Home > Consumer Reviews > Yamaha MCR-E810SL DVD Mini System

I tried 2 Onkyo's and a Denin (rated as the top micro?) before I ran across this Yamaha. It took just a few minutes for me to get excited about this Yamaha. I believe it to be the best among the four, although all three of the others are high-quality. The lesser of the two Onkyo's sounds a little "tinny" to me, although I liked that it had just a single CD tray (not multiple CD's, i.e. multiples are prone to malfunctioning). The greater Onkyo had a 3 CD tray (I'm all set with that). The Denin was "top-shelf" but a little more complex (operationally) than I wanted to learn...and it seemed to me that the Yamaha's bass was maybe a little better than the "same-priced" Denin's, although I did not listen to them side-by.

Look at the front of the Yamaha 810 reciever. Starting from the right side of the reciever these are the buttons, right to left: Volume (largest dial), Function selector, i.e. CD/DVD or TUNNER or AUX, etc, etc. You can join this to a tape player/recorder, a television, etc. The next dial is Balance and then Treble and then Bass. The last one is the Power. Most (if not all) other micros do not have individual bass and treble dials. I think that the face of this receieve is as simple as it can get. This was one big thing that sold me - simplicity of operation. This was a gift for my elderly parents. He stressed that he did not want one that was complicated - the simpler the better.

Speakers are finished in that thick, super-glossy black.......like a Grand Piano. Speakers are very massive for their small size, i.e. not lightweight. I like the mass. Front of CD player and Reciever are finished with thick brushed aluminum.

There is nothing "chintzy" about this machine.

Back of reciever is packed with all the inlets and outlets you will find on any of the best micros. If you want that super-powerful, deep and voluminous bass sound of a big stereo you simply buy a subwoofer and plug it into the back of the reciever. Yes, all high-end micros should have a subwoofer outlet in back of reciever. I am told by sales people that the subwoofer outlet is the mark of a high-end micro. The subwoofer will have its own AC plug and its own amp. Why buy a big stero anymore? Just buy a high-end subwoofer and plug it into one of these high-end micros.

These are the reasons I have to give the Yamaha 810 5-stars. Yamaha deserves it because they did a fine job designing and building this machine. I hope I feel the same way several years from now.

At the end I must be fair and say that the Onkyo and Denin are both real, quality machines too - nothing "chintzy" here either. You really have to spend the time and make your own choice.

In the Portland, Maine area I will recommend New England Hi-Fi or Tweeters. I bought the Yamaha at Tweeters, although the other 3 fine steros were at New England Hi-Fi. Both stores deserve credit for immeidately giving individual and knowledgeble help.

I build and design my own amps and speakers and have been exposed to many state of the art systems since 1980 and live recording since 1988. The trick is matching the various gain stages with the load (speaker) and the room. Yamaha can't control your room, but boy have they done an excellent job with the former within their very limited budget. A true bargain for those who can still hear and care about music. If you don't like this system, you have a room issue.

This is just a wonderful compact system. The key here is pretty much the excellent speakers Yamaha has been making for years. Their NS-10's have been a fixture in recording studios for mixing and these smaller speakers have the same clear, true and vibrant characteristics. All the CD's I have played, including burned CD-R's have played back perfectly with no glitches. I've not needed to hook up the DVD portion so I cannot comment on that aspect.

This unit is priced somewhat higher than many of the units in the $300 price range. If you demand perfection in audio, spend the extra money for this unit. It doesn't get any better in the field of compact systems.

Like other Yamaha audio equipment we have bought, this system provides outstanding sound quality. The small form factor and elegant looking design made it a great choice for our living room. The speakers are small enough to be put on a bookshelf or placed on stands. The one drawback is the single CD player, but the sound quality still compels us to give it a 5 star rating.

-- The sound is superb. My jaws pretty much dropped when I first heard this, and I still find myself stunned sometimes (and I've had this system for several months at this point).

-- DVDs look great. I have this hooked up to a 20" HDTV, via component cables and progressive scan output. I was worried that the video quality might not be too great given that I am using an HDTV, but I am more than happy. Some DVDs look better than others, but that's normal.

-- Wonderful design. Simple front panel. Solid construction.

-- [minor complaint] The DVD/CD player starts playing automatically when you power-on the system (assuming there is a disc in the system) and also starts playing automatically whenever you insert a disc, even if the system is not in DVD/CD mode. As far as I know there is no way to disable this. I find this a little annoying, but not exceedingly so.

-- [minor complaint] Sometimes the DVD/CD functions on the remote don't work (even when the system is in in DVD/CD mode). This scared me the first time it occurred, but all you have to do is use the remote to select a different mode and then use the remote to select DVD/CD again. This happens when you've used the knob on the front panel to change into DVD/CD mode (I guess the remote doesn't really know what mode it is in unless you make the change on the remote itself). It might happen other times (I'm not sure) but the solution is always the same. I know this sounds really annoying, but as I've indicated, it's really easy to overcome this problem.

-- [minor complaint] I'm not very fond of the station preset system and the corresponding controls on the remote. The presets use a letter plus number system (e.g., A1, A2...). I assume that this was done to make it easier to jump ahead when you are scrolling through the presets (i.e., it is as easy to jump from A1 to B1 as it is to jump from A1 to A2), but it is also a little confusing. Given that there are already numbers on the remote, I think it would've been neat if they had just numbered the presets and let the numbers on the remote control the presets. Oh well.