CNET editors' review
- Reviewed on: 11/20/2001
- Updated on: 11/07/2009
Home theater in a big box
Most of the HTS-L5's combined shipping weight of 132 pounds is due to the solidly constructed, multidriver speaker package. The left, center, and right speakers feature dual 3.5-inch Onkyo Microfiber woofers, and all of the speakers use a sweet-sounding 1-inch soft-dome tweeter. The 60-watt sub employs an 8-inch woofer and has front-mounted variable-crossover and level controls.
The separate A/V receiver has all the usual trimmings, such as 96kHz/24-bit digital-to-analog converters, Dolby Digital, DTS, and Dolby Pro-Logic II surround decoding. Pro-Logic II works its magic on old videotapes and stereo CDs. The matching single-disc player handles DVDs, CDs, CD-R/RWs, MP3-encoded CDs, and VideoCDs. The video outputs include composite, S-Video, and a set of component connectors. Thanks to its softly illuminated, orange controls, you can operate this DVD player in the dark. The receiver and DVD player each come with easy-to-use remote controls, and, happily, either remote can control both components.
The receiver's rear panel is filled with three A/V inputs and one A/V output, plentiful S-Video connections, and three digital audio inputs. Beefy speaker-binding posts are limited to the left and right channels; the center and surround channels are relegated to the less secure spring-loaded connectors. However, you won't find Super Audio CD (SACD)/DVD-Audio ready 5.1 and phono inputs on this receiver.
A most musical system
Most HTIB systems are optimized for home-theater duty, but the HTS-L5 sounds equally wonderful on DVDs and CDs. Even difficult-to-reproduce classical and acoustic-jazz CDs raptly held our attention. True, we were initially a little concerned about the receiver's lightweight power spec--just 22 watts per channel--but we went ahead and pummeled our eardrums with special-effect-driven DVDs, along with hard rock and dance music CDs, and the HTS-L5 never lost its cool. We credit the carefully matched speakers for extracting stellar performance from such modest power reserves. Just don't expect this or any HTIB to fill a large space (400-plus square feet) with high-volume sound.
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