[sephka]

Yeah, you know them. Like this.
I'm really new to this speaker stuff (current speakers: 15 watts attached to junky Aiwa mini-system.) My friend has this very unit and is in love with it, but he, too, is a speaker n00b. If anyone can point me in the right direction here...I’ll be using such a system for CDs, DVDs, and gaming. The 650 wattage looks appealing, but I’m sure there's more to it than that. For $240 you can understand the skepticism. I'm going googling for some info, but opinions are harder to find on this sort of thing. Many thanks.

 

[Jacobh]

I haven't heard the speakers system in question, but in general, you're not gonna get audiophile performance from these setups. However for Home Theater use in a dorm room or apartment, they are probably fine. If your primary application is dvds and games, my guess is you will be ok with this type of system. Save your money now (spend it one music and movies) and get a nice system later. If you will be primarily listening to music, you may not be that happy. But then again, $240 is less than a pair of HD600s

 

[gbeard]

Spend a little more and get one of the Sony units that has a digital amp, and plays mch SACD. Circuit City has one set up in my local store. It is $500 and sounds reasonably good. As Jacobh stated, it is for a small room. The speakers are decent, but the sub is only so-so. Still, the digital amp chip in the Sony will likely blow the RCA out of the water in terms of sound quality.

You need to hear them for yourself though, and resist the temptation to compare them soley on specs and gadgets. LISTEN to them, check the DVD picture, make sure they actually do well what they are going to be used for, because these low priced "systems" tend to be heavy on gee-wiz techo stuff and light on real ability to play back music.

Good luck!

 

[sephka]

*reading posts as friend mentions something about a photo-reading feature on his player (?)* Ahaha, that sounds like a gee-wiz feature to me, if there ever was one. Perhaps you're right. I'm not quite sure where to test these suckers out, because even at a store, there's tons of other sounds to distract you and cheapen your listening experience. This friend ranked the unit as "higher consumer end," meaning pretty sweet, but not audiophile. Hmm...hmm...hmm. More things to worry over.

 

[Gallaine]

Try here for reviews of HT equipment both cheap and expensive: Home Theater Fourm.