Customer Reviews

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

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

 

 

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.

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

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.

1) Will not see all songs on a CD. I have a country music MP3 CD of 180 songs, and it will only be able to access 167 of them. It won't see the last 13. I also have a bluegrass music CD of 200 songs, and it only reads the first 179 of them. All files on both CD's are in the root directory.
2) Reads ID3 tags (somewhat), but the embedded software crashes if you try to scroll through the tracks to find the song you want -- you need to turn the radio off and back on again. Overall, VERY POOR embedded software design!
3) Audio skips occasionally when reading an MP3.
4) Radio tuner will not receive all the stations that my other boombox does.

The only good thing I can say about it is that has a good, loud, clear sound unlike many other boomboxes.

Like everyone, I had trouble with skipping. Then, I read and followed the directions. Also, I recommend burning MP3 CDs on Mode 2 Joliet at 8X or below speed. Record between 128 and 192 bitrate. On a mp3 cd player, one won't notice a difference, and this makes units more prone to skipping. The only time it makes a difference if you are going to convert to .wav. That goes for any MP3 CD player, not just this one. I do recommend the product. I never give 5 stars unless it has audiophile sound quality and Line in/out. Display needs backlight. If I want shuffle, then I record my discs in random order.

First, let's get the good stuff out of the way... this boombox sounds reasonably good (well, better than expected at least). It looks kinda neat (my wife hates it though), has a remote, doesn't waste space with an old-fashioned cassette player, and has a GREAT dot matrix display to communicate with you.

I was thrilled that I had found such a perfect machine. That is, until I discovered a blatant feature omission... it will not do shuffle (random) play on MP3 CD's. This is absolutely unforgiveable.

Also, it occasionally "skips" while playing MP3 tracks, but this is only a minor annoyance.

In summary, I'm disgusted that a unit possessing such well thought-out features as the thorough LCD display is lacking something as basic and essential (in my opinion) as random play. If it did have this feature, it would have gotten a solid 4 stars by me (5 if they could get rid of the skipping problem).

RCA's product designers made a big blunder here, and I will most likely return the unit because if it.

Pros: Solidly Built, Has great folder, subfolder, file aqusition. Can select a folder and it will only play the songs in that particular folder. (set to file mode and it plays the whole disc) Sound is very good for a portable...has punch and plenty of power for playing outside at picnic or bar-b-que. The remote control is easy to use, as is the buttons on the machine itself.
Cons: Poor radio reception, even in large metropolitan area. Putting discs in is awkward..potential to scratch them if not done carefully...don't let the kids do it. MP3 tracking is fair to poor at best. If your discs aren't burned and finalized at 8x's speed or less expect skips. The display, while great, lacks a backlight..even though most ad's picturing this item appear to have a backlit display. For some reason this unit runs very hot...your discs are quite "warm" when you remove them.
The technology is out there to play mp3's without skipping...why rca didn't put more into their tracking lens with this unit baffles me, since they spared no expense in the materials for the cabinetry.

Currently trying to send second unit back. FM did not work at all on the first one and CD player was intermittent. The CD player stopped working on the second one a few weeks after receiving it. Because of the problems, it is hard to rate it on sound quality. Works great as a paperweight. User interface is awkward at best. MP3 selection is not straightforward (as I recall from the first one). Would not recommend unless you live next door to a service center.

This system has trouble reading Mp3 CD's as well as commercial audio CD's. It lacks a shuffle feature for the MP3's which means you have to listen to 100 mp3 songs on your CD in alphabetical order. It's definately not what I expected and my expectations were high. I sent it back!

MP3s are tricky under the best of circumstances and with the most expensive of equipment. I concur wholeheartedly about what has been said here recently about reading directions before putting the knock on an otherwise excellent product like the RCD118. Besides, most people (me included) who buy a portable because it has MP3 do so "just in case" - not unlike how 95% of the people who buy four-wheel drive vehicles end up never taking their vehicle offroad.

The quality is there with this unit in terms of great portable sound - MP3 is a bonus to that, as is the remote control. I haven't heard another unit in its class that sounds better, and many more of the other big brand names that sound (and look!) decidedly inferior.