Nice Little System

I have just spent a few hours tinkering with this and I must say that overall I am pretty impressed. At first I couldn't pick up any DAB stations but once I re scan I got a few but not as many as I should. This was rectified by switching off the automatic power to the CD - this doesnt' have any adverse affects it just takes a few seconds longer for the CD player to read the discs. I must add though that I live in an area where it is very difficult to get good reception anyway and if the weather is bad I sometimes can't get any without hiss or get any tv stations without interference. I went for a DAB radio because I couldn't pick up Radio 3 and 4 properly. With this system I get perfect reception and couldn't be happier. I can now get all the stations I should. I need to move the aerial a bit to listen to a few of the commercial stations but as I never listen to them anyway I don't mind. The sound is much crisper and richer than my old system. The cd player is great, I particularly like the fact that you can change a cd whilst still listening to one of the other discs. A slightly longer aerial would have been appreciated, or a way of putting in a digital aerial. Overall for the money I am really pleased; it does exactly what I wanted - which was to be able to listen to more than one CD (this one has a 3 CD multi changer)and to be able to pick up Radio 3 crisply. I would give this 4.5 stars but as there isn't that option 4 will have to do. A better aerial would have given it 5 stars though.

Great sound, poor quality

This is a nifty little unit. Aesthetics wise perhaps not to everyone's taste, but the Philips is packed with features. Great bass reproduction and treble is reasonably smooth although not particularly detailed. USB and ipod compatibility an added bonus.....Now for the bad news!

If you intend to listen to music from a memory stick it may get frustrating. The Philips struggles to read the memory sticks I own even though other hifi systems have no problem playing the files (tried this in the shops). Secondly the speakers are a tad on the cheap and nasty side although admittedly they do sound OK. Lastly, and this is probably the biggest drawback, the black labels on the buttons fade and eventually disappear! After just an hour of using the up/down tuning buttons, to tune in all the radio stations, the one button label had rubbed off completely!

I've owned Philips units for years now and have always been impressed with the sound and build quality, however I think Philips have cut corners with the MCM398D. It's a shame as I was enjoying the system until the labels starting disappearing! Now I have to return it and look for something else. Buy the way there is no tape deck in case you were wondering.

Brilliant value for money

Delighted with this. Everything worked first time, the remote is a bonus, the sound quality is good and it has played everything I asked it to perfectly.

One more reason for the US to envy the UK

My brother-in-law visited for Christmas from New York. He was moving into a new apartment, and was looking for a new micro system to listen to. Our DMX-60 therefore drew his attention immediately.

He liked the look of it, first off, with the monochrome display contrasting stylishly with the black and silver. He certainly appreciated the sound quality: those custom-wound speaker units do sound very good for such a small system. What *really* got his attention was the DAB radio. Micro CD systems are ten-a-penny so it's the DAB functions that will give this unit its distinctive appeal, if any. No worries: Pure Digital practically pioneered DAB radio in the UK and so, to maintain a commanding lead, they've been applying the innovative approach to tired old formulae like the micro system and, in so doing, breathing a new lease of life into them.

The result in this case is a very high-quality system that not only `does what it says on the tin', but adds a whole load of DAB wizardry as well, such as recording up to 30 hours of crystal-clear, flawless radio onto a 2Gb SD card. My brother-in-law is a Paul Weller fan and was rather impressed with my recording of the great man's Desert Island Disks appearance, which I then burned onto a CD from my computer. You can go the other way too: burn an MP3 CD and the unit's CD player will play it. Whatever it's playing, the CD player sounds as sharp and clear as the radio. The bass is also deep and rich and one can even attach a subwoofer.

The radio also handles terrestrial FM as well as DAB but given the limitations of the former medium there isn't a great deal of point in using it unless you're in a DAB blackspot. To help manage the bewildering range of channels, the DMX-60 comes with a hundred presets. It also supports the Electronic Program Guide, allowing you to schedule recordings when you're out. There are also several different alarms you can set. It also has two auxiliary inputs (iPod and DVD player, anyone?). All these functions are readily accessible using the unit's remote, that in itself is easy to use and comprehensive. The remote really comes into its own when listening to live radio as you can pause and review a broadcast in real time.

It's not perfect: the black on white LCD display isn't easy to see from an oblique angle, although the choice of these colours was probably motivated by aesthetic rather than functional considerations. Other Pure radios tend to have a much clearer white on dark blue display and it would have been better fitted with this, if of less harmonious appearance. Our unit also sounds a little harsh when first turned on but soon settles down when warmed up properly.

