Digital-Audio Reviews

This amp is amazing, from the remote which is large I'll admit but unlike most universal remotes, IT WORKS and is so easy to program. It has so many inputs and outputs that you will never fill them all. The sound is awesome and it has enough power drive any speakers hard.

Pure audio function is for all of you who want home theatre but still want good stereo hi fi sound. This mode shuts down everything in the amp which is not required to produce stereo sound. ie, video processors, 6 channels of the sound, the power supplies that are not used and even the LED supply.

The hifi sound is incredible it truly allows "audiophiles" to have their cake and eat it to.

It has massive weight to it at 20kg so make sure you have somewhere stable for it and don't stick it on top of your VCR.

It has a huge array of digital in's and out's even on the front for your hand held digital camera.

Its speaker and sound setup takes about half hour from start to finish if you are in any way competent.

It has a great feature where buy you can actually select the recording input or sound input for any device. Meaning you can watch a video on one VCR while recording a DVD to your second VCR without effecting you picture or sound output from the 898.

My only gripe about it is the way that all amps that are going to be sold in Europe no longer take banana plug inputs. Which means that you need to use the pin type plugs but on most AV units there are so many speaker outputs that they cluster them together and allow no space to use any connectors, so you end up having to buy "gold tails" or go back to the archaic method of simple bare wire.

It seriously rocks but make sure that you have some serious speakers or the money will be truly wasted. [....]

the most amazing thing i ever heard

i dont think ill need 1000 words to sum the philips key 003 up beacse it is
1-easy to use
2-great sound
3-good looking
4-does what it is suposed to do
5-Its Awsome!

I've had the Key 003 for a little over two weeks now, and I have to say that I have been extremely happy with it.

PROS:
- very durable magnesium body (great improvement over plastic!)
- excellent sound, and LOUD.
- the built-in USB port is very handy, and it's great not to bother with cables. I have used mine in both Windows XP and Windows 2000 without having to install the software at all. It's recognized as just another drive and automatically installs itself.
- easy drag and drop file transfers.
- holds roughly 15 songs at 128k. (I like the smaller size because I'm usually never far away from my computer for long enough to warrant huge memories like the iPod, etc., and it makes the files easier to manage.)
- it doubles as a 2nd hard drive, which I never really thought I would use but boy have I ever! It has essentially replaced my floppy drive and is very convenient.
- it has an internal battery and recharges itself when plugged into the computer. Internal lasts about 6 hours, and the external battery adaptor with a AAA lasts about 10 hours.

CONS:
- the in-cord remote control takes some time to get used to. Buttons on the player itself would have been much more convenient.
- the earbuds are strange to deal with (though they produce good sound), but using the in-cord remote with a pair of regular headphones leave you with a huge length of cord to drag around.
- no LCD, but with just a small amount of songs, it's not really necessary.

Overall a wonderful little player. Highly Recommended!

Having recently switched to DVD, I had to replace my TEAC ProLogic with something else to go with my BOSE Acoustimass 6 system. The Sony STR DE 575 fit the bill. Great sound, more than enuff power to disturb the neighbors (!), pretty EZ to hook up and use. The DTS decoder performs superbly with GLADIATOR, MATRIX, JURASSIC PARK III...this unit has overall great performance and features at this price. Initial setup is a bit tricky - but hey, for the guys, what else would you wanna do but fiddle with all the controls for a while? The Sony does a great job with its ProLogic (not ProLogic II) and VHS tapes...why spend tons more when you can get all this for less [money]? Grab one soon!

This is the one and only mother of my entertainment system. It creates harmonic rhythm's unlike any other reciever I have ever listened to, and I have heard many. Gladiator and Saving Private Ryan glisten on this baby, and are used to their fullest extent as far as DTS and 5.1 are concerned. Plus, it pack's a harder punch than the average amp you'll pick up at your local your local wally-world. (One note: Gladiator sport's a 6.1 DTS ES feature. The difference is, rather than using five speaker's, it can be upgraged by buying a 6.1 reciever, which this is not. But after listening to Gladiator, I was more than satisfied. This bad boy from Sony spreads out the action that would be in that 6th channel into the two rear surround's. I have read several magazine articles, and those reviewer's said the same thing, and were impressed.) You are literally going to have spears, arrows, and especially Hot Fireballs flying over your head. Back right to front left.

