Customer Reviews:
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 simply better then others April 9, 2004
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
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To what I see on the market it is the best in its category. Everything can be controlled from the remote. ( some other models make you to come over to the unit to control the tape, start the recording, it a BIG minus and a BIG PLUS for XL-HP500) The sound is fine, well, try to use a better pair of speakers, and use the original in your garage :). You cannot expect good speakers within this price range.
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Where is the mp3 play back mode? It is time to have it as a default option for all CD players with no extra charge. Well, this CD player was a gift for my grandma, so she does not know anything about mp3, so not a minus.
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good, well thought out unit.
 Good looking shelf unit with weak sound, poor reliability. November 13, 2003
7 out of 7 found this review helpful
I bought this item after comparing it to the Panasonic SC-PM18, as well as a few similarly priced units from Sony, all of which sounded roughly the same to my ears. First off, it looks very nice, and that's really what triggered my decision to buy it. Unfortunately, the sound quality from the CD player is roughly comparable to the sound quality I get from the cassette player in my car (I drive a Hyundai Elantra with a stock radio), and to make matters worse, the manual specifically forbids using metal or CrO2 tapes in the cassette recorder (meaning I can't make good CD dubs to play in my car). Even with headphones on, the sound is flat, with no real dynamics to it. The "X-Bass" bass booster offers only tepid reinforcement of ill defined low end sound, and the treble lacks any texture to it. All in all, I'd say that the headphone sound quality is inferior to that of my 12 year old Sony Discman. I don't know if this is a problem with the CD player, or a problem with the speakers. The equalizer, which is really just six presets, doesn't do much to color the sound one way or the other. I sound tested the unit with Miles Davis' "... Brew", a sonically complex and challenging recording. I am sad to say that most of the album was inaudible at lower volume levels, and even at higher levels, I had difficulty discerning between the various instrumental parts. I never considered buying one of the higher end shelf systems, mostly because they're so (...)ugly and take up way too much space. With 26 days left on my return guarantee, I'm seriously considering other systems at the moment.UPDATE 11/24/03:
I returned this unit to Circuit City when the timer function stopped working (within 2 weeks of purchase). All in all, I'd characterize this unit as one of the better "executive shelf systems" I've tested. Basically, it (...), however so do most of the other units out there that are competing with it. The Sharp XL-HP500 is cheaper than most, and includes a pre-out for a powered subwoofer, which I've come to realize is almost unheard of in one of these mini-systems. Unfortuneately, when I convinced a Circuit City salesman to allow me to demo the unit with a powered subwoofer attached, it didn't sound significantly improved. Certainly not enough to justify spending an additional $100 on a powered subwoofer, bringing the grand total to somewhere in the neighborhood of $250. If you absolutely need must have a sound system with these specs (ie, small), then this is probably the best one to get in terms of price/value. If you have any other options available to you, I'd suggest attempting to assemble a rag-tag set up of mismatched, possibly used components. The additional $100-$200 you spend will hopefully return in the form of much better sound quality and the promise of future versatility/expandability.
 Pass on this one November 18, 2003
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
I bought this yesterday and wish I hadn't. It seemed decent enough in the store, but when I got it home and plugged it in, it sounded like the cassette player was going to explode. After testing it out this afternoon the cassette player was already dragging a tape.I brought this back to Best Buy pronto.
Don't waste your money September 6, 2003
6 out of 12 found this review helpful
I've had this system for about three months now and it's already broken. The cd player can't read the disks so it won't play or even open any of the three slots. Its basically a piece of junk.
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