I purchased this for my 8 year old for his audio books. The CD works very well, he uses it with more confortable earphones since the ones that come with it are real basic. He also listens to radio stations in Houston, Texas and catches them well. Not sure how the reception would be in another state. I think it’s worth the money given there isn’t a lot of selection In the portable CD player market and this one seems reliable. The only drawback is that he uses a lot of batteries since he uses it a lot.