The only real complaint, and your not going to find a reciever without a catch, the menu is not very user friendly to start with. I had to play and play around with it. It's not really a big problem, just a small hindrance.

I ordered this because I already had speaker's. You will NOT, get speaker's with this order, so take that into account also. Other than that, I stand behind this system as the one that caught my eye as a possibility and then after I got it, has become the best I have seen. Sony has great product's, and this may be THE ONE for you, like it was for me.

Helpful hint: Order an optical cable to take advantage of the incredible DTS! And, if your starting out, I recommend making absolutely sure that the DVD player you are going to buy, or have bought already, has a DTS-out plug. (It will say "DTS output" in it's features.) I recommend mine: RCA RC5215 DVD-Video Player.

i have owned this product since april of 2002, and i am more than satisfied. Performance is great and i have never had a problem with this machine. Highly Reccomended

I did read the many reviews on this site about how slow the hard drive is and how the video card was no good. Unfortunately I read it all AFTER I bought the machine.

How wrong those reviews are. This machine is VERY fast, and can handle very graphic intensive games. Examples: I tried Return to Castle Wolfenstein on this while running a file sharing program. No problem. I ran some mathematical simulation on it for about 12 hours (think 100% CPU utilization). No problem. Video playback flawless. My previous machine was a workstation with a 7200 RPM scsi drive on it and the only thing I notice different on this machine is that it is MUCH quieter than my previous.

I've owned several sony computers over the last 5 years. I can vouch for their quality after drops, dozens of trips with them, and hours of very intensive use. THis machine, after 2 months 'hammering' it, is holding up great.

I bought this product because I had a similar Walkman by Sony which I had bought about 8 years back. This Walkman exceeded my expectations. The price remains approximately comparable to the my previous Walkman, but there are a lot more features such as remote control, much better headphones and many more channel memory on the radio. The only thing that is really bad with this one is that it does not have the clip hook which you can use to clip up the Walkman to your belt. I do think that this is a good buy

The WM-GX552 walkman is very impressive. The mega bass and groove make the music sound great. The recording quality is excellent and the remote on the headphone cord works most features. The presets are easy to store and easy to scan through. The AMS is a great feature, as it can find the beginning of three songs before or after the one you are on, automatically, and then play them through. The only negative thing about the walkman is when you record off the radio, and press stop when finished, the radio also turns off, making you have to turn it back on. This however is small compared to the great sound and recording quality it is capable of. It also gets great battery life.

This is awsome it does every thing and more. i sugest that you also get an expansion card i got a one gigibite card and it holds alot more than what you would think i would also get pocket tunes it plays wma and mp3

As a long time PDA user (Palm OS and Pocket PCs) I was always looking for the latest, greatest new piece of tech. The Zodiac's specs and price impressed me so much that I started my own news and community site for it.

I bought the Zodiac 1 back when they first came out (end of November, 2003). It's compatible with most any Palm OS application and there's tons of freeware and inexpensive shareware apps to be found. While Tapwave is hyping this as a gaming console, it's really a do-everything device. Pair it with a Bluetooth cell phone and you can surf the internet or check your email. Pair it with a Bluetooth GPS and you can use it to navigate you around town or across the country. It has a Yamaha sound chip which gives you MP3 playback superior to an iPod and you can even play music in the background while you play games or do other things.

The library of cutting edge games is a little small right now, but it's growing. And, like I said, there's TONS more that you can do with this thing besides just gaming. But if you do want it for gaming, consider this...it's got a 3.8" diagonal 480x320 pixel screen, an analog controller, several action and shoulder buttons, and support for multiplayer gaming over Bluetooth. And Tapwave isn't being greedy with some proprietary nonsense either. You can use regular old SD memory cards to expand your storage space for MP3s, videos, applications, and games. Yes, you can download games over the internet and store tons of them on one single SD memory card rather than carry around dozens of cartridges.

