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bilditup1
80
Oct 21, 2017
I got in on this drop the last time, and have been using it for about a month. It is pretty compelling as an all-in-one unit. Great for when e.g. you're doing OS upgrades and such, like I was earlier this week - just pop in a CD and go. Honestly, when was the last time you even did that? It's a strangely great feeling. Even the noisiness of the loading is comforting, in some way. I was previously using an Audioengine D22 as my desktop amp. That's a class AB amp with better ratings - those they give here are for 4 ohm speakers, which is far less efficient than most you're most likely going to be using, and at 1% THD, which I don't find terribly honest - and should sound less harsh. If you're buying speakers for use with this unit, get efficient ones. Regardless though, it is probably 'powerful enough' before distorting for normal people not trying to intentionally damage their hearing, so more potentially concerning is the potential harshness. I didn't A/B these with the N22 but I don't think it's that much harsher? unless I use the onboard DAC (which I've tried via the CD function only) and even then I'm not 100% sure. (For computer audio, I'm using an ODAC revB from HeadnHifi Walter). I have found that a CD will sound louder compared to an external 2.1Vrms DAC, fwiw. In any case, I still think the unit is pretty usable, but hopefully will make the time to AB with the N22 soon. Even if it turns out that I prefer the N22 consistently though, I don't think I'd count this as a bad buy at $300 shipped (though not at MSRP; MSRP is absolutely ludicrous). This is a far more versatile, if much more expensive, unit, and can be deployed in many situations in a pinch, thanks to the presence of the CD player, FM radio (we laugh, but it can come in handy), Optical (great with say a bedroom TV + discrete speakers, or a Chromecast Audio, which I plan on trying soon), Bluetooth (3.0, but it has AptX, so I don' think this really matters), and especially the remote. It might be a good fit for, say, our family room, where critical listening is less important than my desktop, but compactness is and ease of use is paramount. As for the other functions - I tried the radio for kicks, too. It works, I guess, but I don't have a proper antenna setup for FM radio anymore, so reception was very poor. Honestly I would have preferred their including some kind of basic tone control, or even better, a DLNA client. I doubt anybody getting in on this drop is interested in listening to the radio, which mostly broadcasts 192kbps MP3s these days anyway. I suppose for the occasional news segment (and then last I checked the only option nowadays for news on FM is NPR or maybe Pacifica, and obviously neither of those are for everyone). I have not tried the headphone output yet, though I'm glad it's there - though that said, I think I would have preferred a line-level output, so the CD and a DAC could potentially be used as part of a larger system. I suppose using an adapter and pushing the volume near max can work, but that is obviously inelegant and probably won't sound very good. The remote is a stunted little thing - it works, but I wish it was a bit bigger. Don't lose it, as some functions, like muting, changing display info, etc, can only be accessed by remote, as far as I can tell. Seeking is accomplished by holding down the forward and back buttons - there is a bit of a delay before this registered, more than I'm used to nowadays, but perhaps this how things used to be. I've found the Bluetooth connection to be stable, but didn't really try to put it through its paces - the unit doesn't have an external antenna, so it probably doesn't have great range, but hopefully it's adequate. This unit has a clock function, complete with sleep and wake-on (alarm?) functionality, which is a nice touch, though it's kind of difficult to set. The screen is nice, but unfortunately on my desktop, where it's ~1 ft away from my face, it appears a bit washed out from above. Viewed straight on it's much more contrasty, but I'd have to move back a few feet to be able to experience that. There is a dimmer, but I find that anything less than max is not legible at normal desktop distance. Other than that...I don't know. I kind of wish the front handle-bars were removable - it's not like they're large enough to grip. I guess it makes the front look less boring, but it's kind of tacky, especially when viewed from above, instead of head-on. As is that stupid Hi-Res Audio sticker that comes on everything these days, which everyone should rip off straight away. I like the grille on top and being able to see into the case , and it should provide for marginally better ventilation. There's a bit a delay of about a second or two when turning this on , comparable to a large AV receiver, which I find annoying compared to something with a simple knob or switch, like the N22. Oh, speaking of AV receivers, according to the spec sheet at least, this doesn't support 32kHz input. In my experience, most AV receivers still do, surprisingly enough. Really though, this won't matter unless you're listening to old long-play DATs, or like. An SNES modded to have an SPDIF output. Hmm. This turned into a bit of a ramble. I guess I needed to get that out. In any case, I'm glad that this is still being dropped here. It is a sleek little thing with tons of functionality, with nothing else really comparable at this size and price point - even if it isn't perfect. If you don't think you need all the functionality here, or want more power for your money, then you have many other, better options. But if you need an all-in-one machine that's loud enough for most and stylish to boot, well, you've found it.
bilditup1
80
Nov 19, 2017
bilditup1Quick follow-up here. I didn't find the internal DAC+Amp on this to be much different than the ODAC or O2 (using a K7XX, 1x gain, and my regular speakers). 50% on the volume pot on the O2 is equivalent to about...25? on the CR-H101? I'll have to try it again to make sure. Also, I found that the ODAC does in fact support unresampled 32kHz data, which is not really a documented feature. The DAC of the CR-H101 does recognize 32kHz signals but doesn't play them back properly - there's a lot of distortion and clipping.
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bilditup1
80
Feb 14, 2018
bilditup1Quick follow-up! I just tried it again, and if you set the output of foobar2000 to 24-bit, 32kHz plays back perfectly. If you set the output to 16-bit, it'll be full of distortion. As I'm pretty sure? that all that happens when you play back 16-bit streams at 24-bit is that that they're padded with a bunch of zeros, and I'm pretty sure most people will just leave this setting at 24-bit all the time, I think we can say that 32kHz play back is more or less supported!
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