Customer Reviews

RCA RCD152 Portable CD Boombox with AM/FM Tuner and Cassette Deck

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

This boombox is overal excellent. However it has some flaws.

#1-Cant record AM broadcasts without interference

I an record FM just fine, but every AM broadcast has a annoying hiss when I record. This is not good and I wish the problem be fixed in a future upgraded RCA model.

#2-Digital volume control has to be on in order to record

With analog radio tuner and volume control boomboxes I could dub a CD to tape without the volume blasting. With this boombox this cannot be done. The volume must always be blasting if one needs to record.

#3- Tape deck does not auto switch to the next side

This is annoying. But then again few boomboxes do this these days.


Overall a great boombox if all you will use it for is CD/tape playing and listening/recording FM. Listening to AM broadcasts works great, but the recording is another matter.

I bought this as an inexpensive CD player for my son and was very impressed. It's attractive, light weight and puts out a good sound. In fact, I ended up getting another for my mother as a Christmas gift.

I am greatly pleased with the performance of all RCA products, this one in no exception. This is a great product for the money and Amazon price was cheaper than that of Walmart.

First of all, I must mention that I am a poor foreign college student going to school in America. Poor I am not grade-wise, but financially. :) Anyway, I was looking for a boombox that would sound the best possible for the money I had (or within $50). I bought this thing for $40 at Wal Mart.

Second, a couple of comments I wish web reviews contained before I bought RCA RCD152.
- The auto-stop on cassette deck does not function on fast forward/rewind functions--only on "play."
- Unlike what one online review (not on Amazon.com) claimed, you can record from CD to tape with very low volume, no need to keep it blasting. At least so it is on my particular stereo. The quality is not that great, but I didn't expect it to be. Besides, not many use that feature these days, I think.
- Overall, the quality of a tape playback, incl. sound, is pretty good.
- The boombox has 4 EQ (equalizer) presets: rock, jazz, pop, and classic. They affect the sound whether the stereo is in CD, radio, or tape mode. The last preset + DBBS choice are always saved unless you unplug the stereo. You can also listen on "flat" - no preset selected. There is also DBBS ("digital bass boost system") which, in my opinion, is another preset. To most of my CD's it adds too much bass - speakers don't take that very well. As far as those standard four are concerned, there's no point in associating "classic" preset with classical music only. Some rock CD's--to my ear anyway--sound better with that preset. My favorite preset is "rock."
- On the negative note, several of my CD's the player didn't want to play for no reason. They were not brand new but high quality official releases, not some cheap pirate copies. It took a couple of attempts of putting a different disk in, taking it out and inserting the "unreadable" one back in. Eventually, those disks were accepted by the stereo too. It's just a strange phenomenon. The CD-R's the stereo is fine with always, it seems.
- A couple of times for no reason on several parts of a song the CD player started skipping both backwards and forward. It was really weird too, but didn't last too long. Usually, if I accidentally bump the stereo or bump a table it's on or whatever, there's no skip. Yet those two strange incidents I still can't explain. I for sure know it has nothing to do with the disks.

Overall, RCD152 is a pretty good boombox. I doubt that you can find all you want in a $40 deal anymore. For a simple college party or just casual listening, this product is just right. I sure am craving a better sounding device, but since financially I can't go there yet and this boombox really doesn't sound that bad at all, I am satisfied with the purchase.

We found it was tough anymore to locate a player that had cassette, DC and radio in one unit for a reasonable price. The RCA has all of those at a great price. We bought it as a gift for our son and he loves it. Good sound and nice looks for a low price.

I purchased the RCA RCD152 for my 94 year old Father for Christmas and the remote was dead out of the box. After returning the unit the remote worked for three months and died. So now what do I do for a remote? I would not recommend this unit unless you don't care if the remote fails.

Exceptional sound, easy to go from radio to cassette to CD.
However, when recording from Cd to Casette you have to
blast the sound for decent quality recording. Remote
control is easy to use and extremely helpful while sitting at
computer and CD player is not within reach.
CANNOT BEAT THIS CD PLAYER FOR THE PRICE AND THE QUALITY IS REAL FINE.

I have had this unit for just over a year. Beware that the cd tray is in front and it slides in and out. Because of this design, it is prone to misalign the cd, which will either not load and the "no disc" warning will show or when it does play, there is a significant vibration. To try to remedy this I had to wedge a piece of folder paper inbetween the disc drawer and the unit! Alas, I just got tired of not being able to play a disc for my daughter at bedtime. It is now time to spend a bit more and get a better product such as a Sony.....
By the way, the buttons are cheap and the overall construction is poor.

WELL MADE BOOMBOX WITH CD, RADIO, CASSETTE RECORDER. GREAT SOUND FROM A NOT TOO LARGE BOOMBOX. CD SOUNDS GREAT, CASSETTE SOUNDS GREAT ALSO. COMES WITH REMOTE CONTROL. LCD READOUT. CD IS NOT TOP LOAD, CASSETTE IS. CD TRAY COMES OUT WHEN BUTTON IS PRESSED. NICE EXTRAS ALSO. THANK YOU

I was looking around for an all in one compact CD-Cassette-Radio player that I could easily take with me and came across this unit. I liked it because it came with a remote control that works with the CD player and the radio but not the cassette but that's Ok. I've used the this unit for over 2 months now and it's worked fine and easy to operate once you've read the manual and used it a little. The volume is good as long as there's nothing else blasting in the room. The only thing that's lacking is a Back-Lite in the display screen so that you can see the display in a dimly lit room when your trying to access different functions. That's the only reason I gave it a 4 instead of a 5, Other then that, I'm happy with it and the price was right. I've also noticed that some of these same units "Don't" come with a remote control so if that's important to you look closely before you buy.