See if this story sounds familiar to you. Your getting ready for the big beach vacation and the significant other says, "Did you pack the boombox"? This happened to me last year, and it was at that point that I recalled our old boombox has gone kerplunk at the end of the previous summer. Quickly I had to run out to the store and get something fast. I took a look at this box, and thought it does everything we want, and its priced right, so I bought this one. Was it the right choice? Let's take a look and see.
First off, this COBY CD248 has all of the normal features you would be looking forward in a boombox. It has AM/FM radio and stereo cassette/player recorder, with 2 way cassette recording (that includes CD & radio). It is also equipped with a top loading compact disc player, and a jack for you to plug into so you can use headphones if you so desire. Sounds like a great deal eh? Not so fast my friend.
The fun started when we took the box down on the beach. I am big burner of my own CD's, so that was the first thing we tried in the box. Ah Beach Boys music...first song. Second song...then on the third song it started. Skip, skip, skip. I forwarded it a couple of songs, and tried again. Skip. I figured it was my CD, so I loaded up another. This one played 5 songs, and then the skip began again. Frustrated, I decided to try another tact.
This time I went back to the room and got 2 regular music CD's, not ones that I had made. It played through the first CD with no issues, but the problem returned again on the 2nd one we played. I had had it by then with the CD player.
Next we decided, ok we will make the best of it and turned on the radio to listen to the local FM station. From the get go, the FM tuner did not seem very powerful. Local stations were coming in with a lot of static, but we found one that came in half decent, so we kept it there. We were then greeted with another surprise. Anytime a person entering or exiting the beach would walk by, the radio would be interrupted until they had cleared the path of the signal. I looked at the wife and said, "You have got to be kidding me, can this get any worse"?
Famous last words. We went back to the room, and my wife decided to play a cassette tape that she had recorded her favorite songs on. It played. It appeared we had finally found something that worked well. So we sat down to make plans for the rest of the evening. All of the sudden, the song playing got muddled, then made a funny noise and poof. Her favorite cassette tape had been eaten within the box.
That was the last straw. The box was escorted to the end of the floor we were staying on and fired down the garbage chute. So the moral of the story is: Don't go out and buy this box looking to save a few bucks. You get what you pay for.
More details
Sound Quality
OK sound quality
Ease of Use
Easy
Portability
Easy to carry
Value for Money
OK
Design & Look
OK
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