So Many Paths to Audio
593637
This device has a multitude of ways to pull audio: MP3, FM, wifi, Ethernet. The range of material you can access is astounding.  I tried them all and, because its primary use is as a reliable clock radio, settled on good old FM.  This device has better FM reception than my four year old FM radio. The Ethernet was the best, but the cable got in the way.  the wifi dropped out too often, likely because I was a floor and 30 feet from the router.  Setup is a snap with the large font screen and a host of options.  The back light was too bright and only had on/off option. The clock alarm is very good with a ramp up volume function on the radio and a pleasant fail safe tone tune if the radio signal fails. It did not have a five day option. I would recommend it for those who want the extra options to access audio signals, but not for those who just want a clock radio.
4887710
love the menus and size and accessability of selections

but am having difficulty getting quality sound out of great quality loudspeakers - the pc sounds way better
4577434
This is a great way to have audio at two different places.  I use mine in conjunction with my Hauppauge personal video recorder.
514968
My advice.  Buy 2 of these great cables and a 2nd sub-woofer.  Place them far left and right in your listening field and you're in 'audio heaven'.
681163
This is a great product with lots of potential. Its being constantly developed, there are hundreds of widgets for it, it does a great job streaming from shoutcast and other sources for internet radios, its sound is impressive for the fairly small speakers and it has a great feel thanks to its soft leather casing. Really recommended.
1113976
I purchased this to help me convert different formats for live sound.  With all these inputs and outputs, it sounded simple, unfortunately, that is not the case.  When not connected to a computer, you can only select one source (analog or ADAT A/B or C, OR TDIF A/B or C) to go to all outputs or ALL ADAT to ALL TDIF or ALL TDIF to ALL ADAT.  Not quite as convenient as I hoped.

When using a computer, there is a lot more connectivity options available.
3671093
It's hard to imagine that anyone could have a collection of old and new hi-fi peripherals that couldn't be hooked up to this beast.  Check out the back panel view above.  The only problem is you will need to carefully plan your hookups, because once a set of jacks is surrounded, you'll never get something plugged in or out of it (at least with just fingers).  Mine handles a phonograph, 2 VCRs, an LD player, a DVD player, and a CD player.  There are jacks available for a tape deck or other audio recorder.  All video hookups are your choice of composite, s-video, component, or HDMI.  The DG-1000 will do any conversion you need from one to another automatically.

Flexibility is great.  You can reassign digital audio inputs (optical and coax) as needed.  The rear surround channels (useless, IMHO) can be setup to provide secondary entertainment in another room, or can be used to bi-amp your front speakers.

Automatic setup is terrific.  I found that half my speakers were out of phase.  It measures the relative power, distance, and phase of all your speakers, then automatically stores adjustments.  So you should easily get extremely well-balanced sound. Thank goodness for the on-screen setup, because it is complicated.  But it just takes some manual reading to get it.

Another reviewer said he upgraded from a 1998 STR-DE925, which I did also.  I really liked it, but this STR-DG1000 just has so much more.  I'll be growing into it for a while.  A very worthwhile investment, and I see the price has already dropped $11 in 2 weeks.
2171228
Back when the first USB spec listed audio as a possible use I looked forward to the day when someone would come out with a USB based sound card.  I've tried a few of them over that time but most of them failed to deliver.  Years later someone finally came out with a real audiophile quality usb solution for both PC and Mac.  I bought this one primarly because it has a built in claimed 20W amplifier and I can use it with bookshelf speakers and my iPod.
Using it is simple.  Plug in the power.  Hook up the USB port, answer a few dialogs that install generic USB audio drivers and then just use it.  Shows up as another audio card.  The audio that comes out of it is crystal clear.  Really really clean.
I've yet to record anything with it yet, but if the input is anything like the output I'm in for a treat.  If there's anything I don't like about it so far it's the case is a little cheap and seems easy to scratch, and there's this giant blue light which flashes on and off when it's plugged into a computer.  Oh and when you switch the gain switch it thumps quite loudly which is somewhat annoying but I can live with it.
It also comes with all the audio cables you could possibly want.  A speaker breakout adapter, a nice 16 guage mini-din stereo to rca male cable, another shorter mini-din stereo to rca female cable.  The box itself has lots of inputs, pass throughs and outputs.  As to the claim of 20W, maybe.  The power supply is only 12V @ 1.5A.
Other than that, highly recommended as a great external audio solution which gets rid of that annoying buzzing you hear from onboard computer audio whenever the CPU gets busy or the hard disk starts to access.  I can hear it, especially when I'm wearing headphones.
2718105
It's been a two week journey both to get a working apple and then get the FLAC files in shape to hear on my stereo. If you want to know how I did this, read further and I might save you some long and sleepless nights.

1. Getting the Apple
I ordered the little USB apple from Amazon after reading about how great this little thing was. The apple arrived intact, stem and all and I was thrilled. That was short lived however after I found that the USB was defective. Nothing showed up on two computers and two other electronic devices. Amazon refunded the money in a jiffy and I found a used one (the new ones were gone by now) through their warehouse. I had it delivered in two days. When I opened the box, to my horror the little apple box inside the package was smashed in on one side even though the shipping box was fine. (Hmm, UPS reboxed maybe? It was not in a smiley Amazon box) Even though the little black box was badly damaged, the apple inside was fine and this time it worked!

