Pioneer XW-NAS5 iPod Audio System - Brutish & Powerful

Audio Pioneers

Founded in 1938 as a radio and speaker repair shop, Pioneer has now evolved into a consumer electronics giant well-known for pioneering several key advancements in consumer electronics, such as the world’s first component car stereo and world’s first DVD-R drive, amongst many others. And although the company has recently pulled out of the TV manufacturing business, they remain very active on the audio front.

And if recent indications are anything to go by, no AV system is complete these days without an iPod or an iPhone dock. And rightly so, considering close to 300 million iPods and iPhones have been sold worldwide thus far, and with Apple slated to sell millions more this year. To address this, Pioneer has introduced a new line-up of iPod/iPhone certified audio systems to cater to this new generation of iPod and iPhone-wielding consumers.

Of the new models introduced, the XW-NAS5 is the range-topper, and it features a 2.1-channel full-range speaker system with downward firing subwoofer and Pioneer’s Advanced Sound Retriever technology in a compact, stylish form factor. Primarily, it is Pioneer’s own “über dock”, targeted at well-heeled individuals who want only the best to complement their iPods and iPhones.

The Pioneer XW-NAS5 iPod Audio System

The Pioneer XW-NAS5 keeps it simple with a sleek and unfussy style. The docking connector is located at the top panel and is kept concealed by a cover which can easily to be flipped open. Just below the docking connector are two rows of buttons which lets you power up or put the system into standby mode, change the input, and also control volume.

And search as hard as you may, you won’t find any displays on the XW-NAS5, well not visible ones at least, because Pioneer has cleverly integrated a simple LED display behind the fabric speaker grilles and it’s a rather elegant implementation.

Overall, the design and looks of the XW-NAS5 is tasteful and befits its flagship status. However, it’s let down by a poorly designed remote control. Not only is the remote control rather unintuitive to use, it gives you only basic control of your iPod and iPhone. You can only skip tracks backwards and forwards, play and pause and that’s it. There’s no way to cycle through playlists, select individual tracks, much less access the different menus in your iPod and iPhone.

On the audio front, the XW-NAS5 features a single 10cm woofer and two 5.2cm mid-range drivers as well as two 2.6cm semi-done tweeters. To complement the hardware, Pioneer has included something called Advanced Sound Retriever (ASR) that supposedly helps restore details that are lost in compressed music files. Furthermore, the XW-NAS5 also provides various sound modes to choose from. “Vivid” widens the soundstage and attempts to reproduce a live concert experience, whereas the “Lo-fi” modes gives music a retro and grainy feel.

But perhaps the most interesting sound feature of them is the Soundscape function, which adds ambient sounds to your music. There are six to choose from ranging from the sounds of waves to the rustling of trees and the chirping of birds. The volume of the sound effects is adjustable and although it might seem gimmicky, it’s actually a pretty nifty feature, seeing that you can easily simulate different environments in your home.

Test Setup

If you are familiar with our audio reviews, we usually test speakers across four categories, but since the Pioneer XW-NAS5 is positioned as speakers designed specifically for iPods/iPhones, we’ll be restricting our tests to CD audio and MP3 testing, with the CD tracks ripped to a lossless format and then synced to our iPhone test mule. 

Basically, we want to look out for the XW-NAS5’s musical sensibilities. Hence, we’ll be playing a variety of different tracks to see how the speakers would perform across different genres such as acoustic, jazz, orchestral and trance.

Of course, different people have different musical and sonic tastes. Some are bassheads while others are treble freaks, so your preferences with speakers may vary.

The complete list of testing material is as follows:

CD Audio Testing:

Pod Race Scene from The Phantom Menace

Tyrannosaurus Rex Sound Effects from Jurassic Park

Theme from Jurassic Park

Apollo 13 Lift-off Sound Effects

Theme from Cutthroat Island

Fanfare for Louis, performed by the Dallas Wind Symphony

MP3 Audio Testing:

Hotel California - Eagles

Sail on Soothsayer - Buckethead

Melt My Heart to Stone - Adele

Elements of Life - Tiesto

Report Card

The CD audio tracks on our list give a good impression of a sound system’s audio sensibilities, so we began our tests with the Pod Race Scene from The Phantom Menace, where the XW-NAS5’s 10cm woofer provided ample oomph to the pod racer’s engines. The burble, growls and revs were satisfying and thumping good. However, the XW-NAS5’s suffers from poor stereo separation, which is a prevalent problem with iPod docking systems.

The poor stereo separation and lack of soundstage also led to a poor experience when playing Theme from Jurassic Park and Morgan’s Ride from Cutthroat Island. Also, we noticed that the XW-NAS5 sounded veiled, as if a blanket was placed over it. Fortunately, turning the Sound setting to “Vivid” did improve things a little, as it brightened the sound considerably and also created a pseudo-surround effect for a wider soundstage.

Where the XW-NAS5 really shone was with its convincing performance on the T-rex and Apollo 13 lift-off sound effects tracks, where the woofer served up generous amounts of bass, enough to rumble even the desk we placed it on.

On to MP3 testing, the XW-NAS5 failed to impress on Hotel California, a popular auditioning track. Lack of soundstage aside, the XW-NAS5 also sounded blanketed, leaving Don Henley sounding gruff and muffled. And despite the ample amount of bass, we found that it lacked precision and control, which was evident at the opening when the bongo drums kicked in.

Playing Buckethead’s Sail on Soothsayer, the XW-NAS5 displayed good speed and pace, but again the system sounded veiled and dark, lacking sparkle and transparency.

And on Tiesto’s Elements of Life, the XW-NAS5 once again showed off its good pace, but we noticed that the woofer sounded somewhat tired, especially midway through the track when the bass beats was relentless. That said, the system’s full-bodied sound and copious amounts of bass made us want to tap our feet.

The sound signature of the XW-NAS5 lends itself well to Adele’s Melt My Heart to Stone, giving her voice a warm and rich tone.

Boom Boom Pow

On the whole, the Pioneer XW-NAS5 sound signature can best be described as dark, powerful and boomy, but before we offer our overall analysis, here’s a quick summary of its audio performance.

Sheer volume and power are two things that the XW-NAS5 doesn’t lack. The sheer impact from the downward firing woofer was enough to rumble our desks, but that’s also its greatest shortcoming. Borrowing a line from Pirelli tire commercials, "Power is nothing without control", and that’s what the XW-NAS5 is sorely missing.

While the XW-NAS5 sounds commanding on initially, it gets tiresome over time. For most parts, the XW-NAS5 sounded veiled and and it could do with more refinement and transparency, which should bring out the sparkle in the highs. The “Vivid” sound setting and Pioneer’s Advanced Sound Retriever (ASR) do alleviate matters a bit, but even with it turned on, the XW-NAS5 doesn’t sound as good as its S$699 price tag suggests.

Besides the above-average audio performance, the remote control was also frustrating to use. But it does redeem itself somewhat with its interesting Soundscape feature, component and composite video output, and the option for Bluetooth audio streaming. All things considered then, the Pioneer XW-NAS5 is a bit of a letdown and could use more polish. It should however appeal to those with a penchant for loud music and thumping bass above anything else.

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