A majority of my music listening was done via the MusicCAST digital outputs into my receiver which is the typical and usually preferred hookup method when mating the MCX-2000 with a home theater system. I spent more time than I care to admit listening to the archive of music I created. In fact, I found myself listening to stuff I ordinarily don't, not because it sounded fabulous on the MCX-2000 so much as it was there. If you are like me, you are probably all too familiar with the scenario of lacking motivation to load up your CD changer with discs you rarely listen too. When you have instant access to your entire music collection at your disposal, you find the motivation to broaden your listening palette. Such was my realization 2-3 hours after listening to my first song on the MCX-2000.

If you don't have Shakira in your music collection, you don't know what you are missing. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is absolutely gorgeous or that she is a superb dancer. Her musical content as far as Latin pop goes is top notch. It is obvious both from her lyrics and passion in her voice that she pours her heart into her music. My wife uploaded her entire Shakira music collection which I left intact as PCM to preserve its integrity. I thought I would do a quick spot check to ensure the transfer went well and found myself listening to nearly the entire Oral Fixation Volume 1 disc. Track#2 "La Pared" sounds killer in PLIIx Music Mode. This song certainly qualified on one of our favorites playlist. Track# 3 "La Tortura" and Track#8 "Las de la Intuicion" were more excellent examples of her high energy, thought provoking lyrics that get your foot stomping and head spinning (that is if you understand Spanish). I am still learning, and luckily my wife is a great translator. The MCX-2000 didn't miss a note here. The PCM transfer sounded every bit as good as the CD as I confirmed by switching back and forth between the two in real time using my Denon DVD-5900 to play the CD.

I recently acquired an old collection of progressive rock CDs from one of my brothers, most of which I loved growing up as a child, but simply wouldn't commit to purchasing them because of over familiarity with the music, and usually low fidelity associated with poor transfers to CD. Thus, I threw a half dozen of them into the MCX-2000 and let her rip. First up was Emerson Lake and Palmer's Love Beach . Die hard fans will scold you for even mentioning this CD which in many ways represented their departure from the dying era of progressive rock to a more pop influenced decade known as the 80's. Despite the obvious feeble attempts of trying to sell out in a few of the tracks, some of the musical content on this CD in my opinion is still to this day, excellent. Thus I selectively copied the tracks worth listening too, such as the 20 minute song "Memoirs of an Officer and a Gentleman". I threw is some "Works Vol 1", "Pictures at an Exhibition", and "Brain Salad Surgery" and wham I had a rather diverse collection of some of the bands best music at my finger tips to enjoy and reminisce of the good ole days of progressive rock. The music sounded sterile in comparison to more modern recordings, but this was no fault of the MCX-2000 as it was a limitation of the recordings themselves.

Moving on to some high quality recordings, I fed the MCX-2000 my Fourplay, Pat Metheny, Uncle Festive, as well as the rest of my jazz collection of music. Again, I retained the PCM data for all of these recordings. John Scofield / Pat Metheny I Can See Your House From Here CD from BlueNote Records, is a close mic recording that portrays a very intimate feeling sonically. On a good system (and room for that matter), the speakers will literally disappear and you will be left with two legendary guitarists jamming away making some very cool lumpy jazz (free from the Jazzac found on the radio these days). Track #4 "Everybody's Party" is an upbeat swing kinda song with phenomenally great guitar solos from Scofield and Metheny along with some very dynamic drumming. The MCX-2000 handled it with ease sounding every bit as transparent as the original source disc when playing back the PCM.

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 fare too 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 the artist formerly known as Prince", or whatever he considers himself these days) to get your quick 1999 fix.

Editorial Note on CD Sound Quality
There are many factors that influence the sound quality of source material such as:

• How the source material was recorded (ie. equipment, mics, etc)
• 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 reading the following articles on our site: 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

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

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.

Conclusion

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 gatherings or parties and although unobtrusive in appearance, will make itself known to your guests when they hear all of the great songs, interruption free, you selected for your playlists.

A Custom Installer can have a field day configuring and utilizing all of the great features of the MCX-2000. Because of its feature set, this will ensure a satisfied customer base and points with your clients once you empower them with the ability of streaming audio at the press of a button. This product truly redefines the way you listen to music and anyone previously unfamiliar with the power and flexibility of a music server, especially one that can stream music wirelessly, is really in for a treat.

My whole experience with this system has been one of delight. It brought me in touch with the music I grew up with and often forgotten widened my listening palette. Most importantly, it made me a superstar to my guests at a recent party we threw that went on until the early hours of the morning because of all of the dancing and non stop great music it served up. Now if only it could brew a pot of coffee...

A Wife's Perspective (contribution by Tica DellaSala)
Who would have thought that the electronics industry, especially in this day-in-age, could make a product that was consumer friendly. I'm talking about the ease of use and facility of understanding the different capabilities the product has to offer. The best part, the instructions are even easy to read and understand.

You may ask, what is this little woman referring to? Well, I will tell you. I'll start by letting you know that this is currently my favorite toy. I used and abused it (not really, not yet) and I don't think I will ever get tired of mistreating it. Any ideas yet? No. That's Ok. It's no other than Yamaha's MusicCAST MCX-2000. This new baby is able to download and save hundreds of hours of quality CD recordings, as well as multi-server capabilities (Internet Radio, FM Radio, etc, etc, etc). The menus concocted by the engineers of this clever machine, are extremely easy to navigate through and decipher. No more need to have the "guys" run it for you (although, it is nice to feel serviced) - now we can do it too. But, it does feel great to have the ability to work this toy on your own. I have to tell you, ladies, this is an easy, likable, compact, and wonderful product to use. The best part - most of the music in it will be yours and yours alone.

About Yamaha Electronics
Yamaha Electronics Corporation (YEC), USA, based in Buena Park, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Yamaha. YEC offers Home Theater components and systems, featuring A/V Receivers, Amplifiers, DVD/CD, Speakers, Mini-Systems, Video Projection, as well as A/V & IT Convergence Products.