 Micro Component with a Pedigree |
| Review Date: July 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Scott Davis, Stoneham, MA USA |
Lovely piece of gear. Superior for a secondary system in the study, dorm, etc.. The milled aluminum front and rich feel of the volume control makes it feel more like a fine audio system component than an all-in-one cheapie.
Audio quality is excellent. You can go to full volume with very little distortion. Check the specs on the comparable Onkyo and you'll see why the extra money. FM is competent, but CDs are stronger. Ipod dock not tested. Couple this with Polk Atrium 45s as I did and you have a great patio system for $300. Or, a bookshelf system with Axiom M3s for $500 would give you better sound than any one-piece ipod dock--Axiom M2s or Polk TSi100s if your budget requires. Note that speakers must be 6 ohm or better. Some, like one of the small klipsh speakers is 4 ohm, so check first. Trust speaker-only companies to make better speakers. Leave the electronics people to make the electronics and you come out ahead. The front controls are minimal. You really run this by the supplied remote.
Drawbacks: yes it is deep. The small facia disguises its size. It has TIM in the slightly pronounced high treble that reminds you it is a transistor device, and Japanese at that, but no one outside of a live acoustic musician like me is ever going to notice. It doesn't have HD FM or the ability to read high def DVD-Audio, SACD or even just HDCD, unfortunately. But, all that would add to cost and complexity. The sub-woofer out is a nice touch if you want to upgrade. The design goal of this unit was good sound and basic features, and for that it succeeds.
In short, a micro component that won't make an audiophile cringe, when carefully combined with the right bookshelf speakers.
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Simply Put...
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| Review Date: August 13, 2010 |
| Reviewer: A. Amato, Sonoma County, USA |
Simply put this micro receiver is well engineered, easy to use and sounds amazing.
The build quality is "all Yamaha" and the ergonomics, from the front panel to the provided remote control, are well thought out and cleanly organized. It's modern enough that you can play MP3 constructed (burned) CD's & memory sticks or simply pop in your iPod and hit play. Responsiveness is way above average for this type of small system and I rate it at the top of the heap, having demo'd a vast array of other "all-in-one" systems and micro separates.
I recommend not buying the complete system with speakers (for a number of reasons) but rather purchasing this stand-alone unit and buyinng speakers separately based upon your needs and size (shelf space?) constraints. The yamaha speakers that come in the complete package are rather long and ackward to work with and they just don't sound all that good compared to other well ported bookshelf speakers. Boston Acoustics bookshelf speakers are very efficient and coupled with this receiver head, produce sound fidelity that surpasses even the best Bose setups. The CS 23's and 26's from Boston are well matched for this receiver and I highly recommend that you check those out first. You won't be disappointed.
Some might ding this receiver for not having an AM tuner, but quitely frankly, I relegate that duty to my alarm clock/radio. The FM reception is above average on this unit and I am able to lock into stations other units couldn't even find. There's plenty of memory presets for our needs as well.
Functions like a sleep timer, display dimmer, non-bubble button remote control, treble and bass controls make this a stand out product in it's price point. And contrary to another review, this unit can operate a connected iPod in what's called simple mode or verbose. In simple mode you need to view the iPod display to navigate your library of music or playlists, in verbose, you can view the iPod directories (menu structure) via the front panel display - all controlled from the comfort of the included and fully capable remote control. This was smart thinking in my book.
Units I've tried prior to buying this beast:
Polks I-Sonic ES2
Various Denon micros; all overly prices and complicated (which means: over engineered) yet buggy
Denon S-42
Denon S-52
Acoustic Research iPod capable clock radio with the OLED display
iHome iP1 Studio Series
Bose Sound Dock (non-portable)
Bose Wave System II
One other important point worth noting, this unit doesn't employ any fancy (or funky) DSP technology to "try" and improve the sound, because quite frankly, paired with the right speakers this unit doesn't need it in order to get the job done. Bottom line, it achieves better than decent audio reproduction as designed.
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Convenient but limited
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| Review Date: April 26, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Sanjiv Gupta, |
| This unit is compact, though deep, so make sure you have the shelf space for it. The ipod dock and USB ports on top make it technologically up to date. However, it has no additional RCA inputs on the back, so you can't hook up any other source (e.g. a non-ipod MP3 player or your computer) to it. As long as you want to play CDs, listen to the radio or your ipod, it's fine. Remote control allows limited ipod navigation. Sound quality good, will fill a small to medium-sized room with clean sound at moderately loud but not head-banging levels. You can adjust bass and treble, and it has a subwoofer output that I didn't try. UPDATE: The USB port may allow you to plug in some non-Ipod MP3 players. I don't have one so I haven't tried this, and the instruction manual is not explicit about this. |
Great features, compact, acceptable sound
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| Review Date: September 6, 2009 |
| Reviewer: D. Kass, New York, NY USA |
Great product that does exactly what it claims to do; interact well with IPods, deliver sound from a compact easy to use unit. Its bare minimum approach is just what I wanted, but I would understand why someone may want some improvement: an extra 10 watts per channel would be nice for larger spaces. A brighter display for viewing menus from a distance. Coming with its own black colored universal IPod mounts to match the color of the unit. But these are minor in comparison to the things about it that are great; it occupies a unique niche in the mini-receiver market -- namely, a unit that is designed to work with speakers of your choice located where you choose, one that fully interacts with the IPod, and that is low low cost.
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Ok for what I wanted.....
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| Review Date: April 4, 2010 |
| Reviewer: C. Betzhold, USA |
I bought this to use in my bedroom. I like to listen to Podcasts and CD's and my old "Boom Box" had gotten a bit long in the tooth. I purchased a pair of Boston Acoustic CS26 speakers to go with this and they sound GREAT ($66.00 apiece NOT through Amazon, shop around). The amp does what it is advertised to do but my 4 star review is due to the very poor menu driven controls. They are pretty tedious. A couple of extra knobs would have been nice to control balance and tone.
None the less, the system sounds great and it fulfills my needs. |
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