Gpx Vert. Home Music Sys
GPX HM3817DT CD Home Music System
Review by Joe Average from Cookeville, TN:
We bought this for our eight year old son. It is exactly what he "needed" and he won't out grow this anytime soon.
Thankfully it has an AUX-IN and the cord is included. It means anything with an ear plug jack can pipe sound through this stereo.
Now don't get me wrong - it isn't perfect. When you turn it off it resets the volume level. Not a bad thing except it comes back on too loud. Our son figured out that he could simply switch over to CD and then turn the unit off. That way it was silent when he turned it on again before he resets the volume. Sure we shouldn't need to do this but it was $40...
Another complaint is that if power is interrupted AT ALL everything resets to factory defaults. All that would require would be a big 29 cent capacitor added internally. I wish they had added one. I might once it is out of warranty. For this reason it won't be a reliable clock radio. We had high hopes initially. Anyone who has shopped for a clock radio -with digital tuning- knows how tough it is to find something like that. 99% of them are digital time and analog tuning.
It has pretty good FM and AM reception. The remote works from across the room. The issues I read about the alarm being wonky aren't apparent on the system we purchased.
The display is too bright but then he has taken to placing a book or model car in front of the display to block the direct light it creates. On the flip side he doesn't need his night light anymore b/c this stereo's display does the same job. The display does not dim when the unit is off. Another minor dig against it.
Bass: there isn't much. If this is a key point for you it will require better speakers than this. Sounds about the same as a $40 boombox. Very clear, not much bass. You probably could hook up a subwoofer... VBG!
We have seen this same stereo at WalMart sold under the name Durabrand if you like to shop there. We prefer to not shop there. Anyhow same price. Same quality. Was good to be able to play with it in person.
Thankfully it has an AUX-IN and the cord is included. It means anything with an ear plug jack can pipe sound through this stereo.
Now don't get me wrong - it isn't perfect. When you turn it off it resets the volume level. Not a bad thing except it comes back on too loud. Our son figured out that he could simply switch over to CD and then turn the unit off. That way it was silent when he turned it on again before he resets the volume. Sure we shouldn't need to do this but it was $40...
Another complaint is that if power is interrupted AT ALL everything resets to factory defaults. All that would require would be a big 29 cent capacitor added internally. I wish they had added one. I might once it is out of warranty. For this reason it won't be a reliable clock radio. We had high hopes initially. Anyone who has shopped for a clock radio -with digital tuning- knows how tough it is to find something like that. 99% of them are digital time and analog tuning.
It has pretty good FM and AM reception. The remote works from across the room. The issues I read about the alarm being wonky aren't apparent on the system we purchased.
The display is too bright but then he has taken to placing a book or model car in front of the display to block the direct light it creates. On the flip side he doesn't need his night light anymore b/c this stereo's display does the same job. The display does not dim when the unit is off. Another minor dig against it.
Bass: there isn't much. If this is a key point for you it will require better speakers than this. Sounds about the same as a $40 boombox. Very clear, not much bass. You probably could hook up a subwoofer... VBG!
We have seen this same stereo at WalMart sold under the name Durabrand if you like to shop there. We prefer to not shop there. Anyhow same price. Same quality. Was good to be able to play with it in person.
Review by A. Dent from USA:
I purchased this exact same unit from a brick and mortar store where it is sold as the Durabrand HM3817DT. The only difference is the color - mine is silver. I needed a cheap stereo for my little girl's bedroom and this model seems to fit the purpose. Aware of the no-so-stellar Amazon reviews, I actually tried it at the store and made sure that I was allowed to return it if it did not work properly or if it stopped working after a few days. My unit is still working and what follows is my review.
- Design:
It's probably the best thing about this unit. It looks positively cute. Being as small and thin as it is, it does not take a lot of space and it can fit well on a desk, on a dresser or, if you want to go through the trouble, it could hang on the wall. The face plate slides up and down automatically, whenever you need to insert or remove a CD and the entire assembly looks hi-tech but in a non-threatening way.
