I originally chose this product for someone else, who tasked me to find a great bookcase stereo to give as a gift. I ordered it and received it within two days via Amazon Prime. I installed and tested it on Christmas Day. It truly exceeded my expectations in every way. Very attractive layout and veneer, intuitive controls, solid feel, great sound quality. I tested the radio first, then the CD player, then the iPod dock. In all three cases, the performance was very impressive for such a small system. I would compare this very favorably to the Bose system that gets so much advertising. I've listened to that system in several peoples' homes and although it's a good system, I feel the sound quality and appearance of this Yamaha system is superior.
I liked it so much that I immediately ordered a system for our home. I ordered the green color for my friend, but I went with red for our home. It's beautiful and looks very sharp. My wife and I both have iPhones, and we use this system to play our music libraries. It comes with a remote control, which is in itself a very nice little unit. Flawless performance and function. I really have nothing negative to say about this system. It is priced very fairly for its performance, build quality, and appearance. I see another reviewer commented that the speakers cannot be placed adjacent to the unit due to heat buildup. I don't get this at all. The unit never gets hot, and the speakers are placed exactly as shown in the product photographs, that is to say "attached" to the main unit. There are zero issues with heat. I love this little system and I'm sure anyone who takes the chance on one without physically seeing one in the store will be delighted. Anyone have any comments on their experiences or questions, feel free to leave a comment. Yamaha MCR-040DG Micro Component System (Dark Gray)
The sound quality exceeds my expectations especially in such a small package. It is an excellent mini system. I had been searching and auditioning mini systems over the last year for my specific application in our kitchen on top of the refrigerator and selected the Yamaha MCR-040.
It is built with high quality materials; metal face plates for the receiver and speakers, smooth action buttons and volume control; and a sturdy CD tray mechanism. The sound production is very well behaved at all listening levels. Sound quality is the most important performance factor for me. As an audiophile I am always skeptical about the ability to produce accurate and clean bass response with proper mid-range and treble balance from a single driver compact speaker system with no discernible intermodulation distortion; having exceptional bass depth a subwoofer is not necessary.
It has bass, treble, and balance controls with a subtle easy to read cyan dot matrix display (with two level intensity) and an included remote. The speakers have tuned ports on the rear with easy to use spring-clip wire connections and cloth front grills. An unpretentious front panel layout allows it to blend in unobtrusively with any environment unlike many mini systems that often look cluttered or like space age sneakers, yet it has all the necessary features to completely satisfy at a reasonable price point.
I seriously considered the Bose wave due to the small height, several friends have them, this Yamaha's sound quality is far superior in my opinion achieving much higher undistorted volume levels and better tonal balance, it is better than many other mini systems I auditioned from smaller to larger in size and cost. We use the analog audio input sourced from my digital 900 MHz PCM streaming home-wide wireless system, sometimes a 32 GB Kingston USB stick (full of MP3s) which it accesses fine, and the tuner. FM is still important to me and the sensitivity is excellent with superb signal to noise and 30 presets. Voice reproduction is excellent, strings, horns and piano all true to fidelity; Having a wide variety of music, spanning from Strunz and Farah to Jean-Luc Ponty, Led Zeppelin to Coldplay... jazz, rock, classical, blues, fusion, funk, and talk radio, we are very pleased.
The deep chocolate brown espresso is very elegant. There are many mini systems that look over decorated, are only available in black or silver, often flimsy build quality; and sometimes produce vibrations at higher bass volume levels. We are thoroughly impressed with its performance at very low levels and cranked up loud enough shake the windows and dance to, believe it or not - no distortion - no straining - no vibrations.
At about 4 1/2 inches tall and 17 inches wide with the speakers directly next to the receiver-amp (11 inches deep) it fits perfectly on the fridge top under the overhead cabinets. It matches our espresso cabinets as if it is designed for the room. The full function remote is very thin and light weight yet solid. I attached a thin magnet pad with double-sided tape on the remote bottom to enable storing it on the metallic fridge surface for easy access. The remote also works well when bouncing the IR signal off the ceiling when line of sight is inconvenient across the kitchen. One downside is some control functions are only on the remote not accessible from the receiver's front panel.
I highly recommend this high quality superbly engineered Yamaha mini system.
Update 2011-04-14
We still enjoy this Yamaha and continue to have guests comment on the great sound quality.
I have seen two users experiencing shut down after ~ one hour:
We have ours running every morning on FM, and weekday evenings from 5pm to 11pm, weekend days it stays on almost all the time day and night. We use FM in the mornings and portable (line-in) for our wireless streaming device otherwise; sometimes USB memory stick, CDs occasionally. Have never had a shut-off or overheat.
Is the automatic timer-off unintentionally set ? This will cause it to shut down at the preset time you select, and it will retain the setting after power-off. This is in the setup menu, scroll down and "Timer" is where the setting is. A handy feature for those who forget to shut it off.
Now I wonder if I had reset this timer feature when I initially set it up (does it come preset to 1 hour off-time perhaps for energy saving?)
I am curious to find out more about this, I find it hard to believe Yamaha would have a defect of this kind, though all manufacturers can have issues; it seems to be a random occurring issue, but at this time appears to be 1 hour, not more or less, not every user appears to be experiencing this. - Shelf System - Yamaha Home Theater System - High Quality'
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