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80 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great system, with a couple exceptions, June 9, 2009
This review is from: Sony HTSS360 5.1 channel Home Theater System (Black) (Electronics)
I own a new 40" Sony Bravia LCD that I hooked this system up to. I was very impressed with its sound and its wide range of features for the price! However, there were a couple areas that I feel need to be addressed.
PROS:
- Excellent sound, especially the Movie DCS mode which adds a ton of depth to any movie
- Easy setup
- Excellent integration with a Sony TV. I can fully control my LCD from the receiver remote after hooking up the HDMI cables.
- Full HDMI switching makes initial connection and switching between sources a snap. I can switch between cable and my PS3 with 1 button.
- Wide range of format handling, including Linear PCM.
- Wide range of sound modes.
- No color distortion issues when switching between HDMI sources. This seemed to be a problem in older models.
CONS:
- I found the bass to be a little lacking due to the fact that the subwoofer is passive. I swapped the included one out with this: Yamaha YST-SW216BL Advanced YST II Front-Firing Active Subwoofer and it brought the sound to a whole new level!
- Uses proprietary speaker wire connections. Sony makes it very hard to swap the subwoofer like I described previously because the receiver uses proprietary plugs for the speakers instead of generic speaker wire attachments. The system comes with 4 thin speaker wires with plugs to the receiver on one end, and bare wire on the other to hook up to the satellite speakers. However, the subwoofer's is HARD WIRED, so it can't be detached at all. What's worse is that Sony only sells their speaker wires in packs of 5, for a whopping $55.
To use my new subwoofer, I simply found an aftermarket plug with a small length of wire on eBay, spliced it with some standard 18 gauge wire of my own and hooked it up to my new sub. Voila, it worked like a charm.
OVERALL:
Out of the box, the system is a solid 4/5. With a powered subwoofer and a little bit of handiwork to get around Sony's greed, it can be improved to 5/5.
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52 of 54 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Just about perfect except for HDMI and center speaker issues, August 3, 2009
This review is from: Sony HTSS360 5.1 channel Home Theater System (Black) (Electronics)
As someone who was in the process of purchasing my first blu-ray player I was looking to upgrade my older Sony surround sound system as well. I was looking for a couple of things in a new system: One, that it had plenty of HDMI inputs and two, that it had a high-quality sound for the price point.
As for the most important item, the sound, this is a great system. People have said it is like listening to a $500-1000 system. I don't know if it sounds as good as a $1000 system, but I would say it does sound wonderful like a $500-700 system so for the price it can't be beat. The highs sound very clear and crisp and the bass is deep with depth without losing too much 'punch' or getting too 'muddy'. The only minor issue I have with sound is that when dialogue gets loud the center speaker (on rare occasions) 'flinches' and has the slightest sound like feedback. It could be the case itself vibrating as I have it sitting against the T.V. base/stand so this could be the problem as well.
Out of the box the system takes a little time to set up (as does any surround system with the speakers, etc). This system looks sleek and is identical to the companion blu ray player I purchased to go with it; they have a matching black color, are matching in size and are similar in faceplate size and in overall sleek design. The receiver for this unit is about half the height and depth as my old Sony one, leaving me more space to add other components into my rack.
The speaker wires are thin and the speakers each have proprietary connections going into the receiver but it sounds so good I don't feel any need to replace the wires so this is a moot point for me.
Once the system is arranged and the speakers all connected there is a little microphone you can plug into the back of the unit, place it in what would be the ideal listening spot in the room and using the remote you can access a little sequence of sound tests in the menu to have the unit self-calibrate itself. This is a nice feature to use to get started but I found tweaking was needed to get the best possible sound...the bass was way too loud using the self-calibration. However, in all other aspects as far as distance of the individual speakers and the volume level of each speaker, the self-calibration did very well and was pretty accurate in these areas.
The unit's set-up and menu is all accessed by remote and uses kind of a branching mode in which to reach all of the individual settings. You have to look at the little screen on the receiver and this can be tedious but is easier once you are familiar with how to access the various areas of the menu. An on-screen menu would have been a great addition for this unit (but of course would also have raised the cost).
The HDMI connections for me were great. I have a blu ray player, a cable/satellite tuner and a 5-disc DVD upconverter/CD player all using HDMI cables for optimal performance...being able to run all 3 of those into the receiver and then running just one HDMI cable from the receiver to the HDTV cut back on the spaghetti of cables and gave me the best signal performance possible from all of my components. When you select the input on the receiver (blu ray player, cable, etc) that is what the receiver will play as far as audio and is the signal that will be sent to the HDTV as well.
However, there are two issues with this HDMI set up. First, you will not be able to use more than one component at a time. For instance, you can not listen to a CD while at the same time watch video from your cable or satellite because you will not be able to choose more than one input to play at a time UNLESS you connect them directly to each other instead of running them all through the receiver. Then you could play a CD through the receiver and play video from the cable or satellite box directly to the TV (bypassing the video around the receiver).
The second problem is that the audio and video does not always output correctly with the selection of the input on the receiver. For example, I have noticed that on occasion I may select the cable/satellite on the receiver and the audio will be there but I will not get a picture on the HDTV even though the TV is tuned to the right setting. If I turn the input on and off on the receiver or turn the TV itself on and off suddenly the picure miraculously comes on. Other times I will play a blu ray disc and I can get the picture on the TV but the audio will not be recognized or played back by the receiver (even though the picture and sound are going through the same HDMI cable) and I will have to either turn the receiver on and off or the blu ray player on and off to get the audio going. I can't figure out any particular pattern this follows but it does happen frequently...other times it works correctly with no problems. Perhaps this would not happen if all of my equipment was Sony and the components all 'talked' to each other better (my HDTV is not a Sony brand). I'm still trying to figure this out as it is annoying. I am always eventually able to get everything working together-it just might take a couple of extra buttons to get there.
One other very important piece of info is that this unit will accept a linear PCM channel for audio. This means you can playback the True HD Dolby and HD DTS Master lossless sountracks on blu ray discs AS LONG AS the blu ray player you are using has the processing for those formats built into it. The companion Sony player (the S360) as well as many newer ones do have the HD soundtrack processing in them.
In the end the performance and sound far outweigh the rare issue with the center speaker and the quirky HDMI input/output problems. If the price of the system was in the $500-600 range I would have to move it to just 3 stars. But the price is great for the quality of sound this unit produces resulting in my 4-star review.
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55 of 60 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great sound, good price and easy set up., May 17, 2009
This review is from: Sony HTSS360 5.1 channel Home Theater System (Black) (Electronics)
When I recently bought a new Sony 40" LCD TV I discovered the TV speakers were better than my old cheapie surround sound system. I then bought this Sony HTSS360. I'm a long way from an audio expert but I know good sound when I hear it and this system has it all the way from the high to the low pitched sounds. I can now hear even faint sounds/sound effects I never knew existed with my old sound system. Between the new TV and this surround sound system all my existing DVD's are like watching all new movies. It may be a little on the subjective side but my movies appear to have better color and clarity than when the feed was direct from my DVD player. Very easy to set up and play using one remote with the Bravia Sync. In my case just two HDMI cables, sat box and DVD player, to the receiver and one HDMI out to the TV, easy.
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