Functions:
- CD player
- AM/FM
- Clock with alarm
- Aux port (not tested by me)
- 3.5mm earphone jack (not tested by me)
Features:
- Remote control
- Equalizer with several preset modes (Jazz, Rock, Classic)
- Included external 'wire' antenna
- 20 presets on each AM and FM bands
- Programmable CD play
- Sleep mode
Issues/concerns:
- The remote does not replicate all the functions on the unit's face
- Moving from one preset station to another can only be done in one direction (from M1 to M2... to M20 so to go from M2 to M1 you will require about 20 button presses)
- It's impossible to clear the memory for preset stations so if you don't set some station on each of the 20 memory locations you will be hearing a lot of hissing while switching from one station to another
- The radio's auto-seek function is present but it is not documented in the manual (hold the 'fast forward' button for a moment instead of just pressing it) or you will be moving from 90.1 to 90.2 and so on
- The trilingual 2-page manual (English/Spanish/French) is a little difficult to follow because the English, Spanish and French instructions are crammed together.
For what I paid (a little bit below mid-2-digits), I am not very concerned with durability or hi-fi performance. The sound is pretty good for a cheap stereo but I will not be surprised if the CD player stops playing long before the radio gives up - which means that I will still be left with a nice radio and an alarm clock.
I will give this unit 5 stars for design and 4 stars for features and sound quality. I will have to subtract one star for the 'issues' I documented above. That's 3.5 stars which I will be rounding up because of the relatively low price.
- Design:
It's probably the best thing about this unit. It looks positively cute. Being as small and thin as it is, it does not take a lot of space and it can fit well on a desk, on a dresser or, if you want to go through the trouble, it could hang on the wall. The face plate slides up and down automatically, whenever you need to insert or remove a CD and the entire assembly looks hi-tech but in a non-threatening way.
Functions:
- CD player
- AM/FM
- Clock with alarm
- Aux port (not tested by me)
- 3.5mm earphone jack (not tested by me)
Features:
- Remote control
- Equalizer with several preset modes (Jazz, Rock, Classic)
- Included external 'wire' antenna
- 20 presets on each AM and FM bands
- Programmable CD play
- Sleep mode
Issues/concerns:
- The remote does not replicate all the functions on the unit's face
- Moving from one preset station to another can only be done in one direction (from M1 to M2... to M20 so to go from M2 to M1 you will require about 20 button presses)
- It's impossible to clear the memory for preset stations so if you don't set some station on each of the 20 memory locations you will be hearing a lot of hissing while switching from one station to another
- The radio's auto-seek function is present but it is not documented in the manual (hold the 'fast forward' button for a moment instead of just pressing it) or you will be moving from 90.1 to 90.2 and so on
- The trilingual 2-page manual (English/Spanish/French) is a little difficult to follow because the English, Spanish and French instructions are crammed together.
For what I paid (a little bit below mid-2-digits), I am not very concerned with durability or hi-fi performance. The sound is pretty good for a cheap stereo but I will not be surprised if the CD player stops playing long before the radio gives up - which means that I will still be left with a nice radio and an alarm clock.
I will give this unit 5 stars for design and 4 stars for features and sound quality. I will have to subtract one star for the 'issues' I documented above. That's 3.5 stars which I will be rounding up because of the relatively low price.
Review by C. Dear from Ohio:
I bought one of these and it quit working after two days. Amazon happily replace it. The next one lasted about six weeks before it died. Do not purchase this item!
Review by A. T. George from Indianapolis Area:
I would not recommend this if you are have a hearing range that is above a "below normal" level. The sound is bad with no bass whatsoever, and the range of the treble isn't that good either. I'm no sound purist, but I can distinguish the difference between a bose and a klipsch, so I'm not sure where that puts my hearing capacity, but my ears would shed tears if they could when they hear this system play sound. The design is very good so it's a nice touch for decoration, but I mainly use it now for an alarm clock and a table piece.
Review by J. Fisher-Farrell from East Stroudsburg, PA United States:
I bought this radio for my 9 year old daughter, so I wasn't looking to spend a lot of money. It's fine for a child's room, but I would have been extremely disappointed if it was for my room.
The sound is very flat, sort of "tin can"ish- not much depth or range. But she doesn't need much to listen to Kids Bop!
Unit is nice and small, fits well on her desk. Also option to mount on wall.
Realistically, you really can't expect much for this price- but if you're an adult looking for a decent sound, you're not going to get it out of this radio.
Oh, you cannot adjust sound manually- there are only preset levels to choose from (rock, classical, etc.)
The sound is very flat, sort of "tin can"ish- not much depth or range. But she doesn't need much to listen to Kids Bop!
Unit is nice and small, fits well on her desk. Also option to mount on wall.
Realistically, you really can't expect much for this price- but if you're an adult looking for a decent sound, you're not going to get it out of this radio.
Oh, you cannot adjust sound manually- there are only preset levels to choose from (rock, classical, etc.)
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