SonyCD Cassette Radio CFD-S70 B

After owning three lower-priced units which we either returned or trashed them due to inoperative upon arrival, poor sound quality, flimsy craftsmanship, etc., we finally broke down and purchased the Sony CFD-S70 to replace them. Having grown up with the Sony brand and owning many products over the decades (from Walkman to blank cassettes to PlayStation to movie/audio discs to car audio to home theater), we should have known to invest the extra $$'s up front knowing what we would get.The Sony CFD-S70 has an easy-to-read digital display, and the controls are easy to use (if it had a remote control for the radio/CD functions, it would have been an added bonus but isn't a deal-breaker). The construction is good quality, and its compact size makes for a good travel companion when on battery power. The sound quality and frequency range are decent, especially when using the Mega Bass feature (note: for those of us 80's babies who remember and owned real "boom boxes", you may be a little disappointment with today's standards.). The battery option offers portability and use in emergency situations (storms, power outages, etc.).The telescoping antenna helps tune in some of the long-distance, weaker FM radio stations very well, and there is a slot in the back to store and protect the antenna when not in use. There are 3 "favorites" button that can be programmed for quick assess, which we found useful. The CD player works as expected. We primary purchased it for the cassette player (yes, we still have cassette tapes from the 70s/80s/early 90s era) and were pleasantly surprised that they still worked, and some even sounded like new.Overall, the Sony CFD-S70 is in the higher price range but you are also paying for the Sony name and long history they have with providing quality products. Will most likely purchase a 2nd unit as a spare and would recommend this to others.

After a bad experience with a no-name brand, I bit the bullet and bought this Sony CFD-S70 boombox, even though the price is a bit too high for what this thing does. But on the bright side, what it does do, it does it well.The radio is a digital tuner. Between the radio and the CD functionality, a remote control would've been nice to have, but this boombox is too basic to support a remote. Sound quality is okay for its form factor, as long as you keep the Mega Bass feature turned on. You are not going to be throwing any parties out with this thing, it is a boombox for personal listening.The cassette tape is very basic, but at least it nails those basics just fine. There is no built-in microphone so you can't do voice recordings. But you can make mixtapes from CDs, MP3s and radio, and it will record and play tapes in stereo, something you cannot take for granted given what the current no-name brands are selling these days.Other than providing a remote control, and a holder to put the remote when not in use, I wish Sony had gone with more of a functional design. I miss the days when boomboxes had a little window on the CD player to see the disc spinning. But that was just a cosmetic thing. More important is that this boombox, like many models sold these days, does not have a window to see the cassette reels spinning. This is more than a cosmetic thing though. You have to trust this boombox blindly to not eat your tapes, because you cannot see if the tape reels are rolling properly.So in short, I do find the Sony CFD-S70 boombox a bit too basic, but at least it does the essential jobs it is supposed to. Seekers of the extra mile need not apply though.

So ok, probably like many other people, I was encouraged to buy this product based on the previous reviews: it got an average of 4.5 out of 5 stars, and many of the reviews said it sounded great. HOWEVER. When it finally arrived in my hot little hands, I couldn't believe how awful it sounded! Like, it sounded BAAAAAAAD, dude!!!The sound quality of this product is seriously no better than standard built-in smartphone speakers, or standard built-in laptop speakers. The sound on this machine was muddy, tinny, and monotonous; it was impossible to distinguish bass from drums from vocals. The Mega Bass feature might as well've not existed it was so useless. I purchased this product to replace two very old, second-hand CD players that are both half-broken, that I have to switch out depending on which type of CD I'm listening to (CD-R/W vs. standard store-bought). But after 30 seconds of sampling this brand-new Sony player, I realized that I was WAY better off keeping both half-broken CD players, and continuing to play my little game of rotating-half-broken-CD-players-based-on-whichever-CD-I-instert. The sound on my half-broken machines is INFINTELY better than the sound on this brand-new machine, and one of them doesn't even have any frickin' Bass Boost and still sounds better than this Sony piece of crap!I suppose I should put a small disclaimer in this review: I am a musician and have always sought high-quality sound from any product that I even consider purchasing. I should also say that I am a huge proponent of testing out products such as these, in person, before making a purchase, in order to verify for myself how good the sound quality is (which, naturally, I didn't do since I purchased this one cold online).If you don't much care about technical details of sound or music, then I suppose this product is about average. But if you're like me, and you place a premium on how your most cherished, kick-ass, heart-songs sound when they get amped out of a machine, then DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T BUY THIS PRODUCT!! IT'S A PISS-POOR WASTE OF $70. FIND SOMETHING THAT SOUNDS AT LEAST HALF-WAY DECENT! BUT ANYTHING BUT THIS, MAN!

This is the third one I have purchased. They work well for a while and then it started messing up the tapes, or the last one would suddenly stop. I use the line in to play music from u tube.