Onkyo CR515DAB

I have owned this hifi for a couple of years, I originally bought it with the Onkyo speakers, which were average at best, very clear treble, but lacking in bass.

I quickly replaced the Onkyo speakers with a pair of Yamaha NS225-F floor standers (slim & attractive) which transformed the sound tremendously, the only thing lacking with the Yamaha NS225-f's was the weak/inaccurate treble, so I took the decision to replace the tweeters in the Yamahas with the ones from the Onkyo speakers, the result was a revelation. Whilst the Yamahas were great at suppling clear, deep, (but not room shaking) bass, they now also supply very clear, crisp treble tones, that together compliment the Onkyo CR515 perfectly.

In the past I have owned very high end hifi (with expensive upgrades), with which the Onkyo CR515 obviously cannot/is not designed to compete, however, for the price, and convenience of a one-box-system, coupled with the modified Yamahs NS225-F speakers, this is the perfect system for a medium sized room, where the listener is expecting high quality sound at a reasonable cost.

After having gone through a plethora of CD players and being fed up with not being able to control the volume of my HiFi remotely, I bought an Onkyo CR515DAB as a convenience.

I must have been asleep. It was only when I got it home and listened to it that I realised how bad the sound is. Check the specs: 1% THD. ONE PERCENT.

The DAB radio won't work without an external antenna: the bit of string it comes with is utterly pointless - only serving to pick up any stray RF from other bits of electronics in the room.

Other than that, it's great. The remote control works as expected and it is small.

One of these days I'll put it out of its misery and buy a NAD.