Jamo DMR 70

Small, Simple, ...Sensational ! – Home theatre's all too often a home wrecker, or (at the very least) a room wrecker. A blitzkrieg of bamboozling black boxes. Adding insult to the injury of such "war wounds", playing a stereo CD through most such systems often yields a result that's anaemic enough to warrant medivac. Not with this phenomenal flat-pack. It'll happily harmonise with room enhancing (as opposed to room wrecking) "powered sub" stylish speakers such as B&W Mini Theatre, Focal JM Lab Sib & Co, KEF KHT and Jamo's own A101HCS or A210PDD, to name a few.

Mine sits under a Panasonic DMR-BWT800 Blu-ray PVR and the two take up less space than most AV Receivers on their own, ...with all the black and silver restrained opulence of an "art directed" matched pair.

Be warned, however.

It's NOT for the endlessly tweaking so-called "audiophile" who's seeking fine adjustment of parameters that (however "worthy") are beyond the brief of those who simply want to enjoy the sound as the originators intended it to be.

ALL of those parameters ARE, however, fully (yet invisibly) addressed via the simple on-screen choices of its "Set Up" mode, once connected (HDMI for preference, component and composite also available) to a screen display.

In this respect, the manual is a little sketchy, which is surprising given its clear diagrammatic hook-up instructions. Fortunately, it's soon discarded upon discovering that "Set Up" only appears in "DVD" mode and is kindergarten simple with intuitive, (Left/Right, Up/Down, centre "OK") silver-ring navigation from the equally simple, yet comprehensive, remote control.

Aah, ...the remote control !

An ergonomic, tactile and sculptural artwork in its own right. Uniquely, it loads its batteries as "ballast" in the "fatter" end that then forms the "base" for its striking "Scandinavian" vertical stance that'll stably grace shelf, coffee table or chair arm.

This first-rate architecture and finish is an extension of that evident in the receiver, which is also an exquisitely shaped thing of beauty. Opening its case (not recommended, but curiosity won out) reveals solid precision manufacture and a power supply well endowed with condensers for dumping current to cope with percussive transients.

There are two drop down hatches concealed in its uniquely curved-edge bevelled front panel. The first magically appears when pushed open by the "I'll play anything" disc drawer coming towards you in response to the remote control's or the front-panel's "Load" button. It can be closed either by pushing the same button again or a prod of the drawer itself. A similar gentle prod under the central "Jamo" nameplate causes the second invisible hatch to swing down, revealing a 3.5mm stereo headphone outlet, a USB port and a 3.5mm stereo line input jack.

Their design makes it clear that the exclusion of dust was considered to be as important as the convenience of front-panel access, another manifestation of the attention to detail that's evident throughout this system.

Another hidden virtue: ...everyday operation also works well in the absence of the stylish remote control.

It's just that the receiver's clear legends and silky, beautifully weighted, intuitive, software-enabling switches (each immediately below its legend on the discreetly silver-trimmed, black front panel) are so elegantly presented as to be almost invisible from a distance.

Ever since I collected it from DigitalCinema.com.au in West Ryde NSW, my DMR 70 has spent most of its time filling a small apartment with lifelike, accurate stereo from its CD player and FM receiver or time-shifted Dolby Digital Pro Logic II television, ...with only the occasional, (a real "occasion") thunderous, bone-shaking, discrete 5.1 (Panasonic Blu-ray) surround soundtrack radiating from a Focal JM Lab Sib & Co array.

In summary: Top quality, robust engineering, amazing "decode any format" versatility, intuitively simple operation, beautiful minimalist design and over 300 genuine watts of clean, accurate and transparent sound.

I believe there's nothing else as compact that even comes close, ...for ANY price. A cheap, simple and elegant way to have top quality audio when space and money are tight. A tiny niggle. The otherwise brilliant tuner has to "think a little while" when switching between preset radio stations.