LISTENING
Frankly, I wasn’t expecting anything special when I connected the DSX-S100 into my reference system. I mean it is after all a pretty economical unit, so I was pleasantly surprised with the rather fine sounding performance it delivered. The tuner did a good job of pulling in all the usual stations, and the sound of the tuner was very competitive with other receivers costing hundreds more. When playing MP3 tracks recorded at 192kbits or higher, the Sony actually sounded very good in all respects. And this was with all of the DSP trickery and enhancements turned off. The frequency response sounded very natural and flat, with very good low extension and excellent detail in the upper registers as well. Female vocal, acoustic guitar and grand piano all came across with very natural and realistic timbre. I won’t claim that it’s as good as my reference CD player, but for playback of compressed digital media, it sounds very good indeed. I experimented with the EQ and crossover functions, and everything seemed to work as you’d expect. Because I do not do my listening in a car, I can’t really comment on the DSO function except to say that it definitely made a difference in the sonics when I turned it on. Throughout the listening session, I could find no serious faults at all with the sonics of the Sony.
ON THE BENCH
Moving back into the electronics lab, I connected the DSX-S100 to the test bench and fired up my trusty Audio Precision analyzer. I put the unit through the full battery of tests, and it met or exceeded all of its published specifications for audio performance. Output impedance measured a respectable 146 ohms, and distortion numbers were well below anything approaching audibility. Frequency response was also nice and flat, especially for a USB based device. Check out the measured specification section for details on the DSX-S100’s performance.
CONCLUSION
The Sony DSX-S100 is proof that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a good quality, easy to use, very good sounding digital media receiver. It wasn’t all that long ago when CD players would struggle to meet the kind of performance specs laid down by this unit. Sure, it doesn’t have the coolest display, or maybe lacks some of the more advanced technologies or conveniences, but when you remember that it allows you to take thousands of your favorite songs with you, and costs less than an average cassette player did in 1990, the value is obvious.
For more information visit:
US: www.xplodsony.com
Can www.sonystyle.ca/xplod
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