I was always quite happy with my old stereo. It played CDs, had good sound quality and had a turntable for me to play my old vinyl collection. However, it was large, rather plasticky, and had been on the receiving end of some rough treatment meted out by my two youngest children. It had unnecessarily complicated sound and playing options controls, and I never played my vinyl collection, half of which has been replaced by CD. In short, it was time for me to get a new sound system. Whatever I got would have to be smaller, more robust, simpler to use and not have any fancy gadgets while still giving out a good quality of sound.

The GX9 consists of a radio, CD and cassette player in a main unit, accompanied by two speakers.

The operating instructions state that these speakers are 2-way, bass-reflex type; woofer 12cm diameter, cone type; tweeter 4cm diameter, cone type. Nominal impedance is stated as being 6 ohms.

The CD player is situated at the bottom of the unit. It plays audio CDs as well as those that are rewritable and recordable. To insert a CD you simply slide it in to the disc slot label side up and to retrieve it simply press the eject button. It does not play CD-ROMs, discs with non-standard shapes such as hearts, stars, etc. It has the usual features such as Repeat, Shuffle and Programme play.

For me though the star of the show is the radio. Yes, it plays AM and FM, has RDS (Radio Data System) and can be tuned manually, automatically or by preset. The main feature, however, is the DAB (Digital Audio Broadcasting), which to me is like entering a whole new radio world.
I'd heard it touted often enough on radio and BBC TV but had always been somewhat sceptical of its supposed benefits. Not any more. The sound quality of Digital Radio is, to my ears anyway, awesome. No whine, whistles, squeaks or signals dropping out. It's brilliant. The biggest difference for me is listening to Radio 5. Having previously being consigned to AM with it's poor quality, I now hear presenters' voices "for real". It's such a revelation for me. Indeed when I'm watching live football on TV I have the sound off and have the Radio 5 commentary accompanying the picture instead.

I do have a couple of niggles though. Firstly, the bass and treble controls. I do like the fact that I can adjust these features myself without having to use some preset system called "Rock", "Pop" or "Cinema", as was the case on my old system. However, what I don't like is the limited range which, starting at -2 goes no further than +2. Secondly, that some of the other adjustments such as time and preset numbers can only be made using the remote control. The operating manual does not help by sometimes forgetting to mention this which I only found out after a frustrating ten minutes.

As someone with scant knowledge of quality sound systems I could not give an accurate assessment as to how well this product stands up to it's rivals. However, as someone who likes having music or the radio on around the house while doing the household chores it serves my needs perfectly. I would hesitate to recommend the Sony CMT-GX9 to someone with exacting listening standards that likes to sit on their own in a room listening to their favourite music. For someone living in a noisy messy family home, though, this could be right up your street.