Xtreme Sound WMS353 Car CD / MP3 Player
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- MP3 / WMA Playback: MP3 Playback
- Player Type: CD
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User ReviewRead All Reviews »
Was not bad at the time, but you can go better now.
Pros
Nice looking face, MP3 with folder play and ID3 tag support.
Cons
Faceplate LCD problem, occasional CD skipping, feels like has low-end amplifier.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Get it only if real tight on money, if it's brand new and under around $60 (if that happens) - otherwise search for better deals.
I was looking for cheap MP3 unit, but not cheap enough to prevent it from working. Deciding points here were acceptable price at the moment plus some fairly OK reviews in other places that I was able to find on the web. Purchased this unit for a car, that I did not have intention to keep for too long, however it turned out to be quite acceptable for a long run despite some issues.
Had it for over a year in the car, and the only real problem that it experienced was LCD display defect – few cells in the middle leaked internally, so couple of letters or digits in the middle became hardly readable. Still I decided it's OK to live with it as is rather than pull the whole unit in order to send it for warranty replacement as suggested by their rep and probably wait for weeks for replacement. Radio reception was OK but not great.
Specific pluses: OK price, good looking Alpine-style face with decent ergonomics, adequate power rating, ID3 tag support – that means it would scroll song name on the screen while playing. No big deal maybe, but nice feature to have. Surprisingly, many of more expensive brand name players do not have it.
Specific minuses: above mentioned faceplate problem, plus occasional CD skipping (but not MP3). Need to say here that unit was installed in 1989 Audi 100 that had firm but at the same time compliant suspension. CD skipping would mainly happen at low speeds over speed bumps, but MP3 disks skipped maybe once or twice ever. Media (disk brand/quality) may also make difference here. Also, I did not try to go too far and play multi-folder complex MP3 disks, although that is possible, so would not comment here on how easy it is to navigate subfolders.
The sound quality is not very rich, and no bass/treble settings seemed to make overall sound quality especially deep, as was noted by other reviewers on other sites. Pairing this unit with external amplifier would make good sense, at least if you already have one installed.
Overall, it's a decent unit, offering some features that others don't. Given right price, would make perfect sense for many users. However, these days many better units go cheap enough if search in the right places. Recently, I got very nice Panasonic MP3 stereo from Fry's for $100. That makes WMS353's $90 price tag look ridiculous, so the target price would be probably around $60.
WARNING: this review pertains to this particular stereo model only, as I found the hard way that some models under Xtreme Sound/Rampage name – specifically ACD91 – are completely worthless pieces of junk and shouldn't be even accepted as freebees if so happened ever.
Had it for over a year in the car, and the only real problem that it experienced was LCD display defect – few cells in the middle leaked internally, so couple of letters or digits in the middle became hardly readable. Still I decided it's OK to live with it as is rather than pull the whole unit in order to send it for warranty replacement as suggested by their rep and probably wait for weeks for replacement. Radio reception was OK but not great.
Specific pluses: OK price, good looking Alpine-style face with decent ergonomics, adequate power rating, ID3 tag support – that means it would scroll song name on the screen while playing. No big deal maybe, but nice feature to have. Surprisingly, many of more expensive brand name players do not have it.
Specific minuses: above mentioned faceplate problem, plus occasional CD skipping (but not MP3). Need to say here that unit was installed in 1989 Audi 100 that had firm but at the same time compliant suspension. CD skipping would mainly happen at low speeds over speed bumps, but MP3 disks skipped maybe once or twice ever. Media (disk brand/quality) may also make difference here. Also, I did not try to go too far and play multi-folder complex MP3 disks, although that is possible, so would not comment here on how easy it is to navigate subfolders.
The sound quality is not very rich, and no bass/treble settings seemed to make overall sound quality especially deep, as was noted by other reviewers on other sites. Pairing this unit with external amplifier would make good sense, at least if you already have one installed.
Overall, it's a decent unit, offering some features that others don't. Given right price, would make perfect sense for many users. However, these days many better units go cheap enough if search in the right places. Recently, I got very nice Panasonic MP3 stereo from Fry's for $100. That makes WMS353's $90 price tag look ridiculous, so the target price would be probably around $60.
WARNING: this review pertains to this particular stereo model only, as I found the hard way that some models under Xtreme Sound/Rampage name – specifically ACD91 – are completely worthless pieces of junk and shouldn't be even accepted as freebees if so happened ever.
