Oct 28, 2013

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.





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