• out of stock

Sony CD/DVD Hi-Fi System with Bluetooth CMTSBT40D $104 (Was $349) + Delivery ($0 to Metro Areas/ C&C) @ Officeworks

1210

For anyone who still uses CDs, this Sony 50 W micro hi-fi system is on clearance for $104, was $349, with free delivery or C&C from Officeworks. The same model is currently selling for $199 at Amazon and $349 (!) at JB Hi-Fi.

Features include CD/DVD tray, FM radio, USB, NFC (Bluetooth) support, and remote. Reviews are not amazing, but still a pretty decent deal for the price.

Note that video output is via composite cable only (no HDMI or component output). I imagine it would therefore have limited use as a DVD player.

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  • +5

    They havent really released a competitor to cd or dvd-a yet. I thought theyd have gone sd cards or such by now.

    Closest online solution we have is Tidal, but their apparently lossless format turned out to be worse than Ogg in some cases.

    Dvd-A is still king, for now…

    • What's wrong with ogg?

      • +1

        Nothing is wrong with Ogg, its my favorite next to Opus!

        It was more a comment on what Tidal was claiming as lossless.

        Its still darn good, but since youtube switched to Opus, Tidal kind of became a money making scheme rather than a worthwhile service.

        Just an opinion though :)

      • +3

        Nothing is wrong with Ogg, Ogg boots are great in winter!!

    • +9

      For a system like this, its not like you could tell the audio quality difference anyway.

      (Let alone on a better system, double blind testing etc etc)

      • Agreed; it was more just a comment on the "for anyone who still uses CDs" line; as if something had one-upped them yet. :)

      • +4

        Competitor in reference to audio quality.

        • +1

          Maybe some people have ears good enough to hear the difference between a 320kps mp3 and a CD and to consider the difference significant enough to affect the listener’s enjoyment, but such people are probably quite rare. In my experience, things like speaker quality and placement are far more important. There is probably a bit of placebo effect involved in our perception of such differences.

          • +5

            @ForkSnorter: Nope, just gotta run an A to B blind test with foobar to see where your perception stops.

            Removes the placebo effect.

            if you listen to any genre with a lot of highhat cymbals, or deliberate digital noise, you can pick it every time. Its not a speaker quality thing, its just that the compressed audio codecs are bad at randomised hiss; digital or cymbal, they crush it every time.

          • +2

            @ForkSnorter: I feel like the majority of people that care so much about audio quality don't actually care about it that much, they just want to brag or sound like a connoisseur.

            • +13

              @BROKENKEYBOARD: There's a bit of that in 'the scene' for sure.
              But there's a lot of people who 'know' a song, and its frustrating to not hear it anymore.

              A great, easy to reproduce example is "Bring Me to Life" by good ol Evanescence.

              Back in the day, when not everyone had a decent subwoofer, id say 9/10 people I talked to, saying "man, those 2 bass drops in the intro? literally gives you goosebumps" had no idea what i was on about, because they're actually not really audible unless you can reproduce sub 80hz reliably. But if you can, they shake your bones.

              The song is still 'fine' through normal speakers, but its missing one of the key "wow!" elements, and that bothers some more than others.

              Another great example that falls flat over streaming is "aerodynamic" by daft punk.
              The 'corrupted' guitar solo has a few sharp digital hisses that just didnt survive the compression algorithm. Once again, still a good song, but missing one of the key elements that make your hairs stand on end.

              I think you'll find the people who are dismissive of audio quality often use music as background noise, rather than their key activity.

              • @MasterScythe: Thank you for suggesting "Bring Me to Life" and Aerodynamic. Really enjoying it on my Susvara.

              • @MasterScythe: This is why I still scour the op-shops for actual CD's ($1 each) to rip as I wish. MUCH better quality!

          • @ForkSnorter: Back in the 90s I had a Roland sound card, what I discovered is the DAC makes way more difference than the source file. I would drool over a 128-192kb file on the Roland. Every other card sounded crap at these bit rates.

