Teac DR-H300DAB and DR-H300 Review (Optional DAB)
Teac have integrated many hi-fi and cinema boxes into one unit without compromising build or sound quality. It is step that all hi-fi manufacturers should be doing to avoid the dominance of Games consoles having more and more added features (MP3, CD and Movies). Teac DR-H300 or the Teac DR-H300DAB are beautifully styled in both black or brushed silver to reflect today's lifestyle and similar to the TEAC CRH255 but with DVD playback.For movies:
Picture quality was as expected; with both excellent HDMI and SCART. Sound wise up to excellent DTS quality was achievable but only in 2.1 amplification and was disappointed not to see no 5.1 outputs or decoding. Personally I never feel the effect of surround sound after the first few minutes when my head is completely still however for films like Saving Private Ryan I would like having the option for 4.0...shame! Anyway it played Region 1, 2 and 3 DVD's without any problems and even DivX.
For music:
Like the TEAC CRH255 the USB port supports both WMA and MP3 music files from a MP3 player, USB for memory sticks, Windows MP3 players or even external hard drive. Like other USB from ports from Teac it will not connect to Apple iPod brands (Reed comments section).
As well as exceptional DAB reception you get RDS FM/AM and has 50 station presets and a CD Player.
I was expecting the same neutral TEAC sound and to a certain extent it was. Perhaps a little more bass extension and detailed treble, however this could be because of the new DAC from the CD player. It also comes down to taste, you may love a neutral sound that you could pick some exciting speakers for or you may prefer a more exciting sounding amp like a Rotel or NAD and prefer to go for neutral sounding speakers. Either way this does have that audiophile like sound.
Recommended speakers are those that are not neutral and have a punch such as any large Mission like Mission M33. Cute small speakers will not give you deep bass and some great neutral speakers like Tannoy M2's fast enough bass!
I am a big fan of Teac and though I prefer rock music from my NAD or a Rotel amp and classical from a Marantz amp where the Teac can not compete. Teac is still however the most stylish and best sounding micro systems on the market and ideal for today smaller houses where a NAD or a Rotel amp would not sound or look right in. For only £300 this does represent a huge saving in terms of buying hi-fi separates and a DVD player. Score: 8/10
Related Links:
TEAC CRH255
Teac Reference 300 MKIII Review (optional DAB)
posted by Dami @ 3:52 PM
10 Comments
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10 Comments:
Hello I am looking for this system here (NL) and I am wondering with which loudspeakers did you test this system?
Tannoy Mx2 and some old discontinued Teac's. Both lacked very deep bass for ambient/house/piano type music. Some larger Tannoy M2's improved the sound but I did not get the same quality of bass that I do with my NAD amp set up.
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Tell me something I don't know (everyone knows the sound is great).
The DR-H300 does seem to find all MP3s even in subdirectories and even supports MP3s on a data DVD-R. Unfortunately it does not display ID3 tag info in the builtin display (like the CR-H255 does) but only numbers, which makes it hard to navigate tracks without switching on the TV.
Also it did not support audio feedback while fast forwarding/backwarding with MP3s (the CR-H255 does) and when skipping to the next Mp3 track, it sometimes takes a lot of time (up to 10 secs). A Teac representative confirmed this to me via email and said it was due to the different disc drive (again compared to the CR-H255 which did not do this).
By the way, the only reason they don't support iPods on the USB port, is that iPods have the music files in a hidden folder (the Windows iPods at least). If you change this on Windows Explorer they should work (until iTunes makes the folder hidden again). Mac iPods don't work because they have a different filesystem on the HD.
If you are mainly interested in music and don't need the video, go for the CR-H255 instead.
I have a brand new DR-H300 with region 2. I cannot play any other region disks. My model is without DAB. Does anybony know a way around this?. A DVD-hack perhaps?.
Thanks.
I'm thinking on buying one with Monitor Audio Bronze BR1 speakers. What i would really like to know is if it plays DivX videos from an external USB HD.
Regionfree...
The dvd setup fw seems to be the same as in philips mcd708, and the regionfree code for the Philips unit works for DR-H300 aswell.
(http://www.videohelp.com/dvdhacks?select=Philips+MCD708)
Will this unit playpack DivX from a USB-key?
I'm quite interested in this unit, however since I read some negative things on clipping CD tracks, rattling noises of the drive and bad HDMI performance I wondered whether it would be wiser to buy the Teac CR-H225 instead (with USB) and a separate DVD player which supports DIVX playback via USB...
Any ideas/experiences?
Anyone?
SamB, you may have no choice but check the NAD C715DAB or Denon AVR4308 (both USB + DAB) has DIVX or you might have to go with you initial thoughts.
DIVX is a pain and more units are more likely to have the open source and better compressed Xvid.
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