Sony CMT-CP101

Very crisp, clear sound. Packs quite a punch for its size.

I bought this system for my bedroom, but I think I would suffice for the smaller living room too.

The appearance is very nice, with silver fascia and beech effect speakers. The build quality is true to Sony's tradition - well made.

The system is very easy to set up and the instructions are clear.

Tape: As being still a user of tapes I was impressed with this no nonsense deck. The tape is servo assisted so the controls are feather touch, with a reassuring clunk of the servo motor. The unit auto selects metal tapes. There is no dolby or music search, but the deck is auto reverse and full logic. Recording is simple and can be timed.

When you press eject the tape door is quite slow, but thats just me being picky!

Tuner: although advertised as RDS, this is a little misleading. It does display the station name, but the other RDS features such as PTY are missing. Still, a good tuner with good reception and easy to tune. Tuning can be done manually or automatically.

CD: All of the usual features, skip, program, random etc. A nice touch is that it plays CDRs and RWs, which I use to copy tracks from my PC to tape. The CD has a synchro record feature which is good and makes taping simple.

Amp: Nice and simple here, going back to the old school with simply bass and treble (all you need IMHO)controls. I like bassy music so I have it on full, but still I get no distortion.

There is a DSG button which emphasises the high notes slightly. There is an input from analogue (i.e. from a VCR) and an optical out (i.e. for an MD deck).

There is a clock, which allows wake up, sleep and record timer functions.

General: The unit is all front loading and compact, which means it can fit into many small spaces. It is still very powerful though and thus has a good sound. Its modern in appearance despite the fact that it has a tape deck. The display is good and is dual mode. This means that in CD and Tuner it shows normal info, but in tape mode it also shows the amount of tape remaining (as it is built into the tape door).

If the power is cut for any time the radio stations are kept but the time is lost. A battery backup like my VCR would have been good.

Overall great value for money, I was very impressed, as I am with my walkman and other Sony products.