handy, stylish Klangwunder with little restrictions

After staying in the kitchen the boombox AZ 8214 Philips had 17 Years - and enthusiastic about the sound until today (70% classical = HiFi-bud) - came as the successor (reason: the old "hooked" with many new CDs and can not Play MP3s) Only one unit of Philips in question!

The AZ 3856 seems to me the current top model in the category: "Sound Machine" by Philips to be:
+ Fully equipped and future-proof
+ CD (RW, burnt, MP3) USB port, 3.5mm input, 3.5mm output (who lacks the RCA input, the adapter cable for 3.98 to buy), cassette deck (for the oldies!)
+ Radio with 20 station presets FM (like 20x MW -. Who brauchts?)
+ Remote
+ Dial (endless) for volume - is much faster than typing forever ...)
Sound + correction by DSC = Digital Surround Control (5 settings: no, Classic, Pop, Jazz, Rock) and
Sound + correction Duch DBB = Dynamic Bass Boost (3 levels: no, DBB, DBB2)
+ Backlit, well-read, crisp display - backlight switched off for night
+ Sleep timer up to 2 hours
+ Sound is great class, very lifelike, very sonorous - just in the middle of a track too little (the AZ 8214 was still a bit "warmer" in tone - perhaps a tribute to the "sound requests" of today's listeners?)
+ Volume can be controlled from stage 0 - 32 and also on maximum volume the speakers are not overwhelmed - not distorted
+ Design: elegant, matt black with high-gloss CD flap and silver, central volume jog (knob without stop) - I like just the current silver vessels do not like ...
+ 20 cm narrower than the old AZ 8214
+ Service for technically minded people self-explanatory
+ Auto Store of 20 stations possible
+ No backup batteries for the station memory during a power outage longer necessary
+ I hope that Langzeitqualiltät Philips is still so we good 17 years ago ...

Disadvantages:
- The radio part in the reception is worse than the 17-year-old AZ 8214 - or you can hear the crackle only apparent from the brilliant heights? the times would have a technician by measuring subjective anyway ... no improvement of the state 17 years ago!
- While remote can store stations on preset buttons, but turn off neither in nor out! (To reduce standby power consumption? In any case a small convenience-minus)
- Although device has a sleep timer, but shows no clock in the display
- No way "manually" switch to mono when the reception is poor - automatic Umsschaltung reacts too late for my taste
- Rip CDs to MP3 mögllich not - I do that just on PC
- Device has already 2x "suspended" so that unplugging required - are just all small PCs nowadays - and who does not know Windows - with and without Service Pack ;-)
- The instruction manual could be more detailed - but who still read something today? (Eg the implications for treble, mid, bass has for now the DSC Your itself TUNE!)

So, the list of disadvantages, too, is not short, but there are little things but all - so from me a clear recommendation for the AZ 3856 - at a cost of (nearly) 100, - (2009) a bargain! (For AZ 8214, we have 1993 500 DM forked out ...)

I hope my picky assessment - a bit of a comparison test, old versus new - has helped you!