I have had Panasonic units here in the past, Micro Systems for want of a better description and they've sounded okay though I've never tried to compare them with the Yamaha, Bose or anything of that kind as the Panasonic systems I had were 3 piece systems, that is to say 2 speakers and a box with all the controls, workings etc.
I'm talking of course 11 years ago and technology has jumped ahead in leaps and bounds and in those days Digital amplification was being born, I remember reading about the first Hi-Fi system with digital amplification in the Silicon Chip magazine 11 years ago, that technology was pioneered by Sharp and the system back then got good reviews but that was then and this is now. Too much emphasis on digital amps? Well maybe but the fact is that with digital amplification as you would have noted yourself there is no distortion to speak of and that's only one advantage. Its probably a mute point asking about digital amps and whether or not your system has them as just about everything sold in the audio field these days does. Regarding the Yamaha TSX-140? I just went and had a look at the catalogue and its interesting to note that the unit isn't being sold here any more? Fault in design perhaps? Possibly and nothing's perfect. The other unusual thing is that the Yamaha TSX-130 is still being sold here and the TSX-140 is supposed to be technically superior to the TSX-130? Well perhaps and perhaps not <smile>, the TSX-130 still works as well as the day I bought it and for that I'm thankful, the last thing I'd want is to go through all the drama that You and Lynne went through with your Yamaha. On 27/05/2012, at 2:12 AM, Gordon Smith wrote: > The speaker system in ours is a 5 Watt (RMS) twin speaker set. The only > thing that was really better about the TSX-140 was the fact that their > speaker technologies uses 4-way speakers, rather than 2. That said, > Panasonic has used some quite nice trickery in thee systems which, when you > tweak the configuration, can cause the audio to actually surpass that of the > Yamaha. > > The amplification circuitry is, I can confirm, digital. As is most relatively > high end audio equipment manufactured today. But it's possible to place too > much emphasis on that and sometimes I wonder whether people really would, > putting two relatively comparable systems side-by-side, be able to hear the > difference even assuming one uses digital amplification and one high-end > analogue incorporating distortion filtering technologies. > > As for our problems with the 140, had the seller bothered to honour his > obligations without causing us to fight for our basic rights under UK > consumer law, we'd have simply had it replaced. Overall it's a nice unit > although looking back I'm quite pleased we now have the Panasonic instead. > One compelling reason for that was the price. The retailer Lynne mistakenly > opted to buy from charged us £349.95 GBP for the TSX-140. Another seller she > found later was only asking £269.95 all inclusive for the same unit, the > Yamaha TSX-140. The Panasonic cost us exactly the same, £269.95 which just > goes to show that one should shop around before buying and I think Lynne > learned a valuable lesson there. :) > > yes, this machine has AirPlay. It also has a button marked "WPS Pairing" > whose function I'm not sure of at the moment. But as far as AirPlay is > concerned, setting it up was something that Lynne found easy. I need to do > some research to find out what the WPS Pairing button actually does, because > Lynne used the menu system to set up Airplay. > > It also has a very interesting design which has allowed them to make the CD > player and the iPod/oPhone dock easier to use. The front panel comprises of > a 12-inch square display which slides to the right, at the touch of a button, > providing access to the iPhone/iPod dock and the left when you want access to > the CD player. Once you've inserted your media or your iOS device you can > optionally have the screen slide back to the centre or leave it open, which > ever you like. That system pugs the Yamaha's system to shame actually. The > dock on the Yamaha is exposed by removing a plastic cover which you need to > be careful not to lose. The CD player on the Yamaha was alright, I must > admit. Although again the way Panasonic has come up with on this is better > because it means that no dust or air moisture can get into the unit. The > clock on the Panasonic is also better, as it picks up the time from DAB or > DAB+ transmission whereas the Yamaha had to be set manually. The alarm > functions on both machines would appear to be inaccessible. In the case of > the Yamaha you slide a switch from Clock Set, Normal and Alarm Set. The > Panasonic's alarm is configured via a menu function I believe. The sleep > function on the Panasonic is also configured via menu which is a bit of a > shame, although I can't remember how this particular function compares with > the Yamaha. > > The case of the Yamaha is dreadful in comparison to the Panasonic we now > have. It's made from cheap and nasty plastic made to resemble chip-board. > That said, the Yamaha did have its good points. Some of the functions of the > Panasonic have to be accessed via menus, whereas most of the Yamaha's were > touch buttons. I'm definitely not taking pot shots at the Yamaha, before > anybody jumps unnecessarily to its defence. This isn't about my toy's better > than yours. :) > > The acoustic chamber technology which Yamaha uses is very definitely a plus > point although for our needs it doesn't really matter that much. I submit > that what you can't hear doesn't matter all that much and what I get out of > the Panasonic in terms of audio quality is at least comparable to that of the > Yamaha. > > The antenna input on the Yamaha was far more easily accessible than that of > the Panasonic. They both use 6MM F-connectors but the Yamaha's in on the > back, whilst the Panasonic is located in a recess and faces downwards. The > Panasonic offers either desktop or wall mounting, whereas the Yamaha is only > desktop mounted. Again, that's horses for courses, and at the moment we > haven't bothered mounting ours on the wall. That might change, I don't know > yet. The dual-function dipole shipped with the Yamaha is of a really flimsy > design. It has two rubber hooks on the end which you're supposed to fit over > small tacks or other mounting material. That could be specific to the UK > model because I believe different regions transmit their digital radio > broadcasts in different parts of the spectrum. The dipole that ships with > the Panasonic isn't much better actually, and you're advised to mount it > using adhesive tape, (Not supplied with the unit), which is almost > nonsensical. > > The source control on the Yamaha TSX-140 is a rotary control, whereas the > Panasonic employs touch buttons. That makes life easier if you're not using > the remote control as the Yamaha doesn't have an end stop so it's possible to > mistaken activate the wrong source. Again though, there are work-arounds on > the Yamaha. > > There are a lot of other pro's and cons with each model, but the one which > really stuck out in my view is the sensitivity of the respective FM and > DAB/DAB+ tuners. In the case of FM, the Yamaha wins the battle hands down. > Using the same type of antenna mounted in exactly the same location with the > same orientation, the Panasonic wins the battle in terms of DAB/DAB+ > sensitivity. > > My one major gripe regarding both of thee models is that they use a common > antenna input for both FM and DAB. This is very inefficient over here > because of the different bands we use for the various functions. The FM > broadcast band on the Yamaha was 88.00 to 108.00 MHZ. With the Panasonic, it > is 87.5 through 109.00 MHZ. Off the top of my head I forget about DAB > frequency usage. It's also a little difficult in some respects trying to > gage the sensitivity of a DAB receiver because it isn't possible to receive > anything other than locally transmitted DAB signals. The multiplexors > throughout the UK use the same frequencies country-wide, so all BBC local > radio uses its own multiplexor for each region and the transmitters dictate > what the receivers do when switched to a specific channel. > > The only realistic method of gaging the performance of your DAB receiver, and > I totally accept that my methodology was quite crude in this regard, was to > tune through the various DAB signals to find out which ones are distorted and > which are not, which ones are received on one machine and which were not. I > didn't have the two machines side-by-side which, to be totally fair, would > have been the best comparison. All I could do was go by memory of how the > Yamaha performed. > > With practise, Lynne thinks that it shouldn't be too difficult for me to > memorise the functions of each menu on the new Panasonic. One good thing is > that each menu has its own control on the InfraRed handset so, for instance, > if you need to enable the repeat function for CD playback, you press a button > whose name is "Play Menu" on the handset. The radio menu system is only > accessible when the source is set to radio, which makes sense. Like the > Yamaha, the Panasonic can handle audio content via USB. However, it has a > couple of huge plus points which are not available on the Yamaha. Because > the device incorporates AirPlay functionality, it can also handle a lot more > audio formats, such as MP3 (VBR and CBR), Wav, FLAC, WMA, Quicktime Movie and > M4a/B/MPEG. You'll notice that I included Quicktime Movie. That was no > mistake. And the reason for that is that the Panasonic also allows you to > play video content from an external device such as a USB hard drive or memory > stick. > > I am, as some on list might remember, not the type of person who immediately > dives for the user guide when I get a new device like this. However, I won't > deny that having the guide available to me in this instance would probably be > very valuable. That said, the user's guide that comes in the box is > astonishingly thin, and the print is so small that even Lynne who has > excellent vision had some difficulty reading parts of it. When I tried to > scan it, no matter which scanner, which OCR software and which operating > system I used, I haven't been able to find anything which is capable of > recognising the unusually small print font they've used. I also have to > admit that Yamaha UK were unusually helpful in terms of providing me access > to their documentation. They actually created a PDF version of the manual > that was not encrypted for me. The reason for that being that the > downloadable