Rating: Summary: Great Buy for Price Review: Everything works great. Item sound is very decent.. the only gripe i have is that you cannot mix 2 of the digital sound effects with each other or it will crackle and static. I find it very cool that it plays mpeg's and pics from my computer...
Rating: Summary: No thanks Review: Got this free with my TV - total crap - sound was horrible, static, cant hear the speech on any dvd, subwoofer sounded awful - crackling noise all throughout any movie - and to top it all off, one day I came home to find it not even working - wont power on - less than 2 months old - dont waste your time and money - invest in a quality theater system - heck even my PS2 plays dvd's better than this thing
Rating: Summary: Don' Buy it ......stay away...I did the mistake of buying it Review: I bought one a month back. The picture kept scrolling all the time specially when using the AV1 or AV2. I don't own an HDTV but that shouldn't make a diff. Even in dvds if some scenes are too bright it starts scrolling. I called their customer service and they told me that it shouldn't do that and I should return it. I returned it to circuity city and got a new one. Got home and connected it and guess what it does the same thing again. I wasted my money in buying this. Should've bought an apex for a few more $$s. Just stay away from this product.............
Rating: Summary: A Decent product for the price Review: I bought one of these and love the sound quality, but have had problems with my system. About after a month of use, the rear speakers no longer have any sound coming from them, no matter what is being played. They did work before, but now, nothing. I also read that other people had problems with the unit not turning on. This seems to be caused by using the remote to turn it off and then trying to turn it back on with the units power button. A quick fix to that is to turn it off, unplug it and plug it back in, then turn it on a PRESTO, it'll work again. Other than the rear speaker problem (which may be a result of my 2 y/o playing with it), it is a great system, the DVD player alone is worth the money, the receiver and speakers are simply a bonus.
Rating: Summary: A Decent product for the price Review: I bought one of these and love the sound quality, but have had problems with my system. About after a month of use, the rear speakers no longer have any sound coming from them, no matter what is being played. They did work before, but now, nothing. I also read that other people had problems with the unit not turning on. This seems to be caused by using the remote to turn it off and then trying to turn it back on with the units power button. A quick fix to that is to turn it off, unplug it and plug it back in, then turn it on a PRESTO, it'll work again. Other than the rear speaker problem (which may be a result of my 2 y/o playing with it), it is a great system, the DVD player alone is worth the money, the receiver and speakers are simply a bonus.
Rating: Summary: Good sound for the price, until it broke Review: I bought one of these last July. Although not the best sound, I thought is was very good considering the very low price. In November it the audio stopped working in the middle of a movie. Circuit City only warranties it for 30 days, after that you must speak (more accurately try to speak) to AMW. It's now February, still broken. I suppose the lesson is you get what you pay for... low price = low quality.
Rating: Summary: Works very well; very inexpensive Review: I bought this just a few days ago. It was very easy to install - instructions and connections are simple. It took me three hours to completely install it, but much of the time was taken by the physical work (hanging the speakers, etc.), but just a few minutes to figure out the connections.I haven't played with it fully to see if there is anything wrong with the system. I have tested a few FM stations - reception was fine and sound only came through from two front speakers. I have also tested a music CD, it played well - with sound in all speakers - but nothing great. I could clearly hear the sub-woofer doing its work though. Then I played Shrek DVD. Surround sound was fantastic. Too good for the price of the system. I will be trying some other DVDs real soon. Remote control is very thin (probaly 1/4" thick). I didn't feel comfortable with the remote. Remote comes with a button-cell battery. Opening the battery door is tricky - just look at the embossed diagram and follow it. Four speakers have a hook on the back to hang them on the wall, but the center speaker has nothing to hang it. I am currently hanging it by the wires, but I have to figure something out. System comes with one antenna for FM and another for AM. Visit CircuitCity.com to have a 360-degree view of the whole system (you can see all the inputs and outputs). Update (01/26/2004): 1) I hate the remote control. My TV remote control is programmable, but it can't communicate with this system. I must use the remote that comes with the system. The remote has some kind of latency. You have to wait a second or two before issuing the next command. Also, you have to be close and in front of the system. 2) I still haven't found any problem with the DVD movie playing capability or the sound system. Overall, it works fine. 3) Music CDs and FM radio play fine and no problem 4) Playing MP3 songs is a different story. Some songs sound funny (like another reviewer mentioned, sounds like a tin box). Some MP3 songs repeat at the end and keep repeating until I physically change the track. This is the most annoying problem so far. The songs sound fine on the computer and on my portable MP3 player. Looks like MP3 attributes (bit rate and sampling frequency) cause this problem.
