Customer Reviews

Sony ZSSN10PS PSYC CD Boombox (Black)

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is going to sound kind of eccentric, but even though I have a nice stereo, sometimes I like to listen to music on a smaller unit. It's a different experience, like a friend whispering to you instead of a big brass band. Intimite. OK. So I had the idea to get a boombox that would play MP3 CDs, set it and forget it-for 10 hours. This unit is really rather sophisticated, e.g. you can shuffle-play only the contents of one folder. And it does other, even more fussy things if you're into that. But it's also *very* simple to use. E.g. if you want to turn on the power and play the CD that's in there, just hit the play button. It remembers where you were on the MP3 CD, in shuffle, and just quietly goes about its' business, leaving you to just enjoy the music rather than having drama with a machine.
Sound quality is better than I expected, almost like a small stereo instead of being comparable to a clock radio. *Really* nice.
Appearance: quite presentable. I am a designer and I am very impressed with the execution of all of the above.
Bottom line: I am really impressed that for $80 or $90 or whatever Sony markets this machine that performs so well, is sleek not gaudy, and now I listen to this machine almost exclusively.
BTW, if you turn it way up, you're still good.
Very solid. Way to go, Sony.

Hope that helped.

Not since Philips came out with the extremely awesome sounding AZ-1115 mp3 boombox (now sadly discontinued) have I seen an mp3 boombox that comes close in sound quality, price, and features!! Sony has a nice mp3 boombox with the ZS-XN30 S2 Sports boombox that sounds nice enough, but it has no remote and costs around $130. Philips came out with another mp3 boombox after the AZ-1115, but it pauses between CD tracks(and I don't mean mp3), which sucks when listening to a live concert CD. Audiophase has a pretty cool one that sounds great with a built in XM radio (XM subscription required for the XM service), but there is an annoying electrical pulse/popping sound between mp3 tracks. I couldn't stand it. Had to return it.
Finally I stumbled across Sony's ZS-SN10 today at Best Buy, and it has EVERYTHING I need in an mp3 boombox!!
It has a full functional remote, 6 equalizer presets, a megabass button, auxiliary input, stylish look, terrific sound, 30 FM presets, 10 AM presets, a headphone jack (the Philips AZ-1115 lacked a headphone jack), an auto-sleep turnoff, bookmark funtion, track search that allows you to skip by 10s and 100s (instead of skipping one mp3 track at a time like some), it lets you fast-forward through an mp3 track (many won't do this), and a resume capability that remembers which track you were on last even after you power down (as long as you don't open the CD over). This is extremely invaluable when listening to mp3 CDs. I can't say enough about this unit! I has surpassed all my expectations!

That about sums up this boombox. I didnt know boomboxes could sound so good - this has rich, mini-system quality sound as opposed to the flat tinny sound you get with most boomboxes. No tape deck may be the only negative to some, but not for me. Plays CD, CDRW, mp3 and ATRAC files, has a sleep timer, remote, Mega Bass and Custom EQ settings, AM/FM tuner, headphone jack, and a cool new feature, a LINE IN jack that lets you connect, say, your iPod Shuffle if you get sick of the radio. The display can toggle to show track info (supports ID3 tag) such as bitrate, artist, song, etc. The menus and folders are a breeze to navigate through with the control buttons on the front of the unit. You can connect any audio device that has a standard 1/8" mini plug. With the sound quality and features of this thing its an absolute steal for under a hundred bucks. This is one heck of a boombox.

This boombox was beautiful out of the box. It looks amazing. Well designed as far as physical appearance goes, everything looks sharp and well thought out. The features on this you just simply cannot beat. ID3 tags work great. The line-in (AUX INPUT) is rare and very much welcome. The box performs amazing when reading mp3 discs, shaving off nearly half the start up time other more expensive models I tested took. And thats where the good stops and the bad begins. As far as sound, this box ultimately disappointed me. Don't get me wrong its not horrible but its not great either. The bass was really weak even with the "mega" bass button pressed. Overall the bass sounded very hollow and almost disconnected from the music. The highs and mids were decent but tended to distort right along with the bass when listening to "crowded" music like trance or electronic at mid to high range of volume. To give the box credit though, when listening to jazz or chill it sounded really good even at higher volume. This is of course taking into consideration all the different equalizer settings to get the best sound. I could have lived with the disappointing sound in trade for the features but for one last deal breaker. When playing a mp3 cd the player makes a noise between each and every track which sounds like its powering on the speakers. Needless to say it gets very irritating very fast. Forget listening to a soothing collection of songs because you will be annoyed after every single song ends and the other begins. I took mine back and got a refund. The only problem is there is no other player with both mp3 playback and a line in. Sigh.

