the culmination of the so-called ‘ghettoblaster’ in its best form after decades of refinement. This particular example had a few faults. The CD player didn’t read discs, the tape deck warbled hopelessly off key and FM radio reception wasn’t as good as I thought it should be.
A Sony CFS-W318 radio cassette boombox from the turn of the millennium. Scrapped due to brittle plastic in the tape mechanisms, but an interesting electronic design and a useful source of parts including a nice tuner module.
You can't save 'em all. This is a Philips MC-151 micro 'hi-fi' system, a far cry from the once-great audio division of Philips who produced the first cassette recorders, a myriad of portable and hi-fi turntables, one of the first consumer CD players and even owned Marantz for a time.
a Yamaha CRX-M170 CD receiver offered on Freecycle recently sparked my interest. It was listed as having a couple of faults - a temperamental CD player and an erratic volume knob. These are plentiful on the second-hand market for little or no cost and are well worth a punt.
If the volume on your stereo randomly turns up by itself, or doesn't work at all, this article is for you.
2 Designed as an entry to serious hi-fi listening, targeted toward a younger audience with a strong focus towards digital listening in lifestyle systems.
2 A tiny, generously specced miniature amplifier with integrated streaming, an excellent app and great sound.
These plinths finish the CHN-50 project off nicely, resulting in a compact active system capable of exceptional performance.
10 If you’re after plenty of inputs, smart aesthetics and convenience features with better sonics than the average one box solution, these are worth a look. For no compromise audio performance, look elsewhere.
35 Yamaha’s R-N803D is a stereo receiver packed with clever tech and plenty of connectivity. The intuitive retro-inspired design, brilliant software and the thoughtful implementation of its many features are the icing on a particularly sweet cake.
2 Edifier’s R2000DB is a budget speaker with impressive build, a decent array of features and superb sonics.
It may look like an integrated amplifier in its simplest form, but Yamaha's A-U670 packs not only a highly efficient class D amplifier but also DSD-capable DAC into its compact casework.
94 Part of the MCR-N870 mini hi-fi system, the yamaha MusicCast CD-NT670D is a CD player, streamer and tuner combined which is capable of connecting to yamaha's MusicCast multi-room audio system.
A tiny receiver and bookshelf speaker package offering up tons of features and sheer musical enjoyment.