The time may be nigh to replace my old hifi. It’s a great Pioneer system, but its now over 25 years old. The CD players no longer work, and it’s now mainly used to play the TV through, either films/TV or music via an Apple TV box. It gives great sound – Im not sure what the output is but I can never put it up to full volume. Now, how would your modern mini hifi speakers compare – most seem to be about 30w output (?) – have they moved on a lot in 25 years? Could I just connect my old speakers up to the TV or does it have to run through an amp? I very rarely actually put on a CD these days – listening via iTunes library instead – but I’d like to still have the option. So does anyone have a favourite mini hifi they’d recommend? And what’s the diff between mini and micro hifi?
ATM – mini hifis?
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We’ve had a previous model to this for nearly 15 years
http://www.richersounds.com/product/mini-hi-fi/denon/dm39/deno-dm39-sil
Still going strong it now lives in a cupboard under the TV and is only used to give better sound quality for films . This one has digital in as well as an analog input so you could take the optical out from your telly straight into the amp if you have one (the optical out from the TV gives much better lip sync ).
That looks exactly what I’m looking for too. I have a spare set of speakers, so I’m going to get one!
I have 2 of these….well, the previous (now discontinued) model DM38. One in the kitchen and one in my bedroom. DAB radio, CD player. It has a USB port on the front so mp3 players, phones and memory sticks can be the source. Superb!
I have Denon DM30 that I have had for 12 years or so. It’s a brilliant little thing and still sounds great. They don’t come with speakers, so you can re-use your old ones. I can’t recommend these little Denons highly enough.
I have one of these: http://www.whathifi.com/marantz/m-cr610/review but the finish is all gloss black, not the half and half finish shown. DAB tuner, CD player and connect it to your wifi and you can stream Spotify, internet radio or tunes from your own hard drive. Does pretty much anything you could realistically want and sound right nice through my 15 year old KEF speakers.
Sorry to be boring but another vote for the Denon here. Had the previous model as well and when it finally gave up the ghost after many years of heavy use, replaced it with the Dm39. Good sound via CD, dab radio and Spotfy or the iPod through the USB port. All that said, haven’t compared recently with its competitors for sound and have only run the original mini system speakers through it – and have used it as kitchen hifi rather than living room, so don’t know how it would stack up for a room sound. But certainly an excellent piece of kit.
My Denon will go through a set of 70s Acoustic Research AR4xa beauties. I am temped to pay the ultimate price and drive to Watford tomorrow to buy it. Obviously Richer Sounds rather than Dodgers.
Another vote for Denon DM30 series. I have a DM30 (CD/FM) from ~15 years ago although the volume control has developed a life of its own. I also have a Yamaha CRX-M170 (CD/DAB/FM) but the CD player has gone skippy.
Both sound great, especially given their size. I drive JBL Control 1 nearfield monitors with both.
Don’t expect a shoebox all-in-one to be as long-term reliable or as repairable as separates.
That volume control thing is a definite regular fault as the old models aged – both I and my brother in law had exactly the same problem develop – but only after several years use.
Ours too. i had forgotten.
The only way round that volume control problem is to use the remote. We’ve had a Denon DM30 in our kitchen for at least 13 years. Sounds great, but the volume knob is behaving weirdly!
It’s a fair wallop more, but consider the Naim Uniti range. Or the Muso streaming speaker.