Compact Stereos Reviews

Amazing Speakers With Loud Bass
I was looking at the RCA 5cd shelf system, it had nice sound, but reviews said it broke within 4 weeks. I bought this product, and it's amazing. Some notable features (pros and cons)
Pros
-iPod dock with full menu control (It also charges your ipod)
-Amazing radio reception - Very clear
-Good EQ presets
-Very loud
-Best bass I have ever heard
-Very little distortion
-Good looking
-Separate sub-woofer
-Good bass even with separate sub-woofer turned off
-Works with iPhone (if in airplane mode)
-Light for its size

Cons-4 pieces, instead of 3 (But worth it for the separate sub-woofer
-A bit large
-On the more expensive size
-iPod dock not built in, but plugs in
-No manual EQ

Overall: This is a great speaker system, with great power and dominates with lows, med's, and high's. A bit expensive, but for what you get, definitely worth it. Highly Recommended!

Insane power
Audio Power Output : Front: 190W x 2; Subwoofer:150W

That says it all. There are 2 woofers on the fronts (5 inch), and another on the separate subwoofer (8 inch). The sub is incredibly light because the amplifier is in the main unit. This has enough power in the low end to shake the house!

Sony Mini HiFi Shelf System provides high quality in a small package.
Sony Mini HiFi Shelf System provides high quality in a small package. The full base provided by a subwoofer and the full sound range make this stereo a great buy, costing less than many inferior systems. Add to that the quality of Sony make this system easily the best bang for the buck.

Great system
Excellent overall shelf stereo system. Great sound and very easy operation, makes this a great addition or gift. Price is great you could not find a better value. This system easy beats systems priced twice as much.

It is what it is...for the money at least
My wife wanted a record player for Christmas and commented several times that she liked the Crosley "all-in-one" media player at Target. I came close to purchasing a Crosley but had read numerous bad reviews on several models. Some of which said everything broke except for the radio in the first year of use. Because of this, I didn't want to spend several hundred dollars on a large paper weight. So, I decided to take a chance on one that had only one useless review. Anyway...The KLH is an ok device for 80 bucks. It measures 17" wide (at widest point) x 17" deep (at deepest point) x 10 & 1/2" tall (from bottom of the rubber feet to top). It is mostly constructed of particle board with veneer. The base appears wrapped in a wood color "contact paper" of some sort. I know it sounds cheap but it's not that bad actually and as long as it's not banged around too much. Lets just say you won't be handing this down as a family heirloom. The picture on the box erroneously depicts a black electronics face. It is actually plastic colored to appear as brushed brass. It has an am/fm radio (manual tuning knob), CD player (standard controls), Tape player (on right side and only plays & FF when the eject button is pressed half way in), iPod dock, standard head phone jack, and an Aux-in port (I guess for other MP3 players). So far we played records, CDs (both store bought and burned Audio CD-Rs), and cassette tapes. Sorry, I don't own an iPod yet and I haven't tried MP3's on a data disk either (I will update this when I do). Everything plays like it should and the sound quality is ok for cheap speakers. Just don't expect to get a lot of volume or bass out of them. Also, there is no way to adjust the bass, treble, or balance of the speakers. However, I suppose you could hook up external speakers through the headphone jack if you wanted to. The radio reception is pretty good for manual tuning. It has a black 3' wire in the back that acts as the antenna. It also comes with an Aux cord and a remote for the CD player (Note: you can not turn on/off the device with the remote). Over all, it's not that bad for the money and my wife is happy and I guess in the end that's all that matters. See pictures above.

Great Product for Great Price!!!!
I bought this product for my boyfriend for his birthday, he loves vinyls, and loved this record player. Has an ipod doc, which is perfect even for is IPhone!!! He's a music freak, and loved this record player too!!! Works great and GREAT sound!!!!

Wow! Thank you Polk.
I am typically not a review writer, but felt compelled to write a review after being so pleased with this purchase.

Polk continues to put out a great product far superior to anything out there. This product is no exception. I purchased this for my office but after I heard the exceptional quality I am putting this in my bedroom and seriously considering buying a second to put in my office as origianlly intended.

