Crisp, clear sound.

Weak bass.

Purchased the unit for $306 (delivered) after reading numerous on-line reviews. I've had it just over a month now. I listen to CDs about 90% of the time, FM radio 9% of the time, and AM once in a while. The CDs range from classical and jazz to rock and opera. The unit plays a few hours per day, and I'm listening closely for about an hour. The general consensus of the reviews was that: 1) Remote difficult to use. Not true if you are willing to spend ten or fifteen minutes with the manual. 2) Not a lot of low end bass response. True, but what can you reasonably expect from an 80mm "mid-woofer"? It is surprisingly good once you've adjusted the Bass/Mid/Treble controls for your listening volume. WARNING! My unit arrived with the loudness turned ON and the unit sounded *very* bad when I played it for the first time. Adjust the controls; they work wonders to tune the sound to your listening area. 3) The sound is very crisp and clear. I find this to be very true. I had no idea several of my CDs could sound so good. Of course, playing with speaker placement works wonders. 4) The unit does not produce enough sound for large spaces. Probably true; I've played it at maximum volume a few times because I had to turn it up full to get the volume I wanted... and I try to treat my hearing with respect. I have the unit set up in the main cabin, measuring 3 meters/10 feet by 2 meters/6.5 feet, of a sailboat. Having listened to one disc I've had for years on the SoundSpace 1, and having been pleased with how good it sounded, I listened to the (nominally) same disc again, one day later, at a friend's. His copy of the disc sounded much better, but I initially attributed the better sound to his $30,000 McIntosh stereo. (Yes, that's $30,000.) I borrowed his disc, wondering if the Nakamichi, though good, was that much inferior to the "real" stereo. I got home and played both discs back to back and discovered that my version of the disc was flat and weak sounding, and lacking in detail. (Shame on Rykodisc.) Yes, the McIntosh is better, but not $29,694 better. Maybe closer to $17,350. =) One reason I chose the unit was its small size and ease of wall (or bulkhead, in my case) mounting. It sounds fine wall-mounted, in my space, but be aware that the wires require some effort to hide. The speakers contain the amplifiers, so the main unit connects to each speaker with an Ethernet cable. Nakamichi includes two sets of cables, one set 0.3 meters (about a foot) and the other 1.5 meters. Don't think you'll be able to use lamp cord to connect the speakers.... The FM tuner sounds very good with the included antenna. AM sounds better than I expected, but who cares about sound when listening to traffic reports? The unit also has two alarms and therefore functions quite nicely as an alarm clock. You can set each alarm to play a CD, turn on the tuner or sound a slightly annoying tone. The remote will not activate the snooze button, so place the unit near the bed or get up. I get up. That's what the alarm is for, right? The unit has pleased me sufficiently that I'm actually going to buy the SoundSpace 5 with sub-woofer to replace this unit, which I'll move to the forward cabin where I sleep. The sub-woofer will fill out the bottom end, my only "complaint" with the unit, and I get a great new alarm clock besides. My only worry is Nakamichi's spotty reputation for build quality. They've discontinued several of their products over the last few years for truly egregious design errors. Their products generally sound good, but those discontinued products drove some customers nuts. Google will turn up the problem products. The SoundSpace 1 isn't one of the bad ones.

Sound quality is amazing for such a small unit. Two alarm settings make it useful as an alarm clock in the bedroom. Speaker placement is not limited by the cable length. The speaker cables are standard Cat5 data cables and you can substitute longer data cables if the speakers need to be on bedside tables. Remote control is compact and can control almost all features (see weakness). Looks great.

Not cheap, but worth every cent. Only a few nits. Snooze button is only function that cannot be accessed from the remote, so the unit needs to be nearby if you want to us that feature. No battery backup for the alarm if that is important.

An excellent mini stereo system that also serves as a bedside alarm clock. The tuner and CD player are outstanding. The sound is first class and the unit is full featured.

Similar Products Used:

Sony clock radio. Bose clock radio.

Sounds awesome. Totally fills the room and the sound is clear as a bell. Fits easily on the nightstand and looks very cool.

One weakness - the speaker wires are not long enough to allow you to place the speakers separately on the nightstands. You either have to mount it on the wall or stand the whole thing together on one.

I use it as a stereo for the bedroom and it doubles as a clock radio. It has a dual alarm function (each alarm can be set to wake you up to different radio stations, or even a CD and a buzzer) and doesn''t light up at all unless you tap the snooze button. Thus, no glare at all. The sound is amazing from such a small stereo. It was totally worth the money.

Similar Products Used:

None.