Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Excellent system
By M. Doll
As someone who previously did not consider themselves an audiophile, I am very happy to find that my lack of caring about audio was simply because I'd never had a good sound system before.You see, this is my first surround sound system, and I'm now converted for life.Installing this system was pretty straightforward but each component had its own instruction set which made things slightly confusing and hard to keep track of. Going methodically kept everything clear, but for someone used to breezing through electronics setup, this took a painfully long time. In the end, I was able to successfully install the system on my own, having never installed a surround system before, and without any errors.The sound on this system is outstanding, and the volume level is very nice. I have been listening to music, blu-rays, and video games for a couple months now on this system and everything is clear, beautiful, and aurally compelling. The receiver has lots of great options for customizing your sound to your own preferences and is quite straightforward to use.The build quality of all the components feels very solid and high quality. Nothing feels cheap or skimpy and I was pleasantly surprised to find out just how hefty the speakers are. The front speakers are actually quite large, and the rear speakers are of decent size as well. This is not meant to scare anyone off that is concerned about massive speakers, but mearly to point out that they're not some tiny speakers that you're afraid you'll blow out on the next Michael Bay movie but are instead nice and solid and capable of outputting big sound. The receiver is capable of turning your stereo mp3 (or other format) audio files into an excellent full surround by using a number of output options, most notably the 7-channel surround which will send the audio to the rear speakers as well.One thing I read in other reviews was that the screen on the receiver was "too small" and hard to read. This is not the case. The folks who have issues seeing the display must be hard-of-sight, because if the display was any larger it would be obtrusive and ugly. From my couch I can read the display just fine and once you get your system set up, there is little need to read the display anyways.The remote control is quite complicated and a mass of buttons, but once you read through some of the documentation to figure out what everything does, it is very straightforward and very powerful. The only thing it cannot do is turn on my Playstation because it is not a bluetooth remote (but almost no remotes are). It remembers settings based upon which input you're set to and this is very useful!Unlike most HTIB systems, the Receiver that comes in this system seems extremely good and looks like it would be well worth keeping while upgrading other components of the system to high-end pieces (if one feels inclined to upgrade to expensive equipment). I can't really fathom what a more expensive receiver would provide that this one does not, unless you are running some extremely complicated setup or have an actual theatre installed in your house or something. Comparing this receiver to my brother's HTIB limited-option cruddy one, I am very please with the power output, quality, and feature set of this receiver. The large amounts of inputs also ensures that you are highly unlikely to run out of places to plug in your electronics. I have more things plugged into this than most people probably will and I still have room for more.Overall, for extreme audiophiles who complain about this little thing or that little thing on this system, to you I say "why are you down in the lower price range equipment anyways?" For the rest of us, this system is awesome and I highly recommend it. If you're using your TV speakers, or little 1.5" speakers that come in most HTIB systems... it's time for an upgrade to this excellent system.Lastly, the speakers are all equipped properly for wall installation. I had much more difficulty with the installation of the wall mounts that I purchased than I did with the installation of the speakers themselves. I was initially concerned that a HTIB system might have some non-standard installation components/mounts but luckily that wasn't the case, and everything in this sytem appears to be forward thinking in terms of usability with other equipment and/or upgrading components piece by piece down the line.A++.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
Sounds great, easy to set up
By Ray S. Peters
Got it hooked up in a minimum of time. The auto sound variation setup is decent, but I found that I need to add volume to the rear speakers after setup.So, I'll start with the negatives. First, as you might expect, the speaker wire that is included is thin and flimsy. I ended up spending an additional 50 or so dollars on good speaker wire. Second, the manual is on CD. For me, this means I had to have my laptop by my side during setup. For others, this might mean running back and forth to the computer while you try different component codes during setup, or whatever. A minor thing, but just a heads up.Now on the the positives... the system looks great, the setup was fairly simple, and it sounds wonderful. I have an apartment so it was pretty easy to get it set up around my living room (no long wire runs). I bought a few HDMI cables so that I could have it all connected in the same fashion. **NOTE** If you hook up dissimilar inputs, you need the same for output. This means if you have one device hooked up through HDMI and another through component, you need HDMI AND component going to your TV. Component in-component out. So, when you change devices on the receiver, you'll have to change inputs on your TV as well. I went with everything HDMI (cable TV, BluRay, XBox) so that I only needed one output to the TV.The remote control lets you pre-configure 4 devices so that, with the press of a button, it switches to that device input and changes to your pre-configured sound setup for that device. Ultra-handy. The remote is universal so you can control your devices through it as well.the sound itself is pretty good. I was playing xbox and at one point thought someone was yelling to me from outside... turns out it was one of the fans in the stadium of the football game I was playing. I played another game later and it was raining and I could hear the rain drops all around me in my living room. Movies sound great as well, but I notice that I had to turn up the volume a bit to get a really good feel from the action scenes (much to the chagrin of my neighbors).Overall, great product and the price is right. Just remember you are really going to want to get better speaker cable than what is included.
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Great HTiB System
By Kevin M
I researched this system before it was released. Anxiously awaited it knowing it would be superior to all other HTiB systems. I am biased since I've always been a Yamaha fan but the fact is it sounds great in my house. I love that it can self calibrate with the microphone that comes with it. The sound is clear and precise and when I play a Blue Ray movie its awesome.
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Terrible Product & Even Worse Support from Amazon
