Koss KS4192 Progressive-Scan DVD Home Theater System

Rating:
Summary: Good product for the price
Review: I bought this system to use in a media room in the basement. I now have it working with a projector. I mainly watch movies and football in that room. The sound is great, and to hear a football game in surround sound and HD is amazing. The DVD's play great also. The radio comes in very good in the basement, consindering I live 25 miles from any radio station I listen too. Installation is a breeze. Perhaps the other reviewer just had a bad experience, I've had mine for a couple of months without a problem. All and all I'd say it is a great product for the money.

Rating:
Summary: Koss Means CRAP!
Review: I recently bought this item. It was easy to set up and worked great at first, but that didn't last long. Soon, I began experiencing little problems like when I would open the disc tray it would open then close as soon as it opened. Nothing too bad. The sound was great. However, less than a month after I got it, I was watching a DVD. A strange smell started coming from the player like something was burning. Suddenly it froze up. I couldn't get it to do anything. I couldn't even get the disc tray to open. I tried turning it on and off and unplugging it, but nothing worked. I finally had to remove the cover just to force it open to get my DVD back. Botton line: DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY!!!

Rating:
Summary: In this price range (under $350), this system's a keeper.
Review: I've put this system through a decent battery of tests over the 30 days I've owned it. The only major feature I can't speak for is the SD card slot, since I don't own a digicam. (Another note: The subwoofer is supposedly passive, requiring 0.1 LFE out signal, but it operates a very large amount of the time, at least under my use, whether I'm playing a DVD, music, listening to radio, or cable)

DVD playback - VERY GOOD, with one issue. I second Treppish about the picture quality and mechanical reliability of the DVD player. The unit operates smoothly, the remote is just fine, picture quality is great with or without progressive scan, and the surround sound (prologic II) is excellent for a unit of this price. However, during my full-length test of "Matrix Reloaded," there were some noticeable sound gaps in the middle-bass range. The subwoofer covered low-bass extremely well (the rumbles are beautiful), and the satellites cover high-bass, midrange, and treble frequencies smoothly and without annoying distortion, but explosions and crushing blows were a bit deficient in the mid-bass arena. However, the JBL unit I owned previously had similar problems. And, this Koss unit, thanks to a particularly smart dual-woofer center speaker, can handle voice effectively in 6.1 mode (doesn't come out too low as in many other systems).

Radio feature - VERY GOOD. This DVD receiver also has a built in tuner for AM/FM reception. Comes with a wire loop antenna, so reception is good. No worries with this feature.

Music playback - GOOD/VERY GOOD. Out of poor, fair, above average, good, very good, and excellent, the Koss KS4192 fits in somewhere between good and very good. The mid-bass issue on DVD's is not as pronounced here, but still present during some rock music tracks. Tests of classical/instrumental/new age music were very good! Perhaps violin depth (which was good-very good) could be a tad higher, but I enjoyed the songs I listened to without regret. Full length test of Matrix Reloaded Scores CD showcased the strength of this system in combining high-class higher frequency reproduction with smooth midranges and low-bass. Also notable, this system produces very clean sound (very little hissing), perhaps the cleanest you'll find in this price range.

Style/Construction - VERY GOOD/EXCELLENT. The entire system is silver/gray themed. The receiver is sleek, shiny, handsome, and solidly constructed. Subwoofer matches the receiver in style and construction. The satellite units are well constructed and handsome as well, but their color is a gray a bit too subdued. This system would have been Excellent in this category otherwise.

Miscellaneous - When watching cable TV, you may or may not have a slight lag between the koss speakers and the TV speakers (the koss comes in about 0.1 second late). This just may be due to the crappy cable I get in the first place. So, you'll have to turn on one set of speakers and leave the other off. I can't call this a design issue, though, just on my experience.

The unit has 2 full sets of regular RCA a/v jacks for input, 1 set of RCA a/v out jacks, an additional component video jack set, and a jack for an active subwoofer.

Sound level and speaker distance can be adjusted for each speaker! Very nice. Many Prologic II modes to choose from during DVD playback. Digital EQ modes are only good, I use EX Bass most of the time :)

No manual bass or treble controls, sadly. But EX bass + the system's skillful handling of midrange and treble will cause you to forget your initial disappointment.

This system has a very low resistance level for a HT system of this price range! 4 ohms to the satellites and 3 ohms to the subwoofer... That's how this unit can attain 600W of power. Also, if you have some 4 ohms / 3 ohms speakers (preferably some sizeable woofers) waiting in the wings (from a previous system, or an easy purchase away), you could substitute two of them for the front L & R Koss speakers to alleviate the mid-bass issue in DVD playback and music playback.

Overall, this system is a 5 star system. It's not perfect, but the combination of value, performance, style/construction, functionality, and modularity (it can power 4 or 3 ohm speakers! You can keep the receiver and substitute other speakers as you wish) are unbeatable in this sub-$350 price range. Nice work, Koss.

Rating:
Summary: KOSS SUCKS!!!!
Review: OK, I bought one of these systems back in August. Within a month, the subwoofer failed. Got a new one, it wouldn't read discs (even after a factory restart). Got ANOTHER new one, and now there are grinding noise coming from the fan motor when I turn it on. In a word, avoid KOSS products at all cost! They might make great headphones, but they are terrible at making home theater products.

buy yourself a multi-region player instead. I wish I had