Brother-in-law liked it so much he wanted to buy one, but I pointed out that not only is it not available Stateside, the Americans haven't yet cottoned-on to how good DAB Radio actually is to the extent that they actually broadcast in the medium. A pity, as there's potentially a lot more to radio than non-stop pop music, phone-ins and right-wing shock-jocks. Until then, I'm grateful for the fact that Radio GaGa hasn't discovered DAB yet as, thanks to Pure, it is now my favourite broadcast medium (and that includes the television). Our gain is America's loss, by the sound of it.

Philips DVDR3510 - DVD Recorder & VCR Combi

This DVD/VCR combi recorder has got to be the easiest machine ever to use to convert those precious videos to DVD. Very simplistic instructions, easy to set up and one touch button recording. I have converted all my videos to DVD using the slow play option from the drop down menu, just over 6 hours of recording on each DVD+RW disc. It allows recording to DVD+-RW, DVD+-R, DVD+R DL and VHS. It has the facility to edit each recording that you make i.e. name the film title or name of occasion recorded (birthday etc) . It also comes with video plus and has all the support for recording from digital video camcorders. It is compatible with CD, CD-R/-RW, MP3-CD, MP3-DVD, WMA. The only drawback is the audio playback from older videos can often be poor and it weighs 5.2 kg. Altogether an excellent machine for those who have little knowledge about digital machines and all for just under £175.00 delivery free.

Rich sound, feels cheap.

A mixed review for the Sony CMT-EH20DAB - Micro HiFi. It looks good and sounds good (ears will bleed before it distorts in a small room) but feels very flimsy. CD lid and remote use the sort of plastic you'd expect to find on the dashboard of Micra. Also annoying that the speaker connections don't match old Sony speakers so had to change them. But then again, £81.60.

Quality radio, pity about a couple of irritants.

I bought a Philips AE5900 because of the reviews here. In spite of some negative comments, everyone was very pleased with the sound and design. After living with it for a few weeks, I emailed Philips to express my dismay that, when I switch to standby (it's in the bedroom), I can't activate the dimmer (more like blackout!), so I have to leave the radio switched on, activate the dimmer, turn the volume down to 00, and basically leave the radio powered on all night. This solution works okay, but it's a pity that it's necessary. Also, I can't get the snooze function to work and I asked Philips for advice, and asked what the snooze button on top of the unit is for because there is no mention of it in the manual instructions. They replied, but gave no answer to either problem. They just said my radio had a fault and I should return it to the supplier. Since the problems don't affect the quality of the output and I can live with them, I shall keep the radio, mainly because from the various reviews here I can't see a replacement of the same model would be any different.

Good and easy to use

I received the Wireless Music Center as a Xmas Present and I am very impressed with it. Setup is easy, wireless does require you to know a few details of your router but as I work in IT it was a breeze, for those that do not you need to make sure you have no firewall blocking connection, check ports and allow details in manual, no mac filtering, wpa code required. But to be honest you should know about these things if you run a router anyway as how do you know how secure your network is without checking settings anyway?? My media PC found the device automatically and I was able to stream music from my PC upstairs to the music center which was cool, I have yet to experience any dropped connections. What is good about this wireless center is being able to store mp3's to the hard drive, for example I can copy my music from my PC straight to the hard drive. Also being able to convert CD's to MP3 format and store on the hard drive is excellent. No more trying to hunt the CD before able to play!! USB port is good as well as you can then plug in a USB pen drive and play or copy to the hard drive. If you have a IPOD you will be in heaven as you get a docking station. There are a couple of downsides though, or features I think should of been included or could be better:-
The display on the unit is quite small and unless you are up close you cannot read what the title is playing, or how long to go. Only 1 CD tray is disappointing 2 or 3 would really be cool as you could rip more into MP3's as well at the same time. Digial Radio would of been nice, and the ability to have internet streaming radio stations even better. Plus the software you install on your PC to drop and drag onto the Hi-fi will only allow you to do so if you have a wired connection, which means in my case dragging a network cable from upstairs to downstairs or moving the router. I cannot see a way where you can save streamed music from the PC over wireless to the unit. I would still recommend that you buy it though !!

low quality product

the speakers have a very poor sound, the record arm is not automatic, for a product that supposed to be so advanced it was all round very disappointing.

A good 'shelf top' compact Hi-Fi

I purchased this unit to replace a similar (broken) but where one of the main criteria was that it would fit the limited space I have on a shelf. As a compact unit the sound quality is very good and I have this in use in a conservatory, not noted for good acoustics. However I am not a not a Hi Fi expert, but I do appreciate a good quality of sound reproduction. I do not have a MP3 or i-Pod so I have been unable to test this feature.
The only feature which did not meet my expectations is the radio presets, this is fiddly to set up, and the lack of 'numerals' on the remote keypad means that you have to scroll through all of the presets to find the one required, but then you can make your favourite channels within the first allocations. Also the cassette 'play' button on my unit is a little stiff to operate and requires a bit more force than I would have expected from a reputable company.
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UPnP Music player

Techie bit!:
I bought this as a replacement for the MP101 to connect to my Linksys NSLU2UK Storage Link for USB 2.0 Disk Drives running Mediatomb UPnP server. I considered buying the WACS7000 to get the integrated rip functionality but Phillips seem to have a 'no upgrades to the software' policy meaning once you find a glitch you're stuck with it.