The sound is so crisp and clear and the bass is perfect. The highs, lows and midranges are true. The set-up is simple and the operation is intuitive. I could not be happier with this product. The ipod sounds awesome when played through this. Crystal clear. I was very impressed with th HD radio sound quality as well. This sounds as good at quiet volumes as it does turned up. Not quite as good as the Ipod, but close. This has to be the most power and quality that you can put into something this size. This is the best 0 I have spent in a long time and I would highly recommend this purchase. Like I said, I am seriously considering buying a second one so that I can have one at the home and office. Definately worth it!

Great job Polk and Amazon!

Great system
I enjoy this system tremendously. Sounds great for such a small package. The firmware was outdated when I received it, and I quickly found out that Polk Audio no longer provides the firmware on their website for download. It seems too many people were having issues flashing the ROM. Basically because 1) they didn't read the directions and use a memory stick < 1Gb, and 2) if they had other files on the memory stick the I-Sonic would get a bit confused. I called Polk Audio and insisted they email me the firmware (They wanted to mail me a memory stick). I performed the upgrade without any problems using an old 128Mb stick I had lying around (made sure nothing else was on it). So you should be able to request the same from Polk Audio.

Polk I-Sonic ES2
First off, I would state that I am not an expert audiophile. Impressive sound for its size, however it does not sound better than a real home stereo system. I guess I was expecting a tiny bit more, due to some of the hype and other reviews. It plays fairly loud without distortion. I would say that the sound is clear, but lacking some fullness that would make it exceptional. It can easily fill a small room. The rear firing speakers do allow for less directional sound, so can sound ok from different listening locations, but of course you will not get great separation from a small box. Remote is quite small, but is ok.

I think the unit is a little pricy, especially since it does not include CD or DVD player. I bought this unit mainly to play music from MP3 player and will probably connect DVD/CD player. I wanted the best sound without having a big system to set up and take up a lot of room.

So, for someone who wants the best sound in a very small size, this would fit the bill. Again, just dont expect it to sound as good a real home theater system or stereo.

Not a pig in a polk
This is a really nice device. The HD radio works quite well and the iPod dock is top notch. Highly recomended.

NO CD/DVD
Contrary to the product description, this product does NOT contain the CD/DVD player of the original I-Sonic. You may confirm this in the chart at the bottom of:

http://www.polkaudio.com/homeaudio/isonic/

This useful chart also compares the features of competing products.

[I have no personal experience with the product, so I put in the current average rating.]

OK for money spent
The Excalibur RD54 is an ok product for the money. I knew it was not going to be perfect sound and it is not real wood. The top was cracked when I got it (happened during shipping I suppose). I didn't think it was worth my time to send it back. It plays records fine and sounds like the 1960's and early 70's record players did.

new purchase
Great product and great sound quality. I have been able to listen to LP's that I had not heard in years.

beware: not compatible with older stiletto models
"please ignore my 3-star rating for this item; i provided one only b/c i'm required to in order to post. i'm sure the product, in and of itself, is fine, but i bought it for a very specific application, which in theory should have been easily achievable, and instead was not. read on if curious.......i have (what is now) an older model of the stiletto, the SL10, which i had always used as a "walkman"-type unit only. recently, out of necessity, i decided to purchase a home kit for my stiletto. i''ve had relatively good success with other sirius home kits (used to have a starmate 1), so i was inclined to get a simple home kit for the SL10, rather than a boombox-type home dock, the soloist model, or other. as of the date of this review (nov. '08), it is almost impossible to find the SLH1 home kit (the one for the SL10 and SL100 models) at retail any longer, so i (rather stupidly) assumed the SLH2 would work just fine. comparing/contrasting online photos seemed to suggest the two are interchangeable, and sirius recently has released products with more standardized serial ports, and universal-type docks for other receivers, so it seemed reasonable to assume the newer SLH2 is backwards compatible with the older SLH1. THEY ARE NOT. i bought an SLH2, and when i removed the pieces from the box for some old-fashioned, hands-on comparison, guess what? while the male/female jacks for the A/C power cord, the antenna, and the audio out appear to be the same, sirius -- apparently -- has resized the chassis (a few centimeters in width, and a few more in depth) for the stiletto 2, and then further exacerbated the problem by retooling the mold for the docking cradle, so that now it is sized only for the stiletto 2!! WHY? why does sirius still make disastrous product engineering decisions like this? they are standardizing other design features. can they not take it one step further and -- at a minimum -- at least standardize accessories within a given product line, regardless of model age? short of an enterprising owner in possession of a dremel, an X-acto knife, some precision tools and TIME, the only way i can see how an SL10/SL100 could work with the SLH2 is to surgically carve away some plastic. i have none of these, so i returned the item."

