Hitachi AX68

Author's product rating:   

How is the Sound Quality?	Excellent
How is the Look & Design?	Excellent
Range of Features	Above Average
Durability	Good
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	DAB Digital radio in a Hi - FI and it looks amazingly good .  Compact
Disadvantages:	Speker leads are not that long, fiddily operating

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This powerful hi fi is one of the smallest ones I've ever seen, but it's sound quality is awesome. The Hi-fi comes as three seperates, one as the amplifier, one for DAB digital radio and one for CD with two speakers.

The design of the hi-fi is sleek and modern, with a mirrored front to the main system, and blue LCD display screens for the radio and CD. The top 'hatch' for the CD's is in light blue plastic and chrome, and features a blue light. What the point of this light is, i don't know, but it looks very cool. The speakers are in beech and are of the same height of the main system, and feature a grey 'sponge' on the front, sporting the Hitachi logo. The overall look of the hi-fi is very good, and goes well in a modern room, or a room with beech furnishings.

The sound quality on this machine is second only to some incredibly expensive Sony models, so for your money, the quality is great. It has 5 equalizer settings, Flat (normal), jazz, pops (vocal sound is intensified), rock and classic. There is also a bass boost and a fantastic 'loudness' feature. The manual says that it increases bass at a lower volume, but it intensifies the bass and whole volume, so volume 4 on flat is almost half that of volume 4 on loudness. The bass on this macine is amazing, and reverbarates throughout the house.

Operating the system is relitivley simple, but tuning the DAB radio can be a little tricky at first, as you have to scan through channels using the select buttons, and press manu to select one (seems as though it should be the other way round). Using traditional FM radio is the same, but you dont press manu, you only scan thorough frequencys. The quickest way is so save stations to the mamory by pressing and holding a number on the remote. Playing a CD is very simple. The lid opens and shuts with the touch of a button, and all the controls are clearly marked on the remote and the machine itself. The tricky part is programming in a sequence of tracks. You have to use the remote for this, and there are 1-9 buttons, a 0/10 button (for tracks 10, 20 etc) and a +10 button. You press this once for the 10s and twice for 20s etc. This is very confusing to begin with, but once you gat the hang of this it's easy.

The price when i bought it was £150 (half price apparently) and it still is at that price.

Some of the extra features on this micro hi-fi are it's remote control and headphone socket, and two AUX sockets and the DAB digital radio, which is my favourite feature.

A problem i encountered whilst putting together the system was the ariel. If you screw it in so it is touching the back of the hi-fi, the conecting pin between the ariel and the hi fi breaks and shears. It's an easy mistake to make, so be careful so you won't have to go back to she shop to get a new one.