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. ... Read review
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A review by BNibbles on Yamaha CDX-496 November 9th, 2000
Author's product rating:
Sound Quality
Excellent
Ease of Use
Average
Look & Design
Good
Range of Features
Average
Value for Money
Excellent
Advantages:
Plays CD - Rs and CD - RWs . Remote control
Disadvantages:
As Henry Ford said - any colour you like as long as it's black .
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
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 ones only.
Buying a Hi-Fi CD-Recorder just to ensure reliable play-back of recorded disks, would have been excessive when I can write them on my PC with greater flexibility.
Anyway, that’s how I justified it to myself! (Confessions of An Inveterate Up-grader!)
My first priority was to find a CD-player that actually specified that is was CD-R compatible. The Yamaha is not only that, but CD-RW compatible, which means that I can make erasable compilations as well.
At first sight, the Yamaha seems to have a neat minimalist design, with a slim facia and only a few buttons and no knobs to twiddle. It soon becomes apparent, that its wealth of features (mostly relating to its use as a source for recording), are controlled from the remote, which is a long slim affair.
For example, there is the peak search facility – this finds the loudest patch in all of the tracks programmed for playing, and repeats this bit over and over again whilst you set up your cassette deck’s record level.
Then you can programme the tape length to be used, in the case of a C90 - this allows the first 45-minutes worth to be played and pauses whilst you turn the tape over – no, it can’t do that bit for you!
Likewise, if you have a Yamaha cassette deck like my KX-580, it can also be used to synchro-start both the CD-player and the recording deck.
There is an optical digital output at the rear as well as the more normal twin “phono” leads.
The former can either be used directly into an amplifier, although is usually limited to those with Home Cinema decoders in them, or as a direct “pipe” to a minidisk recorder. I have auditioned both types of connection to my amplifier, and to be honest my “analogue ears” can’t tell the difference. Wake me up when someone comes up with a digital implant to by-pass the ears! I do however, use high-grade “phonos” – er, that’s to my amplifier, not my brain!
Sound output is fine with good well-controlled bass and high “highs”. So far, it has been true to its word playing all of my CD-Rs and even my first CD-RW. Oh yes, and it only comes in black, but this will come as no surprise to anyone buying hi-fi "separates".
The appearance has Yamaha’s subdued but efficient look, with a dimmable pale orange display. Thus far, it has proved to be a worthy replacement for my Technics, aping all of its tape-recording features, plus the bonus of playing “burnt” disks. All in an excellent value package at approx £150 from www.qed-uk.com when bought it, but I notice that now it’s available from good old Richer Sounds for around £100 – grrrrr!
Advantages: Excellent recording quality thanks to advanced technical facilities Disadvantages: Hidden minor controls are fiddly.
...I have been using this deck for two years. It cost around £250 then ,but it's less than £150 now, thanks partly to a strong pound. Grrrr!
Yamaha really have done all they to wring out the last drop of quality from an analogue recording. You have Dolby's B, C AND S (S is a step further on in the battle against the dreaded hiss, and more compatible with B than C is). Good news if you play tapes in the car which only has Dolby B. Also there's HX Pro "headroom expansion" which adjust the machines record characteristics "on the fly", and last but not least, there's a tape-trimming facility which adjusts the machine for the make and type of tape you are using. It does this by making a few seconds of recording, and then plays it back to itself, "making notes" as it goes.
If you combine this with a CD player like my YamahaCDX-496, which...
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Advantages: Picture quality. Cheap if it's still out there Disadvantages: Choosy over the playing of recordable media
...opinion on the YamahaCDX-496 CD player and why I bought it)
UPDATE - Thanks to this web-site, http://www.vcdhelp.com/, I have now discovered that it will play certain proprietrary branded CD-RWs, like Traxdata. I can attest to this, having made a trial music disc. It is also reputed to play some CD-Rs but the brand eludes me so far, and since so many of my existing CD-Rs are of doubtful or no brand in particular, this remains a problem for me.
c) Styling. Hmm, another amorphous black box from Sony, but at least it seems well put-together. The remote control is annoyingly similar to the TV's and the VCR's, but it does carry some limited TV functions, and will even control the sound level on a range of remote control amps, not all Sony (it works with my Yamaha)...
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