Well worth the money
Very nice unit. Easy hardware setup, did have to call SONY to get speakers calibrated, many ways you can set it up. They sound wonderful (we watched a War Movie and you are totally surrounded by sound, just like the theater, and they look very nice. Not clunky like so many you see, middle sound bar is sleek and fits anywhere, woofer large, well aren't they all, but can be placed anywhere in the room, front and side speakers nicely shaped and easily hung. Just stop looking and buy these, you won't be sorry.
2009-11-15
Great sound system for this price range
I have purchased and setup three of these so far (2 for family members, and now 1 for me) and would highly recommend them to anyone looking to get a great home theater sound system without spending a fortune on it.
SETUP
Honestly, the setup for a home theater system is incredibly easy, especially relative to some of the other complicated setups out there. The speaker wires are color coded on the end that plugs into the console, so you know exactly which goes where, without having to eyeball the cord all the way back to the speaker. The speakers themselves are also labeled, so you know exactly where to place them once they're hooked up in the back.
I am definitely taking advantage (as you should) of the HDMI switching, since I have an Apple TV, Xbox and DVR hooked up to my system. I bought several 6' cables, plugged them all into the console and ran 1 cable from that to my TV, and it's done! Now whenever I switch my input on the Sony, it automatically updates both sound (obviously) and the output on my TV. I eventually plan to get a HDMI projector, which works great with a system like this, since all it will require is a single HDMI cable connected to it to work.
SOUND QUALITY
The sound quality is really pretty good--especially considering you are spending <$300 on the system. The sub woofer, although not individually powered, still puts out great bass for movies, games, etc. The center channel puts out crisp voice, and isn't muffled at all by all the other sounds going on. I've watched blu-rays using this sound system (at my brother-in-law's house on his system) and it's great, when using HDMI.
BEST FEATURE
Again, as I keep saying, the best feature on this system is the 3 HDMI inputs that support automatic switching. I have greatly simplified/cleaned up the amount of cables running in my home theater system, because all I need now is 4 HDMI cables (3 for the devices, 1 for the tv.) Just switch your input on your AV remote and your television/projector updates automatically. Also, since it's HDMI, you are ensured the best possible sound/picture for your system.
CONS
There are obviously some cons here, but they are not deal breakers at all. The biggest one I can think of is that the subwoofer is a passive sub, but again, the quality is still good enough, that it shouldn't make you hesitate to purchase the sound system.
Another con is that the cables are proprietary, due to the whole plug-in-play style of how they work. (One end on the speaker side is your typical black/red connection ,but on the other side is a plug that you just hook into the base system.) So this means that if your surround speakers dont quite go far enough in your room, you are mostly screwed. You'd have to splice in some extra speaker wire to get it to work. This is an unfortunate oversight by the Sony crew...So just make sure you dont have any special speaker placement needs, or at least, be prepared to do some tweaking.
CONSENSUS
Buy this system! If you only have about $300 to spend and have several HDMI devices already, then it's honestly the best system you can get.
2009-11-07
For the money, stellar.
Pros:
Price! At this cheap, you wouldn't expect much.
Sound quality. It's good.
3 HDMI inputs.
Individual speaker level adjustment.
Speakers are wall mountable!
Wires are longer than you'd expect.
Cons:
Bass levels are weak.
Mids are washed out.
Proprietary connectors.
Confusing menu system.
At this price, really, you cannot complain. Will you be blown away with $1,000 dollar system quality? No. Will you be pleased? Yes! I bought this expecting the worst and was pleasantly surprised. At 227 dollars shipped, you cannot beat it. The sound is great for the price. The highs sound good and the bass is perfect for an apartment. If you're looking to be blown away in your custom home theater room, spend some money and get and nice Onkyo. If you have an apartment, or a small room that you want low levels of higher quality sound, this is for you! I live in an apartment with a 16 x 10 living room. The wires for the surround did not need to be spliced and extended. I expected to have to cut them. I recently set up a Pioneer surround system in my buddy's apartment and we had to splice both rear speaker wires in a space that is smaller than my living room. The speakers are also wall mountable. They have the notch for a screw/hammer head to insert into the rear and mount. It doesn't look the best, but it's better than spending 100 dollar on shelves to set them on.
As mentioned above, the bass levels are weak. Another reviewer stated that he bought a different sub that was powered. You may want to. The way it comes from the factory is decent. It gives a bit of a bump, but nothing near a quality set. For instance, my computer speakers (Klipsch Promedia 2.1) have a sub that is half of the size and ten times more powerful. It does the job, just not well. As for the mids... they are, eh. The sound is there, but it's nothing award winning. You can hear voices and what not but the highs and bass are more pronounced. This is how I listen to TV/Music so it does not bother me, but most people it may. For the price, it is great. It has proprietary connectors, so if you were to get a different set of speakers to hook up to it, you'll have to splice them. That's not world ending, but an inconvenience. The menu system sucks. If you don't know anything about audio, you won't understand it. Read the manual and it explains it a good bit, but it could have been done a lot better. An on screen display would have been infinitely better.
Overall, I'll still give it five stars. You can't expect gold when you pay for copper. If you go into it with that attitude, you will be pleasantly surprised. If you expect multi-thousand dollar system quality from a tiny little box, you'll be disappointed.
2009-11-07
