Sony ZSBTY50 Portable NFC Bluetooth Wireless Boombox Speaker System

This year I get tired of my Sony EC99I, a HUGE shelf system with an output of 530 watts that I can't move easily do to its size. After reading reviews for several bluetooth speakers, big jambox, Bose sound link and Logitech UE BOOMBOX, I dicided that I want something bigger so I choose my favorite, the Sony RDP-XA900IP With 200 watts and $600.00 list price :-( I really like the 900ip but can't afford it at this time so I get back to the small Bluetooth speakers category and found this new Sony product. Selling point for me, the AM/FM tuner, for what I know only this BOOMBOX and the sangean WR22 come with a tuner. The Sangean looks good and was my choice until this unit was launch but only have one speaker and use only AC power (cord). The Sony ZS-BTY50 is small and portable, lightweight without batteries at least. It's design is modern and kind of aggressive not like the boring boxes sold by bose and jawbone. Sound quality is good, I can't compare it with bose or jambox but they probably sound much better because this Unit only have 2.5 watts per Channel so don't expect to fill a big room with it. Mega bass is not so Mega but you can improve it with your device EQ, my Ipad sound good on it with no distortion or connection problems, No delays on videogames, the first time you turn on the unit it enter pairing mode automatically. The unit come with a NFC chip so connecting some phones and tablets is really easy ( just a touch ) AM radio no good, FM mixed results. The problem It's probably my location no the radio. The unit come with a short telescopic antenna for FM. Please note, this unit doesn't have CD player, is an error showed on others websites. Now the cons I don't like the LCD, it has no light and the location between the speakers can block ambient light in some angles. The controls are no lighted either. The batteries compartment door is easy to open and with time I think it will be a problem, to open it you need to push the door and slide it, I like the ones that come with a clip. I want bigger speakers and 10 watts per channel. No remote control. Final note. This unit fill my needs, something portable easy to move around the house and that use batteries, until I get a bigger speaker.

One thing to keep in mind is that this boom box requires 6 **1.5V** C batteries. Virtually any rechargeable C battery that I could find on the market is only 1.2V, so the boom box died on me about 20 seconds into the first song. So, if you plan on taking this stereo around with you, be prepared to buy and throw out a lot of C batteries. The sound quality was overall good, but these speakers didn't crank up as loud as I thought they would go.

The unit looks like Wall-E's head :) It has a decent tuner (I can tune our local college station that doesn't transmit very well, which I can't get on all my other radios). It connected right away with my kindle fire hdx. It took some coaxing with my dell 375 bluetooth module on my laptop, but after re-installing drivers and some persistence, that now works, but I wouldn't ding the unit for that grief. I do have two complaints. One, it does not remember my tuner setting, but not a huge deal, just have to re-tune every time I turn the radio on. Two, the "megabass" setting comes on by default and it does make it sound pretty muddy. So my normal routine is turn it on, turn off megabass, and change the tuner... Others have commented on the loudness. I will say, you need to have your bluetooth device's volume turned all the way up, then it gets pretty loud. I can shower and hear the fm tuner and work on the treadmill while jamming, which is what I got it for. It won't blow you away, but is loud enough for most listening purposes. Overall - pleased.

I was reluctant to buy this as it was just released, but when the first review came in with 5 stars, I decided to take a chance on it - after all, Amazon makes returns so easy. What I got was exactly what I wanted - this box has great sound for the price and size, and the combo of AM/FM plus Bluetooth gives it a big leg up on other bluetooth speakers on the market. I actually prefer that it uses C-size batteries instead of a rechargeable battery, the C batteries will last longer at volume and are easier to keep listening by bringing spares with you. I wanted a bluetooth boombox with good sound for around the house, and an FM boombox that I can let my kids use at the drive-in to hear the movie while lounging in the back of my pickup truck. The build quality is great, the carry handle on the front is very convenient, it has more bass than a box this size has any right to have, and great volume - good for indoors and out. Bluetooth pairing is painless as expected. Overall my initial impressions are very good, and for the price is a much better deal than other bluetooth speakers with similar sound quality. UPDATE April 2014 - I've had this for almost a year now, and I'm still very happy with it. I use it on AC as bluetooth speakers for my mac mini, and my son occasionally uses the line-in from his PC, as the sound from this is better than our cheap PC monitor speakers. Bluetooth pairing is simple and painless when I want to use it as speakers for my iPhone as well.

