Goodmans GCE7350

Once my Goodmans GCE7350 was in place, I tuned in the radio stations. This was fairly standard and required no reading of the manual; tune and hold down a preset button to set. There are 3x6 FM memories, 6 AM-MW and a further 6 AM-LW memories. RDS is supported with auto-tuning, traffic announce, extended other network and RDS time signal. No complaints there, RDS support is superb. The name of the station is shown on the LED display. And yes, you read that right, this radio does receive longwave, so you can listen to the cricket and BBC Radio 4 while driving in northern Europe.

To load a CD, you press "open" on the front panel, the panel then gracefully slides open at an angle. CDs are then loaded into the slot behind the panel. There is also an eject button on the back of the panel, but I wouldn't have figured this out without reading the manual.

CD playback is excellent, no skips even on "Unsuitable For Motor Vehicles" roads (my car is a Daihatsu Terios compact 4x4). Repeat, shuffle, next and previous is supported, although I don't think there is a ff/rw to let you skip through a few seconds/minutes of a track.

Sound quality is very solid, good range. Being mounted in a 4x4 with the associated cabin noise means I can't vouch for hi-fi quality, but it is as good as or better than the Pioneer that I replaced. As well as bass/treble control there are a few factory-preset graphic equaliser filters, but they're frankly rubbish and serve only to cheapen the overall package.

MP3 support is good. You burn your MP3 files onto a CD-R/RW using the ISO9660 method (ie. you have to burn track-at-once, you can't use drag-and-drop tools like DirectCD). Up to 255 files per directory, up to 8 top-level directories, no sub-directories. It's MP3 only, so those of you daft enough to buy copy-restricted files such as WMA aren't catered for.

By default the display shows the first 30 characters of the filename, less the .mp3 extension. By clicking the "Display" button, it is, according to the manual, allegedly supposed to display the ID3 tag too, although so far I have been unable to get this to work. I'm not that bothered, mind- first 30 chars of filename is more than sufficient. Variable bit rates up from 32 to 320kbit/sec are supported. It also supports mono files, for the Goon Show addicts amongst us.

MP3s can either be played either disc at a time, one directory at a time, or entire disc shuffled. I generally pick to play an entire disc shuffled, giving me a random play jukebox with over 10 hours of music at 128kbit/sec+VBR. There is, as far as I can work out, no way to play one directory only shuffled, and navigating through hundreds of MP3s is particularly fiddly.

There is a 2-5 sec pause on switch-on for the player to read an MP3 disc. Also it doesn't always remember exactly how far through a partial track it had got through when you last switched it off, although it does always remember the track and approximate position to within half a minute.

The display consists of a 12-character LED plus a rather pointless level indicator, which looks like it should be a graphic equaliser, but isn't. I'd have preferred to drop the gimmicky EQ display and leave more room for the LEDs; with the sit-up-and-beg seating in my 4x4, the top row of LEDs is obscured by the display border. The unit can also display a digital clock, but only for a few seconds at a time, and only when in an RDS reception area (it takes the clock signal direct from RDS). The display has 3 brightness settings, but sadly does not auto-detect when you have put the headlights on. Neither does it support mobile phone suppression, but it does support electric automatic retractable antennas. The front panel is silver - again this lends a gimicky feel to what is otherwise a very respectable product for the price. The manual is also a little too spartan, even for me; in particular the MP3 support is poorly documented.

Finally, there is a remote control, a credit-card sized affair which does everything the front panel buttons do- possibly a bit better laid out. The unit supports 4 speakers at 20 watts RMS each so I guess the remote is for back seat DJs. Pfft! Why? Could have forgone this and dropped the price by a tenner, but I suppose the price can't get much cheaper.

All in all then, a bargain. Excellent radio, good CD & MP3 support, great sound. The brushed silver plastic look isn't my first choice and the interface is a little obscure, but the unit is rugged and performs well. And the nearest competition costs another 50 quid more. A no-brainer, really. Highly recommended.