pioneer xchm86d is it that bad?

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johnnyboy1950

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I want an all in one system for my conservatory. Speakers are already decided, MA bronze BX2, they are my previous speakers before I upgraded my main system. The unit needs to be DLNA compliant, spotify connect, internet radio and preferabley a CD player. I love the look of the Pioneer (nice display) over the Marantz and Onkyo models but the WHF was pretty damning. On the other hand I'm not looking for top priority on SQ (not WHF parameters anyway), but functionality on formats , streaming capabilities etc. is important. If I want to casually stream from Spotify I want it to work! But if the SQ is that bad I would have to consider the others. Anyone out there can back the Pioneer?
 
I cannot find a WHF review of any type on this model. There is a blog and video on Richer Sounds’ and as they have stores in most places would be a good place to listen. They even pair with MA speakers in the blog, though not your exact model.
 

treidlia

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Hi

I have older Xhm82, for 2 years driving MA Bx1.

I think it is a great piece of kit. My shortlist of competitors was Marantz 610, Denon Ceol N9.

I also liked Cambridge Audio Minx but wanted good old fm.

As a fruit-based house Apple AirPlay was a must, and with flakey broadband fm was too.

i was upgrading from non-networked Onkyo cr310 and wanted more power more connectivity and better fm tuner

My purchase decision was significantly influenced by feature set of the pioneer, it really had every connection I wanted. and also the rotary volume knob instead of the plus/minus buttons of ther two short listed

I had worried that it would be a confusion of different inputs but it all works very well, the interface is not very ambitious which helps internet radio probably weakest .

i love tha manner in which I can push to it from WiFi, eg it might be on FM but if I push from a device eg Spotify Connect it allows its current input to be overridden, no need to switch input

it makes a much better sound with MA than previous Onkyo but that’s not a fair comparison as that only had 20wpc, but I can hear a real difference.

The fm tuner is especially good, but actually cuts off completely rather than going fuzzy.

Some negatives

I find the screen much less impressive and less useful than I would have thought. I suspect Ceol screen would be best if that important .

i don’t like the absence of a clock when off.

i don’t like the extra standby power consumption to allow rapid startup.

Wifi reception strength is mediocre.

the App could do with some work, for example pull the FM favourite names from RDS instead of calling them FM1 etc.

So in short I like mine. I was probably actually saving for Marantz at the time, but happy with my choice .
 

johnnyboy1950

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my comments were based on the WHF review of the Pioneer X-HM72-K which gave it 3 stars. however the one i am looking at is the Pioneer XCHM86D which is different but looks identical on the front panel, and has some good reviews on Richer sounds etc.

anyone got one of these?
 

nick8858

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I don't have this model but I do have the NC-50 DAB which is a similar box of tricks. I think its absolutely fine and ticks all my boxes. Neat compact unit which does evrything, and does it well
 

johnnyboy1950

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Thanks. Your model is more money than the one I'm looking at. Although SQ is important I want convenience and workability as well as it is going in the conservatory. With DAB I mainly listen to BBC 6 music which I have on a preset button or last station on my Roberts 93i. I would not want to have to faff about scrolling through stations just to put the radio on!. Whats your experience with your model.

I believe you can store internet radio stations on presets which would be OK i guess.
 
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