9 out of 9 people found this review helpful.
BEST BANG FOR YOUR MONEY (PROS AND CONS)
Date of Review: Jan 26, 2008
The Bottom Line: WORKING WITH A BUDGET? FIRST HTS? DO NOT PASS THIS ONE UP! USED TO HAVING THOSE VERY EXPENSIVE HTS? THIS MAY SURPRISE YOU!
I was skeptical of this home theatre system (HTS), but after reading all the reviews I couldn't turn it down.
Lets start with the ease of the setup:
If you are going to install this yourself it shouldn't take more than 30 minutes. Don t be fooled into paying extra for someone to set this up. All the speakers have color coded wires so no need to worry about that. The speaker wires are built straight into the speaker boxes so you will have to splice them if the wires are not long enough. (the rear speakers are plenty long)
About the sound:
For the price of the HTS, this sounds very good! The rear speakers at first didn t sound loud with the movies, but if you stop the DVD movie you can change the volume for each individual speaker thru the setup menu.
The center speaker sounds just as good as those high dollar ones, and the sub woofer is loud enough, but not so much it rattles your house.
The picture quality:
I ran the HTS through an HDMI cable (not included) and the quality is very good! The upscaling to 1080i helps you enjoy the DVDs to their full potential. Although not upscaled to 1080p, as said before... The price of this HTS keeps a smile on your face. :)
Other features:
The built in am/fm radio is pretty good. You can easily preset 40 radio stations. Thats about all there is to say about that. The ipod dock is great! Its compatible with all ipods, and the gogear mp3 players. If you have the video ipod, you can watch your videos on your tv all while controlling your ipod with the DVD remote. However, due to apple changing the video out of the new classic ipod, it will not play video for it. So ... If you are one of those like me and own an ipod classic you can only listen to your music, but not video. :(
But this is apple's fault!
HTS overall rating : 4/5 stars
Pros:
Great price, sounds great, picture quality very good
ipod ready, radio ready, nice speaker design.
Compatible with many video files including divx
3.5" aux input for all mp3 players,
usb port for pics and music.
Software upgradable from website.
Cons:
No HDMI or component cables included,
Wires built into the speaker box,
DVD tray is flimsy,
DVDs load somewhat slow.
Extra info: I purchased mine at best buy using a 12% off coupon and it was only $167.19 ($180.98 w/tax) lets just say that I m very happy with the HTS. If you can afford to spend more it s really your call, but if you are buying an HTS for the first time, don t pass this great one up!
