Little more than an average system (Sony CMT-EP505)

Member Name: richard_richard

Product:	Sony CMT-EP505
Date:	01/05/04 (266 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good sound, Compact, Reliable

Disadvantages: Tape player is poor

The Sony CMT-EP505 is a micro hi-fi system that provides a decent range of features for a low price.

I have been using this system for about 2 years now and so feel in a position to be able to give it a pretty fair review!

The system cost me £159 and at the time I thought this was a pretty good price considering the fact it was a Sony system with a fair range of features.


Specs
This Sony system has the following features:

Power output 2 x 12 watt RMS. Single CD player. Shuffle/program/repeat play modes. 20 programmable tracks. Digital FM/MW RDS radio tuner with 30 radio station presets. PS (program service name). Single CD player. Preset equaliser. Auto reverse. Tape/CD synchro record. 9 auto search tracks. 4 pre-set sounds. Bass enhancer. Remote control.

The system is very compact, measuring only, (H)28.5, (W)21.5, (D)33cm.

The system is provided with two one way speakers and these have 4? drivers. I found it rather strange that there were no tweeters in each speaker, this could be considered a bit of an omission.


In Use
The system is pretty easy to use, with clearly laid out controls on the front of the hi-fi. That said, to use all features, you must select these from the remote control so keep a close eye on this unit as you don?t want to misplace it!

The system features a top loading cd player, which does the job, but isn?t quite as flash as having a cd draw pop out for you! The player is of a decent quality and reads discs quickly and accurately. The sound quality seems to be pretty good, it will do the job for most people although hi-fi buffs might have to look elsewhere for a top quality sound!

The tape player on this unit I was pretty disappointed with. First of all it does not possess any noise reduction, so you have to put up with a fair amount of tape hiss if you have the volume pretty high. I also found the recording facility to be noisy and of a low quali
ty. Taping from cd was a no-no as the recording seemed to be of a low quality and have a fair amount of background noise. Not really what I was expecting from a Sony branded hi-fi! The tape unit does feature auto reverse on it, which is very useful, but I do find myself wishing they would have included a Dolby noise reduction system too, or even instead of the auto reverse!

The radio unit is better quality and up to the standard of the cd player. It is easy to program in channels to the unit, and on the whole the reception appears to be really quite good.

Moving onto the amplifier section of the system, this is up to the quality one would expect from Sony. The system pushes out a fair amount of bass from the tiny speakers and with the bass enhancer, the output is pretty impressive. Obviously as the volume is pushed towards the maximum, things tend to get a bit confused as the speaker drivers are starting to shake themselves apart and the integrity of the sound drops away. (At this point I would like to say that I don?t use the speakers supplied with the system now, I use a pair of two way speakers with 8? drivers which were studio monitors and can take anything that this little system can throw at them!)

The amplifier on this system has four preset DSP sounds which you can use to enhance your listening. These are Rock, Pop, Jazz and Classical. I tend to use the rock and pop settings the most, as this tends to be the type of music I would listen to through the system. All of these DSP sounds do add a certain amount of effect to the music you are listening to, but it is nothing too drastic and you may find yourself not using them at all.

In terms of reliability, I have been using this system for nearly two years and have not encountered any problems with the operation of the unit. I would say that I am quite pleased with the reliability of this unit, especially as it was not a particularly expensive system in the first place.



Conclusion
Overall I would say that this is a pretty average system, but not bad value for money. I think that it would be fine for most people who want a no thrills hi-fi system for a reasonable price.

I would have to say that I wasn?t impressed by the tape player on this unit at all, which is a shame because the rest of the features on the system aren?t bad at all. I just hope Sony have improved their tape players in their new models!

Thanks for reading!

Summary: