Sherwood VR-670 Hollywood at Home Virtual Theater System

Other products by Sherwood

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 21 x 21 x 16 inches ; 40 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 38 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B0009JY6PM
• Item model number: VR-670
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #213 in Electronics (See Bestsellers in Electronics)

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

The operative words for the Sherwood Hollywood-at-Home Virtual Theater System are economy and simplicity. At a price much lower than what some comparably endowed systems are demanding, Hollywood-at-Home is as affordable as it gets. And with a design that will have you up and running in about ten minutes, it doesn't get much simpler than this.

The Hollywood-at-Home is a sleek-looking, complete home-theater system that offers the full range of features that you'd expect, along with full-room sound, thanks to Dolby's Virtual Speaker technology. As long as you're not in the hunt for a system with wattage that will blow your windows out, then this home-theater set-up may be just what you're looking for.

The Sherwood Hollywood-at-Home Virtual Theater System melds affordable sound with sleek style.

Plays DVDs, CDs, and CD-MP3s. View larger.

Simple inputs make for an easy set up. View larger.

Simplity in Style and Delivery
While full surround sound systems may offer the pinnacle of the home-theater experience, the costs in time, labor and frustration to set them up have sent many home-entertainment rookies packing. Running a gamut of speaker wires up and around the room to optimize a system's sound, in addition to playing the endless game of connect-the-countless-color-coded-wires, is not exactly an ideal way to spend a relaxing evening -- or two, or three -- at home. With this simple system, Sherwood is betting that there are enough of us who don't think tool belts are fine fashion accessories.

With the Hollywood-at-Home system, all you need to do is connect a few bare-wire-terminated speaker wires, along with a few other clearly marked wires and indoor antennas to their respective inputs on the receiver, plug in a couple of AC power cords into a wall socket, and you're essentially done. If you're an audio-video savant, this will take you all of seven minutes; if you're a newbie, you might need twelve, maybe fifteen minutes, to do the job.

Simplicity extends to the unit's design as well. The receiver is all of four inches high with a 17 x 11-inch (W x D) footprint and features a sleek, silver-plastic curved design that complements the two eight-inch tall silver satellite speakers. The largest component is the subwoofer at 8 x 12 x 12 inches (W x H x D). With a dark, wood-like grain exterior, it will barely be noticed when placed on the floor. When you power the system up, matching subtle accent lights beneath the receiver and on the front of the subwoofer come on. The fluorescent display on the receiver offers just enough light to get the job done in both full-light and darkened conditions. In short, there's nothing about the design that calls out for attention, which means you can focus on the "theater" component of the system, and not on the system's components.

A Full, but Tempered Sound
To cut to the chase, the technical details for the Hollywood-at-Home components are as follows: The 100-watt subwoofer offers phase control and a variable crossover from 50 to 150 hertz, while each of the speakers, featuring a three-inch woofer and one-inch soft dome tweeter, offers a frequency range of 140 hertz to 20 kilohertz and can handle up to 25 watts. The amplifier outputs all of 50 total watts of power over two channels. All told, the system has 150 total watts at its disposal.

In head-to-head spec comparisons with its competition, Hollywood-at-Home clearly suffers in the power department. When we threw in a few of our favorite action DVDs and musicals that screamed at us for more volume, the system was disappointing. Ideally, this unit is designed best for an apartment-like set-up in which excessively high-volumes will land you in the landlord's dog house, or in a small-room situation, such as a bedroom. The bottom line is that if you want to host an unforgettable Super Bowl party, you'll want to look elsewhere for your home-theater needs.

However, despite it's minor-league power output, the sound Hollywood-at-Home offers is surprisingly full, and its surround-sound-like audio gymnastics make it hard to believe that the system is relying on only two-channels. Within the Dolby Virtual Speaker options, the "wide" mode gave the illusion of sound coming at us from beyond the physical reach of the speakers. In fact, voices at times seemed to come from behind us. With the exception of the issue of overall power, we couldn't have been happier with the system's performance.

As for the visuals, with a flick of the remote, Hollywood-at-Home offers progressive scan playback. When compared side-by-side with our more expensive, but non-progressive-scan, DVD player, the colors were crisper and the pictures sharper. We could also zoom in and even change the angle on scenes, two features that added another surprising dimension to our review. Our playback of CD, CD-MP3, and DVD files was flawless. For true video-philes, the system also supports PAL playback.

As for the rest of the story, Hollywood-at-Home includes features we'd expect any home-theater system to have, such as AM/FM tuning (with 30 presets), repeat/random/programmed track playback, easy-to-set-up parental controls, and so on. Our only other complaint, a minor one, concerns the glow-in-the-dark controls on the otherwise excellent, universal, multi-brand remote control. In dark conditions, the touch pad is easy to read, but when a movie scene fills the otherwise dark room with bright light, the "glow" disappears and the controls become invisible. A back-lit touch pad would have been a nice addition.

What's in the Box
DVD receiver, two satellite speakers, active subwoofer, remote control, two AAA batteries, composite video wire, indoor antennas, and user's manual.

