Sony CMTG1BIP Hi-Fi Sound System with DAB Radio

This is an outstanding HiFi system with many features and, above all, an excellent sound. I am listening mainly to classical music and the sound is crystal clear, very rich and spacious. A true pleasure to listen to. The DAB radio is brilliant and the playback of CDs (burned as well) and of MP3 on a memory stick very satisfactory as well, depending obviously on the level of the original recording. Being very compact it fits in small places as well.

At £185 it's a real bargain and delivery was very fast too. Very much recommended for as long as it stays at this price !!! It is sold for £399 at Sony: [...]

Sony couldn't have found much else to add to this audio system, it plays radio stations, cds, mp3 players and flash drives, and plays them well.
A really good piece of kit for the price I bought it at. I wish I'd bought it 3 months ago when I would have saved another £60.(could've bought more cds)
I've been using it for a month now and although it's always difficult to quantify audio quality because it's so subjective I'm going to try.
Clear and weighty would be my one sentence summation. There's scale to the sound, the top end is clear but slightly soft and the bass is tight. Instruments sound as they're meant to and the soundstage is good. The speakers are very good but probably are the weak link. I've wired them up with 2x10m length of 322 strand 2.5mm professional speaker cable as I need a long run, I believe this sounds better than the supplied cable.(I may try some other speakers and report back later. Using headphones shows even more the quality of the electronic part of the system.
I suppose this system will be compared to the Denon DENON DM38DAB MICRO SYSTEM (BLACK) My own tastes find the Denon sound to be a bit on the hard side and since I use headphones a lot, the issues with it's headphone socket also make it a non starter for me.
Other reviewers have mentioned DAB & FM reception, I live in a strong signal area so have had no problems with the supplied arials. That didn't stop me attaching a telescopic rod arial for DAB and my outside one for FM (I still believe FM on Radio 3 is superior to DAB) Once again the sound is very good.
Haven't used my mp3 player through it so can't comment on that.
CDs, it's played everything I've put in the tray, including some 10 year old discs I burnt myself (glad I spent the extra on TAIYO YUDEN discs) and the cd layer of my SACD discs. Excellent sound quality again. There is no CD player noise, (it sits about 2 feet away from my head so I would notice this) Loads and reads the discs quickly.
USB port, Load speeds depend on the size of the drive and the contents, it doesn't support wave or flac formats only MP3, WMA and AAC also you have to scroll through folders sequentially. A 16 gig drive with 97 root folders can take some time, but it does allow resume play. It also displays the folder name,(not all do) has the usual ID3 tag details when playing, accessed by display button on remote. Obviously the sound depends on the compression used, but once again I would say it bring out the best in it's source material.
(For us oldies, remember many of us started listening to our music on Dansettes so MP3s ain't that bad when using 320kps)
Soundwise I would say this is a lovely sounding machine for the money and I don't mean to damn with faint praise.
The build quality is superb, a really hefty feeling to both speakers and the main unit. Speaker posts are full size and solid as are the other sockets. The knobs feel,again I use the word, solid and are a pleasure to use, The remote is small not very intuitive but usable. The display is clear.
The speakers look beautiful with their piano black gloss finish, the covers come off showing a bright yellow Kevlar mid speaker. This means that the lady off the house insists the covers stay on.
As you can see from my 5 stars I'm delighted with the Sony CMTG1BIP Hi-Fi Sound System with DAB Radio
Happy Listening.

I'm adding to the review, due to my son bringing me a pair of Mission 751 speakers to test on the Sony. I must say they show that the Sony speakers are the weak link in this system. The Sony did not disgrace itself, the new speakers opened out the sound giving a far better soundstage and showing the quality of the Sony electronics off to good effect. I had already put the Sony speakers on stands and the Missions have their own.
This system really does punch above its weight.

I'm pleasantly surprised by this package. The build quality is excellent, the controls are easy to use, and, last but not least, the sound quality is excellent. As well as the CD player and DAB & FM tuners it also has an AM (medium wave) tuner and two line-level audio inputs, which should come in handy.

I do have a couple of minor quibbles though:

1. The supplied speaker leads are too short for good speaker positioning in an average size living room. A trip to B&Q for 10m of 79 strand speaker cable sorted that, and I note that the connectors are well up to handling this thicker cable.

2. The single wire DAB and FM antennas supplied are not up to much. DAB reception is a bit iffy, and I suspect a shorter piece of wire might work better. However I sorted out the problem by attaching a telescopic rod aerial from a dead Pure DAB radio. This screws straight onto the 'F' connector on the Sony and works well (and looks a lot neater). An FM/DAB antenna in the loft is my next job.

I bought some 600mm tall speaker stands to get the speakers off the floor and away from the wall. This might seem a bit over the top for such small speakers, but I think the improvement in sound quality justifies the expense.

I doubt there's a better system out there for under £200.