Product Description

The ZS-XN30White S2 Sports CD Boombox ATRAC3plus /MP3 playback capability Digital AM/FM Stereo Tuner Water Resistant* Design ESP2 CD Shock Protection Jog Lever Navigation Control For Easy Folder/File Operation---White

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #47183 in Consumer Electronics
• Color: White
• Brand: Sony
• Model: ZS-XN30
• Released on: 2004-05-15
• Number of items: 1
• Dimensions: 13.00" h x 24.00" w x 10.00" l, 10.00 pounds

Features

• CD and radio boombox with MP3/ATRAC3plus playback, ID3 recognition, 4-line, dot-matrix display, and 2-position Mega Bass enhancement
• S2 Sports design offers high style, water resistance, and convenient construction with centralized controls and built-in carry handle
• Jog-lever navigation lets you scroll "fast forward" or "fast back" through MP3/ATRAC3plus files and folders
• ESP2 CD shock protection minimizes skipping during CD playback; digital FM/AM tuner includes 20 FM and 10 AM station presets
• Uses two 4-inch powered speakers and 2 passive, bass-enhancing radiators; runs on 6 C batteries (not included) or supplied AC power adapter

From the Manufacturer
The ZS-XN30 S2 Sports CD Boombox is perfect for your active lifestyle. The S2 Sports design is easy to carry, ergonomically correct and water resistant, and with ESP2 Shock Protection, the ZS-XN30 can easily go wherever you go.

Features

• All New Ergonomic S2 Sports Design includes innovative features such as easy-to-carry handle spanning the stereo speakers and has function controls clustered for ready access while listening
• ATRAC3plus 1/MP3playback Capability ATRAC3plus is an advanced audio compression technology offering multiple bit rates, allowing you to create music compilations tailored to your listening preference with the ability to get up to 490 songs 2 on 1 CD-R/RW disc at 48kbps. ATRAC3plus offers extended song capacity with superior sound quality. You can also play back MP3 files (16-320kbps) downloaded and recorded onto a CD-R/RW disc, including compilations from your CD recorder deck
• Supplied SonicStage Software CD-Rom is easy to use and allows you to create your own ATRAC3plus music file compilations on CD-R/RW media using your PC's CD-Rom drive. The ability to add your own titles and edit your music groups allows for an element of customization in your portable music
• New Jog-Lever Operation for Music Search means you scroll by directing the Jog Lever to find the track you're looking for
• Water Resistant 3 with high-impact plastic housing is designed for outdoor fun, with rubber gaskets, bushings and waterproof seals that help keep out water, moisture and dirt
• ESP2™ Shock Protection uses advanced technology to reduce skipping during playback in more active uses
• New Dual Passive Radiator Bass Enhancement System provides dynamic bass sound without adding additional size to the unit
• Mega Bass Sound System produces rich, deep, bass tones for more powerful overall sound
• Digital AM/FM Stereo Tuner provides the most accurate, drift-free tuning of AM and FM radio stations and lets you choose from the wide variety of radio talk shows and music programs, with the added enjoyment of stereo sound
• 4 Line Dot Matrix Display provides ID3 tag information for fast and easy identification and location of your ATRAC or MP3 selections and makes it easy to search all music files even in another folder layer
• 30 Station Memory Presets uses electronic settings for easy one-button tuning of your choice of 10 AM and 20 FM radio stations
• CD Play Modes (Program/Shuffle/Repeat) lets you hear tracks in multiple modes; in sequence as recorded, in program (RMS) order, all tracks in random (shuffle) order or a single track over and over.

Customer Reviews

Very clean sound
(1) Plusses:

By "very clean sound" I mean that the accuracy/lack of distortion is excellent for a unit of its size.

I use it for water aerobics classes, along with several other boomboxes at the same time (that all receive their music via a low-power FM transmitter). In this environment, compared to both the Aiwa CD Boom Box - CSD-XD55 and the Sony CDF-G70, the S2 has less volume but cleaner sound, especially when the bass button is on.

(2) Minuses

I keep accidentally activating the Jog-Lever -- the joystick on the handle -- when I grab the S2 by the handle. "Accidentally activating" means that I knock the FM tuner off its station.

(3) Other considerations

It does have an FM antenna, that completely disappears into the body of the unit.

(4) Summary

"Very clean sound" means that, if you want a true portable, it's worth the price.

I never thought I would ever buy a boombox, until today.
While letting my girls run loose in one of these large electronic stores, I just walked around and ended up in the Boombox section of the store. Even to this day, most boomboxes have the typical generic look. A cassette player with buttons, a radio dial, and maybe a CD player on the top. Usually they are black or gray, or silver. Nothing really exceptional.

