Yamaha CDX 493

Advantages: Plays CD-Rs and CD-RWs. Remote control
Disadvantages: As Henry Ford said - any colour you like as long as it's black.

...THIS IS A COMPLETE REWRITE OF SOMETHING, WHICH WITH HINDSIGHT, WOULD HAVE GOT ME LABELLED A CHURNER OF "120-WORD WONDERS" IF I'D KNOWN WHAT ONE WAS AT THE TIME! I bought the Yamaha CDX-496 as a replacement for my trusty Technics machine, which was about 10 years old, and bristling with features. My main reason for upgrading was the fact that the Technics was starting to get choosy as to which make of CD-Recordable disk it was going to play. Older CD players were built before recordable CDs were even thought of, and since a CD-R does not comply fully with the original specification for an audio CD, play-back could not be guaranteed, until recently that is..... Having a CD-Writer in my PC means that I make a considerable number of compilation albums, and having to choose a particular make of CD-R was limiting me to the expensive... Read review

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Advantages: Great Design, Easy to use, good sound quality
Disadvantages: usb socket flap looks a bit flimbsy

...Good All-round head unit, Quick Install and Good Sound Quality My Lust for all things Sony continued when I had to replace my old Sony CDX-MP40 head unit. The old unit was exceptional and had lasted me 4-5 years so my expectations were high and so far I haven't beed dissappointed but I guess only another 5 years will show whether sonys have improved. But what I can say is as follows: Sound Quality - very good, stereo output is very crisp and the choice of equaliser options is better. Bass sounds better too and doesn't distort even at louder volumes. I found the chemical brothers best hits were a good test for this. Features are excellent and include MP3, CD, Radio, USB and Aux input for your ipod, flash drive or a good tip is to get one of those mini usb hard drives which you can copy hundreds of tracks onto. One other... Read review

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Advantages: Great home theatre sound, fantastic value for money
Disadvantages: Unattractive styling, somewhat bulky

...My Home Theatre was a reasonable system by any measure and better than most. However, my wife re-arranged the living room furniture and in one stroke my cherished system was made redundant. My two rear wall mounted speakers were now on my left and with no possibility to be mounted somewhere else. It was time to look at the Polk & Yamaha products. Unable to audition a Polk SurroundBar and Yamaha YSP-1000 in an A/B comparison, I consequently decided to purchase both, with the idea that I would eventually keep one and sell the other. I have now had both units for about 10 weeks and when doing my A/B comparisons, both systems are set up so that one speaker is sitting just above the other, playing the same material at the same volume and with instant A/B switching via remote control. Note - It takes quite a few readings... Read review

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