MP3 Boom Box $50 at Target B&M

[machomadness]

Boomboxes that play MP3s are still pretty rare, and I've never seen one at this price. On sale for $50, regularly $70 I think the sign said. It's Koss, not a premium brand, but for 50 bucks might be worth a shot. It's pretty small, didn't have wattage listed. No tape player, and has a manual not digital radio tuner.

 

[dman]

I compared the Koss to the Memorex MP3124 @ Target. I brought an MP3 CD in with me and played the disc in the store in the 2 units plus a sony that was $129. The Memorex was $79 on sale (vs $49 for the Koss) and the Memorex has a 2way speakers, digital tuner, backlit clock, I/R remote control, and Tapedeck and reads & Scroll-Displays the song/artist/title info from the MP3 file. The memorex also plays High Bitrate MP3's (192KBps worked fine) but not variable bitrate.

The Sony has similar features but did not have a song display and it choked on (read: does NOT support) MP3's over 128KBps.

Drawbacks to the Memorex: The CDROM is noisy, it squeaks and squeels when searching/playing the disc. (The KOSS is the same, but, the SONY is very quiet).

The Memorex SKIPS in certain parts of certain tracks. The same songs play fine from the same media on my PC. I tried different media on the memorex and it didn't help.

The Memorex requires 4AA batteries to keep the memory and clock settings + 9 D batteries to use it as a portable.

All in all, the memorex has a lot of features but I'm returning it because I don't like the constant skipping.

I believe others have said that the KOSS also skips so I'm back in the market for a good portable MP3 CD player+radio w/ speakers.

 

[unclebud]

that memorex is the one on clearance isn't it? much thanks for the info/review

 

[bpb30]

I bought the Koss MP3 boombox. For $50 is is ok but I got a hiss on all my MP3 CD's at low volume and, most importantly, the sound sucked. I returned it and got the Philips MP3 boombox for $100 shipped at Amazon (free shipping + $20 off electronics *expired*) and it is much better. Build quality is great, sounds good for its size (not great but more than acceptable), has a remote, does full disk shuffle, plays all MP3's I send its way, and has a cool display. It does not display track/artist information, just folder and track #. I bet really good and reasonably priced MP3 boomboxes are right around the corner. A cheap portable MP3 CD player and decent computer speakers would be a much better option.

 

[SpongeBobPalmBay]

I bought the memorex at Target last fall for ~$80. I HATE IT! I wish I would have sprung for the Sony.

It is a truly horrid experience playing MP3 Cd's on the memorex player - SOOOOOOOOOO SLOWWWWWWWWW. I played around with the Sony and it was pretty fast. I thought I could live with the Memorex but I can't. It truly sucks.

It's sitting out on my patio... I want to forget that purchase.

 

[dman]

<< that memorex is the one on clearance isn't it? much thanks for the info/review >>


It's on clearance @ Amazon.com (I think that's the website I saw it at) for $49.xx. However, there are a lot of negative reviews on it. I'm happy to say target gave me my money back, so, I'll be looking around again, hopefully the next generation of boombox players will work a little better.

BTW, I also compared it to a Phillips model @ Kmart that was $99. The phillips was quieter (when seeking tracks) but had no track-name display and something else was missing that the memorex had, plus it was $20 more. I'm going to wait for the new models, whenever that may be.