            • +1

              @Gusper: Yeah, it's the same way that just a single valve in a pre-amp can make even the most digitally compressed track, sound more like a 'live hall' recording.
              It doesn't fix the clarity, but it does change it from 'lacking compressions' to 'pseudo live'.

              The processing stages make some wild differences.

        • I'd love to see anyone who can reliably pick out 320kbps vs WAV in a double blind test.

          • @Keplaffintech: 320kbps in what format?

            Ogg, opus acc+? Sure, probably not often.

            Mp3? So long as you let me pick the music you want to encode, every time. I have several harshnoise tracks mp3 encoders crush every time. They're designed to be small; when you present them with randomised noise, llike cymbals or freeform jazz, or the entire harshnoise genre; it just cant do anything accurately with it.

            Having spent 3 years blind, really teaches you to pick up subtle audio changes.

      • +2

        Not even close.
        No tactile experience, audio quality is meh, and literally tens of genres are missing; at least from the likes of things like spotify and GoogleMusic.

        Soundcloud premium isnt bad, but its still too heavily compressed for the likes of noisecore or electro prog metal.

      • I often buy music on Bandcamp in FLAC format. It’s decent quality. Depends on the band, some big names but usually not. At least most of the money goes direct to the artist.

        • Flac is lossless, its as good a quality as it was recorded at.

    • DVD A is pretty much dead in the water. SACD still has some life mainly in classical music, jazz and blues. This system does not support SACD.

    • Yeah I've been doing comparisons with Apple lossless and Tidal, and to my amateur ears, MQA is fluff and not worth the overhead.

      • +1

        If you're into that sort of thing:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pRjsu9-Vznc

        • Thank you so much for that. That was brilliant.

          • +1

            @giventofly: It's "insane audiophile" level listening, but with scientific data to back it up. I love that sort of thing. I can't stand the 'feelings' type audiophiles, the human brain\ear is a flawed system when trying to push your internal experience onto external people.

            • @MasterScythe: Whilst I am not an audiophile by any measure, that video was delivered in a way that was easy to understand. Very well done.

              I had my ‘watershed moment’ when I was listening to Fleetwood Mac on my Google Audio and it just stood out to me as sounding a lot better.

              I know it’s a WiFi Chromecast dongle but it sounds better than the equivalent track on Tidal through my Yamaha HS7 monitors. In fact, a lot of the songs did - they had a much more refined low-end.

              Then I got an iPad with Apple Music and Lorde’s new album sounds better on that than Tidal. I have not done any measuring, this is just purely how I hear it.

              The above video (and Neil Young’s exodus) seal it for me. Not worth it. MQA is just another way to make money.

              • @giventofly: If you know enough to be able to list codecs like that, you should look into how amazing OPUS is.

                I was sickened by being forced to accept 'youtube rips' were actually of acceptable quality; above 320kbps MP3. They're done in 256k OPUS, which is double what is recommended by the codec creators for transparent CD rips….

                I'll always be a physical media guy, but man, even the newer compression streams are getting impressive….

                • @MasterScythe: Will check it out.

                  I'm with you on physical media. Sounds way better than streaming. More dynamic range. Cleaner.

    • It's called Optical Disc Archive ODA.

  • Usually around $200
    How does it sound?

    • +80

      It sounds like a bargain.

      • LOL, good one

      • +1

        Thanks for my morning laugh! I have this system and the sound is pretty average. Even the little powered speakers from Edifier sound better. But for that price can't go wrong.

      • +1

        If you give me $100 to make it, I would just make you a pancake

      • +2

        We had this at the family holiday house. It’s inoffensive, nothing incredible but decent for an average loungeroom. Absolutely kills the quality of most smart speakers. Shame Google doesn’t make the chromecast audio anymore, that could’ve been a decent little rig

    • +2

      The speakers will be pretty average to be honest.

