Home > Consumer Reviews > Onkyo CS-325 CD Receiver System

In the price versus performance competitions, I always think Onkyo gives you the biggest bang for the bucks. I have a full size Onkyo 5.1. It sounds great and has been very reliable. Lately I have been looking for a mini system for my mom's apartment. After listening to Bose and other brands, I think the CS-325 gives the best value for the same money. I am an electrical engineer and had opened countless electronic equipment packagings. Let me tell you, I've never seen any packaging as neat and impecable as this one. The set up was simple and straight forward. The speaker feels very substantial, a sign of quality. Overall, the system looks very nice. Once set up, the controls are very user friendly. It is an excellent choice for a smaller space such as a city apartment. I am happy with its high to mid frequency range. I could ask for better bass perhaps due to its smaller woofer. Some may complain that the Ipod docking is optional. Still, it beats many systems that cost twice as much. At $200, it is a great buy. Onkyo CS-325 CD Receiver System

This is probably the the greatest piece of electronic equipment that I currently own. This CD receiver is built very solid: all metal housing, aluminum front panel, and pretty hefty at about 30 pounds altogether. Speakers are attached to the receiver through binding posts instead of spring clips and the speakers themselves sound outstanding. After a few days of use, the sounds really start to open up. When set up correctly to your room this system offers outstanding clarity and sound separation. I also love the bright, easy to read blue display which Onkyo uses (it is also dimmable on several levels). You will find that attaching a powered subwoofer to the sub pre-out will give you complete coverage of all audible frequencies. I have listened to all of my CD collection again, hearing things I have never heard before, making well-produced albums a true sonic experience.
Please don't go buy a sub-par, cheap, overpriced CD receiver (such as the sad excuses which sony make!). This is the best that money can buy. Hands down.

I bought the Onkyo CS-325 as a Christmas present for my wife. She wanted to have a small stereo for the upstairs bedroom. I looked at numerous systems before I decided on the CS-325. Most of the systems I looked at just seemed to be very cheaply built and they paled in comparison to the CS-325. We are both very happy with the design and construction of this system. It will not knock the roof off of the house but it does deliver a very pleasing quality of sound. The CD tray seems to be rugged and well built unlike a lot of the other systems in this price range. I highly recommend this mini-system for its high quality and price.

First thing that grabbed my attention when I opened up the box was how solidly made those speakers were. Quite heavy (as another reviewer noted), but still able to fit nicely on a well-adjusted bookshelf. Second thing that grabbed my attention was the considerable depth and clarity of the sound coming out of those speakers. It was almost like hearing it come out of a quality home theater system, except it was being pumped out from this significantly downsized piece of audio equipment. Bass response is also quite good (though some may prefer more "ground-shaking" bottom which in this case you can get an additional sub-woofer to satisfy that need; system comes with a sub pre-out just for that purpose). The receiver itself is also sturdily built, with easy access to the buttons and volume knob. Love the fact that the CD player is of the front-loading variety as the more recently manufactured slot-loading types tend to scratch the discs quite a bit. I found the stereo remote pretty simple to use after having to read the instructions only once. AM/FM radio is also included with a rather substantial number of presets at your disposal, but I've hardly had time to check those out yet. I mainly bought this system for the CD player itself and that alone has given me more than I could've hoped for. Only real problem I've had with this system was getting the speaker cables properly connected to the back end of the receiver, but once that was out of the way, the set-up was virtually a piece of cake. I've also noticed this receiver comes with an I-Pod playing option, which only adds to the bells and whistles it currently brings. Personally speaking, I honestly have no use for it at the moment but it's still a nice option to have should I finally get serious about owning an I-Pod.

If anyone out there DOES happen to find a better system for roughly the same price with more features than what this Onkyo has to offer, MORE POWER TO YOU THEN! Because as of this review I sure as heck haven't found one, lol!
>;-)

If you consider yourself an audiophile, this product is not of interest for you. But if you, like me, is looking for an upgrade to your good old boombox, but not yet ready to spent hundreds or even thousands for this purpose, seek no further - this is a great purchase! For just twice the price of a decent boombox you get a higher class system.

The sound is clean and rich; it is also rather powerful - with maximum volume at 42 I normally keep it in low to mid 20's. If you prefer a deeper bass, you might need to add a subwoofer - a special output is present. Personally, so far I am satisfied with SUPER BASS mode (besides I don't like having an extra switch to turn on and off, though, subwoofer Auto Standby feature should eliminate the need).

I also strongly appreciate the ability to play MP3 CD's. The display can show all the relevant information about the files. Navigation within the folders is also relatively easy considering the small size of the display. I haven't experienced any problems with reading particular CD's which other reviewers reported.

In terms of physical dimensions, be aware that the main unit is rather deep - 15", and won't fit a typical bookshelf. The speakers, though generally of a small type, are also quite deep - 11" (see the picture I added to show the system depth.)

With all that positive feedback I have to add some criticism. Three main complains so far:

1. No AUX (3.5 mm stereo) input for quick connection of an external portable player. With current ubiquity of such devices, this looks rather strange. True, that there is an optional iPod Dock, but (1) it is considerably overpriced - half a price of the main system; (2) other brands and types of portable players exist apart from iPod.

That said I should note that the problem is actually minor as you just buy a Stereo Mini-to-RCA3 "Y" cable splitter and connect your player through one of two inputs on the back of the unit. (I used the DOCK input for this purpose; another one, TAPE, I connected to TV, renamed it to VIDEO through a special option, and now can have a "home theater" whenever I feel a mood.)

2. No USB input. There exists a CS-525 model which main difference from this one is just a presence of USB port (in fact, even the user manual is common for 525/325), but for some reason it is not available in US. Weird marketing policy!

3. No resume function - CD playback starts from the beginning of the disk, not from the point of interruption, if you stop playback, switch to another source (like radio) or turn the unit off. This is a common deficiency for vast majority of mini and upper class systems. While virtually any car audio or portable CD player remembers the point where it was stopped and effortlessly continues from it whenever re-started, the more expensive systems do not provide this feature (so far I found the resume only on Bose Wave system, which is ridiculously overpriced). This is a total mystery for me! The feature is really missing when you listen to MP3 disks which may contain dozens or even hundreds of tracks.

With all the above I give only 4 stars, though I'd say that 4.5 would be probably more appropriate.