Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
54 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well-made and Gorgeous MP3-CD player, October 27, 2001
This unit, while missing a few desireable features, makes up for them in other ways.What I like: design/appearance/size; cute little remote control; backlit display; comprehensive mp3 file format handling [note: not WMA or others]; fit and finish; controls layout; excellent sound; fully digital tuning and volume controls (all accessible from the remote); price; two-color display (green for tuner/cd; orange for mp3-cd's). What I dislike: NOTHING IMPORTANT. I knew that it lacked ID3 track label display (though it does differentiate different albums within a CD), so that's not really a disappointment though, obviously, it would be nice. Hopefully, you know what you laboriously spent time collecting and burning anyhow, I feel. I wouldn't have minded a clock/alarm/timer function though [a slight disappointment here]. Not sure how well I like the on-board jog dial, which controls ff/rev/play-pause/stop, etc, plus it may be the only part that seems as though it may exhibit potential fragility, though that remains to be seen. It may be fine. In any case, the controls are all replicated on the remote and then some. I had considered the RCA mp3-CD player, but it lacked a backlight, though it did display ID3's. I personally feel that a backlight is far more important -- a stupid feature to not include. I prefer the Philips brandname anyhow, and it can't touch this unit for looks and style. This unit is built well and looks great, like the Sony CFDE75, but the Sony lacks MP3-CD support (and a backlight!). I didn't care about a cassette player -- usually the weakest link in a portable system. To summarize, I highly recommend this product. You won't be disappointed, so long as you acknowledge its few shortcomings (and aren't unpleasantly surprised). It's a winner for sure. I think it will sell -- and serve -- very well.
|
|
|
51 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best of breed CD boombox with MP3 decoding, November 16, 2001
I did a lot of research on these. I suspect more manufacturers and models will hit the market with the MP3 decoding feature, but Philips is serious about this niche, and they have a very well designed and stylish product. I highly recommend it. The sound is great, with plenty of volume and a nice bass enhancement option. The look is cool, with nice touches like the amber colored display in MP3 mode versus green for FM and normal CD. For anyone unfamiliar with the benefits of the MP3 decoding feature...Instead of having to take the compressed MP3 file and uncompress it to put on a regular CD-Audio, you can burn a data CD with compressed MP3 files. So, instead of (about)18 songs fitting on a normal audio CD, you can have (about) 180 songs on a data CD in MP3 format. So, you need to be computer saavy enough to be able to rip and/or download MP3's and burn CD's - or, you can have a friend do it for you. At any rate, you can put all or most of your favorite tunes on one CD and have hours and hours of listening. Kind of like a portable jukebox. I have a portable Rio/Nike MP3 player for running, but this boombox is great for taking around as I do chores and run on the treadmill. Some minor negatives - the shuffle/random play feature can only be done from the remote (which is a critical feature when you have so many songs on one CD). No ID3 support, so you don't see the track name on the display, just the track number. Small things overall. You may be able to get another model for 10-20 bucks less, but the cool styling, quality, and dedication from Philips to this medium makes the AZ1155 the best buy.
|
|
|
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Stylist Boombox that can play MP3s in Random Order, December 21, 2001
There isn't many Boomboxes that even play MP3s (believe me, I've looked). This is the first that I've found that has the quality and features that you need with MP3 playback. It has Nice looks, decent sound, colorful back light, cute little remote, and most important of all it will play your hundreds of MP3s in a Random Order (which for some reason, is every Rare!). If you burn you own CDs than you probably know that you can get about 80 min of music on a regular CD (about 22 songs) and about 10 times that with MP3 format (about 13 hours and well over 200 songs). It not only lets you shuffle you songs but will recognize and let you select different folders of MP3s on you CD. So if you're looking for a nice CD/MP3 player in a Boombox with MP3 Shuffle...this is it!
|
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|