Customer Reviews

Sony CMT-EP707 3-Disc CD Desktop Microsystem

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

First looks: looks great, takes only little bookshelf space, good controls design (better than the other, older sony micro systems), 3 CD, relatively inexpensive (nice "bang for the buck")

...but, as this system is only 15W / speaker, we would expect it would give a decent performance at low volume!
A constant background noise is hearable from the system, for example even if the CD paused, the noise is greater when the CD is playing... The amplifier has a design flaw or it is deliberately of low quality.
The "noise" is unbereable with headphones.

At normal/high volume, this system sounds great but... I still think this product is inconsistant in quality with other sony products.

The unit looks fine, and the gray/wood look blends in well with furniture.

After one year of operation, I began noticing the hiss mentioned in other reviews. Whenever the unit is on standby (no music playing), you can clearly hear a radio station playing in the background. It's absolutely torturous. Imagine watching a DVD on a laptop connected to this device. Every time time there is a pause in the action, you hear a faint sound resembling a radio playing in low volume. If you pay attention, you can make out entire songs. If you live in an area with bad reception, you won't hear songs like I do, you'll simply hear hiss.

The sound will not go away when you play CDs...you can drown it out by playing music loud enough. Unfortunately, that defeats the purpose of a bookshelf system.

I called Sony, and they have no information on this problem. Stay away from this extremely disappointing unit. I purchased it for $200, and it still retails for $150. It sells on Ebay for $55.

In my earlier review, I said that this was a nice sounding system and that I didn't hear the hiss that the other reviewers had mentioned. But now that I've had it over a week I know EXACTLY what they were talking about. There is a constant level of speaker noise regardless of the audio source. While a certain level of noise is to be expected when using the tuner (and to a lesser extent, when listening to tapes), it is unacceptable when listening to CDs. Playing soft background music is out of the question, and classical pieces with soft passages are a complete loss. You have to turn the volume up to at least 7 (the max is 30) to be able to hear anything clearly over the constant hiss. Even spoken word is noticeably distorted. Even with the volume up to midrange to minimize the hiss, the sound is not clean at all.

While I still maintain that this is a very attractive product, and that the CD changer does NOT make an undue amount of noise for a multitray system, the speaker noise is just unacceptable. I'll be returning it as soon as possible. What a disappointment.

Several of the other reviewers complain about static or noise at low volume. I noticed it when playing music through the speakers, but it was very mild and doesn't bother me at all. Where is it extremely annoying, however, is when listening through headphones. I know the problem isn't my headphones, they work fine attached to anything else. But on this unit, the static buzz is so pronounced, I had a headache literally within 2 minutes of starting a CD. My other major complaint is the CD changing mechanism. It is LOUD. The whole reason i bought this unit is because it is small and it has single- and all-disc random play. What's the point of all-disc random play when you have to listen to loud clicking and whirring noises between almost every song? Admittedly I have not investigated other compact multi-cd units, this may be a common problem, but if you want a small unit for background music (or even recreational listening), the CD changer noise on this one will make you wish you'd bought something else.

Other than that, it's small, has a good design (though the disc select and eject buttons are somewhat awkward to reach while the tray is open), and easy to use.

I too have had problems with the audible hiss/static/background noise with this stereo. Basically, if you play a CD at a reasonably low volume, you will hear an annoying hiss in the background. This hiss is also audible in the MD (auxiliary) input, which is one feature I tend to use a lot to play MP3s from my computer. It's possible that the hiss is also a problem with the radio tuner as well -- but since my signal reception is so poor, it's hard for me to tell. (Note: other stereos I have purchased have gotten significantly better FM radio reception than this one; however, your mileage may vary.)

Aesthetically, the style and user interface are fine, but the poor sound quality alone should be enough to keep you away from this unit. I would have expected more from Sony.

I bought this system for my kitchen, to provide background music during dinner.

I wound up returning it, because of the background hiss other reviewers have noticed (I tried moving it to several different locations, but always had the hiss.), and because of the noisy CD mechanism. We would set it to shuffle-play 3 CDs, and would enjoying dinner, but everytime the unit switched from one CD to another, converstation stoped and everyone turned to look at what was making all that racket. (And we have two small kids, so we're used to racket.)

Sound quality was good, if you turned it up loud enough to overpower the hiss (i.e full power, which isn't all that loud). I liked the small remote, and it had all the features I needed.

As I mentioned, I wound up returning it, and really wouldn't recommend it.

I bought this for my mother-in-law as a gift. When we took it out of the package and plugged it in, the CD tray would not open. And yes, we disengaged all of the safety devices that were attached so that the tray wouldn't move.
When I called the Sony customer service number, the guy who was supposed to help me had absolutely no advice for me - there was silence on the line for over 2 minutes while he "researched" my problem. He finally just told me to bring the machine to some rinky-dink electronics store down the street for "servicing".
I didn't bother - just brought it right into Circuit City and got my money back. Now that I see all of the reviews about the hissing, I'm glad we took it back and just got a smaller boom-box cd player.

Firstly, I have had no experience with the system buzzing on low volumes as mentioned in a previous review, this maybe due to another appliance interfering with the system.

I read a lot reviews on this site and was after an AIWA, however being impatient I wanted to go out and buy a system for my bedroom straight away. I listened to the Sony in Circuit City and I was impressed. The sound quality or volume is not going to blow you away, especially if you have a good quality seperates system. But for [the price] it is good. It is more than loud enough for a bedroom, office or similar.

The sleep mode and timer makes it a good choice if it is to be used in a bedroom. However, the disk changing mechanism is on the loud side so stick to one CD if you are trying to go to sleep to music.

The system is small and compact and is nicely finished (as long as you do not look at the back of the speakers). It would have been nice to change the speaker cables but they are hard-wired into the system.

The Tuner is of good quality, although I would like to have had the RDS feature available on the European model (although only limited US radio stations broadcast in RDS.)

The remote control is fine and has all the features you would expect, however, many of the buttons are the same size and shape making it hard to use in low-light/dark situations. Combine this with the noisy CD changer and this is why it did not get the 5 star rating.

My husband bought this for me because I had been harping for years about the giant system in our bedroom. This was small but I can't even listen to the radio the reception is so horrible. CD's are fine but the changer is ridiculously loud. He spent way too much for this since I usually just turn on my clock radio to listen to the radio and only use this unit for cd's.

I bought this system for background music. Unfortunately I have to agree with a previous reviewer regarding a constant static noise at low volume. I tried three different systems on different stores with different CDs and all of them seem to have the same problem.

I expected more from Sony.