Sony MHC-EC55 Mini Hi-Fi Component System

This is a great unit. I bought one for my daughter and it has met our expectations in every way. For the price, I highly recommend it against many more expensive units.

I purchased this stereo after another brand I had purchased less than a year ago went kaput. We are very pleased with this unit for the small room where we have it placed.

While I was under the impression it had a tape player, I am very satisfied with the performance.

My new Sony MHC-EC55 Mini Hi-Fi Component Systemhas very good sound reproduction for the price: the huge woofers can pump out the mid and low frequencies. The audio-in jack is a welcome surprise at this price.

However, the CD playback and search features lack any smoothness, and are worse even than much cheaper devices like portable CD players. Change the volume, and the sound (not the CD) skips at each number. (This is less noticeable above 20.) Pause the player and try to fast forward or rewind to a particular time in a track, and the counter moves by large jumps instead of smoothly. I purchased this unit for use in educational presentations about classical music. For my purposes, the unit's herky-jerky response overshadows the great sound I hear while the CD plays.

The sound quality is very good for such a small system. The best thing about this system is that it plays MP3 files. It is also simple to use. Even my wife, who is not technically inclined, has no problems using this system. The radio reception is also very good and clear.