Excellent device

Lets just make thing clear that this is not primarily a radio alarm but a media streamer to connect to any Philps Streamium music center. Multi function devices very rarely perform all functions well. Connected to center in 5 minutes, updated firmware over the net wirelessly in another 2 mins. Streaming music perfectly and sound quality very good for the size of the device. Highly recommended as a media streamer if you have a Philips Streamium music center. Also it looks pretty neat.
Get them while you can as I think it is now discontinued.

Cute but some significant flaws

This is a neat enough system, with looks that aren't too obstrusive for a bedroom and perfectly passable sound quality. However there are a couple of problems which may be significant depending how and where you plan to use it. First, the unit has a small and quite noisy cooling fan fitted (quite why is anyone's guess, as the whole thing consumes less than 30w of power) which runs constantly. It is not audible when playing music at a reasonable volume, but it is if you are listening to a radio station at low volume at night. You wouldn't want to put this system next to your bed. Second, the DAB tuner may not receive a number of UK stations out of the box: mine had to go straight back to have a new circuit board fitted so it could receive the full range of available stations, including some key BBC ones. JVC list this fix on their website, but at the time I bought mine (2007) they had clearly not applied it to existing stock. All in all, not a very well thought-though product, and rather disappointing from a big brand like JVC.

This baby rocks.

Having had this micro system a month now, it still rocks my boat.Sound quality is perfect,even at high volumes it does not sound boomy.This baby rocks, i have hooked all my mp3 players to it with ease.Even hook my laptop to it to listen to my tunes, and the sound from my dvds are far better than the laptop tinny sound.Ripping is a breeze to use.It is awesome system for the price,it is in piano black and matches all my gadgets cool.LOVE IT.

neat with i-podability

I use it to supply 2.1 to my lcd 32 inch TV since it also runs a sub woofer. The DAB radio is fine and the input for the TV sound plays well. the CD player is on the money as well. But its main advantage is its i-pod pod which happily charges up the nano pod while playing through the system. If it could play DVDs and upscale them it would get the five stars.

Where hi-fi really starts - staggering value for money.

If you just want thundering bass then look elsewhere but if you want a cheap system that has no major faults for the price and is articulate, fast and subtle in its musical presentation then this system is a fantastic bargain. See below for more details.


Looks and Build quality

The CRX-M170 is about the size of a breeze block and is pleasingly heavy for a budget unit, indicating that some good components lie within. I purchased the black version and to my eyes it looks a bit drab but don't let this put you off. The build quality is very good and I have seen much more expensive hi-fi that doesn't have the Yamaha's feel of quality. The remote is also well made.

I purchased the NX-E300 speakers that are bookshelf sized and have a very pleasing piano black finish that once again smacks of good build quality.

Tuner

The tuner offers FM/AM and DAB and is supplied with two indoor aerials. My Creative DAB500 radio has problems picking up some stations but the Yamaha had no such problems and reception was good. This is also true of FM, although there is some hash noise, which is unobtrusive at low listening levels but the noise can be almost eliminated by listening in mono.

CD Transport

The opening draw CD transport seems pretty sturdy and is smooth in operation.

Other Inputs

Two auxiliary inputs allow you to listen to MP3 players or other music sources however I would like to have seen a separate and dedicated MP3 player input on the front panel. There is also a headphone socket.

Sub-Woofer

There is provision to add a sub-woofer and although I didn't have one handy the overall sound quality indicates that adding one is a worthwhile exercise.

Sound Quality

Even straight out of the box the Yamaha and speakers had a pleasing sound although somewhat base shy and a little 'tizzy'. But it was immediately obvious that Yamaha had done what all hi-fi and real music enthusiast yearn for and that is to get the mid-range right as this leads to a detailed, expansive and rhythmical sound; all this was evident from the start.

After about 15 hours the sound improved sufficiently to warrant a closer listen and I couldn't have been much more impressed. My reference CD based system is worth about £25,000 so I know a good sound when I hear it and for the price this was bordering on being a revelation.

Firstly the Tuner in both DAB and FM mode gave a very good performance. The main thing to say is that there is nothing bad to say about the presentation. There was no plodding bass or harshness and voices sounded pretty good without that chesty reverberation that some cheap radios and tuners can give. All in all it was very easy listening and you just end up listening without anything drawing your attention away from the sound. I would rate the tuner's performance significantly above my dedicated Creative Dab500 (£80) and Tivoli audio One FM radio (£100), which is pretty impressive. It is also vastly superior to the Creative Soundworks 745 (£188) system, which I had the dubious pleasure of trying for a few days - before it broke.

The CD for me was the real star with a great performance for the price. I decided to indulge in a Pink Floyd session as their albums always have great bass lines, powerful drumming and sparkling percussion with full range vocals and a dash of other instrumentation such as saxophone. The Yamaha seemed completely unflustered with anything I threw at it and it gave a really enjoyable rendition of Dark-side and The Wall. Percussion was a little restrained in the mix but all instruments actually sounded like real instruments and not some synthetic representation. The bass was limited but what is there has good definition and pace resulting in lots of foot tapping.

I tried the Yamaha at high listening levels (volume level 60 plus) that would easily fill an average sized room with reasonable to high sound levels and the Yamaha was still unflustered with no seeming degradation in the sound - a definite 'air guitar' system. Another good sign was that once I had turned the wick up I got used to the sound level very quickly because the sound quality had remained stable and no harshness or distortion had crept in.

I tried a couple of classical albums and once again the Yamaha came up trumps. Classical music depends upon creating an impression of space in which the orchestra plays and I have to say that for the price the Yamaha gave an impressive open sound that had no harshness in the instrumentation and good detail and separation.


Other Inputs

MP3 replay was a bit of a disappointment but much of this may be due to the Yamaha being so good that it shows up the limitations of MP3 format. Consequently compared to the Tuner and CD MP3 (at 360 Kbits/s) sounded lack lustre but not unpleasant. The MP3 replay may also be limited by mismatches between the auxiliary input characteristics and those of the MP3 player's output.

The bottom line

I could go on but I won't suffice to say the Yamaha and NX-E300 speakers play all music with power, passion and finesse and fights way above its weight

This is a great package for well under £300 and I suggest that if you are on a budget then buy the NX-300 speakers as part of the package as they are a fantastic match. However I wouldn't be surprised if this little box wouldn't benefit even further from quality speakers costing £200 to £300. I didn't happen to have a suitable Sub-woofer but again I think that there would be benefits in using a hi-fi quality sub-woofer in the region of £100 plus. I would say that a cheap and cheerful sub-woofer may be shown up by the Yamaha's abilities so experimentation is warranted.

A staggering system and if I could give this little gem 6 stars then I would - Buy one