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Category: CD  SACD DVD Players
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Title: Yamaha CDR-HD1300 
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views:491
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 This takes the form of a medium-term review, as I have had this unit for over a year now.
First a description of just what this device is and does:
The CDR-HD1300 comprises, as its product code implies, a CD-RW drive and a hard disk drive, with the associated other control hardware required to make the two drives function.
In addition, being a digital recorder, it has both Digital-to-Analog and Analog-to-Digital Converters (DAC and ADC).
The units shipped by Yamaha to South Africa only come with a 40GB hard drive, while the UK enjoyedthe larger 80GB capacities - just why the difference, I don't know.
Anyway, when I unpacked this unit and fired it up, I discovered this 40GB HDD capacity, so, went to a local PC supplier and bought a 120GB drive to replace the 40GB unit.
The swap of the drives was painless - the rear of the unit has a small "door" which opens to reveal the HDD mounting tray, which slides out on rails. Remove the data cable by unplugging from the drive, remove the mounting screws, and take out the drive. Reverse the process to install the new drive - simple! The reason for limiting to 120GB is that the firmware on the CDR-HD1300 only supports drives of up ~135GB. Anyway, the firmware-driven disk formatter also works well - simple and quick. The drives supported and required by Yamaha are all 7200rpm SATA units, and I went with a Seagate Barracuda - a make I've come to trust.
So, with 120GB, the music storage capacity of the HDD is now around 180hrs - or just over a week of continuous play.
The unit can play back CD's via the CD-RW drive using the on-board DAC's, it can also play back music stored on the HDD via the same DAC's. There are also digital outputs (coaxial and optical) for using an off-board DAC (I use the coaxial output to play through the Theta GenVa DAC).
Copying a CD is a 2-stage process: one, "ripping" the CD to the HDD; and two, "burning" the CD from the data stored on the HDD. Ripping runs as 10x speed and buring can run at anything between 1x and 4x speed, depending on settings (more about these later).
To work around the SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) used for copyright protection, any material ripped from a digital source and burnt to CD while staying in the digital domain, is automatically deleted from the HDD after burning (the command used is "Move" not "Copy").
There are more features than there is space in this review - so will now concentrate on the sound quality and applications.
Used as CD player via the CD-RW drive and the on-board DAC's, the sound is pretty good, if a bit "bright". Used as a transport to the Theta GenVa, it is excellent.
Copies made and than played back (both on the Yamaha and on my Theta set-up) sound identical to the original 0 my old ears cannot detect a difference (except with certain audiophile CD's such as those from Sheffield Lab).
The ADC capability enables the Yamaha to be used for archiving vinyl. What needs to be understood right here is that this unit records what it gets - unlike a PC where you have the capability (with the appropriate software) to perform some surgery on the digital data before burning the CD-R. The result, is that any surface noise from the LP is also recorded. A quick look at a very useful feature when archiving vinyl: Automatic track separation using signal level/time parameters.
Overall impressions after more than a year:
a. Great for parties (just set it on random play and leave)
b. Great for archiving vinyl (except for surface noise)
c. Makes good CD copies and does it quickly
d. If I had to do it again, would I? YES!
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| Review submitted: 2005/6/6
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Category: Amplifiers Receivers
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Title: Yamaha RX-V357
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views:498
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I have finally upgraded my old receiver (Sony STR-DE495) to a Yamaha RX-V357 and what an upgrade it has been!
The Sony was a pretty good amp for a little over £100. It has some nice features, and sounded very clean and crisp. Also, however, it was lacking some features, such as 6 channel inputs, 5 channel stereo etc.
I therefore went out and purchased the RX-V357 from Richer Sounds, and it's amazing compared to the Sony. The sound is still just as clean and crisp, but it has a more "realistic" edge to it now, it doesn't sound quite so technical.
Also, it has an extra 25W per channel which should make it sound a lot better at average to loud cinema-style volumes, although i haven't really had it long enough to decide this yet.
It also has 6 channel analog inputs, which means i can *finally* listen to SACDs and DVD-As at last!
Oh, and if you are into DSP modes, this Yamaha has around 15 of them, and they sound excellent for a budget amp. Personally, i don't like DSP modes though, so i'm not the guy to talk to for comparisons.
Anyone else got one of these receivers then? What do you think?
Photo of the amp in my home setup can be found here: https://hififorum.co.uk/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=32&cid=1
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| Review submitted: 2006/5/26
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