Crisp reproduction, solid build, tight speakers, excellent value.

Without subwoofer, bass is tepid. Clunky changer. No numbers on remote to dial in tracks.

This is a review of a MCD-95 purchased at Cotsco for $179, plus tax. The unit is built like a fine watch. It performs well and is an outstanding value. Although weak on bass (how much air can a 3 inch woofer throw), the unit comes with a subwoofer line out, that I took advantage of with great success. I use a $29 plastic powered sub my brother mistakenly bought for his home theater, but it blends surprisingly well with the mini-system. You will need a powered sub if you don't want the highs to dominate your listening. The highs, by the way, are crsp and clear. The speakers are of solid construction and provide stable imaging and a fairly broad soundstage. I agree with the other reviewers who found the system to sound far better than its price would suggest. The speakers are mounted on adjustable speaker stands and toed-in to my listening position. All the music types I listen to (jazz, new age, techno, hip-hop, hard rock) are reproduced faithfully.

Minor quibbles: the remote lacks numbers for instant access to tracks and direct tuning. The changer is slow and clunky.

That said, I am extemely satisfied with the purchse. It is an amazing value, and if it proves reliable, highly recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa, Denon mini-systems

Quality build and quality sound.

None to be found at the moment.

Taking the unit out of the box you could tell that care and attention had been given even in the packaging of the system (double boxed and wrapped).

Once I got it set up it was not long before I realized that the same attention to detail had also gone into the design and functunality of the unit itself.

I only have had the unit a short time but am very impressed with the overall quality of build and the musicality of the system.

Even the speakers impressed me, as normally in the mini-system catagory you find that is the first place where cost cutting is done.

I also have a pair of tower DCM Timeframe T 350's that I hooked up to the Reference 100 and I was amazed at how well the Reference 100 drove them.

Never thought much about Teac before (other then their open reel decks) but they sure have a winner with this system.

I was so impressed with the quality of this unit that I have ordered the matching tape deck and eventually will be purchasing the mini-disk deck as well.

Hopefully they will have been built to the same standard as the Reference Series 100.

Similar Products Used:

Have auditioned Sony and JVC mini-systems.

Nice small design; solid; decent tuner

Picky remote

I was looking for a little unit to put next to the bed, and this did the job nicely. The unit is very solidly built: the CD tray slides out quietly; the CD doesn't squeak; the buttons can't be broken off the front panel; it's nice and small.

Compared with the highly-rated Denon systems (which originally purchased, and returned), this one is far better designed and built. The Denons play at a higher volume, as would be expected. I was surprised by how much better the TEAC tuner was than the Denon, on both FM and AM. Also, the Denons have some of those bad design quirks that seem to plague so many systems: timer can be set only from remote; manual tuning can be done only from the front panel, and so forth. Bizarre. The TEAC layout is significantly more natural, although not without its own quirks. Keep in mind that the TEAC remote is essentially useless anyhow, unless you're within a foot of the unit and pointing right at it.

The sound is good -- plays louder than the Panasonic units,
but not as deep as the Denons. The size of the system was more important to me than the volume it plays at, so I'm quite happy with it.

Costco sells what appears to be the identical unit (same buttons, same specs, same speakers, slightly different housing, model MC-D80) for $199, which is a heck of a bargain.

Similar Products Used:

Denon DM3, DM5; Panasonic SMP01; Sony

This thing is small and sounds big, well defined, close your eyes, forget you paid 200 bucks and let yourself believe it sounds as good as it does.

for the price, absolutely none

This is the kind of product that really pisses you off. After spending countless hours refining my system, and after 6000 dollars out of my bank account, along comes this little teac. I'd say it has 70% of the overall "sonic stuff" as my reference system for 3% of the price. No, the depth of the soundstage and the separation of instruments is not as refined as my reference system, but for 187 dollars, who cares? What I love about it is the value of this product. It is honest, detailed, undistorted music, that despite its shoebox size, does not sound underpowered. Buy one for every room of the house; buy one for your best friend; have some fun and hook a sub up to it; and go out to dinner every night for a year with the money you saved. I love this thing...the price is anti-audiophile, the sound is anything but.

Similar Products Used:

Auditioned similar products from Linn, yamaha, nakamichi, and, of course, Denon.

Truly miniature, clarity and reality of sound picture, price against performance competition

poor fringe FM reception with included antenna, rather weak remote control signal.

Review is actually for the Ref 130. As a musician, jazz and classical music (and folk, and rock, and so on...)enthusiast, and former production and performance audio engineer, I'm pretty demanding of audio equipment. For what it pretends to be, this is the best buy I've found, having looked at every major brand as well as some minor ones. The oft-cited noisy CD changer seems inevitable, given the separate control available for each disk. The control schema is easily mastered with a single reading of the instructions, and one may easily go beyond the tone controls of the presets, though it isn't really necessary for most program material. I use it in my home office, tucked back in the corner of my huge old desk, attached for now to an ancient pair of TV rabbit ears. I'll probably get a Terk powered antenna or such like. No, this is not a masterwork of audiophile main-system engineering. It is however the most enjoyable small system I've ever used. I'm not sure, from what I've read here, that a subwoofer is necessary but I may add one just to see what it would do for this already-satisfying product. Additionally, I've begun using it as a component of my computer-based audio studio, and it previews product nicely as it performs both studio-monitor and near-field-playback monitoring functions.

Similar Products Used:

none

deacent sound for a small package, decent amount of inputs, subwoofer out

clunky cd changer

This review is for the MD-C90 at costco.
I bought this system for the bedroom because i needed something small and compact. the speakers are of decent quality w/ 5.25 in woofer and 1 in tweeter. it's got clear sound but lacks in bass good midrange. for teh bedroom its fine teh only quibble i got is teh remote, no numbers for direct tuning or direct track access. and teh changer is clunky, sounds like its gonna break when loading/changing cds. other than that it sounds great for under $200 and its solid built. looks like a much more expensive system. very pleased.

