Customer Reviews

Sony ZS-SN10SILVER Compact MP3/CD Boombox with 10-key Direct Access remote control

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I purchased the so called "Boombox" as a small CD player for my office. It works great. There were two specific features I was looking for in a CD player. First, I have Sony's Sonicstage software. Although the software is quirky at times, the best feature is the ATRAC compression. I've created CD's using this compression that can hold 20 full CD's on one CD! Because this compression is proprietary, only specific Sony CD players (including car stereos) can playback a ATRAC CD.

The second feature that I wanted was an aux input for my MP3 player. It's easy to hook up and the sound is awesome.

This boombox worked out perfectly and the price was great.

I had originally seen the Sony MP3/CD Boombox (ZS-SN10SILVER) on the Sony webpage. I liked what the webpage had to say about it and the functionality. The only problem with the CD player was the availability. I searched high and low and no one had stock. I finally found some available from Amazon and I was able to purchase it right away. I had had a previous experience with a different manufacturer of a CD boombox and that other brand was the worst sounding player I had ever heard. So when we received this Sony product, it was great to hear such rich sound. This was for my 10 year old son and it sounds great at a low volume and at a high volume. He was also able to use the remote control and figure out all the functionality. It is really easy to switch radio stations and set things up. Other systems are not nearly as easy. We have not used the MP3 functionality yet. We have to purchase a cable in order to hook his MP3 up. We are thrilled with his boombox and would highly recommend it over any system that you see in the local stores in your neighborhood. It offers alot and I am the most impressed with the great sound that it has to offer.

WOW! For under $100, this little gem serves well for a picnic, or a (small) home stereo...and the sound quality is REMARKABLE! I've lived with roommates with high end audio systems, and needed something that didn't disappoint now that I don't have access to that equipment. I can't get over the sound quality at this price.

And, it has a line-in for all your digital music needs.

I am very satisfied with this unit. It has great sound quality, and the mega-bass feature is remarkable. I have never seen such good bass in a small unit like this one. The FM reception is amazing; it even tunes into far away radio stations without the need to pull up the antenna. I can tune directly into my preset stations using the numbered buttons on the remote, just like a car stereo. It was able to read all my MP3 cds and I like the fact that it keeps scrolling the song title with short intervals, so no need to fumble with the remote to see what's playing. I only wish it would remember the last radio station it was tuned in, after I unplug it from the outlet. I'm thrilled with it, and highly recommend this boombox.

The future of "recorded media" seems to be the Mp3 format. If you get a boombox that does not have Mp3, you will lose the benefits of Mp3 or you will have to repurchase another boombox like this one in the future to get the Mp3 capability.

This ZSSN10PS plays Mp3 CD's. Plus there is an INPUT capability so you can input your portable Ipod or Creative Zen small Mp3 player INTO this one so you can listen to music or books on tape using the speakers of the ZSSN10PS and you won't need to use earphones to listen to your small portable Mp3 player at home. This is VERY useful so you don't have to use earphones all the time. The only thing this doesn't have is a cassette deck. Cassettes are slowing being superceded by Mp3 technology.

Mp3 is useful because you can have 3, 5, 10 or more CD's on ONE CD. This is especially useful for multiple CD Sets of music and even more useful with Books on Tape which sometimes are 10 or more CD's. Now you can have one entire book on one or two CD's!

There is a "new service" called netlibrary. You can ask how to get this service FREE from your local library. It allows you to download entire unabridged books FREE from their website. Then you can listen to the book on your computer. Or, better yet, with a Creative Zen Nano or similer, (not the Apple Ipod) you can put the book on a small portable Mp3 player. Then, you can input the book from the small portable Mp3 player INTO the "input" on the ZSSN10PS thus using the speakers of the ZSSN10PS.

If you need to have a cassette player you can buy this one AND another 2nd boombox with cassette capability---if you are rich enough to buy both types, that is! Email:boland7214@aol.

After much research over several months, I decided to purchase the Sony ZS-SN10SILVER boombox for my wife. The key features I wanted were
1) digital tuner for radio
2) CD Player
3) Good sound (I'm not an audiophile - just want it to be clear even at louder volumes).
4) Audio input so we can play songs from the family's iPODs and MP3 Players.

