Onkyo CS-265 Colibrino Home Audio System with CD & Bluetooth

*** UPDATE MAY 2022 #2 *** I guess I didn't leave it unplugged long enough. I just plugged it back in and it works fine again. I'm still lowering the rating because now I can't trust this unit! *** UPDATE MAY 2022: UNIT JUST CROAKED! I was listening to the radio, had to get on a work Zoom call, so I shut the unit off. After the call, I tried to turn the unit on again, it would not turn on. It was great while it lasted for the 16 months, although I can't say I didn't see it coming. Occasionally, the sound would be unbalanced - the left channel was louder than the right channel. A few times, I was getting static out of the right channel on AM radio. Shutting it off and turning it back on would clear the problem. It's back to my tried-and-true Sony CMT-SBT100 that has outlasted 3 other systems I purchased, which all went kaput after not too long. **** ORIGINAL REVIEW **** I have looked at this unit for a few years now, and always put off buying it. I've had my trusty Sony bookshelf stereo for several years now. While it still works perfectly, I wanted something new. There are not as many quality shelf stereos available anymore. I finally decided to buy this one, and I really like it, for the most part. Not having a power button and volume knob on the front of the unit still throws me off, but I suppose in time I will get used to that. The unit also has a strange smell to it, which I noticed when I unboxed it, and still notice. I imagine that will disappear in time. EDIT: The smell is still there, but not as strong. I do like the all black look, the speaker cabinets are shiny, as is the casing. I'm not a big fan of the plastic top, or the control buttons on top, but I will get used to that. But why did they include a white remote and white FM antenna wire with the black unit. Edit: The remote is also a little difficult to use with it's small buttons and my fat fingers. It's seems that up to now all I have done is complain, but I really do like this unit. The speakers put out nice sound for their size, and there is enough bass. But more important to me is the high frequencies. As my ears are getting older, I hear the high frequencies less, but I have no problems with these. the highs and mids are nice and crisp, while the bass is not overbearing, but can be heard rather well. The S. Bass function is not needed. It does not produce any more bass than just turning the bass setting all the way up, it does cut the high frequencies though, so I don't use it. I set the bass to +3 and treble to +4 and it sounds fine to me. It would be nice if the S. Bass could be used with the bass/treble settings, but turning one on turns the other one off. The radio comes in very clearly, both AM & FM. I was happy they included an AM radio. Many audio units are now only providing FM radio and no AM. I listen to AM radio a lot, in fact I leave the news station on all night while I sleep. I live in NYC, so there are many radio stations available. 30 AM & 30 FM presets may be overkill, especially on the AM band. I do like that when you enter your preset stations, only the stations you preset will be played when you change the preset tuning. If you only set 5 stations, once you pass the fifth preset, it goes back to first. most radios with presets will set all the presets to the lowest frequency for that band (AM or FM) on all presets and then when you scan through the presets, you have to go through all the empty ones, hearing static. The one thing that I dislike about the radio is how the presets are stored. It's a bit more work than necessary, but luckily only has to be done once. I don't use the auto preset as I only want to preset the stations I actually listen to. Bluetooth works flawlessly for me, and my Sony Hi-Res Walkmans connect without issue, and never drop out. I really like the way this stereo handle USB MP3 files. Most stereos that accept USB sticks are limited to how many files in total, and how many files you can have in each folder. Usually around 250 files per folder and a maximum of 999 files in total. This unit will take USB sticks with up to 999 folders, and up to 999 files per folder, with a maximum of 3,000 files on the drive. I can add all the music I like to a USB stick and leave it in the unit. And it does have a resume feature that will pick up where you left off. EDIT: Just press the STOP button while playing a USB drive, then RESUME will appear on the display. You can change inputs or even turn the stereo off. Next time you go the USB input, RESUME will appear on the display and you can continue listening from where you left off. This is a neat feature! The stereo came nicely packaged with double wrapping on the speakers and the unit. The box looked rather small for what was in it, but was packed with no wasted space. Setup was easy and took a few minutes to put together, including adding those tiny rubber pads to the bottom of the speakers. My main use for this will be the radio, Bluetooth and occasionally MP3 USB drive. All sound very nice on this stereo. EDIT: CD player works just fine, with regular CD's and MP3 discs. However, the CD player is very finicky on how you create the MP3 discs. I have MP3 discs that I made some time ago, they played fine on this unit. I created a new MP3 disc with Nero. I mistakenly created it with the UDF file system. When put into the CD player, I got a "Disc Error" message. I went back and made another disc Using ISO9660+Joliet. Put the disc in and it said "No Files". The problem was that I had all the files in the root of the disc. I went back and created the disc again, this time putting all the files in a folder, and the disc worked fine. The other 2 discs that didn't work here, did work fine in my other stereo system. So read the notes in the manual on creating MP3 discs. Except, it does not mention that the files need to be in a folder on the disc, which they do. This is a very nice unit, with excellent sound, according to my ears. The price seemed to have dropped as well, so this was a bargain. Time will tell if it was worth it, but in the immediate time, it is worth it!