Panasonic SC-HT290D Home Theater System (Silver)

Rating:
Summary: Good Theater System
Review: First a disclaimer, I am not an audiophile. However, I had been comparing a number of home theater systems for weeks before i bought this one. I narrowed it down to two for the money i wanted to spend, and the other one was the Sony HT5100D, but I picked this one for a couple of reasons. They both have 5 speakers and a "sub"woofer, DTS/Dolby digital, 5 disc dvd changers etc, but the panasonic is cheaper, has an additional 50watts to the woofer, and plays mp3s. I do not demand perfection from my audio equipment, but i can tell what stinks. I am a college student, and i was mostly worried about this system being too weak to work as a stereo for a house party, but it is not. It will not blow anybody away, but it is certainly more than sufficient for the needs of most normal people.(of course replacing the left and right speakers with some relatively cheap bookshelf speakers doesn't hurt, and allows you to keep the two extra factory speakers in the closet in case another one gets damaged or something). I was also excited to learn that it plays CDR/W and MP3s (on Cd). This means that instead of making a few mix cds for a party, you can just put the MP3s straight onto a cd (which means that you can store around 200 songs on one cd), this allows you to make one huge cd, and put it on random. If you are looking at hometheaters but aren't worried about mp3s, i would atleast make sure the one you purchase plays home-made discs (CD-R/W's) because somewhere along the line you or someone will want to play one and you'll be out of luck. The improvement in quality of audio from vhs to dvd is actually greater than the improvement in picture resolution, and this system takes advantage of that. You're getting a nice dvd player, stereo, and subwoofer, for a pretty good price.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Power
Review: This system is incredibly powerful, I bought this for my small bedroom entertainment system. I put in Pearl Harbor and the action sceen was way better than being in any theater. Sure there are probably better systems out there but this system is powerful and it is at a great price. There is absolutely no distortion or ststic in the radio or dvd. I would highly recomend this system for someone that is looking for a powerful system at a great price!!!

Rating:
Summary: Just what i needed!
Review: When researching this system i was a little leery before buying it. I was looking for a system that could give me great surround sound, while also giving me good stereo audio... Well, the systems sounds even better than i expected it to. The speakers are beefier than most boxed systems i've seen, and the "small" sub doesn't sound small... Keep in mind, the reciever that comes in this package has no video capabilities, but that is why i bought a good TV!! I don't need my receiver to control my video, just my audio. Now, the main reason i bought this system was the price, I got this entire package for a little over $500 dollars shipped!!(shop around), that is tough to beat for a 5 disc DVD/CD/MP3 player with a receiver and sweet surround speakers.. Comes with everythign i needed.. Optical audio cable, bunch of other weird cables, speaker wire.. yadda yadda.. One thing that did surprise me about this system. The bottom of the remote control slides down revealing at least 30 more buttons.. I think they should have shown that in the pictures, i might have bought this system sooner.. I am giving this package a 5 star rating because of the price/performance ratio.. I don't you could beat this system with a stick, perfect for a budget minded guy like myself..