RCA RCD118 CD Boombox with AM/FM Tuner and MP3 Playback

by RCA

Product Details

Product Manual [475kb PDF]

• Shipping Weight: 13 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005MNFF
• Item model number: RCD118
• Batteries: 8 D batteries required.
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #384,263 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice, but a few issues, September 18, 2001

By 

David B. Haynie (Monroeville, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: RCA RCD118 CD Boombox with AM/FM Tuner and MP3 Playback (Electronics)

For the record, this is my 3rd MP3 player, not counting my computers. I also own an RCA K@ZOO and a Rio Volt.

The clear point of an MP3 boom box is simple: all those MP3-CDs you burn can now play, loud, at the beach, picnics, parties, etc. The RCD118 is a fine boombox. It's a bit larger than you might think, but that seems to be largely because on the bass ports. The sound is the best I've had in a boombox. A nice plus is an internal battery backup for clock and presets; it doesn't lose its mind when you change batteries, or move from plug to plug.

The "DSP" feature comes with rock, pop, jazz, and a few other presets. You can also make your own adjustment and store it. It's basically just a bass/treble control, far as I can tell.

The MP3 support is good, if not ideal. It supports up to 256 kbps by spec, and played all mine, and VBRs (variable bit rates) as well. It seems to work fine with 80-minute discs; I didn't try any 90+ minute discs. The display is reasonably large and lets you browse MP3s by album (with subdirectories) or flat. You can do everything from either the front panel or the remote, which is nice.

It does seem to read ID3 tags, or fake it well. A few old files on one compilation disc ...didn't seem to work, though I was fairly sure they displayed tags on the Rio. The song names all seem to come from the file name, not a good plan unless you make Artist/Album/Song.mp3 rips to your CD.

There's no cassette deck, but no turntable, either! :-) The main fault in the MP3 support right now is that it won't randomize play, like the Rio. This is, IMHO, an important "jukebox" feature. There's no mention of upgradeability, but other recent RCA products, like the K@ZOO, are upgradeable. The product, at this point, is too new for much support on the Web -- RCA's Web people seem to think it's not going to be released until the fall. Connection-wise, there's a 3.5mm (1/8-inch) headphone jack, but no aux in or out. The transformer is in the unit, so you only have a standard polarized cord external.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars RCA RCD 118 is a Lemon, February 22, 2002

By 

Manuel A. Calcagno (College Point, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: RCA RCD118 CD Boombox with AM/FM Tuner and MP3 Playback (Electronics)

MP3 CD Experience: TDK Mojo Owner, Used Sony MP3 Boom Box
Overall Rating:Very Poor (A Lemon) Going Back to the Store!

Features:
Power: Very Good 10 Watts (5 Watts Per channel)
Clock/Timer
Digital Bass Boost
EQ Controls
MP3 Options:Program, File/Folder Mode,Repeat,Intro
18 Page Manual (English)
Appearance (Weird Shape) No On/Off Light, No way to even tell if it's on or off, No MP3 LEDs at all
Sound:Very Good
Speakers:Very Good, Two Way (5Watts per channel)
Interface/Navigation: Very Poor - Buttons and Names Don't make any sense at all, Definitely Not User Friendly
AC Plug didn't want to stay in, very hard to get in
The Remote is pretty Good but controls are strange
MP3 Information:Excellent - MP3 Bit Rate, Name, Artist,Album No Back Lighting

MP3 Playback:Very Poor
Too Many Skips, Searching Delays, and problems reading
Very long delays between songs and directories
This Unit spends more time searching then playing
Extremely long time spent searching, even for the next song
Unit gets very Hot, CD's come out very hot like pancakes
Display:Hard to read
No MP3 Shuffle

Comments:
It Read my 320 Bit MP3's although the manual says only up to 256
The manual says it has problems reading multi-session CD's but It seems to have problems reading the MP3's on most CD's

I can't believe how long this unit takes searching an MP3 CD, even for the next song!
Many times it seems to just freeze while searching
I still can't tell when this thing is off (how about an On/Off LED)
It actually spends more time searching then playing
I wasn't able to play even one CD without any skips or delays

My experience with the Sony Boombox was a much more favorable one.
Problems with Sony:
Very Low power (Less than 2 Watts per Channel) and small One Way speakers. Display of MP3 Info is limited.
The Remote controls nothing on the tape player,which only takes Type 1 tapes.
Too Expensive

Pros:Has a Backlight, Pretty good Cassette Player, Shuffle Mode, Jog Dial, And Much Better MP3 Reading

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars "Skip" this MP3 Boombox, December 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: RCA RCD118 CD Boombox with AM/FM Tuner and MP3 Playback (Electronics)

Skips and chirps way too much. Very annoying! Repeats song phrases over and over and over. Has trouble sometimes locating MP3 songs and ends up playing the end of the previous MP3 song. Tried the same CD in another player and plays without any skips or chirps. It doesn't have a shuffle or random mode for your MP3's either. The FM signal is too weak. It's too bad that this is not a good product since it does produce decent sound quality.