7 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Lots of Bang for the Buck...
Date of Review: May 26, 2007
The Bottom Line: If you have an Ipod & HDTV, this is a great unit for the money/features. If the Ipod dock isn't needed the Sony Bravia is a better sounding unit.
I had tried several others in my home, the Sony Bravia 255 and 265, a Panasonic with wireless rears, Samsung, etc. This unit had the two features I wanted, HDMI Upconverting and an Ipod dock, at a price point that scared me at first.
But I tried it, and am glad I did! My wife REQUIRED a clean, no wire installation, and this system allowed for us both to get what we wanted. Sound was Okay, even good for the price. But the Sony and Panasonic did sound better to me, but not twice as good, and that's about what they cost, twice as much. I ended up hooking up some old Bose cubes I had laying around in place of the Philips units, which come with too thin gauge wire for me. I'm very pleased with the look and sound from the system.
The plug and play speaker wires allow for a fast, no-brainer set up, but I would have preferred to have conventional speaker hook-ups so I could use thick gauge cables. The speakers are somewhat better than I would have expected, despite that fact that I chose not to use them.
The wattage rating, 1000w, is ambitious at best, and the reported frequency response, 140Hz to 14KHz isn't all that great, but the sound seems to fit the bill for what I was looking for....much better than the sound our 37" HD Flat Panel offered, for sure. Can't argue with the price at or below $200 if you haggle a bit.