    • +1

      I bought this set a couple of years ago. I think it sounds quite good and especially at that price. Honestly, unless you're an audiophile or someone who is into high quality equipment, you will find these speakers do very well, especially compared to many of the BT speakers on the market if you only want to use it at home, far better quality and good stereo sound. Only complaint would be the buttons on the unit are a little poxy but the remote feels nice enough.

    • For a hundred bucks it's great value, but setting aside the price it's light on bass and limited volume.

  • +3

    For $100 it's not bad. You can't pair Bluetooth headphones to it, but you can pair your phone via Bluetooth or NFC. I've even managed to pair my LG TV with it so I can play the TV audio from the speaker system.

    It's good for a small room, the larger the room, the less the oomph.

    • Even >$1000 AV receivers only use Bluetooth for playback, not for headphones. This may have changed recently. When I was buying my receiver a couple of years ago I couldn't find one that would pair with headphones.

  • What would the effect of plugging two speakers in each speaker output instead of one? I have an ex display home with speakers in the ceiling (4 in total).

    • The power for additional speakers might be limited, so more speakers may not mean better sound.

      What you would need is an amplifier to drive additional speakers.

      • Thanks for the reply. The speakers are placed throughout the house, so as long as there is audio that I can hear it is okay. I was thinking about an amplifier, but wouldn't know where to start.

        • +2

          There will likely be howls here but you can start at the tip shop.
          You should be able to pick up a cheap but decent 10 year old stereo amp with speaker A and speaker B outputs.
          Four ceiling speakers likely won't be audiophile.
          I have a few of these set up, garden, shed etc.
          There are inexpensive bluetooth receivers available.
          What I also have is a couple of old phones with spotify on them.
          It means I can change the music remotely by playing spotify on my phone but changing the output to a different device.

          • @attfiecz2: I see what you’re getting at with this and it would indeed be a better way of powering those ceiling speakers than using this system. It is a complicated set up that you have but will work. Also if you have old hifi gear that’s the way you go.

          • @attfiecz2: If you look for some quality bluetooth receivers jump on amazon and get some mini dots for $10 and they works as smart bluetooth receivers and works solids, you just say pair with my phone and also choosing the speaker on phone.

          • @attfiecz2: Thank you for the idea. I guess if is a receiver too, it'll have radio. I was hoping to be able to play cds, but I can always attach a cd player of some description.

    • +1

      depends on the impedance (ohms) of your ceiling speakers. Presumably 8 ohms.

      In series with give half the volume, parallel you may get distortion. Need to also check the output specs of this system.

      Better off with a 4ch amp..

      • Thanks for that information - is there such things as cheaper 4 channel amps that won't cost > $200?

        • +2

          2nd hand multi ch hifi amps can be found cheap on marketplace/ebay..

        • Buy 2x 2 channel amps.

          Im a pretty big fan of these, personally.

          https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/284004649835

          19v tends to be their sweet spot for powering them, and luckily for us, thats the voltage of almost every old laptop power brick in the world.

          • @MasterScythe: Thanks. I never knew these existed until now. The interface for these are Bluetooth only for input?

            • @Pixie13: That specific one looks so; but there's a billion TriPath amplifiers on ebay.
              Just search 'Mini Amplifier'.
              Should be about $20 for a good one, that can do 20-40W RMS with less than 0.01% TDH.
              Basically, they're about the size of a credit card, and offer enough power to literally blow the cones out of your roof speakers, assuming they were put in tens of years ago, when FM radio was the sort of thing you piped through the whole house. They'll have 10-20W RMS handling.

              Dont worry, you'll hear them distort to hell before you break anything.

    • Potentially blowing up the stereo. Or other undesirable results.

    • System and speakers are rated for 8 ohms. As Bunsen says, it would be safer to wire in series to avoid overloading the amp, but then you'd get less volume.

      • +1

        I had no idea that you could wire speakers in series, you learn something new every day!

