A Cure for Insomnia and Over-Sleeping
Written: Aug 17 '02 (Updated Aug 17 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very compact, low-profile, with an excellent full range of sound.
Cons: only one device input; no balance control; unidirectional speakers
The Bottom Line: An excellent bedroom CD sound system that has the potential to transform your sleep habits
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| LSMillers's Full Review: JVC FS-SD1000 CD Shelf System |
This CD system has dramatically changed our sleep habits for the better, in ways that we'd never imagined when we bought it.
We first saw it on display at Cambridge Sound Works in Palo Alto, and decided to buy it as a refurbished unit for considerably less through Electronics Closeout, an internet dealer. All we wanted was a nice bedroom CD system that could double as an alarm to replace our aging clock-radio. What we've discovered is that we now have a marvelous sound system that has become a part of our daily life.
The Insomnia and Wake-Up Cure
We occasionally have trouble getting to sleep, especially after a challenging day. After we bought this unit we purchased a sleep CD (Classical Music for Sleep by Gaiam), and set the system to play at low volume and shut off after 30 minutes. You can set the shut-off in ten minute increments all the way up to 120 minutes.
At the same time we set the timer to wake us up to our favorite radio station (you can set to either the CD or radio), at a pre-set volume and a pre-set on-off period.
The results the following morning were wonderful. We'd fallen immediately to sleep, not to wake up at all until the the timer jostled us with an amply loud wake up call. We've now said goodbye to fitful nights of intermittent wake-ups and tossing and turning. We would even consider taking this unit with us on trips now, although we're now looking for a portable unit so that we won't have to.
Sound Quality
We were initially attracted to this unit by the great sound that it produces in combination with its low visibility, which for us seemed to make it ideal as a bedroom system. When we heard it in the showroom we were amazed by the full range of sound from such a small unit. (30 to 20K MHz frequency response with a 94 dB minimum signal-to-noise ratio; less than 10% harmonic distortion).
The secret of the great sound is the system's powered sub-woofer, which belts out amazing low range sound for its size. It pumps out 60 watts of power, which is low for a home theater system but more than ample for one's bedroom. This was demonstrated after our return from the musical "Mama Mia", when we placed the CD from the show into the unit and cranked up the volume to listen to the ABBA tunes. The base was able to shake the floor in the entire room, and set me to worrying about whether I might blow the 4 ohm speakers. Although this didn't happen, my advice would be to use the living room system if you're seeking a serious earth-shaking experience in your music.
You can adjust the subwoofer volume and phase, and the cabinet is sealed rather than vented, giving it more precision re sound reproduction. It connects to the main unit through a single cord, although you can connect it with other amplifiers using stereo speaker cable inputs. We've placed our subwoofer next to the head of our bed, but it can be located anywhere in the room. The power can be shut off separately in the subwoofer; we leave ours on continuously. You'll need to plug it in to the wall separately from the main CD unit.
The two metallic tower speakers are a marvel in sound quality for their size, outputting 19 watts of power per channel. We have them set up on either side of our bed, and they hit the highs and midranges fully and faithfully for a system of this size, in good balance with the subwoofer. It would be nice if they were bidirectional, but that's likely expecting too much for a countertop system. They're cabled to the main unit with wires approximately equal in diameter to those of a standard house current electrical cord, and need to be connected to the correct plus/minus inlets. Again, not equal to a home theater system but quite ample for a bedroom CD.
My only complaint in this category is that there's no left-right balance control for the two main speakers (base is omnidirectional). As the two speakers aren't located equal distances from our heads in the bed, this results in some diminution of the listening experience. No big deal though.
Radio Features
You can pre-set 30 FM and 15 AM stations, and the unit will auto-set these for you or you can manually set each one. You can also switch from stereo to mono in the event that the station isn't coming through clearly. It comes with external AM and FM antennas, and you can attach a cable antenna for the FM as well. We found that the latter is a good idea for our hard-to-reach favorite station.
The process for setting stations is a little complicated, not as intuitive as it could have been.
Inputs and Outputs
We weren't trying to make this a home theater system, so this category wasn't a big deal for us. However it was nice to discover that we can connect this unit to our bedroom TV, which we'll soon do. There's also an optical connection for a Read-Write CD unit, and outputs for headphones and other devices. In the show room we listened to the unit with Sennheiser cordless headphones, and the sound quality was amazing. We're planning to get the headphones later for both the bedroom and living room systems.
The main limitation in this category is that there's only one input/output device that you can switch to in the unit (MD/AUX). The connections are made via stereo mini-plugs, which can be patched to standard cables. This limitation works just fine for us, as our only auxiliary device will be our TV monitor and we have no need to hook up anything more in our bedroom. You can't set the timer to MD/AUX (and I can't think of any reason why we'd want to, given that the timer won't control the power on the external device).
CD Player
A clear plastic cover shelters both the CD player and the controls, and you can even adjust the cover to protect or expose the controls. The system appears to handle the CD well, although we've noticed some skips that we don't experience in our living room system. You can program the unit to play a preset sequence of tracks or you can set it to play tracks randomly. This feature is great to use in connection with the wake up and sleep features described earlier.
The general impression of the CD player is that it's somewhat fragile, and we don't recommend it in combination with young, curious children. You can easily damage the cover by trying to lift it up, as it must be activated exclusively by the buttons on the main unit and the remote.
Remote Control
The remote control is IR operated and very versatile, providing all the standard controls plus those for toggling the main unit display to clock mode and dimmer mode. You can set sleep mode as well, but must use the main unit controls to set the timer. The range of the remote works very well in a 15' by 20' room.
Conclusion
This is a phenomenal bedroom CD system that has the potential to transform one's sleeping habits for the better. We can't imagine how we got along without out it in the past.
Recommended:
Yes
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Location: California
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