What is "west coast sound"

It used to mean: Jefferson Airplane; Doors; Greatful Dead; Quicksilver Messenger service.
Don't know what it means these days.
The Geezer

Is that anything like the West Coast Offense in football?!

Maybe it means the CDP can play short pieces of music like you can't believe. But longer pieces are a bit too much for it.

(Seriously, I have never heard it either, and I live on the west coast. Well, at least the west coast of the USA. Maybe they mean the west coast of England or France?!)

j.b.lansing(lots of mid-bass. not flat(but not ness bad

Taking Kurt_tank's analogy a little further... maybe the "West Coast" sound is more finessed, quicker and leaner (brighter, detailed?). As opposed to heavier, powerful, etc. (warmer, laid back?)

Funny, it's also the first time I've heard of this term.

I've heard the expression with jazz, not with CD players.

I think it means that even though it is load of crap, the more liberal you are the better it will sound.

West coast sound has meant relatively bright with a midrange emphasis. It was coined back in the sixties. We had the West coast sound as in JBL Century 100's and Advents with the better bass but recessed highs and more bloom. The east coast sound (or New England)sound was usually meant for AR's, old KLH's, Advents, Boston Acoustics, etc.
Now Vandersteen's sound kind of like east coast and Joseph Audio and some of the like would be west coast.
I assume the reviewer thought the CD player was lively with some emphasis in the mids to upper frequencies vs something like an old Rega Planet.

Bigtee got it right. Jrd351, too. The market was dominated by JBL (made on the West Coast) and AR (made in New England). Regional stereotypes (sorry) were reinforced by the conservative (flat, but a little compressed) sound of AR versus the more colorful (with ear-pleasing emphasis of highs and lows, and more dynamic) sound of JBLs, a la the respective social styles and mores.

I believe, in Jazz, it was used to describe the performance style of artists like Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, Gerry Mulligan (early), and others, offering an “easier-feeling”, less-driven performance style. "Cool." (Not to be mistaken with the "Cool" of, let's say, Miles Davis.)

Speaker Type, West Coast: Bass Reflex; East Coast: Acoustic Suspension.

Dweller rightly describes the San Francisco sound. More in general though, West coast - loose and relaxed. East Coast - uptight and controlled.

In music, West Coast is the sound Fleetwood Mac makes when it hires Stevie Nicks. Singer Nicolette Larsen is another good example.

The let's-all-get-along West Coast sound features a jingle-jangle (The Byrds) that the bitter East Coast sound (Lou Reed, Bruce Springsteen) lacks. Put another way, in West Coast the guitar chords sound on both the up and down strokes instead of chopped out with all down strokes.

AR was not only New England, but Boston, and they operated a demo studio (not a sales room) in Harvard square. Formal atire, optional.

Isn't HiFi Choice a Brit mag? Maybe the reviewer meant Wales or even Ireland.

Also, when I think of West Coast (jazz), I think of Chet Baker.