Everyone should own a Stiletto 2!
I love the Stiletto 2. I got it as a present for my husband's birthday and it was finally the one time I got him something he would have never got for himself but loves. :)

We enjoy it so much and got the extra memory card so we have 8GB of our own music on it, too. I am SO glad I got the home kit...we can sit right in our living room and play it through the stereo and it's awesome!!

Useful but could be better...
The primary benifit to me is the ability to easily connect to a speaker system or stereo. As others have mentioned, you can connect to your home stereo with the included RCA/phono cable but there is also another audio cable with small 1/8"(?) stereo phono plugs which allows connection to PC type speaker systems. You can connect your computer audio output to the line input on the dock and use the line out from the dock to plug into your powered computer speakers and use your computer speakers to listen to the Stiletto2 in addition to your computer audio. The 21 foot antenna wire is great to mount the antenna outside or near a widow so you can improve indoor reception. Before this we could only receive indoors using the Wi-Fi, but that only provides limited functionality. Now we can get full use of Sirius listening indoors with the Stiletto2 and not have to use headphones. Some have complained that there is no FM transnitter but that is not a big deal for me. On the negative side...it seems curious that the volume control on the remote only adjust levels on the headphones plugged into the dock. When using headphones (unless they are wireless), you would be near a volume control either on your radio, the amp or the headphones themselves. But if you are using speakers you are more likely to be farther away and have more need of a remote when wanting to adjust the volume. The mute on the remote does work so at least you can totally kill the sound if needed though it is nessesary to make all other level adjustments at the amp...even the volume control on the radio itself is disabled when plugged into the dock. I intend to see if there is a way which would let me connect some powered speakers into the dock's (standard phono) headphone jack and let me control the volume through that. Dispite those annoyances, all in all this makes the radio much more useful and I would not want to be without it.

It does what it is intended to do
Need a home dock for your Siruis Stiletto 2? Then look no further because this is the only choice you have.

Great Product
Not sure what the other reviewer was attempting to connect to. The docking kit is made to connect to the RCA inputs on your home stereo system. If you intend to connect it to a radio that does not have RCA inputs, then I agree it would just be a fancy charger at this point.

Easy to set up, however you might need an antenna extension if you do not have a window near by.

great changer
This is a great changer, easy to use and easy to hook up. Glad I bought it.

Plays CD-Rs with no problem
This is a very nice digital CD player for the price and it will play copies of original CDs, i.e. CD-Rs made on your computer. I purchased this unit because my DVD player which is suppose to play CDs, CD-Rs and MP3s does not do a very good job on my copies of my original CDs. The DVD player seems to hang alot on copies. So I was looking for a CD changer that would play all types of CDs, whether copied or original and MP3's. This unit plays all my copied CDs with out any flaws, hangs or skips. It also has two types of digital outputs, one coaxial and one optical. Since I was hooking this unit up to my digital amp, I wanted a digital output. You can't beat this unit for the price and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a digital CD changer.

teac cd player
This cd player is a bargain for all the fetures it has and it works very good so far in the short time i've had it. I would recommend it to anyone who is looking for a name brand cd player at a lower price with excellent sound and features.

