Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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99 of 101 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good for all in one sound system, but beware of limitations., September 26, 2007
I bought this system hoping to streamline what small living space I had, and get rid of big, bulky speakers and other audio/video components. I was quite pleased with the sound this system produced. However, as I was considering upgrading to an HD DVD player, I quickly realized the pitfalls and limitations of this unit.
First, although this systems has wireless rear speakers, the sound they produce is not as strong as the front speakers. Also, the speaker wire it comes with limits how far apart they can be, and if you need more distance than the wire allots, then you have to splice the speaker wire it comes with yourself to increase the length since you cannot simply replace the wire provided with longer wire. Panasonic likes to make things proprietary. On that note, if any component gives out on this system, like the receiver for the rear wireless signal, or the DVD player, or the receiver itself, then you're stuck with a useless system and replacing pieces here and there is not as simple as if you had separate components to begin with.
Second, if you want to upgrade later, such as a high end DVD player, there is no optical audio connection in the back of the receiver, so you will not be able to get DTS or Dolby Surround sound when you watch movies using a different DVD player. When I looked into this more, it turns out that when you have wireless speakers, you already loose the true surround sound by not having a physical wire connection from the main receiver to the rear speakers. That's why they didn't bother to put in an optical audio input. I didn't realize that when I bought it. If you don't plan to upgrade, then you're fine. But why spend hundreds of dollars on a unit that already limits you to expanding in the future. You should use the money towards buying a true theater sound system.
As for the upconverting DVD player, I never thought the picture was as good as my old Panasonic upconverting DVD player. I played around with all the different video settings, and I was never satisfied. So I ended up using my old DVD player in the end.
Given that there is a movement towards HD television and HD DVD, I wouldn't recommend buying this system. Save your money, and use it to buy a real receiver and speakers. I think it is fine as a starter for young kids or for a dorm room, but not if you are the least bit of an audio or videophile.
In the end, I wound up returning the system and buying "real" speakers so to speak, using my bulky, yet perfectly fine Denon receiver. I am much happier now.
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33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great System, July 7, 2007
I like this system, the quality is great and I had no problem with any cables. Movies show really clear. There are 2 negatives. The system does not have the capability to CD shuffle. I like to put 5 CD's and have it shuffle all 5. The unit only selects random! And Second - in order to hear a movie well in its surround capacity, you have to raise the volume to atleast 30.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic product for the money, July 30, 2007
Works well, wireless is awesome, no problems with interference with other electronics. The wireless system will change frequencies if another device is using the same frequency, and with minimal interruption. For the price you can't find a better home theater. It is currently upscaling to 1080 on my projection tv which doesn't look too good, you need to use analog cables, not component, to automatically stop it from upscaling. My new lcd will take care of this problem when it arrives. It sounds good all the way to max volume, it isn't the loudest system out there, but I can hear it clearly everywhere in my house and well into my backyard with the door closed at max volume. It has Dolby and four preset equalizer settings which is fine for this price. Bonus: it has a full Ipod dock for charging and playing, and everything is shiny black color. Forget Sony, that wireless uses a red beam that has to point at the transmitter. Either get Onkyo if you have money or this if you don't need 120 decibels.
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