I'm looking for a new boom box for my kitchen. The last one I bought was 15 years ago. Any advice on what to buy today would be greatly appreciated. Would like it to have Mp3, AM/FM, CD and a nice sound.

Thank you.

Hi Bagman,
I recently had the same question and asked it in this thread. You might get some info to help in there.

I am still trying to get out to listen to prospects, but on my planned audition list are Tivoli Audio, Polk iSonic and Cambridge Soundworks.

Baggy, if by "boombox" you mean that it has to have the speakers enclosed in the unit, you really have diminished the likelihood of getting reasonably good sound. If a compact unit with separate speakers is acceptable, I'll suggest the same Onkyo CS-325 compact that was linked in the other thread.

Bagman -

My brother and another friend of mine have the HK Go from Harman Kardon and I'm always amazed at how good they manage to make a little speaker system like that sound.

I don't have a lot of boombox systems to compare against that I've heard first person, but this one does a nice job (which I guess it should for what it costs).

Like John said, it's not going to be audiophile quality, but for a boombox, it's not bad at all.

If you are interested, watch HK's store on ebay for deals on refurb units as they sell considerably more cheaply there than new.

Jason

ZVOX seems to get decent reviews though is more of a soundbar than a boombox sou you would have to provide your own source

I have to admit that I've always been drawn to "office" or micro systems... ones that have small but high quality components and real-wood (or veneer) little speakers.

Yet I've never owned any, leaving a big, emotional hole in my life.

Being that you pine for a micro system, it must be a tiny hole.

How about some wire and a pair of M3s to run off of zone 2 on your receiver? Having owned a micro system before my current setup, I don't think I could step back in quality.

It's the little components that get me.... though I like the idea of pairing them up with M3s....

They don't seem to be as popular as they were several years ago, though Denon and Onkyo still make a few...

I have an older JVC Kaboom box.
sigh....its built like a truck. Darn thing just can't be killed.

I bought it in hopes of getting sweet sound like my old early 80's JVC boombox which had a "stereo wide" switch. That was a cool boombox! Had RCA jack sound "outs" so you could use it as a preamp.

Anyhoo, the Kaboom box has amazing subwoofer effect, but hardly any stereo imaging at all.
Its ok for outdoor party situations.

As I posted in another thread, I'm fixing to remove a little Zvox mini as my TV sound, and will probably try to use it as a sort of boombox or portable music player if my Mom doesn't want it for one of her TV's. Zvox sells a battery charger thingy which it can supposedly run off of for several hours, and they sell a nifty bag for it.
But as someone mentioned - no radio or CD player though....

In between I also briefly owned a Milwaukee jobsite boombox which a: broke almost immediately and b. didn't sound as good as some of the reviews suggested it might. I was hoping the bass would be almost like the JVC kaboom box, but not even close. At all.

Maybe the newer Kaboom boxes are better as far as stereo seperation. I've always liked JVC for boomboxes. I'd pay big bucks for a brand new unopened box of that old early 80's one I had. My Mom bought me that and at the time it was expensive, like $300 if memory serves!

I will confess to sometimes ogling the vintage boomboxes on eBay.

That poor old JVC...it took sooooooo long to die. And it had decent sound right up til the end!

You had a Milwaukee jobsite boombox and it broke? I thought you could practically drop any of those jobsite stereos off a roof before they'd break, huh.

yep! it broke without dropping it or wetting it anything. Just wouldn't power up anymore.
Obviously defective. I gave it away. Maybe they fixed it.