If you want to take advantage of some of the advanced features, sites like Tapland will help you along. Plus, there's lots of useful game, productivity app, and accessory reviews there.

If you want more built-in storage, you can pay an extra $100 for the Zodiac 2, but my personal recommendation is to get a Zodiac 1 and use the extra money to buy a really huge SD memory card.

I can't say enough about this product. I liken this to the enthusiasm most have with Tivo. I bought it last summer when it first shipped. My first one did have a hard drive problem after a couple of days but Yamaha was incredibly responsive and shipped me a brand new one overnight. I was actually very surprised at how easy it was to "get going"....less than 15 minutes including loading my first CD to the hard drive.
Using it is also so straightforward that my kids were able to use it after only a couple of minutes of coaching...they all have their own playlists now which they just love. I actually moved out of my house for a remodel project and set it up in the temporary housing without incident. Also I've gone through one product firmware upgrade and the addition of one "client" also without incident. I have two "clients" in the house and they kids love the ability to play their playlists at the same time in two different rooms.
A couple of things to note...you really need a TV monitor hooked to the server to effectively navigate the menus to do anything more than "play" or "record" (which most people will likely do anyway). Also be aware of the "recording" and "burning" rules/constraints before buying so your expectations are set appropriately if you like to "burn" playlists to CD's for use on portable devices.

I bought one of the MusicCast systems as soon as it was available (after drooling over it at a couple of trade shows). The first thing I did was upgrade the harddrive to 200GB. Required a trip by my dealer to my house, but it gave me much more capacity. The interface is very intuitive. It's very fast at copying from cd to the internal disk. In the background, it converts from PCM to whatever MP3 compression level you've set for default (I always use 320KB). You can remove the PCM version to save space (I keep it for critical listening stuff, but my wife doesn't care, so her PCM's are deleted immediately :-) I have a couple of the MCX-A10 terminals scattered around the house. I've had them connect through ethernet and wireless and seems to work fine for both. Yamaha just released a software update that allows access to the MusicCast database through a web browser. This makes it very easy to fix titles, artists, etc. (You can plug a keyboard into the MusicCast, but it requires powering down which is too much trouble for me). I have to say that the most annoying thing about the MusicCast is the GraceNote CDDB database. Yamaha's implementation is great. The CDDB database is a mess. Album titles are inconistent, misspelled, etc. That's why having the browser editing is such a big deal to me. The best endorsement I can give is that my wife really likes the MusicCast. She was sceptical, but after seeing how it works and being able to browse her music, she's sold. Highly recommended for anyone who just wants to be able to enjoy their music without having to deal with PC's.

TigerDirect's shipping is a little exorbitant, but I can't otherwise complain about a fine product. I bought it hoping to reverse it to put both my CD changer and my Playstation 2 into the same input on my receiver, and it works just fine. I can't have both on at once, but wasn't planning to anyway. I'm sure it works fine splitting one input into two, but that's just not what I was looking for. This product is, however, and I'd happily pass it on to anybody looking for the same solution.

This is a great A/V receiver. In fact I would say the entry level Denon is equal or better than some other higher priced A/V receivers in excess of $1500.

My wife who is not an "audiophile" heard the difference between this reciever and our 5 year old Yamaha, in the next room, after I had it all connected. That is a testament to its overall fidelity.

I would have purchased a model upward, if I knew my brother would be giving me his Magnapans (4 ohms), as the 484 does not have a 4 ohm output, but with that said it appears to drive my MMG's perfectly.

Other brands I used: Yamaha in the early 80's (stereo) Harmon / Kardon (mid 80's) JVC (Pro-logic) late 80's to mid 90's, Yamaha
mid 90's to 2002. (Dolby D).

I purchased this a/v receiver last December and I've been very pleased with it. The sound it delivers to my Energy Take 5.2 speaker system is phenomenal. The set-up was easy and intuitive. The 'Zone Two' function allows me to run a whole house audio system from this amp as well as 5.1 audio in my t.v. room. My only complaint is that the remote could be a little better designed.