A Cassette player would have been nice for older tapes, but we don't have a lot of those so it wasn't vital.

As this model offers all of the above except cassette, is made by Sony, and had great reviews I thought it would be a winner.

When we unpacked it, it was larger than it looks in the pictures - I'd assumed it would be only about 6 inches deep, but it's more like 12.

The main reason for getting it was to listen to NPR on the FM dial. So we plugged it in, and tried to tune it in. Using the manual we figured out how to program stations - it's not intuitive, and I suspect we'll forget how to do this in future and have to return to the manual (if it can be found by then.) This isn't a big deal - just could be easier. You can add a text to describe each station as well and there are 25 or so presets. To get to a preset, there's a button that feels like a scroll wheel - you step through each pre-set to get to the one you want. Not as easy as having a set of preset buttons, but not a big deal either.

CD playback was very good - sound quality was very clear - the BASSBoost was effective as well. There are some equalizer pre-sets for different kinds of music as well as a manual option. Volume is increased and decreased digitally with settings betweeen 1 and 10 with 3 sub-levels for each level. a setting of 3 is reasonable for indoor listening, but you can go all the way to 10 and it's very clear - no hiss or other distortion.

Attaching my MP3 player with a cable (not included) to the audio input works well also, though playback was less loud than from CD.

After all this, however, we're seriously considering returning it. The radio reception is just horrible and as my wife and I are NPR fans, the key reason for this purchase was to be able to tune in and listen.

I thought a digital tuner would surpass an analog tuner in locking in the right channels - this has always been the case in the past (think of your car stereo). The Sony's tuner picks up a lot of interference, and no amount of antenna adjustment was able to overcome this for the main NPR station. Even other music stations that have strong signals in the area came in poorly, with varying degrees of hiss.

After trying several parts of the house I decided to see if the FM radio on my MP3 player, fed through the Sony's Audio In port would work any better. To my surprise this picks up the NPR station fine with no interference. Switching between the two (Radio Tuner vs MP3 via Audio In) clearly showed just how bad the Sony tuner is.

Ultimately, to be of any use as a radio, I'd have to have the MP3 player connected the entire time - and that doesn't make any sense - may as well just listen to the MP3 with headphones instead.

So if you primarily want to play CDs and get good sound output - this is probably a good choice. If you want decent radio reception though - look for something else.

We've owned this for 3 months and have no regrets with our purchase. The sound produced is excellent for a portable stereo and it's very simple to use. I set the radio stations and added titles to each setting so we knew what we were listening to. It was very simple to program. The remote control is simple to manipulate with very straightforward command buttons. Bottom line, we love it and would buy another one if we were in the market. We did not, however, purchase this through Amazon since I found it at my local Sears for the same price and didn't need to pay for shipping or wait for it to arrive. It always pays to shop around, even with local stores!

We've had it for about 1/2 year now. It works as well as advertised. Considering how expensive these things used to be, this is a steal. Sure, it doesn't have riveting stereo-quality sound, but does sound ok and what do you expect for an inexpensive compact boombox? My daughter loves it, listning to it pretty much every morning while getting ready for school and every evening while getting ready for bed.

Only downside is the same problem with most digital radios/stereos nowadays. You can't easily tune into your favorite station like your car radio-instead you have to sequence through all the stations you've programmmed into the unit.

I purchased this product to replace a small desk top stereo system that had stopped working. The size of this product on my shelf and its sound quality were important to me, as was having both radio and CD options. So far, it has been a great little unit and has met my expectations in these areas. One of its plus features is the ability to program lots of radio channels. One of its minus features is I can't quite figure out how to do it! It has a nice true sound with no crackling or distortion and operates on AC or battery power. Power options weren't specified in the product description on line nor was the fact that it did include a power cord, so these were welcomed features to find. It seems to be a great product for the price. It was impressive how quickly the NY vendor I purchased it from through Amazon shipped it.

I was looking for a boombox that produce rich, loud, deep, crisp sound that also had an auxilary input for my mp3 player. This met all my criteria. I have had it for almost a year and it continues to operate without any "buzz" in the speakers even though I usually play the sound on max volume (I love loud music).