Sony CFD-S350 CD/Cassette Portable Boombox (Silver)

My oldest son is autistic and insists on listening to the same CD on repeat-mode every night as he drifts off to sleep. He has one of these players in his room. Usually we turn it off after he goes to sleep but sometimes it playes all night.

We are well into our second year of this routine and this CD player has performed flawlessly. We don't let him have original CDs but rather burn the two tracks he listens to over and over to a special CD and let him have it. He has worn out several CDs through scratching and smudging but this CD player keeps going and going.

And, that's another plus, this player will play a CD that is very smudged and scratched.

We were so impressed with this unit that we bought a second one. It has been used extensively and still works like new.

I've occasionally used the radio function and have found that it pulls in stations very well.

My only complaint is that I found the controls confusing. I wish the symbols on the buttons were actually a contrasting color, not just impressions molded into plastic which are very difficult if not impossible to see in low light. Of course, if you use yours every day you'll probably get all your favorite functions down my memory before long.

It only has two speakers that are about 4 inches, so don't expect rumbling bass. In fact, you could probably easily find a CD boombox that sounds better, but probably not at this price point, and when it comes to sheer durability I don't know how this unit can be beat.

I had my old Sony Boombox for 11 years & it finally gave out. I saw this one; it looked nice and had all the same basics as my old one. I needed a simple player & this one fit the bill. Many others look too "space age" to me.

When I got it, I put in a CD and it didn't sound like it had much bass. I turned on the Mega Bass & it didn't sound any different. At least with my old Sony you could tell when the Mega Bass was on. Because of the lack of bass I think it's an OK player.

I took my children to a local play gym/arcade, and they had the Sony CFD-F10 there. It sounded great! Sad to say, it makes me wish I did a little more comparing, the extra $10-$15 dollars seems worth it.

I've owned several multi format players over the years and this one sounds the best of all of them. It delivers sharp, crisp sounds without sounding tinny or like it's in a barrel. The bass boost works fine on my unit. If you can't tell a difference you might want to get your ears checked.

I like it because it's small enough to fit on my desk comfortably and it can be carried easily. The handle lays down flat when you don't need it. The antenna folds away nicely under the handle when the radio isn't in use. The earphone jack is placed nicely on top and you don't have to go hunting for it. The power and the sleep buttons are conveniently placed side by side by themselves so you don't accidentally hit them and turn the player/radio off. All in all I like the placement of the buttons, someone put a lot of thought into the placement and use of the buttons when designing this nice little machine.

The LCD display is easy to read, it has larger than average letters and numbers. If you didn't have instructions for this unit you can almost figure it out without them. It's very intuitive and user friendly.

The remote is not too small or too large, and the buttons are a good size, not too small to press easily and not too close together. They're also very clearly labeled so you know which buttons control which functions.

I still have plenty of cassette tapes left and they all sound very good on this unit. It doesn't hiss when playing them. CD's sound clear without any extraneous noises and the high/low range sounds good to my ears. If you want some piece of an audiophiles dream then go pay the price for it. I like listening to all kinds of music from Irish drinking songs to trance and it all sounds great to me on this little box.

I haven't used any batteries yet, I bought mine for indoor use, to listen to my CD's and tapes.

I give this unit five stars for:

Good design set up
Size
Ease of use and functions
Sound quality
Price

Follow up: December 23, 2006

I'm still really enjoying my little machine. I really really like the repeat function. It also has a repeat shuffle function that shuffles the order of tracks around while it repeats and that's kinda neat. There's another function that's really great and that's the programmable track repeat. You can program it to repeat a particular track however many times you want. I tried several CD's on 'repeat all' and it kept playing the CD over and over again til I stopped it. Out of curiosity mostly I let the same CD run, all day long and half the night, just to see if it would do it. It did. I am still very pleased with this unit and its' performance and would buy it again.

October 12, 2007

My little machine is still going strong. I've had no problems with it whatsoever. All in all if it bit the dust today, I will have gotten my money's worth from it. I've used it to death. I've played CDs, and tapes, and listened to the radio, LOL. It's been going nonstop since I took it out of the box;)

Edit August 15, 2008

This little box is still going strong. There are those who said there's no repeat function.

[...]

My little box is still going strong. if it bit the dust tomorrow, I've gotten my money's worth, LOL. I've played this little box a countless number of hours. I'm still very pleased with the performance.

Update December 16, 2009

This box is still going strong:) Still plays CDs and the readio works great. The tape player still plays tapes as good as it did when I bought it. This little box has been one of the best investments I've made for playing music:)