Sony ZSBTY50 Portable NFC Bluetooth Wireless Boombox Speaker System

This year I get tired of my Sony EC99I, a HUGE shelf system with an output of 530 watts that I can't move easily do to its size. After reading reviews for several bluetooth speakers, big jambox, Bose sound link and Logitech UE BOOMBOX, I dicided that I want something bigger so I choose my favorite, the Sony RDP-XA900IP With 200 watts and $600.00 list price :-( I really like the 900ip but can't afford it at this time so I get back to the small Bluetooth speakers category and found this new Sony product. Selling point for me, the AM/FM tuner, for what I know only this BOOMBOX and the sangean WR22 come with a tuner. The Sangean looks good and was my choice until this unit was launch but only have one speaker and use only AC power (cord). The Sony ZS-BTY50 is small and portable, lightweight without batteries at least. It's design is modern and kind of aggressive not like the boring boxes sold by bose and jawbone. Sound quality is good, I can't compare it with bose or jambox but they probably sound much better because this Unit only have 2.5 watts per Channel so don't expect to fill a big room with it. Mega bass is not so Mega but you can improve it with your device EQ, my Ipad sound good on it with no distortion or connection problems, No delays on videogames, the first time you turn on the unit it enter pairing mode automatically. The unit come with a NFC chip so connecting some phones and tablets is really easy ( just a touch ) AM radio no good, FM mixed results. The problem It's probably my location no the radio. The unit come with a short telescopic antenna for FM. Please note, this unit doesn't have CD player, is an error showed on others websites. Now the cons I don't like the LCD, it has no light and the location between the speakers can block ambient light in some angles. The controls are no lighted either. The batteries compartment door is easy to open and with time I think it will be a problem, to open it you need to push the door and slide it, I like the ones that come with a clip. I want bigger speakers and 10 watts per channel. No remote control. Final note. This unit fill my needs, something portable easy to move around the house and that use batteries, until I get a bigger speaker.

One thing to keep in mind is that this boom box requires 6 **1.5V** C batteries. Virtually any rechargeable C battery that I could find on the market is only 1.2V, so the boom box died on me about 20 seconds into the first song. So, if you plan on taking this stereo around with you, be prepared to buy and throw out a lot of C batteries. The sound quality was overall good, but these speakers didn't crank up as loud as I thought they would go.

The unit looks like Wall-E's head :) It has a decent tuner (I can tune our local college station that doesn't transmit very well, which I can't get on all my other radios). It connected right away with my kindle fire hdx. It took some coaxing with my dell 375 bluetooth module on my laptop, but after re-installing drivers and some persistence, that now works, but I wouldn't ding the unit for that grief. I do have two complaints. One, it does not remember my tuner setting, but not a huge deal, just have to re-tune every time I turn the radio on. Two, the "megabass" setting comes on by default and it does make it sound pretty muddy. So my normal routine is turn it on, turn off megabass, and change the tuner... Others have commented on the loudness. I will say, you need to have your bluetooth device's volume turned all the way up, then it gets pretty loud. I can shower and hear the fm tuner and work on the treadmill while jamming, which is what I got it for. It won't blow you away, but is loud enough for most listening purposes. Overall - pleased.

I was reluctant to buy this as it was just released, but when the first review came in with 5 stars, I decided to take a chance on it - after all, Amazon makes returns so easy. What I got was exactly what I wanted - this box has great sound for the price and size, and the combo of AM/FM plus Bluetooth gives it a big leg up on other bluetooth speakers on the market. I actually prefer that it uses C-size batteries instead of a rechargeable battery, the C batteries will last longer at volume and are easier to keep listening by bringing spares with you. I wanted a bluetooth boombox with good sound for around the house, and an FM boombox that I can let my kids use at the drive-in to hear the movie while lounging in the back of my pickup truck. The build quality is great, the carry handle on the front is very convenient, it has more bass than a box this size has any right to have, and great volume - good for indoors and out. Bluetooth pairing is painless as expected. Overall my initial impressions are very good, and for the price is a much better deal than other bluetooth speakers with similar sound quality. UPDATE April 2014 - I've had this for almost a year now, and I'm still very happy with it. I use it on AC as bluetooth speakers for my mac mini, and my son occasionally uses the line-in from his PC, as the sound from this is better than our cheap PC monitor speakers. Bluetooth pairing is simple and painless when I want to use it as speakers for my iPhone as well.

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