Yamaha MCRE300

I have just bought the Yamaha MCR-E300 micro system at Costco for $200. The sound is exceptional! I've always been a fan of Yamaha "Natural Sound" amplifiers. I bought a Yamaha Natural Sound amplifier in 1985 and used it for 20 years. I listen to just about everything: vocal, opera, jazz, classical, Broadway, country, and rock etc.

This Yamaha system claims 25W+25W output power and 0.1% THD. Last week I purchased a "125W" system for $90. That system sounded so bad I could barely listen to it. This Yamaha system sounds so much better, you can't even compare the two. This mega-power fad (1000W home theater systems) is producing a lot of really bad audio systems. Fortunately, this Yamaha is not part of the fad.

This system does lack some of the newer bells and whistles, like MP3, WMA, and iPod display. The Blue LED dot matrix display is a little dated. I would prefer an optical encoder over the motorized volume control. But if you want great sound, have an iPod or MP3 player, and can find one of these for $200, go for it!

I won't add much to Robert's excellent review, all of which I agree with. This unit is really in a different class to the mainstream micro "hi-fi" products in audio, aesthetic and build quality terms and is excellent value at the current UK web price of £250ish. I have seen it on web sites in the US at $199 which is frankly ludicrously cheap. OK, some tax to be added, but at virtually half the UK price at current exchange rates it is incredible value for money.

This is a surprisingly wonderful unit. I read alot of reviews on previous Yamaha systems before purchasing this one.

I directly compared Denon, Yamaha, Bose and two high-end Sony units and this is the best value system in the lot.

For the price you pay you get the same quality sound as the Denon and is somewhat comparable to the Bose. It is in a different class altogether above Sony and the likes.

I found the sound to be one of the cleanest and most accurate especialy when listening to instrument rich or vocal rich content. The base isn't great, but then again it has a Sub out and it was designed more for smaller rooms, in which it performs wonderfully without a Sub.

The speaker cables it comes with are sub-par so I replaced them with high grade wires with Banana plugs (which the unit supports).

This one doesn't offer any DSP-like sound altering processors such as Sony and Panasonic but then again, who needs that stuff especially when its accuracy in reproducing what's meant to be played as is, was just amazing. No hissing sound from speakers at low volumes like the Panasonics, Sonys and JVCs.

The speaker finish is called Piano Craft and as the name suggests, well it just looks really nice, jet-black that is glossy but finger prints easily.

The Gold main system colour is more like pewter that has gold in it, than gold alone. Before I saw this unit, I thought "black speakers and gold system??", but when you see it, you'll love it.

The lows as mentioned in other reviews were really all about the remote not having a mute or CD-eject button on it, which would have been nice to include but not totally essential.

Save your time and effort and bypass all the tests and reviews and just go and listen to this system, you won't regret buying it.

I strongly recommend it.

Well the Yamaha MCR-E300 is by far the best micro system I have owned, and I've owned a few.

If sound is the most important thing to you, then this system will blow you away. The clarity, depth and quality of reproduction of original CDs is very impressive. Don't be fooled by the 25W/Channel power rating, this unit pumps out more sound than the Panasonic SC-PM28 that is rated at 140W. And the great thing about it is that it does so with amazing clarity and very clean sound.

The unit is basic, ie. No tape deck, single CD, no fancy display and the basic audio controls are all manual (Volume, bass, balance and treble).

The black piano finish on the speakers and the gold (not ugly gold) finish on the system itself is very pleasing in classy settings (the wife loved the look of it).

My only drawbacks on this system are the exclusion of Mute and CD Eject buttons on the remote. And also, less importantly, when changing the volume from the remote, the Volume knob on the system rotates but is a little noisy (the motor that drives the knob is a little noisy).

Apart from those two minor things, I really cannot recommend any other system that is better than this for this amount of money. If you plan to use it in a large room, it has a Sub out so you can add a separate Subwoofer, although I haven't yet found a need for that myself.

I have used numerous micro systems from Sony, Panasonic and Technics but now I am a big Yamaha fan. And believe me, you will be too when you listen to it.

Price paid: $570 CAD (aprox $390 US)