Unit: Sony Hi-Fi SYSTEM for iPod (MHC-EC78Pi)
Purchased: 11/28/08 (Black Friday!)
Retailer: Best Buy (Dorchester, MA)
Price: $157.99 on sale, normally $169.99
Reviewer: Patrick Madden

Getting Started

This 380 Watt bookshelf stereo system sounded decent at the store, even when competing against the background noise of frenzied shoppers on the busiest shopping day of the year. It couldn't compete with the thumpa-thumpa music coming from some of the humongous boom boxes and larger stereos in the same class, but I wasn't looking to blast my ears out in my home office. I brought the unit home and set it up on top of a bookcase across the room, then set it through its paces. I found it to be a generally nice unit, but in the end I decided to return it for refund because of a design deficiency in the FM tuner.

Setup was fairly quick: plug the console in, attach the speakers (four connections per speaker), plug the AM/FM antenna in, plus in the iPod dock, install batteries in the remote control, and then it's all ready to go. Just make sure to leave enough clearance in back, as a cooling fan is basically bolted onto the back of the cabinet.

Compact Disc Playback

Powering the MHC-EC78Pi on, I heard a soft grinding noise--well, "grind" is a bit strong, but the CD player was louder than the whisper I'd expected from a company that's been making them for decades. Grind, grind, grind, grind, just a quick, soft noise on each revolution of the spindle. Very noticeable on its own, but inaudible over rock music. Meanwhile, I wonder how the internal mechanism will wear over time if it sounds like that out of the box. Strike 1.

The unit plays audio and MP3 CD/RW discs. I only tried a disc of MP3 files I had laying around. The remote control worked well from across the room, and it let me step from track to track as well as from folder to folder. The unit's display showed the song titles, which it appeared to get from MP3 ID3 tags. Sound quality was good, even on my 128 kbps MP3s.

The iPod Connection

The unit's headline feature is its ability to connect to the data/control port on an iPod and control it. The smaller stereos I looked at had integral iPod docks in the tops of the units. At about a foot tall, the MHC-EC78Pi leaves no room for this, and Sony provides a dongle that serves as a dock. Pro: I get to put the iPod where I want. Con: the cable plugs into the front of the unit, next to the Aux input and headphone jack. Given that nobody's likely to disconnect their docks, Sony should have placed the jack on the back of the cabinet.

I connected my iPod and found the controls intuitive. I had no problem using the menu and select keys on the remote control to find a play a playlist and turn off the iPod's equalizer, though I didn't immediately see a way to quickly scroll through a long list of songs. I played enough of about 40 songs chosen from rock, alternative, and hip-hop to find out how these all sound and was generally happy.

I did find myself playing with the EQ a bit, suggesting that I couldn't find a setting I was entirely happy with. This probably matters more with critical listening and less with ordinary listening, though, and figured this wouldn't be a problem as I worked at my computer. I didn't feel frustrated during the evaluation.

The Radio

I like listening to music on the radio. This is how I hear new music, and it lets me keep track of anything important going on in the world without needing to switch windows or computers. Yet the FM radio is where I ran into trouble and disappointment.

The MHC-EC78Pi features a digital tuner with manual and seek capabilities, as well as enough presets for me. In the US, FM stations are on the odd hundred kilohertz frequencies; for example, we've got 101.7 MHz, but no 101.8. The tuner, which is a bit slow to step through frequencies manually, insists on stepping through the unused frequencies. This doubles the time needed to tune in a station. A close call here, but I'll call this Strike 2.

I went to tune in my favorite Boston radio station, WFNX (FM 101.7), which plays alternative music. WFNX's new transmitter is located in downtown Boston and has line-of-sight to my home office. Yet, due to a phenomenon I learned of today, called intermodulation, I got more than I bargained for when I tuned the station in. Not only did I get WFNX, but I also got WBCN (FM 104.1) and an unidentified station playing Christmas music. That's three stations for the price of one. I had the same problem with WBCN playing on FM 103.3 and 105.1.

My other radios have no problem getting WFNX--well, actually, my expensive Sony receiver has the same problem, but I don't listen to the radio on it and had forgotten about it until this writing. Clearly, Sony either hasn't field tested their radios in Boston, or they don't have an effective FM tuner design.

Decision to Return for Refund

I thought about this for a few minutes and decided I didn't want to be frustrated whenever I turned on the radio, so Strike 3. I'll be returning the unit for a refund. If it weren't for this problem, I'd have enjoyed the MHC-EC78Pi. This may not be a concern for those who don't listen to the radio over the air, but for me this was a fatal flaw.

Conclusion

The MHC-EC78Pi is a nice, if slightly large, bookshelf stereo that plays today's media formats. Sound volume is far more than enough to fill my home office, while the sound quality is very good from both iPod and MP3 CD. However, an apparent design flaw in the FM tuner causes it to tune more than one station simultaneously, making the radio experience difficult. In the end I decided to return the unit for this reason.