Yamaha TSX-120BL Desktop Audio System (Single, Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)First, let me say that I am a huge Yamaha fan. I have three Yamaha receivers in use throughout the house and several others that have been replaced scattered through several other houses. It really pains me that I have to give this a split score, a 5 for what it does do and a 3 for what it should do at this price. I guess that's what audio magazines rate as "value".
Yamaha seems to resist adding features to their audio equipment. For example, it took years for their AV receivers to get a decent number of HDMI inputs. Or any at all. That's why I stuck with my RX-V1 for so long; beautiful sound, eight years to get four HDMI inputs on the RX-V1900, a nicely priced AV receiver that sounds as good as that old RX-V1 but has some newer features and for a very reasonable price. This same conservative design approach has really cut into the TSX-120's ability to be a fully useful device, especially when they are charging this premium price.
Like all Yamaha audio products this radio sounds absolutely terrific as either a radio or as a playback device for an iPod. And that's the good part. Also on the good side is that it has two alarm inputs for you and your SO's convenience. But that is about the outer edge of the good features for this radio. What it does, it does really well. It just does not do enough. One thing I noticed right away is that those alarms can not be turned on by the remote. This is a feature I'm used to with my Bose Wave radio (the one that died of old age), a similarly priced competitor, and I can see no reason Yamaha could not have included this useful feature. Just wait for the first twenty times you climb into bed and then have to get up to manually push the Alarm Set button on the unit and you'll probably agree.
This radio only has an FM radio. Too bad for me since I listen to so much AM radio but I could live with that if the FM came with HDRadio capability. Yamaha buys a ton of these chipsets for their RX and the newer Aventage receivers. That they use HD in their newest model indicates to me that they are in the HDRadio game for the long haul, which I'm happy about as I very much enjoy HDRadio, so why not include it? Adding HDRadio would have been a huge step in making this a little more worth the price.
Oh, and the layout of the remote is difficult to use and a bit arcane.
My final complaint has already been documented in other reviews. I'd like to have seen more of a differentiation in the size of the time numbers and the other info on the front panel. As a matter of fact, I'd like to see the numbers at all. This clock sits on a dresser on my wife's side of the bed and those little numbers just aren't legible to me when I wake up, bleary-eyed, in the middle of the night.
All in all, the TSX-120 is a terrific $150 clock/radio/iPod player. Except that it has an MSRP of $399. You'll have to be a real Yamaha fan to buy one of these, which I am. But not at this price, I wish there was more competition so I could have just returned it but there is not. Too much for too little pretty much wraps it up and I think I'll use it for the title of this piece.

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Set it to wake you to your favorite music in the morning, then use it as a handy place to deposit things you need, like eyeglasses or keys. And with its real wood top panel, the Yamaha TSX120BL Desktop Audio System will add an attractive touch to any interior.

Buy cheap Yamaha TSX-120BL Desktop Audio System (Single, Black) now.

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