2. Playing on the Computer, iPod
The USB comes with two full sets of music files, mp3 and FLAC. On my PC (Windows XP) I could not use the little button they talk about in the included read me file to transfer the files to iTunes. I had to do this manually. All I had to do my drag the mp3 files into the iTunes library, then transfer them to my iPod. Everything went fine, all is there, album art and all.

As for the FLAC files, they would not play on the computer, but I downloaded Winamp a free program and it plays them no problem. Boy did they sound good on my pair of Bose computer speakers, but that was not enough for me, oh no, I wanted to play them on my stereo [evil laugh here].

3. Playing on my Stereo (Read only if you are brave)
Well there's a lot of technical stuff I slogged through on the internet during my week long journey to figure out how to get these great loss-less files to work on my stereo. If you'd like to take that adventure this is a good place to start: [...]

Without getting into all that mumbo jumbo and trial and error, here is what I did that worked. WARNING! You have to spend MORE MONEY!! (If you are super tech savvy you can probably figure out a free way that is ten times the work)

-Convert your FLAC files to (24 bit-lossless --the same) 48kHz WAV files using dBpoweramp's Audio Conversion software.[...]/ $38 (FLAC files will not play on a DVD or CD player.) Video DVD players play only 48 or 96 kHz, not 44kHz) The FLAC files are 24 bit 44.1 kHz.

-Make an audio VIDEO DVD using Audio DVD Creator. [...]$39.95. CD players will not play 24 bit files. The biggest is 16 bit and it won't sound as good. If you have an AUDIO DVD player you can use AUDIO DVD software. Explained: [...]

4. If all this is too much trouble I think you can buy an NBOX 2nd or 3rd generation media player to connect to your entertainment system. It should play your FLAC files right off the USB. I said should. I don't know for sure. You should research that. NBOX 2nd Gen is around $40 on Amazon. The 3rd is even more.

BOTTOM LINE. Yes, this was a PAIN! But............ When I finally got to hear the white album on my stereo, using my DVD player, I almost cried, the quality was soooooooo good. I have a CD of the same album and it sounds flat in comparison.  The converted FLAC files sound life-like, organic, real! Like others say, you can hear things you've never heard before. You will feel like the Beatles are in the room with you --yes, that good. Well, if you have pretty good speakers.

The four stars instead of five are because of the extreme hassle the USB FLAC files are to play.

You may want to go into the discussions about this product, lots of good info there, and confusing. But if you are gonna get the USB, you really should know what to do with it when you get it.
2509343
Awesome options. Turntable ready. Receives Airplay, Google Chromecast audio, Pandora, Spotify, with Yamaha MusicCast software. Software available for iOS and Android, but not for Mac OS, laptops, etc, which is the only downside. Fairly easy software setup, but with all the options, it can take several steps and a bit of time.  I don't have this set up for video surround, so I can't comment on it, but it has plenty of options for that too.
3997970
As if the 7 channels of wideband, ultra-quiet, powerful drive even for low impedance speakers weren't enough, couple that with the 7 preamp outputs and PHONO input so you can play your old vinyl collection. Now top that off with every signal processing option imaginable, lots of HDMI connections, and the "Piece de Resistance".........the amazing AUDYSSEY multichannel, dynamic EQ for room/speaker correction with time and frequency domain analysis. I just can't imagine a better product for the money in a Blue Ray compatible unit.
1987632
Wow! It's going to take me months to try out all of the things that this mixer will do. I'm already mixing using equalization and compression and I'm working on figuring out the Wi-Fi interface.
1615612
Great sound, lots of features. will take some time to navigate through the menus.
Once you do it is  a great sounding MP3 player
2332231
I am finding it extremely difficult to "figure out" how I can get those files into a program that will allow me to create an audio disc; I am still trying.  I have succeeded, but I do not know how I succeeded.  I just had to try and try, and when I succeeded, I did not write down how it was done.
631262
This sound system is amazing.  My old Sony Surround System (5.1) had deteriorated over the years and it got to the point where I couldn't really appreciate music the way I used to.  I got an excellent deal on this and decided to treat myself.  WOW!  I forgot what it was like to truly be encompassed by sweet sound.  Some music (like Dead Can Dance) cannot be fully experienced unless it's listened to at a high volume.

This is the kind of stereo where you can tell the difference between an mp3 and a wav or lossless file.  I have become technically challenged over the years and, for me, this was a royal pain putting together.  It took days before I finally got it just right but it was definitely worth it.  Watching a movie is a different experience.  This is THX certified so, at times (depending on what I'm watching), it's almost like being in a theatre.

Sound does, indeed, matter.
4726697
Love having surround sound for my computer.  The unit has a ton of inputs including those specific to sound car multi channel outputs.  Do wish I could adjust rear sound levels independently of left or right, but not that big a deal.  The system sounds really good, but for the cost, it should sound unbelievably great.  It is pricey, but finding a good, flexible surround system for PCs has become a challenge.  I justified the price knowing I would be able to use this system for a variety of applications for a long time into the future.
1295468
I just received my copy of the Top Notch Fundamentals Class Audio Program on CD. What a shock I had! At first, I thought it was going to be one of those 2- to 4-CD audio programs I'm used to buying, but today, when we opened it, my uncle noticed something different which makes this one unique: the Top Notch Class Audio Program consists of 5 CDs or tapes!
I'm almost finished with CD 1 (I'm on track 52 of 60.)
Since I can write only one review per product I will probably not be able to tell you how much I enjoyed it once I reach the end of disc 5.