Sony CFDS70B.CEK Classic CD and Tape Boombox with Radio - Black

I'm not the typical purchaser of this boombox, in that I bought it for one purpose only - to transcribe some 40-year-old cassette recordings of interviews. This entails running a tape for a few seconds, pausing to write down what I've just heard, running the tape again, pausing again, sometimes reversing to repeat a section... I was afraid that the mechanism of such a cheap machine might quickly give up in protest at treatment as cruel as this, but I've now been torturing it for many hours and it has passed the test of my torment with flying colours. The CFD-S70 certainly feels remarkably solidly built for something with such a modest price tag.It's astonishing, really, how much Sony are giving you for your money. The radio section of the CFD-S70 includes both FM and AM, and there are three preset buttons for your favourite broadcasters. Tuning and volume are controlled by up and down buttons, which usually age better than twiddlers. Convenience features include a good LCD display, 3.5mm sockets for headphones and audio input and a sleep function. The sound quality on both speech and music (aided by "megabass") is merely acceptable rather than positively good, but it's thankfully free of the abrasiveness that afflicts some low-end audio kit. If your budget is too tight for the celestial sound of a Ruark - which, by the way, I cordially recommend for anyone who can afford Ruark prices - and you want an all-in-one audio system that can do pretty much everything except access the internet, I'd say that this is probably a pretty safe buy.

I used to have a large stereo system, but with age I realized that blasting music out, led zeppelin doesn’t quite sound the same when you’re 66 and wearing hearing aids lol.So after getting rid of the system, I started looking for something that I would be comfortable with. I then came across the Sony CFDS70B.CEK Classic CD and Tape Boombox with Radio. For me it seemed to tick all the boxes that I needed, CDs, Cassettes, (yes they are still around!) and lastly Radio all in one setup, the only thing missing is a remote control, unfortunately, however, that’s wasn’t a dealbreaker.I have to say that on unboxing it, I just looked at it and wondered if I’d made a mistake, but it was here so I thought I’d give it a spin, which I’m glad I did. Put on a CD and checked out the volume, impressive, even turning the volume up, the sound was good. Then came the cassette test, which was pretty good too, lost a small bit of clarity when the volume was turned up, but as I wasn’t going to be blasting it, it still did an amazing job at the volume I chose. Then the radio which I tuned to a couple of my favorite channels which was pretty easy to do.Overall I was really impressed with it, all the buttons were nice and smooth when pushing them down, it even has a megabase for those who like to hear and feel extra bass that vibrates through the body!I have to admit I haven’t tried using the AUX yet but can’t foresee any problems.It would be nice to have a remote control, but for the price and sound, I can live without it. So it’s a five-star review from me.

I bought this for an my mum's elderly friend, mainly for the cassette player facility, although it does have the modern CD/mp3 play facility, and radio, it will be mainly used to playing audio cassettes.The cassette deck, comprises of a generic cassette deck mechanism, probably Tanashin, they make various types of cassette mechanisms, for other equipment manufacturers.The buttons on the cassette recorder, are in a standard layout, the record button has red dot on it. and the other buttons have indentations on them to denote their functions, The cassette mechanism feel reliable, and with gentle use, should last a good time.The CD player, also plays mp3 audio, and has an FM/AM tuner with 30 presets. This type of equipment is manufactured to fill a niche/specialist market, like the elderly, or someone who just wants to listen to CD's in a confined space, like a kitchen, or in prison (nothing like a bit of Elgar, to muffle the sounds, as your cell mate, slips you, his salami, while doing porridge, at Her Majesty's pleasure).To summarise, it works, and does what it was designed to do. Do not expect audiophile music reproduction, because it is not that type of equipment, and on a personal note, IMHO, these machines, will never match the aesthetics, and the build quality of the equipment from the 70s, right through, to the late 90s, with the cassette/ CD recorders, with all those buttons, and flashing lights, which looked like something only 747 pilots could operate.

Just what I needed for the Man cave.Others here have described the device. I'll add a couple of notes.1) My sample has headphone socket and line in socket on the left hand side (looking from front). Can be used for audio playback from a laptop.2) Takes 6 C batteries so £3 for a load from your local pound shop for alkali batteries.3) Sound from speakers is what you'd expect - fine on acoustic guitar or speech but a bit boxy/radio like on orchestral or ensemble. Headphone sound (low end Grados) is great with plenty of welly.4) I listen to a lot of classical - properly gap-less CD playback5) Pushing in the 'figure-of-8' mains lead disconnects the batteries.6) Goes into standby mode when you switch off the mains. Disappears after a moment or two. I assume that this means unit is drawing no power from batteries while mains lead plugged in6) 'Mega Bass' is default on switching on, you have to switch it off