The unit is kind of a compromise, as it's the best you can do for portable devices with Bluetooth right now that also includes a tuner. If you want better sound, a bookshelf stereo at the same price will sound a lot better, and if a tuner is not important to you, there is a much wider variety of Bluetooth-only portable speakers out there as well. Sound: - It's pretty good, but I feel it falls short of a unit in the $100+ range. - Bass is satisfactory given the speaker size - no complaints there. - Sounds just below mid-range (like the low end of the voice range) tend to boom and reverberate through the case, even with MegaBass off. This is kind of irritating if you listen to any sports or news on the radio. - Treble is all there but a touch muddy. Anything crisper would probably need a separate tweeter though. Bluetooth: - NFC makes it very easy to pair, just touch your phone to the handle and hit Yes or OK. It will auto-pair in the future. - Range meets my expectations. - Sound quality via Bluetooth is excellent. - Volume is a little low, I find myself putting the Sony at 25+ with my phone's Bluetooth volume maxed out. This may fall short if you are using it outdoors. - Play/Pause/Skip/Prev buttons on the Sony easily control your phone's media player. This allows you to deftly skip over that Backstreet Boys song in front of your friends without obviously scrambling to find and unlock the phone in your pocket. - This unit serves as a decent Bluetooth receiver if you connect the headphone jack to your existing home theater system. Tuner: Take a bathroom break, this is a long one. - As I (eventually) found out, Sony put an EXCELLENT FM Tuner in this unit, and then completely hobbled it with tiny 13.5" antenna. This isn't even 1/8 wavelength in most of the FM band. It was getting the locals, but only just, and only in certain positions. Out of the box it performed worse on FM than my Sony pocket radio (ICF-S10MK2), which, ironically, has a longer antenna. Cutting to the chase, I extended the antenna to about 5' with a wire and it now gets all the local stations as well as some classified as distant, and CLEARLY! I'm currently looking for a more aesthetic solution for a longer extendable antenna. If you live close to the city you may have a better experience with the factory antenna. AM tuning is fine with only a slight change in the unit's orientation necessary for maximum reception. - Station programming is an awful chore. The default mode for memory storage is "Auto" which just fills up the 20 preset slots with the first 20 stations it finds. It runs out of slots before it even reaches 100 MHz in most cases, and you probably won't like half of them. Programming manually is really the only option and it involves disabling this "auto" mode before programming each and every station. This involves a long-press plus 5 additional buttons for each preset, not even counting tuning to the next station. At least you only have to do this once. Odds and ends: - Build quality is excellent. It is very solid with thick plastic and a good weight to it. Button clicks are reassuring. - It easily stands up on its back. - Due to its location between the speakers and behind the handle, light doesn't reach the display well, making it very difficult to read most of the time, and it is not illuminated. Keep a flashlight nearby! I'm considering taking apart the handle and moving the white power LED to the back of the handle. - The flashing red "Light Sync" is gimmicky and rarely goes along with the beat, but nevertheless, looks cool. - A remote would be great, but they are rare among portable stereos. What about a way to control the other functions via Bluetooth app?

Bought a new one but received a heavily used one, damaged and dirty

This is the right bluetooth boombox for me.... just the right loudness, the right size and weight, good looks and extras like fm tuner and aux input. The other model zs-bty 52 has a usb input but it doesn't really matter for me since all my music are in my Sony Xperia phone's Walkman App..... The phone connects via NFC and is a breeze to connect. Just touch the phone to the handle of the boombox and you're connected.... I don't use the usb input of boomboxes anyway... rather use my xperia phone because my entire music collection is in its memory card... easier to control the music player...from the phone's screen intead of controls on the boombox... All in all, this is a good deal for me.... Great sound, price, function, looks and portability. Just perfect for my entertainment needs whether for watching movies, videos or listening to music.

The system came with no remote control or a power cord? I have got the runaround in regards to replacement and I am extremely dissatisfied with Both Sony and Amazon service. I am now forced to only use the radio with batteries!!

COOL