Review Yamaha MCR-B142

I recently bought the Yamaha MCR-B142 desktop all in one CD player which allows digital music playback from iOS devices including the ones with lightening conductor (the iphone5s and iPad 4th generation). If you are looking for standard features and all this is not the place to look for. Google.

What could be a good buy - check out Sonos - they might be a good buy for $399 too.

So coming straight to the point about what sounds bad on this.

If you like a lot of Hans Zimmer kind of music - Time from Inception sounds so bad that you will regret buying this. However I must add here that I will be surpized if you were expecting zimmer to sound good for $300. Inception and most of Hans Zimmer's music is best enjoyed on headphone and I prefer my Bowers and Wilkins P5 to deliver.

What sounds good - all the new optimized for new recordings and flac sound richer as expected. I have tested with Ernst Reijseger - Cave of Forgotten Dream. Sounds fresh.

What surprised me - Build quality and wood in the speakers. Lot of bass this small unit produces and fill a room nicely. I love the fact that the model allows for the speaker to be separated and hence you can enjoy the spatial arrangement where left and right channels are separated. I hate the design where it is all part of one box - I guess the Left and Right channels have to be at a distance for the music to rightly converge. 

Who should buy -  looking for a music system to fill in small space or living room. Good for bluetooth internet radio (I prefer 8 tracks) or BBC. My wife plays music via Bluetooth and it sounds OK. If you are looking something for your kitchen / verandah or bedroom this is for you. 

Turn the knob to 40/50 and at about 80% amplifier works beautifully. I am waiting to see if the break in will improve the performance. I have done about 25-30 hours and I am waiting to see how it appears after 50/100 hours.

By the way the new music will sound pretty neat - am usually concerned about my lossless oldies more than anything else. Why? Why do you ask am surprised to know that. If you know about lossless and flac or vinyls, have you lately noticed how good the new music sounds on the small commercial players and how lousy the old fabulous recordings from 70s sometimes hear especially when there is no difference in your music quality. 

I wondered why for months after buying my first Bowers and Wilkins P5 headphones. I guess mass production of music to be consumed on small USB speakers and boom boxes, to be played on cheap headphones and to be readily downloadable or streamable from Cloud is causing the music to die. I am not sure if I am the only one but I still prefer my music to be rich. I hate Convergence for this reason and this rampant commercialisation. Call me a cynic but so am I.

Music Recommendation: Ernst Reijseger

Artist Recommendation: Ernst Reijseger.
Check out the soundtrack of the movie - Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Treat for your audiophile equipment

He is a magnificent cellist, and he can do anything, anything on his cello. He could play the civil war, the American Civil war on his cello." —WernerHerzog"

Reijseger's most well known solo album is Colla Voche, which he recorded in a room of a small villa which he was staying in on a trip to Sardinia, this would be the same trip that he would meet the Voches De Sardinia.

More about the him on wiki

Ernst Reijseger (born November 13, 1954, in Bussum) is a Dutch cellist and composer. He specializes in jazz, improvised music, and contemporary classical music and often gives solo concerts. He has worked with Louis Sclavis, Derek Bailey, Han Bennink, Misha Mengelberg, Gerry Hemingway, Yo-Yo Ma, Albert Mangelsdorff, Franco D'Andrea, Joëlle Léandre, Georg Gräwe, Trilok Gurtu, and Mola Sylla, and has done several world music projects working with musicians from Sardinia, Turkey, Iran, Senegal, and Argentina, as well as the Netherlands based group Boi Akih.

He has made numerous recordings, both as solo cellist and with other groups, and has been the subject of a documentary film. He has also written several film scores, including scores for a number of Werner Herzog films.

The Running and Cooling Catharsis - bliss

I am new to running. It's an important disclaimer to put because I think I have not even run 300kms till date and am still wearing the same running shoes. I started running because of my wife - she kept on telling me that running in the gym makes her feel strange kind of goodness and she kept on bringing it on until I gave up to try. The running was restricted to the treadmill in the gymnasium of our condominium in Malaysia.

We ran together for few weeks and then I kind of started falling in love with the act of running. Especially because I have never been one of those sports guys - never.

Then I moved to Bangalore as I keep on shuffling between Bangalore where I work and Kuala Lumpur where my wife lives. I have an active group in Bangalore a small group - where people have run marathons and actively do and are always looking for someone to run with. Thanks to Nani, Mithun I started running on the road - and boy it was different.  It was like running again.

And I started running whenever I could find a chance twice, thrice and sometimes even five times a week. My best till date is 30.05 minutes for a 5 KM but that is not what I want to share.

The focus on time and distance sometimes just blocks me and takes away the joy of running. So sometimes especially in KL I have not been tracking anything except for my distance which I check on the map. I run at my own sweet pace.

Yesterday something even more beautiful happened. I came back after my 5.8 KM run and the lights were out in the bedroom and I sat in front of the table fan. I had just finished my basic stretching and done a 5 min cool down. And then unknowingly I moved into the yoga sitting pose and closed my eyes. Sitting in the padmasana I didn't realize when I entered the state and just blanked out.

Awesome meditative state because I guess catharsis kicked in !

Try it out for yourself and if you like the experience - do share it with me.