It's back to school time! If you are looking for a low cost stereo for a dorm room, walk right on by the brand names like Sony, Pioneer, Yamaha, and Onkyo. If you want a good little system for playing music in a dorm room, check out the humble
The GPX Home Music System has a regular audio input for MP3 players or Tablet computers and it has an RCA stereo input for a conventional stereo sound source like a turntable. I have one and it is great for music in a small space like a bedroom. Since it is a very inexpensive unit, you don't have to worry about losing a valuable investment due to theft or clumsy drunken roommates.
This little stereo can fill a dorm room with sound, but it isn't really capable of disturbing the neighbors. Here is a complete review that I previously published on Yahoo Contributors Network:
If you are looking for an inexpensive stereo that can fit in a small space
(like a bedroom, dorm room or office) and that can play well with MP3
players, tablets, computers, and other gadgets, the surprisingly
inexpensive GPX Home Music System with CD player might be a good choice.
Once upon a time, I owned the perfect stereo. It had waist high speakers that pumped out at least 100 watts of power per channel. It was a Technics system with individual components I chose by hand including a receiver, dual tape deck, and five disc CD player. I watched the sales at and it was beautiful. But, since I lived in an apartment in a densely populated urban area, I could never crank the volume above two or three.
While I may one day recreate my stereo of early nineties glory, on a day-to-day basis, my actual music needs are far more modest. I don't need to blast my neighbors into fits of fuious indignation. Instead, I
need to play my CD's, plug in my tablet and stream a podcast, or simply watch videos on my laptop with decent sound. I don't need to fill a home with sound. I need to fill a bedroom or a home office. That's where a
compact stereo can really be useful. I recently found an inexpensive little stereo that fits my needs. It is the GPX Home Music System with CD Player.
This little stereo only costs about $45, but it can play music from every device we own. It has ports to accept conventional RCA plugs from another stereo component such as a turntable or DVD player. If I don't have a device connected to that port, I can connect something via a line-in from the earphone jack of a modern portable device like an MP3 player or tablet computer. The GPX system also has a built in CD player and AM/FM radio. It can be used as an alarm clock. It can even be mounted on the wall. It has two detachable speakers. The system has a stereo headphone jack. It has preset equalizer settings for rock, pop, jazz, and classical. It even has a remote. From a usability perspective, the GPX Home Music System is easy to set up and use.
In my testing, the GPX Home Music System worked well in a small space. The unit's CD player and AM/FM radio receiver functioned just fine. The sound was adequate, but not booming. This is not a powerful stereo at
all. The back of the unit claims a 14 watt power supply. But, not all that power is making it to the speakers. The sound would be about what you'd expect from a set of pretty decent $20 computer speakers or a small boom box. With no dedicated sub-woofer, there was no thumping to disturb our neighbors. However, for a small space, that can be a good thing. The lack of booming bass might make this speaker the perfect choice for parents who want to get their kid a stereo without feeling the effects throughout their entire home. I felt the sound quality of the GPX system was also somewhat limited by the plastic speaker enclosures. The "tweeters" on the speakers are just cheesy non-functional pieces of plastic decor. That being said, the sound was clear and pleasant enough. For a small space, the sound quality was good, but not excellent. You won't find audiophile quality at a $45 price point.
However, there is a chance that you can tweak the cheap little system yourself to improve it a bit. One Amazon reviewer reported good results by swapping the speakers for a better pair from his local thrift store. That sounds like a potentially outstanding idea as speakers from bookshelf stereos can often be found at my local thrift shops. However, the challenge would be to find speakers that have a single male plug for each speaker like the GPX speakers.
Overall, I was very pleased by the GPX Home Music System. It met my basic expectations. I liked being able to hook up my Nook Color and stream music from AccuRadio. While it may not be a powerful stereo, this GPX unit has the priceless ability to accept input from many different devices. In this world that makes this "Home Music System" an incredibly useful little system.
