NAKAMICHI SOUNDSPACE 10, £5000
Nakamichi,
(020) 8863 9117
If you thought
integrated AV systems, where everything you need comes neatly packaged in one
box, was confined to the budget and mid-range ends of the home cinema market,
think again, here’s one costing five grand! Actually SoundSpace 10 from
Nakamichi arrives in three huge boxes. They have to be big to contain two
substantial sub-woofer/power amps, five bookshelf speakers, a VCR sized system
unit and a 5-disc autochanger/control module, not to mention several kilometres
of cable and interconnects.
SoundSpace 10
is a high-end DVD/CD system with an AM/FM tuner thrown in for good measure and
it will connect to and take control of any other audio and video components you
might have. There’s nothing to add for DVD playback – apart from the TV -- it
has a full set of 5.1 decoders (Dolby Digital, PCM & dts) built-in. Replay
options include 3-mode spatial sound, 2-step picture zoom, Chapter Digest (grabs
and displays stills from the start of each chapter) plus lots and lots of audio
and video adjustments to fiddle around with. It comes with two remote controls,
the big one is a notebook PC sized box that works everything via a backlit LCD
touch screen and a concealed keyboard, moreover it has learning functions, for
controlling a range of other devices, including a couple of VCRs, laserdisc
player, cassette deck, MD recorder and anything else that comes to hand. The
other remote is a pocket-sized module covering just the main playback and
volume control functions.
The upright
autochanger module (free-standing or wall mountable) is the heart of the
system, the front panel is motorised and opens to reveal a horizontal loading
slot. Discs disappear into the machine’s innards, you get an occasional glimpse
of them through a window in the front but the eye is inevitably drawn to the
large subtly backlit LCD mode/status panel at the top. And very impressive it
is too, unfortunately though some of the labels and indicators are quite small
and hard to see unless you’re close too. That’s not necessarily a problem
because the cables connecting it to the system unit are a good 4 metres long,
so it can be positioned almost anywhere. Just connecting everything together takes
a good hour, (let alone tucking the cables away, out of sight), but
installation and set-up is a surprisingly straightforward task, thanks in part
to having the main power amplifiers inside the two sub-woofers – it simplifies
the speaker wiring -- and the
instruction book, which is a model of clarity.
DVD replay is
good but not what you call spectacular, at least not £5k’s worth of
spectacular, Nakamichi appears to have concentrated its fire on the sound side
of things. The picture is reasonably sharp and well defined, colours are clean
and it wasn’t fazed by any of our dodgy discs, but images can be a bit flat at
times. Shadows and gloomy scenes yield less detail and bright colours are not
as vibrant as they can be on some middle market and top-end players. Layer
change is unusually slow too, a full 2 seconds on Godzilla, which seems like an
eternity compared with some players, including several budget models, which do
it in a fraction of a second.
The big
advantage of a one-make system is that you know all of the components are
designed to work together and that really comes across with SoundSpace 10. The
big subs blend in seamlessly with the satellite speakers to create a smooth and
immersive soundfield filled with sharply focused effects and crisp dialogue and
an almost completely non-directional bass, that appears to be coming from
nowhere, and everywhere all at once. The Dolby Digital decoder sharply defines
the smallest sounds but it works just as well with more dynamic effects like
the crack of gunfire or an explosion. You just have to wind the bass right up
on action blockbusters and feel the sounds, sod the neighbours…
Okay, so it
sounds great and picture quality is good, but is it worth five big ones? We
reckon we could put together a system that works as well, if not a little
better in some respects, for less, but it would involve a lot of hard work, it
wouldn’t be as easy to us, and it certainly wouldn’t look half as smart.
There’s no doubt you’re paying for the convenience of an integrated system, and
the styling, but it also delivers the goods. It’s one of those – if you have to
ask the price you can’t afford it kind of deals – five grand is a lot of money,
but if you’ve got that kind of dosh and you want a top-class DVD system without
the hassle it’s well worth a look…
BOX COPY 1 –
REMOTE VIEWING
Ergonomically
the big box is a nightmare, especially the hidden keypad, which is a dark and
unfriendly place, filled with lots of tiny buttons. The touch-sensitive screen
is wonderful though; the only trouble is the backlight keeps going off, so you
have to fumble around trying to make it come on again. It’s big and clumsy, but
at least it won’t get lost down the back of the sofa, and because it’s
programmable, you can ditch all of the other remotes, once you’ve figured out
how to use it…
THE HARD FACTS
NAKAMICHI
SOUNDSPACE 10
OUTPUTS
SCART none
S-Video 9
RGB out no
Optical digital yes
Coaxial digital yes
5.1 decoder yes
(Dolby Digital & dts)
EXTRA FEATURES
20/30
Region 2
PAL/NTSC, Dolby Digital, PCM & dts decoders, component video output, 5-disc autochanger, 2-step picture zoom,
chapter Digest, user-set picture controls, 3-mode spatial surround, AM/FM tuner
with 30 station preset, sleep timer, multi-function learning remote, sub
remote, 5 x SoundSpace 10 speakers,
twin active sub-woofer, power amplifiers 5 x 30w (front, centre &
rear), 2 x 50w (sub-woofers)
GOOD POINTS
AV performance,
styling, system integration
BAD POINTS
Vast remote and
nightmare cabling, price
Ease of use 4
Picture 4
Sound 5
Features 5
Overall 4
BUYERS GUIDE
EXTRA INFO
Price £5000
SCART none
S-Video 9
Digital out coaxial, optical
Decoder Dolby Digital, PCM & dts
Good Points
AV performance,
styling, system integration
Bad points
Vast remote and
nightmare cabling
Rating
5
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Ó R. Maybury 2000, 1104
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