Home audio shocker! Onkyo aims new compact systems at 'audiophiles'
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted July 23rd 2010 3:17PM
posted July 23rd 2010 3:17PM
Onkyo, known in these parts for everything from digiframes to a rather wild selection of PCs, has announced a set of compact audio systems aimed at the audiophile (though to be fair, Onkyo's definition of "audiophile" might be different than our own). For the well-heeled consumer, the CS-1045DAB (pictured after the break) sports 70W (x2) output, three analog and both optical and coaxial SPDIF inputs, a front-mounted USB port, VLSC Vector Linear Shaping Circuit tech, and a 24-bit Burr-Brown DAC. Score! Available at the end of August for £600 ($925) or bundled with a pair of D-145 speakers for £700 ($1,080). If your budget's a little tighter (and we can't blame you if it is) the CS-545UK (pictured above) is a cute little guy that features a digital amp, 2 x 50W output, MP3 compatible, tray-loaded CD player (remember those?), both an iPod dock and USB input, video out (presumably composite) and sub woofer out. Ships with a pair of D-045 2-way bass reflex speakers for £349 ($537) or without for £249. Look for it in September, kids!
Your last 3 posts engadget have all been apple related.....Enough Said.
@Fizzy No they haven't been. This post has nothing to do with apple. It has everything to do with a home audio system for anyone with $1k to spend on a bookshelf system. Just because the images provided by Onkyo show iPod Touch/ iPhone integration doesn't mean it's an Apple post. All it means is that the picture boasts such an integration. Stop hating on Engadget.
@Fizzy
Simmer down, it's ok.
However, audiophiles don't source their music from an iPod...
@Fizzy Someone's been drinking a little too much Hater-ade! Lol.
@Fizzy
...are you serious?
It's the NEWS, deal with it.
@DonClark
Who decides what is newsworthy then. Alabama farm news about missing pigs is news. For some.
@jrm125
What. You mean that Apple did not invent music and that ir may be possible to obtain music from other sources than from an Apple product?
That is truly amazing.
@jrm125 Only because of snobbery. Uncompressed audio can be clocked out of an iPod, buffered, and clocked into a decent DAC. Some iPod docks can easily compete with mid-high end CD players.
@timmins
Certainly. And any audiophile worth their salt knows that and how to accomplish it. They also have all of their music ripped in Apple Lossless or Wav.
That said those audiophiles would be looking at a Wadia 171 iTransport with a 151 PowerDAC mini. Then pair it with a pair of B & W CM 5s and you have yourself a nice little bookshelf system for the office.
Either that or just get a B & W Zeppelin or MicroMega WM-10 Airstream. Both with their own advantages and price points.
Not sure how much 'audiophile' quality sound reproduction one can obtain from an iPhone/iPod Touch, but... I'm sure with the right marketing, anything can be sold.
@DaHarder Agreed. I doubt audiophiles think highly of the DAC inside iPods and iPhones. Audiophiles will also want to play something lossless like FLAC, which iPods and iPhones do not natively support.
@liquidkernel Err, scratch the DAC comment. The receiver does the DAC. Eitherway, no good lossless support.
@DaHarder
This was my first thought. iPods have some of the worst sound I've ever heard.
@liquidkernel
ALAC is lossless.
@opc100
If what you meant by "good" sound is highly distorted sound with special effects like BBE, xxxBass, over-inflated EQ, then yes, the iPods don't sound "good." But if one wants a neutral sound, iPods are some of the best sounding ones out there. Not to mention gapless support.
@pika2000
LOL.
@Indefinite Implosion Quite right. It's all about the compression, the DAC, and the clock used to drive the data through the DAC. An iPod can easily compete with a decent CD player, especially through an external DAC.
@DaHarder
They say "Audiophile" because of the Onkyo brand; evidently they have NO IDEA of who are the big ones in the Audiophile and high-end multimedia world. Engadget likes making fun of its own editors. Still if the connection is USB then there's no real problem. If the docked one uses the analog outputs of the iPod then meh.
mp3 does not an audiophile make.
@Mightydh
true, but you can always use Apple Lossless format
@DonClark
Which is not really Lossless either
@DonClark
Nice, but still lacking a bit in the low end...
(cue silly comment about someone's rear end).
I'd rather have one of the more expensive ones, but without the cd player unit.
@JFH
I guess you fail at understanding the world lossless.
It is so funny to see how brand perception is different from the US to the EU.
Onkyo - High end in EU, Makes cheap products for US market
Jeep - Luxury in EU - Average in US
Bose - Crap in EU - THE sound brand in the US
Klipsch - Who? EU - Epic in the US
Nokia - Cool in EU (still), Not so cool in US
No were not, BOSE is a piece of crap..well in my car
@JFH Jeep is below average in the US, way below.
@JFH
Onkyo... not exactly high end, but quite high. Like Marantz I'd say.
BOSE isn't considered crap in the EU, it's considered crap by those who know about audio. Though the average consumer might not care as much about BOSE.
Klipsch... heard of them, but yeah, they are not that well known.
Nokia... not cool anymore (IMHO). Perhaps to the average non-gadget-nerd.
I think it has a lot to do with availability. In the EU we don't get crappy picture frames from Onkyo (AFAIK) or Klipsch speakers (though that is starting to change).
@JFH
Bose?! Talk about perceptions being skewed. Bose stands for buy other sound equipment.
@JFH
@JFH Whoops... hit return key too early.
I would say brand perception varies greatly from person to person. Onkyo used to be thought of as higher end but like all brands trying to survive, the price generally gives way like Denon and Marantz. There are only a select few that need or even know what to do with a $5k stereo and I am certainly not one of them.
