207
people found this helpful, as of 2023
ranked #153,214 most helpful
out of 571,544,897 reviews
★★☆☆☆
Great unit, but false advertising
I bought the Sony EC55 as an Xmas present for an elderly couple who have cassette tapes as well as CDs. The Tech Specs clearly state that the unit has a cassette player. I emailed Amazon asking if they had shipped me the wrong model or if their website was in error. Instead of checking their website's accuracy, they quickly shipped me a replacement unit, which of course was again missing the cassette player.
Before I shipped back (at Amazon's expense) the second unit, I read the fine print in the User's Manual which states that the cassette player is included with the EC55 for the REST of the globe, but not for North American models. Smells like another stupid Sony marketing decision to me!
Anyway, the EC55 is a great little unit, easy to use with great sound, so the couple decided to keep it. I then discovered that, also contrary to the listed Tech Specs, that the EC55 DOES have "Audio In" in the form of a 1/8" microphone-type jack. With that, they were able to connect their old, cheapo portable cassette recorder/player to the EC55 via headphone output with very satisfactory results.
Reading the other reviews (after the purchase), I realize I am not the only one to suffer from the false advertising. Unlike some of the other reviewers, I still love Amazon as the best online store in the world and will continue to do business with them. But with so much feedback, I wonder where Amazon's business system breaks down and fails to correct the content of misleading advertising on their website. All they have to do is add the information from the user's manual to warn North American buyers that there is no cassette player. Amazon is SO good at correcting shipping problems, but their system is broken (at their expense) when it comes to fixing their website in a timely manner.
I would give the EC55 product 5 stars, but NO stars for the Amazon Web Content Manager. Thus I gave 2 stars just to get someone's attention.
January 2008 · Electronics · verified purchase