Pros:
1) Access to any track in my music collection at a touch of the buttons on the remote control.
2) Random play through my whole music collection.
3) Sound quality is good. Not up to the standards of my Denon micro system but not bad for the size/price.
4) Reasonable wireless connection in most rooms of my house.

Cons:
1) Font on the screen is hard to see from even a metre away so the remote control is slightly redundant except for the volume control.
2) Still slow to get through the menus, not as slow as the MP101 but...
3) Artist and album search is case sensitive so you have to enter The to get to all the artists with The at the start of their name.
4) Music only available in one room at a time, but I could always buy another WAS7000.

I've not investigated playlists to limit the scope of music played at any time. I think this might be highly dependent on which UPnP software you use.

Overall, if you want to access and play your music from any room this set up is pretty good but there are better options for sound quality and screen size but then you have to pay for it.

A great piece of Sony kit, once you get over a few snags!

I'm a Sony boy, so when I decided that I wanted a HDD music system, this was the obvious choice. I was looking for a decent HDD capacity, obviously a good sound, a DAB radio and a system that looks well in the living room.

This piece of kit delivers on all four of those, so it does the job, but its not all plain sailing. I've not explored the full features of this system yet so this is not a full review, but there's certainly a few things I think people need to consider before purchasing one.

Firstly, its quite expensive for what it is, although the price on Amazon at the time of writing this is £30 less than I paid and much more reasonable. You can get a hell of a lot of system for nigh on £300 these days, so its a major consideration. I went for the NAS-EH35HD mainly because of the Hard Drive as I buy my music online these days and wanted a system that could handle the music without burning CDs. If you don't need a HDD, it goes without saying, you can get much more for your money elsewhere.

I love the way I can plug in my Sony MP3 player via the USB connection (there's one front and back) and play tracks directly from the player through the system, all controlled by the remote. Very nifty. I believe this will also be the case for Ipod. You get an Ipod cradle and its built to work with one seamlessly.

The sound is fantastic, as I expected.

The main gripe I have with the system is the importing of music. If like me you store most of your music on your PC these days, you'd have thought putting music onto the NAS-EH35HD would be a simple case of connecting your PC to the system and copying the files. Nope. What you have to do, is first dump the music to be copied onto an MP3 player and then connect that to the system. You then essentially record the music to the HDD, although its faster than real time record. Its takes about 3 hours to copy 3.5 gigs worth of tunes. Although this isn't a showstopper, its annoying, especially when your MP3 player has a 4gb memory and you need to copy 20gig of music!

The second (and last) issue I had was the way it actually stored the MP3s. I guess MP3 players must have some software which keeps albums together and ensures that album tracks are stored and played in the order intended by the artist, but I don't think the system recogised whatever filing method used by the PC. So the album tracks were stored alphabetically rather than track number, and also tracks from compilation albums are stored as single tracks (as the artist is always different). There are ways to overcome this however (I simply numbered the tracks of albums, and changed the artists on compilations to"various", but novices might have a few teething probs).

Finally, if you're looking to connect your TV to your system, I dont think this one is for you. Sony's next level up"Gigajuke" has HDMI connectivity so go for that one.

Overall, once the tracks are copied, and in the right way, this is a belting piece of kit and will be even better when the price comes down.

Does what it said it would do very well.

Well defined clear nice sound. Plenty loud enough to fill a large kitchen/dinning room with music. Found plenty of DAB stations without any hitches. Very smart looking.
Would have given it 5 stars if:
- It had an adapter for Nano 3rd Gen. It is not a big deal as, can probably use the adapter that came with the nano from apple.
- The remote control did not need to be so precisely pointed towards the unit to work.
- The speaker cables and aerial were twice as long.

Good with minor problems

This does not have an electronic programme guide but does have videoplus. Picture quality off the hard disc or DVD is very good. It plays DIVX movies very well. The remote has some small buttons but responds well. Recordings off the timer are fine but it takes a while to boot up.
The disply when watching live TV has a mind of its own, sometimes displays channel name, somtimes date or programme name. In other modes it works as you expect. Mine froze twice,the red record light staying on after a timer recording, unplugging fixed it.
I've not tried tranfer to DVD but it plays recordings on DVDR & DVDRW well. Overall I'm well satisfied

Excellent value for the money

I bought this set just after the New Year. The two main reasons: sound quality and fantastic look. The positive reviews by others on the internet are not exaggerated in any way. Very happy with this purchase.