GPX HC221B Compact CD Player Stereo Home Music System with AM/FM Tuner

I do not normally write reviews, but this might help someone. I am a graduate student and a bit of an audiophile. My father has always had a very nice and expensive integrated stereo system and I tend to have a critical ear given that I am a more classically trained musician playing in the world’s longest continually touring ensemble. I love to listen to almost any type of music so this review is not particular to any one type (sorry). Being a student, I do not have a lot of money to invest in stereo equipment. Recently many of my had-me-down electronic units have come to the end of their lives, i.e. within weeks of each other my TV and stereo died. The new TV I purchased emitted a high pitched tone that gave me a headache after 30 minutes of video games or just watching an episode of something. I bought this unit so that I do not have to listen to the small TV tweeters. This unit does the job very well for the price and size of it. I can play or watch TV without pain and I can turn the volume up while walking around the house and still hear it without it being obnoxious. It is compact so it does not take up much room in my small living quarters. If you are looking for something to blow your mind playing Shostakovich, Eric Church or anything really, then you should not be looking at small units like this in the first place. I can see this being perfect for college dorms, smaller rooms, bed rooms, offices or anywhere you just need a little music in your life without going overboard. For anyone interested, I could not find much in the way of specification on this unit. There are two line-in ports for the left and right speaker to plug into, there are not additional power cables. There is an additional stereo line in to plug you iPod, TV or whatever else to play your music (looks like a normal headphone jack). The speaker cables are only about 29 inches long stretching them out so if you plan on placing them further apart you are going to have to buy additional audio lines. There is an alarm setting, which I found nice, CD player, nothing special, display dimmer, and AM/FM tuner. The power cord has two prong AC end (just in case you live in certain dormitories). This is a decent unit that is not terrible to listen to and is worth the 40$. I think it would work nicely in college or small use. Some people seem quick to judge small units (maybe not this one, but other) because they do not rattle the rafters. I hope this helped someone!

I haven't had this long, maybe a couple of weeks. So far, so good. I didn't realize how difficult it would be to find a CD player (something I use infrequently but still use) That said, for the price point, this does the job. Its compact and doesn't take up too much space. The sound quality is fine for my needs and space. It's super easy to put together. The CD player works fine, just push to open and load your 1 CD, close the lid and voila. The buttons are small but there's a remote to use. The auxiliary port in the back works great. I've plugged in my old ipod and it worked fine. My only gripe is the light on the clock. Its bright. Too bright when not in use. Since I don't use it much, I've taken to unplugging it and that resolves that issue (side note, when plugged back in at a later time, the last radio station tuned to is the default which is great).

I love this little baby. This obviously isn't going to be your 7.1 mind blowing surround sound system. But I haven't even gotten to the half-way volume mark yet, everything lower has fit my volume needs. I'm just trying to fill a room with sound, an average sized bedroom. I honestly am impressed with the sound quality. I am a bit of an audiophile and wasn't expecting much, but (especially considering the price) the sound is very clear. It isn't thumping, but there is an option of a bass booster, which was a...cute attempt of a feature. With no sub woofers, I didn't expect incredible bass. My test of quality of cord-antennae for radios is just leaving them raveled up and seeing if they work. (I just don't like those wires crawling up my walls) It picked up radio fine like this, almost no static, but I think the quality would get an itty-bitty little bit better if I actually hung it up. But raveled up and still receiving radio signal, I think that's a win. When pressing CDs into this, there is a certain amount of give in the plastic that makes me very cautious, because I feel like I'm going to break something. But you learn how to apply pressure in the right places and it'll get the CD in fine. If you buy any double-ended male 3.5mm cord, you can plug one end into the back of this music player and the other into any 3.5mm jack (aka the headphone holes in Apple, Android, computers, most products, etc.) and you can play music off of that device, through these speakers. You will have to unplug that cord from the player whenever you want to use a CD, which is only minimally bothersome. Another small issue; the light doesn't turn off. There's a button that you can push the either make the display brighter or dimmer - there is no option to turn it off. I did not like that I was also buying an unwanted night light. My main quirk with this is that the volume is controlled by a dial, so you cannot turn the volume up with the remote. This bothers me when I have to set the volume, go lay in bed to find it's too loud or too soft, then have to get back up and change it again. (Similarly, the radio tuning is a dial, which is kind of tricky to work with. One second you're at 95.7, a fraction of a movement later, you're in the 100s) Was easy enough to set up, the sound quality is a lot better than expected, and I have absolutely no problems with the volume. The issues considered, I still give this a 4, because they're tolerable, and for my needs (good sound, low price, can play CDs and music from my phone) the pros definitely outweigh them.

