It was necessary for me to buy this one to replace a two years old X-EM12 of which the CD drive had failed. The EM16 is nowhere near as good as the EM12. It takes far longer to 'boot up' and the display is much smaller, making it hard to read at a distance. The speakers are also smaller. It is no longer possible to program the required volume on the wake-up function and this has now to be set separately. I would not buy this model again but I was initially impressed with the EM12 until the CD drive failed.