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Rating: 
Summary: Nice unit when it works, but flawed design which breaks
Review: I have the X-MR7. Positives: Nice styling, decent sound (good sound compared to other microsystems), rich featureset (CDRW dubbing, phono input, etc.). The obvious downside is
that it's expensive compared to comparable microsystems. That doesn't sound so bad. So why am I giving this 1 star?
Because this unit features a design defect that seems to
almost assure that, ultimately, the CD changer will stop
working. I purchased two of these units. On the first one,
the 3CD changer broke quickly in a low stress environment:
The trays would only open partway, you could hear the gears
inside grinding away, but it was unusable. I returned the
unit under warranty and got another that broke in the same
way after only a couple of weeks. I returned THAT one and
got one that seemed to be OK. Until last week. Last week, it
broke again, in the exact same way. In addition, the second
unit I purchased ALSO broke last week, again in the same
way. (For those keeping score: There's the first
unit, which I returned twice already and then there's
the second unit,
which I gave to my parents, which broke for the first time
last week). And now they're both out of warranty.
I called my local Pioneer repair center, and they told me A)
that this is a known design defect with these units and that
they've seen "dozens" with the exact same problem; B) that
Pioneer was aware of the problem (there's a cheap
piece of plastic in the CD player mechanism that is weak,
gets stressed with normal use, and frequently breaks);
and C) that nonetheless
that I would have to pay about $150 EACH to get them
repaired. Needless to say, I am less tham thrilled at the
prospect of having to pay $150 to fix what is a known
design flaw (and will probably break again if fixed). So I am giving this unit the big "NOT ACCEPTABLE" rating,
despite the fact that I think it is (was) a good unit when
it worked. 4 stars when it worked. 1 star because it mostly
likely will stop working sometime after you buy it. David
Rating: 
Summary: Decent system for the money
Review: I haven't had much playtime with the unit, but I decided to buy it after listening to about 20 different so called "executive" shelf systems that either sounded crappy or were severely overpriced and only sounded OK. First off, this system has decent speakers-not great ones, but better than you'd get with most systems. the finish is OK, but it's still veneer. The sides only look to be 1/2" MDF. Ditto for the back, but the front has more material. The drivers are a dome tweeter and a 5.5" mid-woofer with an actual rubber surround. The sound is pretty good-on par with a small polk audio bookshelf speaker, but not as good as something like an energy EXL or B+W. There is some break-in time-bass will get less muddy and more defined, but not that much. They are ported to the rear, and you'll get a fair amount more punch to them if you put them in an actual bookshelf. As for the unit, I had faint hopes that it might be metal in front, but it's all plastic. The sides are metal, but pretty thin. The unit is all once piece, but very deep, so it won't fit on a normal bookshelf. The display is easy to read, but still a bit on the busy side. It would be nice if it wasn't so cluttered. The remote has a few too many buttons on it-mainly to help in programming the CD-R. The volume buttons are on the top right, which isn't where your fingers fall naturally, so it's a bit awkward. Luckily, the knobs on the unit are much larger, and it's pretty intuitive. The CD changer works well, but the sound when you change discs screams "I am plastic". You can hear lots of plastic parts inside, and it doesn't exactly sound smooth with all those gears working away. As for CD play, it works fine, the sound is adequate, and a subwoofer is not essential. There are 4 DSP modes, which sound pretty bad, and a bass boost, which is like a loudness button for low level listening, but it doesn't boost trebel-you also can't have DSP and the bass boost on at the same time, which is probably a good idea. For the CD-R, it says it only takes digital audio discs-I haven't tried other types yet. Dubbing is pretty simple-there's a one touch operation for copying whole CDs. Another thing-it does not put out 35 or 50 watts or whatever it claims. For real world listening, it's about equivalent to 25 watts per into 6ohms. If you like loud listening levels, add a subwoofer with a crossover or get a full size system. Or get some really efficient bookshelf speakers like Klipsch. Overall, it does what I expected. If I paid retail or street pricing, i'd probably knock my rating down to 3 stars, since it's a lot of money to pay for a system like this. I paid under ..., so while not a bargain, it's a fair amount of bang for your buck.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect for the Music Lover Stuck in the Office
Review: The Pioneer X-MR7 is the ideal stereo for those who can afford it. It's sleek look and crisp sound fit perfectly in any office setting, and the full-function remote even lets you record CDs without getting up from behind your desk. The best part of this system is the sound. While most small systems are heavy on the treble and have a "Mega Bass" button that gives off way too much low end, the X-MR7 provides well-balanced tones with a strong mid-range to keep the sound clear, even at a low volume. The ability to record from all three CDs on the CD-R drive is also extremely helpful and saves you the time from having to reprogram after each and every song.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect for the Music Lover Stuck in the Office
Review: The Pioneer X-MR7 is the ideal stereo for those who can afford it. It's sleek look and crisp sound fit perfectly in any office setting, and the full-function remote even lets you record CDs without getting up from behind your desk. The best part of this system is the sound. While most small systems are heavy on the treble and have a "Mega Bass" button that gives off way too much low end, the X-MR7 provides well-balanced tones with a strong mid-range to keep the sound clear, even at a low volume. The ability to record from all three CDs on the CD-R drive is also extremely helpful and saves you the time from having to reprogram after each and every song.
Rating:
Summary: Great system at this price
Review: This is a great system at this price. Specially, since I keep a good collection of Music on Cassettes, and wanted to somehow move them all to CDs. This task was made really simple with this unit. The sound is very good for a medium size room. I would give it a A+++.
Rating:
Summary: Great system at this price
Review: This is a great system at this price. Specially, since I keep a good collection of Music on Cassettes, and wanted to somehow move them all to CDs. This task was made really simple with this unit. The sound is very good for a medium size room. I would give it a A+++.
Rating: 
Summary: Elevator problem
Review: This is a very attractive looking system (I'm a sucker for woodgrain), but I had to send it back within 5 days of owning it because my CD got stuck in the CD changer! As soon as I had it set up, I had a problem with the elevator type CD changer as when I hit the CD eject button, it would stutter and sometimes not even open (I could hear the CD trays moving inside, and the main tray came out about a quarter of an inch, but then it quickly locked itself back in). Then when I finally got it to open and put a CD in it, it ate it and would not respond to either the remote or simply pressing the button on the unit. I called Pioneer right away and they told me to unplug it for an hour (they were generally kinda rude), then try it again (something to do with resetting the chip)--that didn't work. So I had no choice but to send it back to where I bought it with my favorite Alana Davis CD trapped inside!
Ok, so I probably got a defective unit, but it turned me off this product and now I'm buying an AIWA.
As mentioned earlier, the styling is very nice/mature, the sound output is adequate without being obnoxious, of course the CD-R/W recorder feature was a major attraction for me, but it would have been nice to have high speed dubbing...oh well...
In all fairness, you may still want to get one and use your own judgement (especially if the price is right), but just make sure you find out about your seller's return policy and check your unit as soon as you get it...otherwise you may be stuck with a very expensive AM/FM tuner that swallows CD's!
Rating:
Summary: Not worth it!
Review: This stereo worked well for two days, then the cd changer kept jamming...I have taken it in three times to get repaired. After they replaced all of the loading tray parts it still only worked for one day! Now I have two cd's jammed in there and I am working with Pioneer on getting a refund. Trust me, this system is not worth the frustration!
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