version was multilingual and split into columns. Because of the > encryption they have used, it wasn't possible to OCR that and remove the > additional languages, or even to load it into some readers at all. > > With regards Internet radio, yes the Panasonic we have does support this. > However, as you rightly say it's not really accessible. To me, nothing could > matter less. I already have what I need for Internet radio on another device > and as has been discussed on list before now, that device is totally > configurable to the user's requirements. Added to which is the fact that I > rarely use Internet radio much these days anyway. When I/we do use it, it's > only to listen to one of about 3 Sky.FM channels and, as I said, that is > already set up on another device. I'm far more concerned with other media > and the Panasonic gives me access to all of that without issue. > > Finally, I can't remember which CD formats the Yamaha TSX-140 supports. > However, the Panasonic has no issues with CDR/CDR-W/CDR+W so that's not an > issue for me. I still have a lot of experimentation to perform before I can > claim that I've discovered all of the good and bad bits with this machine. > But so far I have no reason for serious complaint. > > Anyway I am rambling again. I'd be happy to continue this discussion off > list is anybody is interested. Again I'm trying to be very objective and I'm > certainly not saying that the device we now have is better in every respect, > because it isn't. > > Gordon > > On 26 May 2012, at 13:15, Dane Trethowan <[email protected]> wrote: > > Yes, I had heard that Panasonic had lifted their game with regard to their > Micro systems. > > I'm sorry you had difficulty with the TSX-140, I still have my Yamaha TSX-130 > here and wouldn't part with it. > > Regarding the Panasonic I had been thinking of buying it had nice extras like > Bluetooth though Panasonic had taken some shortcuts. > > For example, the Panasonic model I have talks about Internet Radio? Yes, it > does have that though you have to use the IOS Panasonic App with your IOS > device connected to bluetooth to get it working, that alone didn't worry me > however what did annoy me was that the Panasonic app which tunes the Internet > radio and controls many of the Panasonic's features was inaccessible, so much > for that! > > Quality from Bluetooth streaming is okay! but still nowhere near as good as > what you'll get from an "Airplay" System. > > With the Panasonic I had there was no indication as to what sort of amplifier > it was using, whether that be digital or anoalogue, I know my Yamaha uses a > digital. > > Anyway was disappointed with the Panasonic I had so didn't go any further > with the purchase and thankfully I was able to try it before handing over any > money. > > Again I stress that this was just one model I tried and what Panasonic models > are available here are certainly different to what may be available else > where. > > Now my opinion on the best sounding Desktop Hi-Fi system? No going past the > Bose range, yep you pay for them but you hear the difference, just unreal. > > Second to that are Altec Lansing, both Bose and Altec Lansing blow the common > house-hold brands out of the race and so they ought to with the prices > charged <smile>, just proves you pay for quality most of the time. > > > > On 26/05/2012 10:05 PM, Gordon Smith wrote: >> Hi all >> >> This is just based on my initial findings.. However, I wanted to post to >> see if anybody is interested before I go further. >> >> So, here goes. Just before Christmas Lynne bought us a Yamaha TSX-140 >> desktop audio system. Unfortunately, that system went wrong and, after a >> protracted dispute with the Amazon seller she bought it from, we eventually >> got our money back. >> >> On Thursday of this week, Lynne and I went to a local retail store and >> started looking around at their range of available systems, of which their >> were many. Eventually we opted to chance our arm on a Panasonic system. >> This particular system was priced at 90 Pounds less than Lynne paid for the >> Yamaha, although in all fairness I later found the Yamaha on a different >> site for the same price as the Panasonic. Anyway, feature-wise, the >> Panasonic blows the Yamaha out of the water, just as it does in terms of >> design and the sound of its audio reproduction. I'll list more if anybody >> is interested. But I'm very pleased with our investment. >> >> Gordon >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> This message was sent using 100% recycled electrons; via Gordon's iPhone 4S: >> +44 7907 823971 >> >> ------------------------------ >> >> >> ======================================= >> >> The Techno-Chat E-Mail forum is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus >> and worm-free >> >> To modify your subscription options, please visit for forum's dedicated web >> pages located at >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/techno-chat >> >> You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Techno-Chat group at >> either of the following websites: >> >> http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/techno-chat/index.html >> >> Or: >> <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> >> you may also subscribe to this list via RSS. 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