Customer Reviews

Sony CFD-G500 CD Radio Cassette Recorder Boombox (Black)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This (the CFD-G500) is the successor to the Sony CFD-G70. I own both. The sound of the CFD-G500 has better definition (is cleaner), is louder, and even has cleaner bass than the CFD-G70. It easily provides music for a water aerobics class that takes place in a swimming pool that is the size of a tennis court. (In fact, before being a pool, it was a tennis court.)

I had worried that the G500's sound would suffer from lack of separate tweeters, which the G70 does have. Not to worry. I don't know how Sony did it.

The G500 also has some improvement in the user interface (compared to the G70): the volume control have moved from the top to the front and is colored silver rather than the same color as the box itself, and Line-In is on top rather than at the bottom of the front.

Note that as I write this, Amazon's link named "Technical Data" is inaccurate in at least the following. Takes 8 batteries, not 6: Weighs 18 lbs with batteries (15.5 lbs without), not "7.25 with batteries," and its size is substantially larger than 15.25 x 6.5 x 10 inches.

In summary, this is the best-sounding battery-powered boombox that I've ever heard, and I've heard many boomboxes in the last 30 years.

If you're looking at SONY boom boxes, you may be considering both their black CFD-G500 and their silver CFD-F10. I bought both and would like to share my impressions thus far.

Appearance: I really love the sleek even elegant lines of the silver F10.

Portability: The silver F10 is lighter and more stream-lined, so if you want a unit that you can move around, this is an advantage over the heavier and bulkier G500.

Sound: I listen almost exclusively to classical music. Both models do a great job of providing a full rich sound. The MEGA BASS and MEGA Xpand of the silver F10 give it a sound quality comparable, at least to my ears, to the larger and somewhat more expensive black G500 (which has a power drive woofer).

But the black G500 has two advantages I really appreciate over the silver F10:

1. It has a feature that allows me to select 5 different audio emphases: one is good for the whole dynamic range (great for classical), one is best for vocals, one for percussive sounds etc.
2. When I'm playing a symphony at fairly high volume, and the orchestra reaches a real crescendo, the black G500 conveys the full blast of music with great clarity. The silver F10 does a good job of handling a high volume but not full blasts without losing some sound definition.

Bottom line: I'm delighted with both. I bought the silver F10 for use in my den, where I want to hear full rich sounds played at low to medium high volumes. I bought the black G500 for use in a corner of my living room, where I need higher volumes to reach into my kitchen and dining room as well.

I wanted a small table top one piece portable receiver that plays cass. and cd's and would fit on my nightstand. What I got was a huge, tacky boombox that could be used as a PA for a small outdoor concert.
The sound is great and the soundfields in the built-in equalizer actually work. But the unit is excessively large and the grill work on the front, with it's red neon lights, is reminiscent of a 50's jukebox.
I suppose this is one of the disadvantages of shopping online. Pictures can be deceiving and if you're not really paying attention, you can end up with something totaly different than you imagined. The price was great but it did come in an open box. The first thing that came to mind is that the last person who purchased this item was surprised at the dimensions and returned it.
Bottom line is that this boombox sounds as good as you would expect something this large and heavy to sound.

this boombox is simply amazing. it is much better than last years model which i bought for my dad last year for fathers day. when i first bought this boombox, it was for a cookout at my friend's house. they did not have any cd's and i did not have any ranchero music cd's either. so i borrowed a bunch of my dad and mom's cd's and put them all on my hi-md minidisc player and bought a very cheap wire to connect from my minidisc player to my line-in jack. man my friends were amazed at the sound and the music out lasted the party. when i brought it home, my mom was amazed at the sound and said she was going to buy one too. she never did so i gave her mine one day and tried to see if i can find another boombox out there, but there was no luck. after months of seaching, i came up with another sony boombox, which i called it an experiment. this boombox had a mp3/atrac3 cd player. it sounded good with my 80's hard rock collection. then when my mom would crank up the boombox i gave her, it sounded so good all over the house. i could not stand it anymore and i took off to target to my g500 cuz i really missed it and this time i was going to buy a shelf for cuz before i had the other one on a stool. then i was going to connect everything to it. i connected my playstation2, my directv and the unbeatable reunitement of my sony mz-nh600d minidisc player. nothing out there can beat that combination for the price. i have seen some reviews on this boombox that it can not play cdrw's, well this one plays them fine. i have heard of the bose wave radio at a grocery store and this radio rivals that radio easily. i am not going to say that it beats that radio, but for a much lower price this radio can do more than that radio. the bose wave radio is not portable ha! ha! you can not take the bose radio to the beach or just get up and go to target or anywhere else and buy one like the cfd-g500. the bose radio has not impressed my friends and family either and probably cannot beat my mini disc boombox combinations either. i don't know why sony does not just come up with the name subwoofer. it always has a different name like power drive woofer or super woofer. this boombox has a four inch SUBWOOFER. in the back of this radio there is a port and you can feel all the air coming from the subwoofer. i would recomend this boombox to anyone cuz i am now on my second one and believe me you will spend 5x more for the bose and not even get a cassette player either. also the remote is much different than the one pictured.

WOW!!!
I just bought this boombox, I love the powerful sound quality solid bass and loud crisp sound,really love this boombox sound like Bookself HIFI stereo's, forget those BOSE and crap systems out there , put them for 100's dollars, this do the job with great brand and price, worth every penny I paid! ...A+

One drawback is the lack of battery or other backup for the 30 presets. Once you unplug the unit, to move it to another location, you lose all the presets. I don't know if that is the case with batteries installed, but that is the case when only supplying it with outlet power.

This is an excellent unit as long as you aren't using it to play bass-heavy CD's at high volume. Like the older unit this is replacing, it has no skip protection buffer, resulting in the subwoofer causing bass-heavy CD's to skip when played at anything louder than half volume. I use this unit to listen to music at work, and I work in a very large space, so in order to hear it everywhere I turn it all the way up.

All the other features are excellent, though. Sound quality is pristine at any volume. Controls are easy to understand and use. Just as long as you're not playing CD's at high volume with the subwoofer on, it projects sound extremely well across a vast distance with clarity.

Though very large and somewhat heavy, it plays with power and accuracy. The remote is a godsend. I originally was shopping for one athts plays MP3's and got confused with about 10 webpages open and I ordered this by mistake. I'm not happy with my shopping skills, but the music ROCKS! All that space and no nook for the remote or even a second CD It's Huge Heavy and POWERFUL!

I had a Sony Boombox back in 1986- and this year it finally crapped down on me. I would put in brand new CD's and it would act up, and tell me there was no CD there. And it started to skip on tracks. So I said, to hell with it, I'm getting a new boombox. And I was SO surprised when I saw this baby. It's a SOLID, WELL MADE Sony product. You are getting more for your money than you'll realize, until you pop in a CD and it feels like being in a club- the bass is pounding, and it comes with a remote control - so if I'm here typing away, and I want to listen to my CD again, it starts right back on. I HIGHLY reccomend the Sony CFD-G500 CD RADIO CASSETTE RECORDER BOOMBOX. GET ONE BEFORE EVERYONE ELSE LEARNS HOW EXCELLENT THEY ARE!

I definately think this is the best Sony boombox you will find. The sound is great, it's much more like a stereo system, than the others, by Sony. Although kind of bulky, it has an attractive design, but most importantly, it sounds great! This is definately the Sony boombox to get!