Review by W. Cotter:

I purchased the Sony CMT-EH15 as a gift for my adult daughter to replace her very old Aiwa system. One of the major selling points was the fact that the Sony has a cassette deck. My daughter still has a good collection of cassettes and she does not see the need to replace all of them with CDs. She also doesn’t want to buy an iPod and pay to download all of her old music. This is what most manufacturers would have you do if you look at any of the current bookshelf systems for sale.

She began a search on the internet and in local stores for a compact system that would fit in her limited space that had CD, cassette, and radio, of course. Most of the systems that fit her needs were either cheap “boombox” units or huge, coffee table sized systems. We came across this Sony system on several websites. We learned that this was built for the overseas market primarily since it will run on 110 or 220 volts and has the European FM tuner band settings. Several internet dealers only sell the 220 volt version and make you buy a transformer to convert it to be used in the US at 110 volts.

When the system arrived, we set it up in a matter of minutes. The first thing we found was that it has an option to set it to run on the US FM frequency band. You simply have to follow the instruction manual and press a couple of buttons while powering it up. Once you do that, it is set to the US standards for FM.

The radio reception on both AM and FM is very good. There are a lot of preset memories for stations. The cassette player and CD player work great. The cassette has a neat door covering the control buttons when not in use!

The sound is great for small areas, like her bedroom where she uses the stereo. If you’re looking for ear-shattering, bass-thumping music, this is not the stereo for you. If you are looking for a great stereo for the bedroom, office, den, etc. this is perfect.

If you are not ready to throw away all your cassette tapes, you should definitely look into this Sony system. By the way, if you do want to listen to your iPod or other MP3 player, there is a front panel audio input. So you really can have everything in one package!

Review by L. Wagner:

This is a great-looking product. But, it doesn’t sound so great. Not enough depth to the sound; rather tinny. The reason I purchased it was: it is very small and takes up hardly any space. It has both a cassette player and a CD player. It is a Sony and they usually last a reasonable time.

I just feel that with today’s technology, and at this price, this product should have better sound quality.

Review by Bryan Dolan:

For 9.00 you can’t go wrong. I can see the display fine. The only con I can find is the EQ is ROCK, FLAT , MP3. That kind of stuff I like more control with my EQ. Sony makes some of the best audio sound on the market for the price. If your a low end buyer stick to sony and only sony.

Review by Tom Lee:

I liked it but it should be noted that this model has no Audio-in plug.

Review by J. Brininger:

This is a great stereo that replaced the stock 2din cassette/cd player in our 2002 4runner. It worked out great and I did the install myself with a little reading online. It was a snap. I bought the Metra toyota harness and just crimped it to the JVC harness that attaches to the radio.

The stereo itself has a great layout, with large buttons for radio presets as well as a big volume knob. I hate these new modern stereos with no buttons for radio presets, it makes it very dangerous for driving and changing stations. Also the faceplate has a lot of display flashing but I turned it off because it was distracting and it makes it seem much more professional. The radio also comes preset on the LOUD setting which is unnecessary unless you’re listening at very low volumes. This will cause your speakers to distort if you chose to crank the volume up.

Also one note, the picture in the description of this stereo is incorrect, it does not have a cassette, the correct picture is at the top left when you first click on the item. Amazon needs to correct this because I believe you can clearly see it says XG400.

I will be instealling a sub and new speakers soon, so maybe I will update this review then but it sounds great and is a definite improvement over the stock radio, especially being able to use the iPod through the aux cable connector instead of the tape player.

Review by L. Regelman:

Bought the radio to install in a car that i was rebuilding..that was the main reason it was purchased. It fit perfectly and was easy to install, it also sounds great and I am very happy with this purchase,

Review by Michael Pietrzak:

Before I ever installed the unit, I already had a bad feeling about it. Being intrigued by new stuff, I pulled it apart to inspect. What I found was worse than what I expected. The comments below are in addition to the comments already made & you should take theirs into consideration as well.

1. The unit weighs almost nothing. That hints at a lack of components & heatsink (which would be necessary if it had decent amplification).

2. There are NO RCA outputs on this unit, so no amplification is possible.

3. The lack of RCAs isn’t missed much, due to the fact that the unit outputs to mono (yes, I was amazed to find both the left & right speaker wires coming out of the exact same solder joint.

4. The radio is really only capable of running two speakers (only has wires for two as well) & pushing 4 would likely run it into distortion quickly.

5. The radio used antiquated common ground speaker outputs. This is something that I haven’t seen since the 80′s. It means that the entire chassis of the car is used for the negative on the speakers. It’s not a good thing for noise at all (whining).

6. The knobs on the unit are actually knobs. Like the kind you found on radios from the 80′s. This means that the radio’s tuning isn’t digital & there are no seek functions or presets. It also means that the volume knob is really hard to use.

7. It appears that most of the solder work on the board is hand done (common of Chinese products) & not in a good way (I saw what are likely cold solder joints).

7. All of the buttons on the unit feel like they are the poor kind of microswitches that I only see on equipment that fails within a few months & so I wouldn’texpect much more out of these.

