Get Visual Studio® 2010
- Average user rating:
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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4.5 stars
"Great for movies, 2/3rds of a 5.1 system, not for loud music"
Pros: Full sound, decent effects, easy setup
Cons: Not for loud music, ditch the remote
Summary: This gets a 9 if you want good sound for movies but don't want 6 speakers. Compared to a HTIB 5.1 you get most of the surround but the gratuitous sound effects that originate beside or behind you aren't there. If you want the helicopter sounds to fly over your shoulder, go for a real 5.1. If you find that stuff distracting and want a good full sound that is much better than what just a TV or stereo could produce, this is a great setup and very clean. Wouldn't use it for video gaming.
With that said, there is an impressive amount of sound motion and even some sounds that you'd swear were coming from over your shoulder at times. I got it for my main TV and care more about Picture and Plot than Sound. The room didn't lend itself to a full 5.1.
Music: It sounds like a good book shelf system where you put the L and R speakers on top of each other. Not necessarily bad but just not right. Light to moderate music in the background is fine but you can't rock out to it.
If you're looking at this type system you probably don't want or have room for a bunch of speakers. Its great for that. Would be a good bedroom system too.
If sound effects are really important to you, suck it up and cut a bunch of holes and do a inwall 5.1. Or spend $150 on a HTIB and have a bunch of ugly silver speakers all over.
Hope that was helpful. Also, bought a Harmony 520 after trying out the remote, not a fan of the 3+ remotes thing.Updated
When I first got this system I was focused its sound, and hooked it to my 30" 16:9 HD ready CRT, it looked and sounded great. A week later my 42" Plasma showed up. The AVS-600 DVD player IMO is not good enough for a 42" or larger fixed pixel display. Read this caption from a review:
"Working with test discs revealed that the deinterlacing is subpar, with pronounced jaggies besetting the edges of objects in motion, in both test patterns and traditional video content. The 3:2 pulldown correction gauntlet exposed an unpleasant combing. I gained some relief when I manually switched the video modes to match the content. (The AVS600 offers four, in addition to the hardly-ever-correct Auto.) But even this didn't alleviate the problem entirely"
Source: http://www.hometheatermag.com/hometheaterinabox/706cambridge/
If I had to do it over again I would have purchased an Oppo 970 to upscale the DVD image and gone with a moderate cost 5.1 using all speakers from the front. Since I've tossed the box, I'll keep the system and add a HD DVD player in the future.
I'm not saying don't buy this system, just keep the packaging and watch a number of DVDs (including content shot on video) and use the 45 day return policy if you feel it doesn't deliver what you want.
