Specifications

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so I could switch between party/dance favorites
such as Carlos Vives to get our groove on,
Steely Dan’s Kid Charlemagne during cocktail
hour, or Michael Franks’ Burchfield Nines during
dinnertime. There really are no configurability
limits with MusicCAST allowing the listener(s) to
choose exactly how they wish to playback and
distribute music throughout the house.
CD Recording
You assembled the perfect playlists and loving
the musical liberty they bring you. Now what
about when you leave the home? No problem.
You can simply burn a playlist on a recordable
CD and you’re good to go. Should you choose
to take advantage of MP3 compression to fit
more of your songs on the CD, make sure in
advanced that your car CD player supports mp3
format otherwise you will have to stick with PCM
and may have to shorten your play list to 74-80
minutes so it will fit on the CD.
Yamaha MusicCAST
Wireless Client System
In case streaming music from your PC or
serving up your entire music collection from
one location to your home theater system isn’t
enough for you, Yamaha gives you the ability to
stream music wirelessly from the MCX-2000
music server to 15 clients (up to 5 wirelessly)
independently and simultaneously.
MCX-A10 Client
The wireless MCX-A10 main use is for
locations where it makes it cost prohibited to
run new Cat-5e cables. Older constructions and
condos or apartments that a customer does not
want to run cables to run multi-zone audio would
opt for this solution.
LAN Port
The LAN port can be used in the event you
want to forego the 802.11b wireless connection
or desire a greater distance from the server than
is possible.
Aux In Jack
You can connect an external analogue source
here. This would be utilized if, for example, you
were using the optional MusicCAST speakers
and wanted to feed an MP3 player, computer or
other audio device into the system as well.
Line Out L/R Jacks
Connect your MCX-A10 to a receiver using
these 2Vrms line out jacks. These are full range
line outputs.
Subwoofer Out Jack
If you are connecting the client to a receiver
and speakers you can also send signal to a
subwoofer via the SUBWOOFER line output.
This is a variable full-range mono output, so
you’ll want to engage your sub’s crossover
and set it to the appropriate frequency for your
system.
Video Out Jack
Connecting the video output of the MCX-A10
allows you to view the contents of the LCD
screen on an external monitor. This is nice if you
happen to be configuring the client into another
home theater system (like a bedroom system)
or you plan to be too far away to read the LCD
display. Other than this, the LCD provides ample
feedback for your configuration and playback
needs.
Speaker Out Terminals
The spring-clip speaker terminals are rated
to drive 17W x 2 into 4-ohms and the optional
speakers are very nice looking and don’t sound
bad for the $120 price. No they aren’t going to
replace your $2k/pair tower theater speakers.
However, they are well constructed and weigh
about 2.5 pounds each - not too shabby
when you figure in the fact that a decent set
of computer speakers will run you this much.
I’d much rather listen to these units. Like the
MCX-A10 client, the speakers can also be wall-
mounted or positioned side-by-side with the
main unit for a clean, elegant look.
For more details on how the wireless client
system functions and performs, check out
our review of the original Yamaha MusicCAST
MCX-1000.
The Yamaha MusicCAST can only record to
AUDIO CD-R/RWs. This is due to the fact that
the MCX-2000 is classified as a Consumer Audio
Device, making it subject to the rules associated
with SCMS (Serial Copy Management System) an
outdated, useless copy protection system developed
back when the RIAA was concerned with this new
CD technology resulting in a loss of revenue due
to pirating and CD-R/RW drives were not prolific
in desktop PCs.
More modern components of late have really
started to skirt this limitation and we kind of wish
Yamaha would also play it fast and loose, allowing
the use of the less-expensive Data CDs.
Editorial Note on CD Copying
Unfortunately the MCX-2000 isn’t smart enough
to realize when you install a particular CD more than
one time to record it to the hard drive. Not knowing
this, I accidentally popped in one of my favorite
Marillion CDs Holiday’s in Eden, on two separate
occasions to upload it to the server and didn’t realize
I had a double copy of this disc until I decided to play
a few tracks from it a day or two later. With the
powerful database Gracenote on board, I was really
surprised Yamaha didn’t include a menu option to
flag a user when this situation occurs to ensure
no double copies of CDs are made, unnecessarily
eating up valuable hard drive space.
Editorial Note of Caution
about Uploading Music to
the MCX-2000