Similar Products Used:

aiwa at costco (very vheap looking and sounding)

Great sound.

Awkward size.

I bought the Teac Reference 130 on the strength of the previous reviews on Audioreview.com. The only mini-system I had been able to find in local stores was the Bose Acoustic Wave. Believe me, you can trust the previous reviews. In my view, the Teac 130 sounds as good, if not better.

However, when we compare the details, the Teac 130 comes out way ahead. First, the Bose has no bass or treble or loudness or equalizer controls. In contrast, with the Teac 130 I can set bass and treble (albeit by means of a multifunction dial) and in addition has four equalizer presets (classical, pop, vocal, and rock). The classical presets enhances the sound to make the music sound clear as a bell in a concert hall. The rock preset (which I use for jazz recordings) achieves a solid bass sound, with sharp highs, and crisp midrange with great separation. At higher volumes, "flat" is better.

Second, the Teac has a 3-disc changer. Granted it is a little noisy, but so what? I can load two discs, while listening to a third. I can shuffle all selections on three discs.

Third, the Teac has jacks for a subwoofer (not really needed) and for headphones. The Bose has neither.

In my opinion, the Bose Acoustic Wave is a quite expensive ($1079 !!!) step above a great clock radio (the smaller Wave radio). The Teac 130 is a real mini-system at roughly one third the price. I put it in my small library just above the computer. It fills the room with a joyous noise!! I use the remote contral from a short distance with no problem. I'm not a real audiophile, but I do love music clear, deep, and bright.

The buyer should be aware, however, that the unit does not fit easily on a shelf. The online photograph is misleading and not even the Teac website provides the dimensions. The unit is not wide (only about 16 inches wide total all bunched up), but the changer/amp/tuner is rather long (14 inches). It hangs a couple of inches off my computer hutch. The speakers are not as deep (a little more than 8 inches). It looks a little awkward on my 11 inch shelf.

The other minor weakness is the multifunction buttons. It took me a while to preset the FM stations and to set the time. After that, however, I had no problems with either the buttons on the front of the unit or with the remote.

In conclusion, a really big, clear sound in a small package at a good price. Highly recommended for music lovers with limited space.

Similar Products Used:

Bose Acoustic Wave (in store)

can you get a better deal

cd changer

So - I'm writing this review for all the audiophiles out there who have a good system but need another and don't want to spend a whole lot but also don't want to get disappointed.

I recently moved to the US leaving my Epos/Exposure ($5k) system back home.
I was in desperate need for a new system but didn't want to spend too much money till I settle down.

When I read one of the reviews here that said that the MC-D90 was basically the same as the highly prices ref-130, together with the fact that they were selling it for 170$ at Costco, I said to myself - what the heck, lets buy it.

Now - I listen to a lot of jazz. Everybody who has a good ear for stereo systems knows that if you want to test a system - jazz does a pretty good job. For me - the test is usually Diana Krall - quality recording with vocals and bass.

IF the bass isn't tight and the vocals aren't crisp - I usually get annoyed.

Well I must say - this baby is pretty good. At first you will be missing your main system. well you can't really compare 170$ to 5k$ but I am listening to it a lot and feeling pretty good with all the jazz I'm hearing. Audiophiles usually know that - either it's ok/great or it's annoying. well this baby is ok - trust me.

I don't really like the 3 CD changer cause these things tend to break. but even if it does brake eventually, I can always hook it up with an external CD and I still think I got a good deal.

you can always spend more money on the denon alternative - but who can listen to those mission speakers anyway. just try comparing the tight jazz bass on the teac speakers with the mission ones and you will see.

so - ignite your car and go to Costco. what are you waiting for.

Smooth base and tight treble; good build quality with plenty of room for expansion.

Midrange mediocre. Noisy disk mechanism, and unit had an OOB failure.

I'm very impressed with the CR-H100. The unit I purchased was sold without speakers, so I matched it up with a pair of Mission M71's to good effect (I also tried MA Bronze 2's, but I found these didn't complement the system quite as well). I auditioned the system for pop, jazz and classical, and found it handled all but the complex jazz tracks easily. This trend continued once I had the unit home and warmed up. Sound wise, I would rate the bass as excellent, the treble as good, and the only disappointment is a narrow band in the midrange which sounded distinctly 'twangey'. This isn't exposed very often though, so all up I rate the sound as 8/10.

The features are similar to those offered on other makes and models, with the added benefit of extra line inputs on the back for minidisk & tape. The overall design is logical, and the unit is solid and attractive. The remote is also comprehensive and easy to use. My only criticisms would be that the CD mechanism is quite noisy when starting and seeking tracks, and the minimum volume on the unit could be a bit too loud if you're trying to go to sleep with it on.

The unit I bought had an out of box failure with a clock that kept resetting itself, but I suspect this is back luck rather than bad design. Overall I think the unit represents excellent value for money.

Similar Products Used:

None; it's the first non-component system I've every bought!

Solid built, Great sound, Easy to use.

Questionable disk drive and poor remote

I bought the unit at costco and it worked out great.
good sound even at loud levels. Fully adjustable for bass and treble, most systems only have rock/pop/classic.

the only problems is that it only worked for one week, then the disk mechinism miss aligned, I heard clicking sounds and it swallowed 2 of my disks. I called Teac and they said drives got misaligned do to shipping and must take unit in for alignment.

It has a full function remote except that you cannot scan the cd songs by holding down the >> button.

You have to be in front of the unit to use the remote.