Rating: Summary: Rocks My Socks - Have owned for one week Review: I got this system through an incentive program at work. I figured the passive sub would be anemic so I also "bought" an altec lansing 4.1 with powered sub at the same time to mix and match. The sound of this Amphion with passive sub blows the powered sub away. Out of the box, it rocked... CDs sound great... DVDs sound great... big sound from a little system. It has AM and FM receiver with a lot of presets... includes antenas for both bands... The progressive DVD player gives excellent color saturation and clarity. I am not exaggerating, but it looks so much better than my APEX AD660 which still looks so much better than videotape. I couldn't be happier with it and not just because it was "free." I have not yet determined if it has official DTS support - no DTS insignia on the front, although the owner's manual and setup screen mention DTS setup modes... it does pop up a little lighted diagram showing 5 channels when I put in any Dolby digital and/ or DTS DVD. I managed to screw up the settings to the point where it sounded like a cardboard box... and to the point where it overdrove the speakers... but after a "set defaults" things sounded excellent again. There are several modes including "concert," "theater" and the unintentionally hillarious "bathroom" setting. This is not an audiophile's dream system, but It gives very correct sound and video for the money and is the pinnacle of "out of the box home theater." Buy it, use it as it comes out of the box and Rock On.
Rating: Summary: Rocks My Socks - Have owned for one week Review: I got this system through an incentive program at work. I figured the passive sub would be anemic so I also "bought" an altec lansing 4.1 with powered sub at the same time to mix and match. The sound of this Amphion with passive sub blows the powered sub away. Out of the box, it rocked... CDs sound great... DVDs sound great... big sound from a little system. It has AM and FM receiver with a lot of presets... includes antenas for both bands... The progressive DVD player gives excellent color saturation and clarity. I am not exaggerating, but it looks so much better than my APEX AD660 which still looks so much better than videotape. I couldn't be happier with it and not just because it was "free." I have not yet determined if it has official DTS support - no DTS insignia on the front, although the owner's manual and setup screen mention DTS setup modes... it does pop up a little lighted diagram showing 5 channels when I put in any Dolby digital and/ or DTS DVD. I managed to screw up the settings to the point where it sounded like a cardboard box... and to the point where it overdrove the speakers... but after a "set defaults" things sounded excellent again. There are several modes including "concert," "theater" and the unintentionally hillarious "bathroom" setting. This is not an audiophile's dream system, but It gives very correct sound and video for the money and is the pinnacle of "out of the box home theater." Buy it, use it as it comes out of the box and Rock On.
Rating: Summary: Worth the cost but AV1, AV2 are problematic Review: I just set up mine yesterday. It sounds great, dvds sound excellent. Plays everything including SVCDs but on certain scenes the picture starts scrolling and you cannot do anything about it. Sound is more than good enough for a small room. Problems with AV: I connected my VCR/Cable TV through AV1/AV2 but now sometimes the colors appear too bright or the picture starts scrolling on certain channels. But if I connect VCR/Cable to TV directly then they work fine. The remote control does not control anything else and no universal remote control works on this dvd player. AM/FM tuner is great but, the subwoofer doesn't work while playing FM. MP3 and all TV channels sound great with SUB. Overall its worth the money($80) on sale. While watching Cable TV I take video signal which comes directly to TV and sound from this system and the combination is great.
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