Customer Reviews

RCA RCD160 Portable MP3/CD Player Boombox with AM/FM Tuner

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Mine was broken when I got it --- after playing a CD for about 15 minutes the sound would start getting really noisy and full of static. For the first 15 minutes, however, the sound was nice. If you get one that works it is nice. Also, note that for MP3 playback, there is no ID3 tag support --- basically it is really primitive and only shows a number (for which track is playing).

i bought this to play old radio shows in mp3 that don't play on alot of better machines (the encoding is low i think). they play fine but it's very annoying to fast forward one show at a time and sometimes the buttons aren't responsive at all. it stays in one spot so it isnt getting alot of movement which might increase it's life. all in all , it does the job and the sound is fine on my machine for my purpose but it certainly isn't worth any more than i paid for it. When i have the time, i'll probably test other machines to see if they will do the job better. It does give better sound than my Rio portable mp3 disk player which i play thru a headset or speakers. the Rio has very low volume (which is probably why they lost the market to IPOD and are now not making them).

In the few weeks I've had my MP3 player I have listened to nearly
everyday. I collect old time radio shows, and have hours of listening pleasure thanks to this player. The turn/around time
from order to receipt was very good. I highly reccommend this
player, and Amazon's fine service to anybody who might be in the
market for a similar machine.

This is an unreliable piece of junk. I never could get it to play a CD-RW disc, it would not play mp3s very well (sometimes only recognizing the first 3 or 4 tracks), and the cd player quit altogether after a couple months. The sound was pretty good though, I guess.

It works well except for two large problems. I can clearly hear the spin-up and spin down of the disc during mp3 playback, and there is a relatively loud "pop" sound as one mp3 finishes and another starts. It's very jarring, esp. as I wish to use this at work and don't like to be distracted from my music. I tried using a better quality CD-R and burned it at a relatively low speed to avoid any other problems, but nothing helped. This one is going back to Amazon, and I'm getting something else.

It did not work well for me. I had originally owned the RCA Rcd148, which had features the 160 does not have. The 160 has no search feature. It only has fast-forwarding. I could not choose the program I wanted to hear, as I purchased it for old-time radio shows. I could choose shows on the RCD 148.

This is a horrible MP3 player. I have a large number of MP3 files from different sources, most of them 128 to 192 kbps, and only about 20% of them play correctly. Invariably they will start skipping in midstream, in a very regular but rapidly increasing way, which seems like the codec or memory buffer is messed up rather than the disc being scratched. It even does this on pristine, newly burned discs. I picked this player up on impulse at Target, and based on the other reviews it looks like I should have done my homework first. I won't be buying any more RCA products until they work on their quality control a little more.

I bought this product 4 years ago, it played fine, I used it to listen to the radio and play mp3 cd. I rarely used the navigation feature to move between tracks, but rather I simply let the CD play through the songs. The boombox has a cheap feel and the buttons on the front feel very cheap. The sound quality was OK for a boombox, there was a noticeable shallow sound to the speakers and if the mp3 are low quality it is amplified by this system, pops, clicks, etc... are amplified. 6 months ago it stopped working, and I took it apart to fix it. I could not find the problem, but when I put it back together it spontaneously started working again, go figure. Now it stopped working again and I cannot get it fixed. My guess is that the contacts on the on/off button broke (it feels very cheap). I've decided it's not worth the effort to get out the volt-meter and find the problem... this one is going to be scrapped and I'm looking for a different brand. I just wish electronics were made like they used to. I have home stereo equipment from the 80's that is still working perfectly and the tuner/sound quality is much better then today's equivalent electronics.

We bought this RCA RCD160 Portable MP3/CD player boom box with AM/FM tuner for strictly limited use, just to play a couple of hours per week, as we practiced our dancing. We certainly never took this item to the nearby beach, there was no sand in this baby. We used it, in fact, only in AC mode, never with batteries; only the CD player, and that only sparingly, and extremely gently. We could hear the songs we played well enough, and found the sound quality acceptable for our limited needs. However, the product suddenly, without warning died on us, and that in less than a year. What a bummer!

I have gone through 5 of these machines within the last year. Two machines came broken and ate 5 of my cassette tapes. This is not just with this cassette player but with my VCR/DVDRW player. I went through 3 of those in a year. When calling up the warranty company, they will only cover their machines from the purchase of the first initial purchase. Buyers beware!!! I wouldn't buy another RCA product if someone gave me money to do so!