I’m not buying yet, but I’m curious.
http://www.bestbuy.com/detail.asp?e=11174286&m=1&cat=1552&scat=242
Crutchfield’s has a better picture of the back. (They always have better pictures for some reason.)
The weird speaker jacks are the worst thing I see. They tell you this is only sold as a package, not as components. Do they cut corners to keep the price down that they wouldn’t if they were just selling the receiver? Could be. And it may be tough to throw new speakers on when you want to upgrade. (Or you might just be able to slice and strip the cables they give you. Don’t know.)
The subwoofer isn’t powered, and there is no way to add a powered one. If you were buying individual speakers, you would be buying a powered subwoofer. This would mainly matter if it’s a big room.
I don’t think the surround speakers are high enough off the ground. But they’ll work.
One more caveat: even mid-level audiophiles don’t buy Sony speakers.
I would agree with this assessment. Some audiophiles will occasionally buy certain Sony sources ( SACD players and the like - I just read a complementary review on the $250.00 Sony SCD CE775 SACD-player in The Audiophile Voice* for what it’s worth, which may not be much ), but usually not amps or speakers which don’t have a great reputation in terms of quality at any given price point, at least compared to their compeitition. But then many audiophiles sneer at mass-market manufacturers just on general principles :).
As SmackFu noted, it is almost axiomatic that speakers that use clip connections are not exactly top of the line ( quality manufacturers generally use five-way binding posts on even their inexpensive $200/pair models ). Speaker-wise you can certainly do much better for the money, but it does depend what your needs and budget are.
Anyway, you apparently can get a better deal than Best Buy on this one, as here:
Or even better, here:
http://store.yahoo.com/crazyeddieonline/sondavdvddre.html
- Tamerlane
A $300 difference in price is crazy!
Thanks for the responses.
I’ll also add that the more components you cram into a single box, the more compromises you tend to have to make to quality. due to space and heat constraints. Just like I don’t have a very high opinion of TV/VCR/DVD combos, I’m not really thrilled by the idea of a Home Theatre Receiver/DVD combo.
But not having heard this unit, I’d just leave that as an inclination, rather than a definite opinion.
- Tamerlane
The box seems REALLY small for everything its supposed to do. I have a Sony ES model of receiver (Sony’s ‘high end’ brand) and it’s easily twice as thick as this thing, and does less. No doubt these aren’t exactly the highest quality components that Sony puts out. Chances are it’ll sound OK, but nothing out of the ordinary.