@JFH
Brand perception in the US and the EU depends on who you talk to in either country.
@JFH
You forgot about Polk.
@JFH I agree that brands are marketed differently throughout the world but I don't consider Jeep a luxury brand, more like a poor man's Range Rover (although Jeep are a relatively small brand in the UK).
You would be insane to spend $1000 to play mp3s from an iphone that doesnt support flac, or ogg
Excuse me while I go buy a used Marantz 50w amp, some AR-18 speakers, and a B&O rx2 turntable for the same price. I don't see the reason to pay that much money on something that probably isn't even close to the classics. The iPod dock alone makes it quite laughable as it is.
@JFH
Nicely put. Although Klipsch is known more in some countries. In Italy it's a fairly known brand, in nordic countries never heard-of.
In most HI-FI review magazines that I've seen Onkyo usually either wins or comes close. And they are competing against Denon, Maranz, NAD etc. So - no high end, but consumer high end definitely.
And a side note: BOSE is excellent for professional (disco disco disco) where you need the maximum BASS. So if you're a disco freak, BOSE is for you. Definitely.
Yucky, it supports ipods : \ I'll be in search of a music set-up sometime in the future, and one of the main things I'm looking for is that it *doesn't* support ipods. Don't own want, *won't* own, will not support stupid ipod compatible products.
I'm glad you put "audiophiles" in quotes, since the iPod dock on the top marks this clearly as a faux-audiophile product. Although I'm sure many iPod owners fancy themselves as such, anyways.
@sonicyoof
Just because you own an iPod doesn't disqualify you as an audiophile. IMO - an audiophile is someone who listens to music for the pure enjoyment of the music as a singular focus. When you want to do that away from your home rig, what are you gonna do? Lug around a cart with a full hi-fi setup?
@sonicyoof Would that make them fauxdiophiles?
@ndurantz
A pretty typical Apple-user comment. "There's no other product in the world that can play music on the go!"
There are other ways to do it. First, you get good headphones. Then you get pretty much anything but an Apple player. Then you get a portable amp. Then you load your non-Apple player up with FLAC songs and you're set.
Audiophile, from Wikipedia:
"An audiophile is a hobbyist who seeks high-quality audio reproduction via the use of specialized high-end audio electronics."
@sonicyoof And yours is equally that of iphone hater which is pointless. Apple has its own lossless format but to be honest for most people loseless formats are a gimmick. MP3 at high bitrates (320kbps and up) are really very difficult to tell from loseless files with a system that i would feel comfy carrying around (and i carry around in excess of £300 worth of audio gear with out batting an eye on a regular basis). Sure i use a creative zen 16gb (first gen) into a cmoy which then feeds into a pair of denon 751s (i love my bass) iems for portable audio. But the guy who uses the iPhone+ iBasso line out cable + iBasso D2+ high end headphones (or a cmoy if you want) is 1. a hell of alot richer than i am and 2. not losing anything in sound quality to my set up which i would say is fairly reasonable for just riding around on the bus. The Iphone is just as capable as most other mp3 players which is to say that it will work just don't expect miracles from it. Moreover as he has just spent at least £300 on improving his portable audio set up and if that doesn't make him an audiophile then i don't know what does. So all you apple haters just calm down and remember its about the ffing music not how much money you can spend and iphone users are people too.
@iiee
I somewhat agree with what you said, except for that whole "iphone users are people too" part.
My point is, if you're really an audiophile an iPod should not be your first choice. Apparently this Onkyo thing can bypass the crapiness but still, if you're an audiophile you likely don't have an iPod and already have something else. Sure, people can spend a lot of money to get an iPod, that's great, but it seems irrelevant to me.
Oh... BTW, this is kinda bad journalism. Onkyo is still a well respected brand (maybe not in your part of the globe) in consumer high-end music products and the Endgadget quote "though to be fair, Onkyo's definition of "audiophile" might be different than our own" -which does not have a link to Endgadget definition of a audiophile is just plain wrong.
The journalists definition of the area is also lacking, leaving us wonder where on Earth is "Onkyo, known in these parts for everything from digiframes to a rather wild selection of PCs". Where? In Alaska? Uganda? Your parts of the globe is not the same as other parts of the globe. Without having a good listen to the set, you've made your opinion known - which is ignorance is bliss???
Engadget is known throughout the world of it's insightful reporting, and quite often ironic and witty commenting. I love this site, but for some odd reason, this news peace didn't quite sit well with me. You still are reporting globally. Not only in Alaska!
I'd like to have one of the smaller systems for my office, but I'm not paying more than a couple hundred for it, tops. The micro "audiophile" system below it is ridiculously overpriced IMO.
I second that. How is lossless not lossless? FLAC, OGG, Apple Lossless - sure there may be some slight differences, but it doesn't disqualify any of them from being a high resolution codec.
If you want true lossless, you'd have to listen to nothing but live music - a bit inconvenient.
BTW, Onkyo audio equipment doesn’t qualify as "Audiophile" grade. Onkyo is closely rated to Denon, Marantz, Harmon Kardon and a few others which are considered mid-grade audio equipment. Brands like Krell, ML and Aesthetix are probably closer to “Audiophile” grade equipment.
YEEESSSSSS!!
The bookshelf system has been completely abandoned in recent years. I've been cranking a Denon that's been discontinued for years and has very few goodies on it. This is great.
Audiophile and iPhone/iPod should not be in the same sentence.
Onkyo and audiophile should also not be used in the same sentence.
They do make good consumer equipment for the money though.