Price Paid:  $300.00 from Sears Company

Summary:
I bought this system because of the cool looks and neon volume display. I bought a display unit and brought it home one day never to look back. This unit is beautiful, small and elegant and the sound is better than a bose Wave radio for 1/2 the price. Recommended for anyone.

Strengths:
Ultracompact design.

Weaknesses:
no tape deck

Similar Products Used:
Bose wave radio/cd player

Price Paid:  $12000.00 from CompUSA

Summary:
This mini-stereo rules! We got it in at work one day and as soon as we had one out on demo, I had one in my room. It's the perfect size/sound for what I was looking for and in my price range. The design and style are very nice, modern, and matches with everything in your house. I've had it for about 3 years now and everyone always comments on how nice of a system it is. It's very quiet and the flourescent display makes it unique. If you're looking for an elegant shelf system for the price, get it.

Strengths:
No more waking up to obnoxious buzzing alarms! Set it to your favorite radio station or CD. Sleep function is nice when you want to doze off at night without having to turn it off. Very nice, crisp sound and for the size the bass is not bad at all. Options! Has 2 auxillary inputs, optical digital out and subwoofer out. 30 Digital FM presets. I ran out of radio stations to preset to! "phones" jack in the front, if u need it. The Eject function on the remote is fun to play with when your friends are trying to load a cd! And the remote works from anywhere in the room, you don't even have to point at the system, tight.

Weaknesses:
I've noticed that the volume goes up a little bit before you're lowering it if you're using the remote. This slowly occurred over time and wasn't a problem right away. It doesn't jump so high that it really makes a difference though. There's no snooze or mute button on the remote but that's a good thing for me, If I had those on a remote I would always be late for school and work. The AC cord is separate from the system instead of built-in. Since you can use batteries with it to make it portable, that would explain why, but the speakers aren't attached to the unit either so you can't just lift a handle and walk out.

Price Paid:  $150.00

Summary:
One last brief update. I still love this thing, although the volume-control problem gets worse with time.

Torture test:
My 14-year-old decided to supply background music for a driveway basketball game, so he set up one of the 5000s on the back porch and just cranked it up ALL THE WAY.

And left it that way. For a couple of hours.

Guess what? No damage at all. Did it sound good? Not really. If you really put the volume control all the way up the compressor can't entirely prevent distorted sound, but it won't let you damage the speakers either, which could very easily happen with a low-power amp driven into heavy clipping.

Little discoveries:
The bass boost switch also boosts the high treble. It acts like the "loudness" control on old receivers. So when you're using the subwoofer you might want to turn the bass control on the 5000 down but put on the boost switch to catch some extra treble crispness. Season to taste, as always.

It really is important to be on-axis when you're listening to the system. Treble falls off precipitously otherwise. The speakers sound best when they're up off the surface of a desk or table. Mine are actually sitting on top of some unused KLH 911Bs, but a fluted brass cylinder topped by ebony blocks wouldn't be a bad choice, either.

If there's room, a simple $5 VHF rabbit ears TV antenna does wonders for the stereo FM reception.

A great little system.

Price Paid:  $220.00 from Lower East Side

Summary:
I have the ux-5000 which the euro version on the fs-5000. It's exactly the same but dual voltage.

If :
1. You're budget is about $220
2. You aren't looking for a "hi-fi" system (see #1)
3. You don't need a tape deck
4. You want something that's SMALL

Then this is the system for you.
I listened to about 20 different micro and mini systems while looking for something that would be very small.

This is for sure the BEST bang for the space, and probably one of the best bangs for the buck.

Strengths:
great sound
tiny size

Weaknesses:
no snooze on the remote

Similar Products Used:
countless other micro's

Price Paid:  $220.00 from Lower East Side

Summary:
I have the ux-5000 which the euro version on the fs-5000. It's exactly the same but dual voltage.

If :
1. You're budget is about $220
2. You aren't looking for a "hi-fi" system (see #1)
3. You don't need a tape deck
4. You want something that's SMALL

Then this is the system for you.
I listened to about 20 different micro and mini systems while looking for something that would be very small.

This is for sure the BEST bang for the space, and probably one of the best bangs for the buck.

Strengths:
great sound
tiny size

Weaknesses:
no snooze on the remote

Similar Products Used:
countless other micro's