Pros:

• Simple, 10-minute set-up
• Sleek, handsome, unobtrusive design
• System offers full-room virtual sound

Cons:

• Only 150 watts of total power; cannot handle high volumes
• Remote control lacks back-lit touch pad

Product Description

It's finally easy to have the Hollywood movie experience at home. With Sherwood's VR-670 Virtual Home Theater, enjoy natural and realistic surround sound effects using only two speakers. Transform activities such as TV watching, movie viewing and music listening into a thrilling surround sound experience without the complexity of typical systems.By eliminating the need for center channel and surround channel speakers, the Hollywood-at-Home systems are easy to install. As there are no wires to run to the back of the room, even inexperienced owners usually complete the installation in less than 10 minutes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb fit and finish, great sound, nice sub, January 4, 2006

By	voodoo (USA) - See all my reviews

This system by Sherwood was designed to provide "virtual" surround by only using two front satellite speakers and a subwoofer. This eliminates the need for rear speakers and a center channel.

Of course it doesn't work like a high-end, 6-speaker surround system but it does what it does very well.

I purchased this for much less than the advertised price of around $260. While this system was originally listed at $430, I don't think it would quite be worth it. But for around $250 you are getting a very nice system in a very small package.

First off, the main unit is a VERY sleek, somewhat heavy unit which gives off the impression of a much pricier piece of equipment. It has a light on the front that glows amber when idle, and blue when in use. There is a coordinating light on the subwoofer as well. Capable of decoding Dolby digital 5.1 and Dolby VS (virtual surround), the main unit plays DVD's, cds, most burned cds with mp3's, and more.

The two small speakers have a silver finish (as does the main unit) that matches perfectly with my Toshiba television. So far they have provided more than ample sound with no clipping whatsoever. True audiophiles who like to watch their movies at deafening volumes might be a tad disappointed, but for most Friday-night movie watchers they perform wonderfully. They are crisp, clear, and can be mounted to a wall, speaker stand, or simply placed beside the television (manufacturer's recommended placement). I disagree with the "pro" review on Amazon.com about the power of this system. I can turn it up as loud as is enjoyable and it performs awesome. Any louder and you're just the idiot neighbor who's gotta have the best of everything and to heck with anyone else who doesn't like hearing "Star Wars" from a block away.

The small subwoofer comes in an expresso-colored wood cabinet and looks very nice. Besides the power cord, only a single small wire is needed to run back to the main unit to provide the sub with the proper signal (provided). Featuring a 6" woofer with two ports (all hidden), this sub puts out quite a nice sound for it's size. Again, don't expect it to shake the neighbors (a good thing) but it does vibrate my coffee table during action sequences in "The Incredibles".

All in all I am very impressed by this unit by Sherwood. There is an upgraded unit that features a larger sub, but for my money this system works better than I ever expected. I recommend this to anyone looking to add great sound to their modest home theater setup.

UPDATE: (11/30/09)

So I've owned this system for 4 years now and we still use it daily. Here's the good and the bad. The system still cranks out full, deep sound especially for only having 3 total speakers. My wife regularly plays her cd's over this while cleaning the house, and it can flat out rock our smaller house. Watching movies is still a nice experience too, and the little sub still provides very nice bass. Just over the Thanksgiving holiday my brother in law was helping me move some components around, and he commented on how heavy the main unit was. It does not look dated at all, but still looks and feels like a very high quality system.

The bad is that like another reviewer here, the dvd/cd drive quit working. It still has one of my cd's inside though I don't know which one as it won't play it, and won't eject it. However, we play cd's by putting them in our Philips DVD player which runs through this Sherwood unit and setting it to the "Aux" mode. I can have my Xbox 360 play Guitar Hero music through it by hooking up the audio portion of the component cables at the rear. So it's still very useable, just not as a stand-alone DVD player. Of course if it was my only DVD player I'd be upset, but since the Sherwood does not offer up-conversion anyway (it's too old) then it doesn't really bother me.

But be aware that you might experience dvd/cd drive issues with this unit in the future, although I never went about contacting Sherwood to try and get it fixed. I still think it's a great sound system for the price, and with 4 years of use I'd still purchase it again.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best 2.1 channel value by far, July 6, 2006

By	Pat Denisty (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

I began looking for a 2.1 channel system for my bedroom. I went and listened to the Denon S101 and S301, Sony Dav X1, Bose 321, and the Sherwood VR670. After listening to each unit and reading the online reviews/propaganda I decided to purchase the Sherwood. It has all the power and fullness of sound you'd need in a 350 sq ft. room, the DVD produces a quality 480P image, and the unit, its speakers, and subwoofer are aesthetically pleasing and compact.

I really wanted to purchase the Sony DAV X1 but I just could not justify paying nearly 3X as much for something that I did not feel sounded appreciably better.

I've got this unit hooked up to a 32" Sony LCD and it took all of 10 minutes from cutting the box open to putting in my Serentity DVD.

P.S.- The virtual surround feature on ALL the 2.1 systems I listened to was less than stellar.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AWESOME, August 7, 2006

By	Aziz Laurent (Austin TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This is a very impressive theater system. Probably the best in it's class. I prefer it to my Bose 123 system, which cost 3 time as much. I love it. Great sound, compact, sleek design.