Sony's bookshelf stereo system plays digital
By David Pogue
New York Times
Posted on Thu, Aug. 08, 2002
You know how some people resent Microsoft for its size and ambition? Well, here's a conversation starter: Why don't people resent Sony?
After all, Sony has its fingers in more pies than Bill Gates would even dream of: digital cameras, camcorders, home audio and video, game consoles, even pop music and movies. In most of these markets, Sony has become the 800-pound gorilla.
Maybe Sony avoids resentment because it's such a cheerful and relentless inventor, constantly bringing wild, interesting, sometimes even impractical new products to market just for the high-tech thrill of it. Who else would spend millions developing a robot dog?
Sony's latest gamble is a case in point: a bookshelf stereo system called the CMT-L7HD. (All right, so Sony ran out of ideas when it came time to name this thing.) Its ingenious mission is to bring the convenience of digital music files to an everyday bookshelf system -- without requiring a computer.
Every time you play a CD, the machine automatically copies its tracks onto its built-in 20-gigabyte hard drive. (If time is of the essence, you can also dump an entire CD to the hard drive in 20 minutes using a silent copying mode.) Thereafter, you can play back those songs without having to insert the original CD. The hard drive holds 300 CDs worth of music, turning this handsome unit into a self-contained jukebox.
Now stackable stereo components that copy CDs to an internal hard drive aren't new. Sony's twist is to build this feature into a self-contained, bookshelf-size mini stereo with detachable speakers (and even an optional mounting bracket for the wall). Furthermore, those earlier machines don't even approach the L7HD's sound quality or fashion sense -- or high price. The suggested list price for the L7HD is $1,000.
Part of that money, no doubt, pays for the chic design. You have to see this thing in person (perhaps when it arrives in stores later this month.) to appreciate how cool-looking it is. A milky white front panel illuminated from beneath with a blue neon glow provides a ghostly glimpse of the vertically mounted CD spinning inside. At the top, a crisp white-on-black readout identifies the album and song you're listening to. The whole thing could have been stolen from the dashboard of the Starship Enterprise.
The sound is spectacular, too, especially when you turn on the bass boost. Party animals take note: with only 50 watts of power, this system will never drive a dance party. But cranked to top volume, it nicely fills a living room and never ``blows out'' or distorts.
If $1,000 still seems a bit steep, look at the bright side: that works out to about $1 per feature. The L7HD exploits its hard drive, CD player and radio in a number of clever ways.
For example, you can slice and dice your music collection in every conceivable way. You can create up to 10 playlists (hand-picked song collections from any albums in any order) -- one for dinnertime, another for hot dates, and so on. The system also keeps your most recently played 20 albums only a couple of button presses away.
The unit's ability to save audio onto its hard drive is not limited to CDs, either. It can just as easily store the music from your tapes or even vinyl records, thanks to the analog and digital audio inputs on the back, or even from the built-in radio. |
