JENSEN CD-490 Red & Black Portable CD Player with AM/FM Radio and Aux Input – Stereo Music Boombox for Home & Outdoor Use

This is a beautiful compact CD/AM/FM radio. From the first day I bought it, I had trouble with the CD player, however. You have to keep tapping the “play” button for the CD to work. Once you hit the play button 7 or 8 times, it will play nicely. That’s the only problem but it is frustrating.

I purchased this to replace an older, worn out radio in my garage. This little unit picks up so many more stations than the old one and the sound quality is very good.

This little stereo packs a big sound! It is small, easy to move around and to travel with. It has everything I looked for at a low price. The radio works well, picking up many stations. The cd player played my home burned cd's as well as pre-recorded ones. I liked that it has an auxillary for connecting my phone to so I can play music on it through the stereo speakers. The headphone jack was great for when I wanted to listen quietly & not disturb anyone else. I liked this stereo so much that I re-ordered right away and bought 2 more for my sisters!

I ordered this item primarily for one reason, to play oldies on CD and MP3 through the speakers in this unit when powered by the cord going into the cigarette lighter and using an Enkey 150W car power inverter DC12V to 110V AC. This is for a collector car from the '60's, long before cars came with built in CD players and inputs for the MP3 player. One needs this arrangement if you hate modern AM and FM broadcast radio. Of course, this unit being reviewed will also work fine using batteries but they become expensive over time and add considerable weight to any boom box. It is a very good unit and I am happy with it. It does exactly what I wanted and it sounds very good, lots of volume and very clear. So far it has played every pre-recorded CD and my burned CD-R's without any problems, another thing I was looking for. It works well with earbuds too and has that jack on the front along with the aux input. Radio reception is very good on FM though I rarely use it. The detector works very well in locating and isolating broadcast signals. The built in carrying handle is solid and well-designed for this unit, and the cord is plenty long. Here is the only drawback I have encountered and I mention this in case it might be important to a prospective buyer. It is not a big deal for me. The very good instruction manual tells us how to program the unit to play tracks from a CD to hear only the ones we want to hear. This is easy to do and it works fine. It always seems to play the correct tracks that one has programmed. But the manual states on page 8 instruction #7 bullet 1, the following: "After the programmed tracks have been played the player stops but the program remains in the memory." In the case of the unit I purchased, this is not true. The unit does stop playing after the final programmed track, but that is the end of it. The small red Program light goes off and the memory is erased so one will have to re-program the machine from scratch and that does take time. If one hits the play button, the unit will simply start playing the entire CD from track one. So beware of this if you are one who likes only certain songs on a CD and tends to program your playback. I do not do this so it matters little to me. Besides, you are probably a person who does not buy or even own CD's any longer and uses only MP3 players or streams music exclusively. Nevertheless, I would like to see the manufacturer correct this statement in the manual. Overall, this is a good product for the price, is versatile, and suits my purposes well. I would recommend the unit.

This CD player will not win awards for sound but if you're looking for a compact, basic sound machine, this will fit the bill. The simple, near-absence of digital controls makes it a great plug-and-play device for we of the technologically challenged group. There is no streaming, pairing, programming, or connection to WiFi. Just plug the thing in, set the desired sound source with the retro button on the side, adjust the volume and AM/FM radio frequency with the appropriate dial, or pop in a CD, and you're in business. Again, the sound will not blow your socks off. It's actually closer in sound to the old transistor type radios. There's no deep bass; there's actually very little of it and the overall sound could be described as "tinny." The sound is good, though, through headphones. A 5-star rating is admittedly high for a sound machine that doesn't put out the best sound. The ridiculously simple controls and functions, however, is delightfully refreshing and a welcome break from all the latest gadgets out there.