But then, I saw this Sony ZS-XN30 Sports CD/Tuner Boombox. It looked so "space age" that it definately caught my eye and tugged at my curiousity. It's sexy curvature was one thing that set it apart from the rest. It's appearance somewhat reminded me of the dashboard of my 1973 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme I once had as a teen, which, to this day, is still my most favorite car that I ever owned.

I never thought that a white boombox would look so nice, but white works with this boombox. This boombox would probably not look good if it were black. Remember those round Panasonic AM/FM radios that came out about 1974 (There's a picture of two of them on the cover of the Rhino CD "Have a Nice Day - Volume Eight"). This new Sony boombox looks like the future expectation evolved from that Pop Culture Icon radio. I think this Sony boombox would probably look cool if it were available in the "Happy Face" yellow that my particular Panasonic radio was. I'm pathetically nostalgic, I know.

Anyway, after I left the store, I grabbed a couple of my favorite CD's and went back the day after Christmas, and played these little CDs in this and many other boomboxes at the store. Everything fell together right, because, not only was I obsessed with the appearance of this Sony CD player, but it turned out to also be the BEST SOUNDING CD player that I sampled. It even sounded better than some of the boomboxes nearly twice the price. So yes, I bought and brought this puppy home.

At work, I couldn't wait to push their crappy CD Player aside and put my new Sony on the shelf near my desk.

This Sony CD Player has something else that is totally amazing. It comes with a CD program called "SonicStage". This is a program that you set up in your computer so that you can create, what Sony calls, ATRAC3plus CD's. Which means that you can burn CDR's that can hold from 6 hours of music, up to 32 hours. Imagine 32 hours of your other CD's and MP3's burned onto one CDR. Plus, what's cool, is that I can "combine" songs together. For example, The Beatles "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and "With a Little Help From My Friends", always appear on CD as two separate tracks. When you "shuffle play" your CD, these two songs get broken up, and, of course, they belong together. SonicStage allows you to combine these two as one song. Pretty cool, huh? Even The Beatles "Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End" can be "combined" as one song. I love this feature!

I've mostly made a few 6 hour and 14 hour CDR's to play at work. It's amazing that with an ATRAC3plus CDR, I can allow one CD to play all day at work, and with no hinderances to the sound quality. It is simply amazing!

The only disapointment that I have with the SonicStage ATRAC3plus CDR burning program, is that I can not "normalize" the recordings. (make all the songs play at the same volume). Some songs are recorded too low or too high. You really have to pay attention to what the initial volume of the CD's are that you are burning. Normally, we really don't pay much attention to this when we play one CD at a time. We put on a CD, and we adjust the volume right there, and walk away. But, when you put a bunch of CD's together onto one ATRAC3plus CDR, and then hit "shuffle" (have songs play in random order), you have to jump up and turn the player down everytime a loud (more currently remastered) song comes on. But, this is a totally new program and I'm sure that SonicStage will improve on it's options for allowing us to balance the volumes of the songs on future updates for the program.

My only other disappointment is with the Sony ZS-XN30 itself. It has a Megabass button which you would expect to increase the bass response. I really don't hear any difference with the bass and I do have a pretty discriminating ear for sound. But, as a whole, this boombox does sound nice, and the price is worth it.

I love to play my "Autechre" CDs at work, and the sound of "Autechre" is in perfect sync with the look of the boombox that it's coming from. "Autechre" is a kind of music that represents "Machinery Gone Wrong", which supports the madness that's in sync with the work that I do. All 15 of my Autechre CD's are on one amazing ATRAC3plus CDR. (The volume levels were all the same, Thank God!)

It's good to be Proudly Unhipp, because now, it's just promoted some envy at work.

Does What I Need It To
I bought this boombox because it has one unique feature that is hard to find on any other boombox.

My primary use for this boombox is to download very long mp3 files (two hours long) from the Internet(talk radio files). The problem is that I may listen to fifteen minutes of this file in one day, and then listen to the rest of the file later. With most boomboxes (once power has been turned off/on), I would have to start over at the beginning of the file and try to fast forward through fifteen minutes to get back to where I left off.

However, the Sony ZS-XN30 *remembers* exactly where it left off in the mp3 file. So if I listen to fifteen minutes of a two-hour mp3 file, and then turn the power button off - I can then go back the next day and the file will start playing exactly where it left off. I even tried unplugging the power chord (with no batteries installed), and it still remembered where it left off. This only works if you don't unplug the power for more than about two minutes. I tried it for five minutes, and the memory was lost. But two minutes is more than enough time to move the boombox around the house - and plug it in elsewhere.

I am disappointed that there is no bass/trebble control. Only a "mega bass" button that is either off/on.