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The design is very good, it is small, has good look , but the sound is very bad, the highs have a weird peak, and annoying when you listen music with a lot of acoustic guitar.
This system looks reasonably stylish, fits on a bookshelf easily,takes bluetooth input (and it says it will send its output toheadphones via bluetooth, although I haven't tried it), andoverall produces great quality sound. All the bookshelf stereos I have looked at were either toodeep to fit on a bookshelf, or hideously ugly. And I was toldby salesmen at Best Buy that there exists no stereo that wouldplay music from a PC via bluetooth.
This is a huge plus given how hideous most budget shelf systems look (we don't all live in dorm rooms).The bluetooth option was important to me, as I want to be able to stream music from my macbook to this stereo. speakers to this unit (chords that, of course, Sony doesn't sell).what a pain.The satellite radio input may be a nice touch. Tiny profile (smaller than I expected). Thanks to Sony's ridiculous proprietary 6.5mm speaker ports on the main unit, I haven't been able to test it with any of my other older speakers. I purchased this to sound and look nice in a living room where we entertain guests.
One call to them the next morning and they credited the $50 back to my account as soon as the box shipped. When I purchased the unit it rang up as $199. Eventually I will replace the speakers and spend $20-30 extra buying ready-made chords to connect (even SONY). About that, kudos to J&R Music and Computer World. But we were able to work around it with some additional softward (Softick's AudioGateway).The big drawback is the speakers. This is not a problem if you don't already have an XM tuner, but was a bit of a downer for me.Still, the bluetooth function and sleek design are fantastic for the price ($145 when I purchased). Apple cheaply did not support the standard streaming protocol until Leopard. This means we either need to buy a mini tuner and pay a separate fee for the privilege of using this input, or get rid of our other, nicer XM tuner, or just use the audio in jack as if their was no XM compatibility to begin with.
It certainly is nice looking. Unfortunately the XM input it is designed only for a "mini tuner" and we already have a standard tuner. They were fast, efficient and friendly about it. It works perfectly with Mac OSx Leopard, but not with my wife's older Mac running OSX 10.4.1. As usual with Sony budget products they are horrible and I have not really been able to test the true power of the system.
The volume knob is a knob, not a maddening set of flat plates blended into the side of the cabinetry. Using those through the remote control, it should be a good set for a home office. However for active listening it is no match for a true home audio system.I've yet to use the Bluetooth capability, so can't comment, but that -- and the XM/Sirius capability -- would seem to be the primary benefit of this system. Considering we're 20 years into the "CD revolution", it's amazing that the controls for these systems keep getting worse. Except that in a single CD player you'll be approaching the system to swap CDs, so those controls matter.Worse, the power and 'open' buttons are on the front and -- like all other controls -- are unlit and devilishly hard to find. And, unless you're on the verge of blindness, the display is readable from across an average-sized office.Perfect, yes.
The sound quality is quite good for one of these smaller systems, and it dissipates heat well so that the components inside should be relatively long-lived. With 50 watts per channel, generously large speakers and a well-laid out remote, this should have been one killer bookshelf system. And it's certainly not a bad one. This is redeemed (sort of) by a remote control that will make you want to swear off the unit controls.
And they are all the same shape, so touch won't guide you. As a bonus, they aren't lit or even luminescent. Wrong. (A Denon unit I had earlier felt like a frying pan on top after an hour of operation).If the XM/Sirius/Bluetooth features matter to you, and if you plan to use the remote control exclusively, the Sony CMT-HX7BT is worth a look.
For background music, it is adequate. For example, matching the controls (black plastic) to the enclosure (black plastic) and making them all identical ensures you'll always have a bit of a hunt for the right one. Sony has given us possibly the least efficient speaker system in its lineup, so it's hard to say what all of that amplification has actually bought us. For starters, it has a simple drawer-loading CD mechanism that works nicely and inspires more confidence than the Rube Goldberg-style folding-doors on some competitors' models.
Miss these buttons while groping and you'll add to the collection of fingermarks likely cover the impractically glossy front panel.Next, the power output ratings may have you thinking you should shake the plaster off the ceiling with this unit and a couple of rap CDs. The controls are on top of the unit, which keeps the front free of clutter, but unless you put the system on a fairly low shelf you might not be able to read the icons near the buttons. No. To add to the fun, the play and stop buttons are separated by 'Audio In' and 'Tuner' buttons, giving a sort of randomness to the design.
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