If 0 stars were possible.....I would rate this piece of c...p a total 0. I understand that the power of the dollar as diminished in time, but this cd player feels and acted very cheaply. Let's see....where should I start from.......On the instruction flyer it tells you to make sure to connect R speaker and L speaker in the right jack....However there was no sign or mark whatsoever on the speakers to tell you which is is Right or Left....The sound was pretty good for the few moments that the radio worked......Then it went into AUX mode and no matter what I tried, I did not seem able to get out of AUX mode. That meant, everything went dead....both the radio mode and the cd mode. Also to my own disappointment....it does not have a headphone jack but only an AUX jack.....However as I said....after it showed AUX on the screen....it stopped playing altogether. By then...my blood pressure was going very, very high.......I thought of returning it...but I was so mad that I smashed it to pieces......Although I am very disappointed with this product....I will not be upset at Amazon, because most of the products I got through Amazon have been very good....but this one really, really stank........Sorry, I had to vent.............

This product to me has been a great stereo system for the 2 weeks I've had it. I have tested every feature of the stereo system so far and I am very thrilled with it. Despite its economic sizing of about a foot tall it has incredible quality. I feel my favorite part of the stereo system is its unique radio design where it allows to view in between radio channels, even though there is nothing on those channels it is still a neat feature. Another great thing about it is its sound. For a small thing it packs a punch, but not a big enough punch to disturb the neighborhood. The programming feature on the system is a great tool that allows you to program the current CD in the system to play what ever tracks in any order. The AUX-In is something I use often and it doesn't decrease the sound at all, if anything it amplifies it. In conclusion all the features I've mentioned and the ones I haven't mentioned are great and reliable. It has brought me hours of entertainment. I feel this would be a great gift to anyone who loves music, has a small apartment or dorm with very little space, or someone who just needs a radio or alarm clock. Great product.

For the money (which in my case was basically none at all) this is a nice little alarm clock. The sound quality is very clear and pristine, more so than I would expect at this price-point. I hope it lasts, but I plan on only playing soft new-age music through it as I wake-up each morning, so I doubt it will have to strain. I was expecting metal construction based on thae image, but it turned out to be plastic. Not really a problem, but I'll bet it's not very durable. Probably best to keep it out of reach of rambunctious children. The unit pllays CDs and radio, and has a 3.5mm audio-in port, for which there is no included cable. I happen to have plenty of those laying around from other purchases, so it was fine. Worth noting is that if the auxilliary jack is even connected, there can be no use of the CD player or radio. This is by design, apparently. Not a huge deal, but I'd rather not have to reach into the back of the thing and pull the cable out if I just want it to play my wake-up CD in the morning, and connect it again if I want to play some binaural beats from my mp3 player. I've tested the CD alarm function now. I've gotta say, that's a lot of "activation" noise... It starts with a *POP* as (I guess) the unit sends power to the speakers. Then the CD player whirrs pretty loudyly once or even twice to ready the CD. By that point, I'd say the whole purpose of choosing soft music that fades in slowly to wake you up gently has been more or less defeated. That would definitely jolt me awake. I'm going to try putting the unit further from my bed and hope the distance makes that less of an issue... You should also know that this unit does not support the playing of MP3 CDs. If you want to wake-up to something you downloaded from Amazon, you are s/o/l. My advice is, either use a pre-bought CD (which are encoded in CDA format most of the time, I think) or rip one of your favorite songs into a lossless format (FLAC is a good one,) maybe use an audio-editor to make it fade-in slowly, then encode it back onto a CD-R in lossless format again and use that. That way you'll get the best possible sound quality (which once again is really quite nice in my experience.) Again, hopefully this unit keeps working well for at least a good few years. Overall I give it three stars, so far anyway.

for the price I wasn't gonna expect much lol, but when I hooked it all up, and tested everthing , I was blown away! Great sound for a small unit, CD works Perfectly, everything works perfectly, the remote even came with a lithium ? battery, AND it looks fantastic! Volume/CD/bass boost/ alarm// I could go on, but It looks like I payed 130 bucks for it and tested it on my friends and I said I paid that much for it and they totally believed me! Then I said naw, it was about 35 bucks, and they were like holy &*^^%, really? they totally believed it was a 130-140 dollar little system =) Also recently got an alarm clock from them and totally satisfied... GPX.. obviously cares about bringing a good product but at a VERY reseanable price! GPX lifetime fan here

Looks great and so easy to use

No tiene un gran volumen pero suena bien pequeño y prectico

the only drwaback is...." not supporting MP3 CDs and no USB port"...rest is cool..

Muy buena opción para lugares pequeños Un sonido claro, bien definido Muy recomendable Saludos Muy buena opción de sonido en casa

A few hick ups here and there at the beginning but works grat now...sound is good for that compact player.

The product i received is defective cd player is not working to would like to return the product