied with my Philips MC-50, and by the way it comes with regular "treble" and "bass" buttons and no stupid preset equalizer settings.
Philips MC-50===>Great Quality, Great Design, Great Price

The Philips system is a great buy for the price, but does have a few drawbacks. The speakers are necessarily small in this class of equipment and, therefore, lack adequate bass response in comparison to larger speaker systems. The Philips system does have an output for a user supplied powered subwoofer, and I recommend that this be a serious consideration for a potential buyer. The setup for the tuner is quite confusing, and the automatic setup is totally worthless, so that the user has to figure out how to do it manually. The remote functions are also confusing.

I bought this system for my mother. It comes with a fat little manual but she figured out everything on her own in a few minutes. It's compact and won't overwhelm your room. It's easy to use and most important of all, it has a great sound. The radio is better than all of the other compact systems I've tested adn the 3 CD changer works perfectly. It's a great little system for a bedroom or den. My mom is delighted with it and I was satisfied that I got the best system for my money.

After a lot of research (including reading information on this site), I bought this system. After setting it up, the CD changer drawer refused to open. It seemed like it was jammed. I never did get it to open and am returning the product.

I had noticed in a store that the mechanism was a revolving setup that seemed complicated and perhaps prone to breakage. A random defect or a design flaw? Now I am not sure whether to exchange this for another one or get something different.

Other minuses include the tiny button size and the fact that the CDs takes a long time to start or for the CD drawer to start - I noticed this in the store. All I want is a simple durable design with excellent sound - and it sounded great in the store.

I bought this system 3 years ago. I used it mainly for the radio in my small apartment while I used my computer for CDs. We moved and that all changed, this system became my only music source for all formats. I'm a huge CD collector so this system turned out to be a good buy until the 3 CD changer went.

The CD changer is loud. Turn the power on or change between CDs and the changer cycles thru all 3 until it reads the right tray. This can take a good 10-15 seconds. The noise is annoying.

After 2 years of daily CD use, ranging from 2 to 5 hours a day, the trays wouldn't open or close. If they did, the wrong tray would open (press CD1 open, CD3 opens, etc) and it would take many minutes before the correct tray opened. That's with no CDs in the system, have CDs in there and it takes longer! Playback also became an issue (Press CD1 to play & CD2 plays, etc.), the wrong tray plays and the system keeps cycling thru the 3 trays and sometimes doesn't stop.

On to the cassette deck. Worked fine for a couple of months then one day.....poof! Put a cassette in and it doesn't play, rewind, or FF, take the tape out and it all moves fine!

I didn't purchase this system at Amazon, I bought it on sale at Best Buy for $100. $100 for 3 years, not bad, but I hadn't planned on buying a new stereo anytime soon. I've read many reviews on Philips audio systems and its 50/50 good to bad. I think I'll be doing more research, spending a little more, and staying away from Philips

very disappointed...the cd tray broke within the 1st month of use & Amazon.com was no help in getting it fixed...

This system looks great, sounds great and is a perfect price/performance mix.

The only gripe I have about it is that the 3-CD changer is a bit loud. In fact, my girlfriend avoids using any tray but the first one *just* so that she doesn't have to hear the tray-switching gear mechanism...

Other than that, the backlight dimmer is great, the sound quality is enough to fill my 2-room apartment comfortably and it was easy to set up out of the box. Very happy with this puppy. Plus with Super-Saver Shipping--it was quick & easy to get!