    • +1

      If you parallel plug two sets of speakers you will affect the speakers impedance.
      Google for more on this (basically you don't want to do it)

  • +4

    $100 seems ok but plenty of good old hifis to be found in hard rubbish / cleanups / upcycle groups. I have 4 such scattered throughout the garage and workplace, cost nothing, last forever.

    • +1

      True but do they have Bluetooth and a remote?

      • +2

        At least a couple of mine have a remote but I never use them.

        Never found one with Bluetooth but a 3.5mm plug on a 2m extension cable is almost just as handy.

        • +5

          If you've got the time & patience you could furnish your entire house for free using hard rubbish & Gumtree freebies.

          • +3

            @WatchNerd: We recently had hard rubbish in our area, the amount of great stuff I found is incredible!

        • +1

          Or rig a 10 buck Bluetooth receiver into the aux

    • +3

      That's if you get there b4 the scabs cut the AC cord off!

      • +1

        They are the worst. Scavengers cutting off the cords and making appliances impossible to reuse for, what, 10c worth of copper?

        • +3

          Yep - It's pretty much the sole reason why most councils now use a 'booking system' for hard rubbish, what little they made from recycling efforts was negated by the scabs smashing open TV's for the yolk coil & cutting cords etc.. Not to mention the extra mess the scabs create rummaging thru everything.

          Worst part is, if you see something that looks decent - the cord is cut & there's nothing worse than replacing the cut cord to only find the unit was faulty anyway..

    • This is ozbargain way.
      I picked up a curbside vintage amp, cleaned it, tested it, and sold it for $150.
      My garage hifi cost me $10. CD drawers don't work but the radio and aux in work fine.
      My kitchen hifi cost me $30 at an auction house, but that was before I really discovered Facebook marketplace.

  • +2

    harvey norman is clearing some units out too

    https://www.harveynorman.com.au/catalogsearch/result/?q=micr…

    whats the smallest micro hifi/for a tiny desk?

  • +1

    FYI - This has FM but no AM (Not DAB). It has a 3.5mm input so you could use it instead of a TV soundbar. I'm guessing it would be better than any $100 soundbar.

  • +2

    No HDMI or even component output?

  • +1

    Only FM tuner, no DAB+ digital radio. ☹️

    • Yes that's correct. I guess you could Bluetooth to your phone and play other radio stations that way.

    • a 'portable' DAB would cost more than $100.

      High expectations for a RRP sub$200 shelf Hifi system..

    • +4

      Sony has DAB digital radio version, but weaker power output.
      $125 from HN.
      https://www.harveynorman.com.au/sony-micro-hi-fi-system-with…

      • +1

        Also on Amazon $125.00 delivered Strange it doesn't mention DAB but it's there on the Sony Website.

      • office works has that unit for $249 so perhaps people could try and price match.

      • We got this for $150 from kogan a year ago, main issue is will need to buy a decent antenna. It comes with a wire that picks up nothing.
        $30 clock radio has better reception

  • Bummer, no vinil playback option!

    • +6

      Nor vinyl.

      • I really meant Shellac! I want total noise removal Dolby eternal and the 89rpm before the 78's got standardised!

  • +3

    I was going to get one for my MiL, but then saw that it has Bluetooth. She truly thinks Bluetooth and Wifi cause cancer, so hard and reluctant pass for me.

    • +5

      Are you really going to miss out on an opportunity of a lifetime? Oh you like her… nvm

    • Don't use Bluetooth then?
      Whack in the CD

      • +1

        CD lazers cause super cancer. Know Fakt!

  • +1

    This model is ancient. Not sure if worth it.

    • +5

      If it was ancient it might actually be really good

    • -2

      Why it’s even still for sale is my question.
      Any bargains on VHS or cassette players?

  • +1

    I guess it's the usual Officeworks thing, where hardly any stock anywhere to get a hold of.

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