Sharp 5-CD Carousel Changer
I bought this unit after searching for weeks for a multi-CD player with decent sound and its own speakers. The surround sound is very nice but the thump-thump from the extra bass speaker is too much for the type of music I play, so I turn it off. I also turned off the flashing lights. I don't have any MP3's (whatever they are) and I already have a very good tape player. There are several unused (not needed) features but the CD's sound really good and I can hear them all the way to the kitchen. This unit serves my limited purposes very well. I like the size too.

stereo,cd,cassette boom box
I was very pleased with this product. The sound is great,very good volume,everything works fine. I record from the radio onto cassette and sounds great. Radio picks up very good. You cant beat the price for this product.

small and simple
This system is great. I bought it for my elderly father who had trouble using his previous system with a multiple cd changer. Just the right size for his needs.

bedroom unit
I just wanted a cd player for bedtime -- only prob, I assumed it would have a remote control -- sounds very good -- functions well -- simple to operate -- and I'm cheap !!! P.S. has a cassette player/recorder & am/fm radio

Read The Instruction Booklet First!
I just received this Micro Component System this morning and it looks wonderful next to all of my books. It is exactly the height of my books. It sits on a table in the middle of two bookshelves and gives the room a really nice look. Read the instructions. I set the system up in about 7 minutes. I'm slow, so it should take you less time. Tested the CD player(Free As A Bird by The Beatles),the radio and cassette player and they sound wonderful. Just enough big sound for my living room which is small. And it won't disturb my neighbor. The look screams, you paid a lot for this unit. However, if you look at the price above, plus free shipping from amazon, it is the best of buys. I went to all the electronic stores in NYC over the weekend and could not find anything that wasn't 0 to 0. And they weren't even Bose! Believe me, this unit looks wonderful, has great lines, great sound at a really great price. Thank you JWIN and thank you Amazon.com.

Pretty good for the price...
We bought this for our eight year old son. It is exactly what he "needed" and he won't out grow this anytime soon.

Thankfully it has an AUX-IN and the cord is included. It means anything with an ear plug jack can pipe sound through this stereo.

Now don't get me wrong - it isn't perfect. When you turn it off it resets the volume level. Not a bad thing except it comes back on too loud. Our son figured out that he could simply switch over to CD and then turn the unit off. That way it was silent when he turned it on again before he resets the volume. Sure we shouldn't need to do this but it was ...

Another complaint is that if power is interrupted AT ALL everything resets to factory defaults. All that would require would be a big 29 cent capacitor added internally. I wish they had added one. I might once it is out of warranty. For this reason it won't be a reliable clock radio. We had high hopes initially. Anyone who has shopped for a clock radio -with digital tuning- knows how tough it is to find something like that. 99% of them are digital time and analog tuning.

It has pretty good FM and AM reception. The remote works from across the room. The issues I read about the alarm being wonky aren't apparent on the system we purchased.

The display is too bright but then he has taken to placing a book or model car in front of the display to block the direct light it creates. On the flip side he doesn't need his night light anymore b/c this stereo's display does the same job. The display does not dim when the unit is off. Another minor dig against it.

Bass: there isn't much. If this is a key point for you it will require better speakers than this. Sounds about the same as a boombox. Very clear, not much bass. You probably could hook up a subwoofer... VBG!

We have seen this same stereo at WalMart sold under the name Durabrand if you like to shop there. We prefer to not shop there. Anyhow same price. Same quality. Was good to be able to play with it in person.

Not perfect but it meets expectations for its class
I purchased this exact same unit from a brick and mortar store where it is sold as the Durabrand HM3817DT. The only difference is the color - mine is silver. I needed a cheap stereo for my little girl's bedroom and this model seems to fit the purpose. Aware of the no-so-stellar Amazon reviews, I actually tried it at the store and made sure that I was allowed to return it if it did not work properly or if it stopped working after a few days. My unit is still working and what follows is my review.

- Design:
It's probably the best thing about this unit. It looks positively cute. Being as small and thin as it is, it does not take a lot of space and it can fit well on a desk, on a dresser or, if you want to go through the trouble, it could hang on the wall. The face plate slides up and down automatically, whenever you need to insert or remove a CD and the entire assembly looks hi-tech but in a non-threatening way.