Positive Points :
1. MP3 & ATTRAC3 plus compatibility. --> Very rare to find in many boomboxes.
2. REMOTE is really excellent and this made me to buy this peice.
3. ATTRAC3 software is included - so you can have around 500 songs in one CD and play them in your boombox.
4. Line-in facility is really handy and you can plug in any MP3 player / Laptop / Radio ... any audio device and listen the music from boombox speakers.
5. Looks Good. I like black color better than white.
6. For people who wants to listen using a headphone - yes, that facility is also available.
7. Battery facility also available - for those who can afford.

Negative Points :
1. Sound is NOT so great. Speaker volume is OK not as much as you expect in a great boombox.
2. For that sound quality, this size looks very bulky and heavy.
3. Line-In music is NOT so good. I observed a great difference when I listened to my MP3 music player and the sound from this boombox (using the same MP3 player in line-in) the sound was not so good.
4. Batteries - Not AA / AAA. Seems like a odd size - but I think that hat every boombox of this size will come with.
5. If Sony had given USB compatibility - then this will be the best facility for this much.

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! [...].

PS: This one seems to be unavailable. There is a silver one under the title: Sony ZS-SN10 Silver MP3 CD Boombox If you type that title into [...] you should get to the page for one in silver that is available.

I purchased this so that I could take it to the picnic table down by the lake and listen to mp3 discs. Works perfectly for this. I'm happy with the sound and operation.

This is the perfect boombox for college! It has more than enough oomph for a dorm room and because you can rip all of your Cd's to MP3's you wont have to pack any of them, or your stereo. I would suggest a high bit rate MP3 file. 192 minimum. I like to use iTunes. The preferences that I use are: 192 kbps, VBR on at highest quality, Sample rate and channels at auto. stereo mode at normal. smart encoding unchecked, filter below 10Hz checked on. This will make a much larger file than a 128 but it will sound WAY better. I can still fit about 10-13 CD's worth of songs on 1 700 mg CD. If you do not use iTunes, I'm sure that any of the other software programs will let you customize your MP3's. But make sure that you use MP3 and not Apple's default AAC or WMP default WMA because MP3 is more versatile. I also don't mess around with adding album art because it just makes the file larger.
The remote is a sweet feature! bottom line. For $80 you can't go wrong!

It's a shame that by 2006 no one has brought a strong contender to the mp3 boombox market. That being said the Sony ZSSN10PS is about the least bad out there. The functionality is pretty fluid. I wish it had a one-touch volume dial rather than separate volume up and volume down buttons. This makes no sense. What happens if press them both at the same time? The styling of box itself seems a little cheap. That doesn't make any difference to me but if Sony still has a R&D department they might want to take note.

The sound is ok but not as full as some more conventional non-mp3 boxes. I'm not really sure why manufacturers still put these little "MEGA BASS" buttons on boomboxes. The effect is hardly mega. The software included is utterly useless. The remote is useless. I don't know maybe someone actually uses the remote but mine's still in the box. The auxiliary input is a big plus. I also like that track titles scroll.

When you put a disc in or turn the power on you'll have to wait about 30 seconds while the disc is reading. My discs are very literate at this point. It also takes a few seconds to skip to the next track when playing in shuffle mode. And you can't switch to shuffle while the disc is playing. Why?

I use mine every day so I feel that I've gotten a lot of use out of it and the price is fair, but if you're looking for a really great boombox look to the future.

I bought one a week ago at the Sony store. The MP3 playback skips all over the place, to the point of being unplayable. I tried two different discs, each of which play just fine on two other CD-MP3 players we have, and both were unplayable on this unit.

The MP3 playback was the major reason I bought it, so it's going back to the store tomorrow.