Jensen JBS-210 Silver Series review

What the maker puts in writing

• “Top Loading CD Player CD-R/RW Compatible, Auxiliary Input Jack on Front for Connecting Your iPod or other Digital Audio Players”
• “Bluetooth 5.0: Supports A2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, GAP, Multi Function LCD Display with Dimmer Control Clock with Sleep Timer”
• “AM/FM Stereo Receiver with Digital Tuning Radio, Front Aux-In”
• “Stereo Speaker System Volume Control with Light Ring Headphone Jack Remote Control”
• “Power: AC 120V/60Hz Built-in Battery Compartment for Battery Back-up - 2 x ‘AAA’ (UM-4) Batteries (Not included) Remote Control: 1 x CR2025 Battery (Included)”
• Description: “a front tray loading CD player”

The loading mechanism is published two ways

Bullet 1: top loading. Description: front tray loading.

Those are different machines, and the difference decides where the unit can go.

A top-loader has a lid you lift, so it needs clear space above — it cannot sit on a shelf with another shelf close over it, or inside a cabinet. A front tray needs clear space in front, which is usually easier, and it can sit under anything.

Jensen’s own JBS-300 carries the same contradiction in reverse: bullet says “Vertical Loading”, description says “Front Loading”.

If your placement is tight, assume the more demanding of the two until you can see it.

AM radio, which only two systems here have

Of the radios on this shelf, only this and Jensen’s JBS-300 receive AM as well as FM; the rest are FM only, or add DAB+ or internet radio.

That matters more in the United States than elsewhere: AM still carries sport, talk and much local news, and a great deal of it is not duplicated on FM.

The tuning is digital rather than analog, so stations lock rather than drift — which on AM, where the band is crowded and signals wander, is the difference between usable and not.

And the Bluetooth profiles are published, which nobody else does

Supports A2DP, AVRCP, GAVDP, GAP.

A2DP carries the music from phone to speaker. Every Bluetooth speaker has it.

AVRCP works the other way: press play, pause or skip on the system and the phone obeys. Without it you pick the phone up for every track change — and plenty of cheap Bluetooth speakers omit it.

GAVDP and GAP are the frameworks underneath.

Elsewhere on this shelf: Pyle publishes version 5.3 and a 40 ft range, Emerson publishes 5.0, Philips publishes ranges (33 ft (10 m) and 30 ft) without versions, and four products publish nothing at all.

The battery compartment is for the clock

Built-in Battery Compartment for Battery Back-up — 2 × AAA (Not included).

Backup, not power. The cells keep the clock running and the radio presets stored when the power goes off or the plug is moved. It will not play on batteries.

Which is worth having: a system with a clock and twenty presets is annoying to reset, and on a kitchen counter the plug gets pulled.

Note the asymmetry in that one bullet: the remote’s CR2025 is included, the backup AAAs are not. Buy two with it.

What seventy dollars does not tell you

No power output at all. On this shelf: Pyle 60 W RMS, Aiwa 30 W RMS, Panasonic 20 W RMS (10+10), both Philips micro systems “18 W max”, Philips TAM8905 “100W” unqualified, Jensen JBS-300 “10 Watts” unqualified — and this, nothing.

No speaker sizes. Four products here publish them: Philips TAM8905 5.25 in woofers, Panasonic 10 cm woofer and 6 cm tweeter, Pyle 4 in with 0.75 in silk domes, Philips 1275 3 in woofers.

No frequency response, no distortion, no USB port. Note that this is one of three systems here with no USB at all — the others being the Emerson and the Aiwa, both of which compensate elsewhere.

2,631 g and 180 × 165 × 66 mm are published, and the dimensions are evidently for the main unit alone given the three-piece design.