Functions:
- CD player
- AM/FM
- Clock with alarm
- Aux port (not tested by me)
- 3.5mm earphone jack (not tested by me)

Features:
- Remote control
- Equalizer with several preset modes (Jazz, Rock, Classic)
- Included external 'wire' antenna
- 20 presets on each AM and FM bands
- Programmable CD play
- Sleep mode

Issues/concerns:
- The remote does not replicate all the functions on the unit's face
- Moving from one preset station to another can only be done in one direction (from M1 to M2... to M20 so to go from M2 to M1 you will require about 20 button presses)
- It's impossible to clear the memory for preset stations so if you don't set some station on each of the 20 memory locations you will be hearing a lot of hissing while switching from one station to another
- The radio's auto-seek function is present but it is not documented in the manual (hold the 'fast forward' button for a moment instead of just pressing it) or you will be moving from 90.1 to 90.2 and so on
- The trilingual 2-page manual (English/Spanish/French) is a little difficult to follow because the English, Spanish and French instructions are crammed together.

For what I paid (a little bit below mid-2-digits), I am not very concerned with durability or hi-fi performance. The sound is pretty good for a cheap stereo but I will not be surprised if the CD player stops playing long before the radio gives up - which means that I will still be left with a nice radio and an alarm clock.

I will give this unit 5 stars for design and 4 stars for features and sound quality. I will have to subtract one star for the 'issues' I documented above. That's 3.5 stars which I will be rounding up because of the relatively low price.

don't expect too much
I bought this radio for my 9 year old daughter, so I wasn't looking to spend a lot of money. It's fine for a child's room, but I would have been extremely disappointed if it was for my room.
The sound is very flat, sort of "tin can"ish- not much depth or range. But she doesn't need much to listen to Kids Bop!
Unit is nice and small, fits well on her desk. Also option to mount on wall.
Realistically, you really can't expect much for this price- but if you're an adult looking for a decent sound, you're not going to get it out of this radio.
Oh, you cannot adjust sound manually- there are only preset levels to choose from (rock, classical, etc.)

Can't complain....much
As I use this CD player to listen to books on CD at night, I really wish that it was easy to find the appropriate buttons by touch, not by turning on the light. There are so many buttons.

Note I gave 5 stars. Even my complaint doesn't detract from my experience with this item.

Bang for the Buck
I purchased this unit to use in my office and have really been impressed with it so far. For such a compact unit, it really does deliver a great sound. It seems very well-constructed and its size is a bonus because it doesn't take up much room on my desk. The controls are well organized and the unit has a pleasing modern appearance. Also, the Amazon description lists it under Imation, but the unit is a Memorex. The thing I like the best about it is the EQ button. It allows you to select different EQ schemes like FLAT, ROCK, and JAZZ, tailoring the sound for each genre of music you're playing. I listen to a lot of jazz and my old radio was very tinny. With the JAZZ EQ selected, my music has a fullness I hadn't anticipated from so small and inexpensive a unit. I also love that it has an aux input for my iPOd. This radio is never going to equal a really nice bookshelf system or high end audiophile gear, but I ended up with much more than I expected. A solid buy and a lot of nice features for the price.

(One word of warning, this player is different than the Memorex CD Boombox With Digital AM/FM - Model MP3848OBK Boomboxes which is orange and black, not white and gold. That model does not feature the EQ button I mentioned in this review. That model also cuts the first second or two out of each song as it switches tracks. The model reviewed here does not. They look exactly alike aside from color scheme, but the buttons provide different functions. I would purchase this radio rather than the other one. It sounds better and doesn't cut out portions of the song and there's virtually no difference in price.)

Not great for podcasts, otherwise fine.
I picked this product up specifically for playing MP3 podcasts burnt to a cd. The podcasts play, but are cut off part of the way through. They are usually an hour long each and seem to cut short about halfway through. I'm wondering if it has a max length it can play for a single mp3 before it freaks and skips to the next one.

Anyway, since that was the primary reason I purchased it, I'm a bit disappointed. Otherwise it seems like a good product.

best CD player
I got this CD player for my birthday and I was happy with it. I dropped it and it still worked. I really like the color. It has a good quality of sound. I highly recommend this product.