Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In the market for a smaller bookshelf style music system, but you don't want to break your savings? Enter the Sony one here. It's a small shelf system with 50 watts of power, CD, AM/FM, USB, Bluetooth, and NFC. In fact, it's pretty much one of the few if not only shelf systems that has bluetooth and NFC integrated. With the rise of smartphones becoming our music storage and playback, this feature is welcome. The system looks very nice, with a brushed metal (it's plastic, but looks good) old school yet modern look to the receiver portion. No dock for iPod, but it has a USB port that I plugged my Walkman into which worked fine. The port also has 2.1 amp charging capability, so you can even charge an iPad with it. Came with a full sized remote that controls everything...but there is one glaring omission. No eject button for the CD drawer, which was odd. CD player takes a few seconds to read a disc, but I hardly play CDs nowadays, and even when I do, the wait is not unbearable. The Bluetooth and NFC worked great with my Z2 Tablet, and Z3v Xperia phone. Sound is very good, with ample power to drive the speakers, though be warned, you will not be able to change them as the inputs in the back of the unit are proprietary. AM/FM tuner works great too. You get a 3.5 headphone jack and another 3.5 input in the back too. There is a white LED light that is not visible in the pics. It is similar to the Sony Bravia and DVD players from a little while back. It pulses when you use the remote and it receives a command, giving you acknowledgement it got the signal. It is very upscale looking, but it is very bright in a darkened room. Thankfully, you can turn it off at night with the remote. Compared to other bookshelf stereo systems, this one is really the best bang for the buck. Yamaha, Denon, and Onkyo have systems available for way higher prices, and no wireless connectivity. You go cheaper than this, and you wind up with something that has no power at all. Make no mistake, this Sony is not the end all be all to music, but instead a very solid system with good features and sound. If you want a metal framed unit, go look at the others, but honestly you cannot go wrong here. 5 out of 5 I've snapped some quick pics of the system too, with the Remote, display, USB port, NFC etc.