Specifications

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review
7
Useful Guidelines on
CD Copying
As was the case with pretty much
every Yamaha CD/DVD transport I have
used in the past, the MCX-2000 was
a bit finicky in playing back CDs that
contained excessive scratches, dirt and
blemishes. Perhaps one of the reasons I still
have my 10 year old Sony ES changer on
hand is I can literally run a knife over my
CDs and they will still play on the Sony
with no hiccups. This wasn’t always
the case with the MCX-2000 and I
learned this lesson the hard way after
I went to access some of the CDs I
uploaded into the hard drive. I found
two or three CDs that some of the
tracks did not transfer well and you could
hear distortion, high frequency crackling and
skipping continuously throughout the particular
tracks. In Yamaha’s defense, not even my
venerable Sony machine would play a couple of
these blemished CDs. Thus I have listed some
basic precautions when uploading music to
your MCX-2000 to avoid later headaches and
embarrassment when hosting a party and your
Milli Vanilli music skips more than usual.
Pre-Recording Guidelines
• Make sure the surface of your CDs are
clear of fingerprints, smudges and gunk.
• Spot check each track for playability
of your CD on the MCX-2000 before
recording it.
• Spot check playback of each recorded
track of the uploaded CD to ensure it’s
free of clicks, pops, and other anomalies.
As you can see in the pic to the right, one of
my favorite Steely Dan CDs didn’t fair to well
baking in my Slappa CD case in my car for the
past two years. The gunk that can be seen on
this CD is now literally engraved into the disc.
I found about a half dozen or so of my CDs to
suffer this ill fate. My advice is to burn copies of
the CDs you want to listen to in your car. Don’t
store the originals in that heat (of course I live in
Florida so it’s a bit worse here.) In fact, you may
even wish to create discs exclusively for the car
which contain your favorite hits from each artist
to avoid skipping tracks or thumbing through
your entire Prince collection (or ‘artist formerly
known as Prince’, or whatever he considers
himself these days) to get your quick 1999 fix.
There are many factors that influence the sound
quality of source material such as:
1) How the source material was recorded
(ie. equipment, mics, etc)
2) How the recording was mastered
and transferred to CD
(level, compression, etc)
For a more thorough discussion on typical
ailments that plaque recording quality, we suggest
the following reading material:
Current Trends in the Recording
Format Arena P1
Current Trends in the Recording
Format Arena P2
Issues with 0dBFS+ Levels On
Digital Audio Playback Systems
The Case for NOT going above 0 dBFS
For Digital Playback Systems
Editorial Note on
CD Sound Quality
This is a rather short list and a tribute to
Yamaha listening to the feedback from custom
installers, and reviewers to continually improve
product features and usability.
Conclusions
The Yamaha MusicCAST MCX-2000 is a
dream come true to anyone looking for an easy
to use, intelligent file management and server
solution for their music database. Though more
tech savvy enthusiasts may opt for building a
HTPC solution to save a few bucks, they will
still not likely be able to achieve the usability of
the MCX-2000, not to mention its elegant slim
line chassis and Yamaha brand name ensuring a
great track record of reliability and quality. The
MCX-2000 will be the hit at any of your social
Suggestions for Improvement
Despite the almost limitless configurability
of the MCX-2000, there were of course some
shortcomings just as there are with virtually all
home theater equipment in the eyes of the anal
retentive Audioholic. Listed below are some of
the issues I would like see improved upon or
incorporated into future iterations or upgrades
of this product.
• Ability to recognize and prevent double
copying of CDs
• Integrated web browser or navigation tool
to more easily find Internet music stations
• Bigger front panel display and less
dependency on using the OSD