9. Top everything off by a MP3 menu system that is from the early days of MP3′s & you really don’t want this radio.

Review by Luis A. Celis V:

I bought this item thinking that is a very useful and that was what I was lookin for but…. what a fake…. is very easy to install… the sound is bad…it is hard and difficult to hear an USB device, if you do not prepare very well in the media player as an MP3 device it will not reconigze it, when you are playing and give some volume it distorsionate a lot….the final conclusion: you want an real and useful car stereo look for something with known brands, if not you can have bad surprises.

Review by W. C. White:

I have had this system since early January ’09, and paid 9+ tax. I am, overall, very satisfied with the purchase. There were no surprises. It looks and performs as represented on the Amazon page. I rate it a B+, or an 8.5/10 overall compared to similar priced bookshelf systems.

PRO:

*Great looking in basic black, fits (style-wise and otherwise, it’s also quite small) into anyone’s living/bed room or office. Nice bright, clear, easy to read display.

*Solid Sony construction and quality. Materials and assembly are first rate.

*Operation is straightforward and relatively simple. I learned basic functions in 5 minutes, and seldom needed to consult the fold-out style minimalistic manual.

*Sound is clear and accurate, and volume is ample enough to fill a typical room. Very little distortion or clipping even near top volume.

*Has controls or all basic functions on top of unit as well as remote, so you can still use it during times when you can’t find your remote. Remote operation is intuitive AND logical. No stupid gimmick functions no one ever uses to get in the way, but does what it needs to do from across the room

*iPod mounts atop unit (unit charges iPod whenever connected). Slides in easily. Easy to view iPod display. Position is practical; iPod does NOT tend to get in way or fall out as they do on a number of other like systems/docks. There is another jack for additional input (like connect to an Apple Airport Express/Extreme to run Airtunes and listen to Pandora/streaming or tracks in non-iPod formats).

*Plays custom MP3 CDs, including displaying ID3 tags. This means (if you burn the disc correctly) that playing an MP3 CD, you will see artist/album, and then track name. I find this a nice feature, though I guess its becoming pretty common.

CONS:

*Limited bass response, with no provision for connection to external subwoofer. Most of the time not really noticeable, but for heavily bass driven music, you miss feeling the beat. Bass is there though, and is accurate and proportional. EQ is simple +/- separate treble and bass controls. Use of standard iPod EQ profiles has little effect on sound, though custom settings imported from iTunes DO work better.

*Speaker grilles not removable. Wiring passes through part board enclosures, and no strain relief mechanism, so it would be both a pain to replace speaker wires and over time more likely to need it. Wires are long enough for now at about 8 feet, and you could always splice more length in if needs be. Thats not ideal, as would be if you had easy access inside enclosures. I haven’t tried the unit with other speakers, since the system impedance is 6 ohms and the various speakers I have access to are all 8 ohms (which is, or was, the standard, isn’t it?).

*CD player recognizes only MP3 or CDDA/AIFF format discs/tracks. It really wouldn’t have raised the production cost noticeably to include AAC, WAV, WMA, and most of all FLAC/ALAC.

I recommend this system to anyone looking for good sound (quality and quantity) on a budget, with the reservations mentioned about bass response. Likewise, its a solidly made unit that will last for years of use. I think it may be the best overall of its kind for use with iPod, at least until you get up to the Bose, Harman-Kardon, Denon, Bang/Olufsen class models (all of which retail at 0 and [way] up).

Review by James Tunnicliffe:

I purchased this model at Best Buy for 9 after trying and returning an all-in-one Memorex shelf unit that was more expensive. I should remember that for the future, “Sony no baloney.” I have a larger Sony component system for the past 16 years which never gave me any trouble. I like this model for the following reasons:

1. Good sound. 50w total power makes a big difference compared with lower rated shelf systems. It will definitely fill a room without putting it on maximum volume.

2. Elegant design and white display. Shows clock when unit is powered off on standby.

3. Controls are easy to figure out on unit and on remote control.

4. CD is sliding tray type on the front. Not the top loading type with a button in the center. I hate those.

5. Headphones jack is in the front where I want it.

Be aware though, that the “EQ” is really just treble and bass controls from -4 to +4. There is no balance control. This was not really a disappointment. The sound is great.

What I didn’t like was minor:

1, The rear of the particle board speakers is not painted like the black enclosure. Depending on where you place the system it might not look as nice. You could always paint them yourself. I put mine where you won’t see this. If you put these speakers on a shelf, you won’t notice.

2. The supplied AM antennae is ok, but the FM antenna is just a single wire that attaches to a coax terminal. I could not get much reception where I put the unit. But that’s much better than systems that just have a single non-detachable wire coming out. Because, with the coax terminal I attached a RCA FM/VHF/UHF antennae which works fine.

All in all I still give it 5 stars because it does the job for me with no headache.

Review by Lennon2600:

The cable is adequate. Sometimes it seems that the audio signal transmission through the cable is shaky and it crackles a bit, but if you don’t play with it, it’s okay.

It’s cheap, it works, it’s a cable. Enjoy.

Review by S. Hall:

Product as expected… in fact, though the guage and connections are a little better than expected.