Massive CD changer, great sound!
Written: Sep 19 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 50+1 CD changer rules, titling CDs is great, awesome sound
Cons: Lame remote, non-useful antenna
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| che_fox's Full Review: Sony MHC-MC1 Shelf System |
Ah, my beloved 50+1 CD changer minisystem. Perfect for my little studio, this system has all the features I need in a tiny footprint; huge, huge CD storage with the rotating 50+1 carousel, dual tape decks, and inputs for video, minidisc, and vinyl.
I've owned the MHC-MC1 for a bit over a year now, and never had a problem. The sound quality is booming on the bass, but clear on the treble. The CD storage is a massive bonus -- and what sets this unit apart is the ability to title each disc, similar to how Minidisc works, and have the title stored in the stereo's memory permanently. You can even unplug it, move to a new place, and have all your titles still programmed in! Excellent feature.
The jog dial common on many Sony products these days is easy to use, for selecting CDs and titling them both, and feels very solid. You can scan through the discs by alphabetical title, or by the order that they're in the player. The dual tape deck works nicely, but I pretty much only use it for waking up in the morning, as the system has not one, but two settable alarms, which can play CD, tape, or radio! Obviously, I use that feature every morning.
Besides using it for CD playing, I also use it for my video game speakers; I just hook up the video output from the game systems to my TV, and the audio to the MHC-MC1. Works perfectly, and the sound quality is just excellent.
The remote that came with the system is a bit hokey; it's thick at the bottom and tapered towards the top. It's missing a lot of features that the main system has, but unfortunately vice-versa, the stereo is missing some features the remote has, like the wonderful "Sleep" feature which makes the stereo turn off after playing the current CD that's been selected.
I love the optical output on the system; I hook up my portable Sony MZ-R70 Minidisc player/recorder to it, hit Synchro Record on the Minidisc, and hit Play on the stereo, and get a perfect copy (with track markers in the right place!) every time.
Another nifty feature is the Group Entry feature. There are 5 definable "Groups", each with a button on the front of the unit, and you can put each CD in the carousel in a group. By pushing that group's button, you can make it so only CDs in that group are played. Great for parties, or when I want to randomly play tracks from a bunch of my favorite CDs.
One minus to the system is that since it does have a CD carousel, operation by someone who doesn't know how it works (like which way the CD should face) isn't totally intuitive. But there's no way around this; Sony tried to remedy it with a "CD Plus One" button, which automatically rotates the CD carousel to a special slot for an extra CD, and automatically starts playing it. However, this feature isn't really a 'one-touch button'; you do have to make sure the stereo's in CD mode (with the 'Function' button) before it'll do anything, making it not so useful.
I don't use the radio feature very much, as the included antenna is pretty weak (just a string of wire, really) and I don't get very good reception. But you can do the normal scan and set a number of pre-set stations in the memory. However, unlike the CD titles, these presets are forgotten if there's a power outage or if the unit's unplugged, which is kind of dumb.
Overall, great system for a great price -- though I think Sony's moved to a different unit these days for the 50+1 carousel that has a slightly different look.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
che_fox
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Member: Ben Gertzfield
Location: Santa Cruz, CA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
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