Advice on a Boom Box

[Lensman]

My wife has asked for a boom box for Christmas. She'd like something that plays CDs and radio, has a handle, and can run on AC or batteries. She'd like to use it around the house/yard, her office, and perhaps in our 1977 Ford van that has no radio (I figure the last is a forlorn hope as I doubt any small box can generate enough power to be listenable).

Small is good, but there's no overiding requirement that it be tiny - just portable. I'd prefer to get her something that's read CD-Rs and has a digital tuner. It'd be nice if it could also play MP3 files.

So does anyone know of anything like this that actually sounds halfway decent?

[MikeyBC]

Hmmm you might not believe this but listen to the origional JVC "Kaboom". I was listening to some equipment in the high end room at a local stereo shop after hours (my friend worked there) and we decided to set a Kaboom on the top shelf of an audio stand so it was approx ear level in a 17x13 foot listening room, we were impressed enough to try another source, so we hooked a Classe' CDP.3 to its inputs and we couldnt believe what we heard. If you had a curtain in front of it you'd swear you were listening to a pair of $400 Cdn speakers, plus the thing will not distort. it just rolls back the sub level if it gets too high but remains listenable, and for only $179 on sale at the time it had no right to sound anywhere near as good as it did, it actually had suprisingly deep bass, though we were using Sheffield labs recordings and other very well recorded material.

Yes...we were really bored that night but it was interesting and fun.

[JamezHill]

Oddly enough, I agree with the kaboom. It wasn't bad when I listened to it a while back. I'm sure they might have better products out by now, I would only recommend the Kaboom for Bass intensive music like Techno or HipHop.