Sony CDP XE270 CD player

Advantages Advanced sound quality
Disadvantages boring styling and look

...The Sony CDP-XE270 was an 'impulse' purchase for me, i had went went out shopping with the intentions of buying a couple of cd's, but ended up buying a new CD player! When considering the purchase of this cd deck, i said to myself, "it plays cd's just like my old one, whats the point in shelling out £80 for something thats going to do the same as my £50 3year old cd deck ?". I was assured by the shop assistant that the reason i should purchase this cd player is "sony have developed crystal clear quality thats out of this world" but being a skeptical (and poor!) shopper i asked for a demo. It was after listening to about 30 seconds of 50cent that i realised what he meant by "crystal clear"! The sond quality was very impressive! The controls and display are the player's only downfall, i personaly think that the small display and dull... Read review

Advantages Good value for money, nice understated design, solidly made
Disadvantages It's starting to make some odd noises...

...I have this amplifier as part of a stack with the CDP-XE270 cd player from the same series and 2x60 watt SS-MB250H speakers, also from Sony. I bought the amp for just under £110 from superfi.co.uk, whose speed and service come highly recommended, I was genuinely impressed by their conduct. The amplifier comes with sufficient features for a low end product, it has five connections for various stack components and a fifth connection for an auxillary cable (currently connected to my laptop). It also comes with a gold plated headphone socket which is front mounted. It also comes with a remote control, which is compatible with most available stack components for this line, a very useful feature. The build quality of the amp is typically Sony, the whole unit feels sturdy, the dials on the front for the input selector, volume control... Read review