Superb Sound

I wanted to replace my hi fi separates with large speakers and get rid of all the cables. This unit gives superb sound and dvd image and is easy to set up. It also looks great and takes up very little space. I have connected it to the cable tv box and the tv surround sound is fantastic.

Not as good as it looks

The sound might be quite loud, but I found a lot of detail to be lost. I could maybe live with this for films, but for music, it's pretty poor. I was disappointed as after reading HiFi magazines raving about this, I had high hopes. On the plus side, it looks fantastic, and the speakers are tiny. It is quite cheap, but maybe not for you if you want to listen to music.

Great sound and features.

I cannot comment on the digital inputs / outputs as I am currently using the SCART output to my analogue TV, however in respect of how good an analogue picture can be, it is absolutely fine.

I personally find it hard to believe this unit can deliver 1000W RMS as the unit is actually very light in weight, and looks a little too small to contain an amplifier capable of those levels, also the only power supply is to the main unit there is no separate amplifier in the sub-woofer. However to be honest I have not really been able to really turn it up that loud as I live in a terraced house and the neighbours would not be pleased. However I will say the system will go extremely loud whilst retaining the dynamics of the source. I had the system turned up to hear a particularly quite vocal dialogue in a film when a thunderclap suddenly happened in the film, it literally shook the house, but there was not a hint of distortion and you could tell the system, especially the sub still had plenty of head-room to go.

The system also sounds great with 2 channel sources such as my NTL cable TV box that only has stereo outputs - connected to the system via the 2 phono inputs, the systems surround sound modes (Movie, Music, None) really bring it to life and do a remarkable job of simulating a 3d noise space. Amongst the various additional eq's and sub level control there is also a dialogue enhancer which I found particularly good, it always sounds to me like the dialogue is always so low in the mix in lots of films and this really helps bring emphasise it.

The only complaint of the package (the reason why I am not giving 5 out of 5) is the speaker cables. They are not long enough and far too thin. Given the thought and attention to detail with everything else about this unit this is a real disappointment. Even in my fairly tiny lounge there was not enough cable to have the rear speaker cable follow the wall round the room to behind the sofa. You will want to buy longer speaker cable at the same time if you buy this system. However do NOT buy big fat speaker cable. The spring terminal connectors on the speakers (not the sub, that is hard wired you would have to take the speaker out and drill the case to fit new cable) are quite small and big thick hi-fi speaker cable will not fit.

Music CD's and mp3 players connected also sound very good with a pleasing sound, but if you are into proper hi-fi you can tell a mile off that this is not proper hi-fi sound, but then it is not pretending to be a hi-fi.

Great product, hope it lasts.

first impressions

I just received this today, courtesy of amazon.

It was very easy to setup with my philips flat screen tv, just a couple of cables, and up you go.

I lived in many countries, and therefore have an extensive collection of DVD from many regions. Thanks to the web, I was able to find very rapidly the code to key in on the remote control to have this unit enable for region 0, and all my DVD works fine...

I can see the difference with the upscaling factor, in terms of image quality... The sound quality 'sounds' great. I have tried multiple movies, like lord of the ring, and star wars, and the 'experience' is definitely better, visually and in terms of sound, than when using my old DVD player and my TC speakers..

A few comments:

* There is no HDMI cable in the box, but there is a SCART cable, and a couple of others, for example to connect the TV audio out to the device.
* The connection for external audios are conveniently located on the subwoofer, reducing the number of cables to connect to the main unit.
* The support for the main unit is too high to fit in my tv cabinet. It is easy to remove it, but there is no simple/lower replacement for it. The unit can just be put down like it is, at a small angle, but I would prefer to have a more stable support.
* Not sure yet about the fact that this system is supposed to 'mimic' a 5.1 system by projecting sounds to the wall behind the user, but it sounds good.
* The remote control power button is in fact only an 'off' button. Once the unit is in 'standby', it can only be 'waken up' by using the play button of the remote control. Strange but it works.

Good Product, Pitty about amazons courier (HDNL)

Finally got this product today. Took a few hours to setup (but that included removing all the old equipment). At first I did think... OMG the speakers are so large... but now they are in place the setup looks good. Rear speakers as mentioned in other reviews are not fully wireless. Left speaker is powered and right is connected via a lead to the left. Wireless is however optional, and the required leads being supplied if you want to go with the wire.

A great bit of kit to go with your Sony TV.

My only disapointment has been with Amazon's courier. I ordered on the 6th January, payments cleared on 7th. I selected 1st class delivery. The HDMI cable I ordered arrived on the 9th, the TV ordered through Marketplace at the same time arrived on the 10th. This bit of kit however arrived today - the 15th Jan.

In all Fairness to Amazon, they dispatched this on the 8th January. Their courier Home Delivery Network took from the 8th to 15th to deliver it to me... box was open on delivery and was damp and damaged. If you order this - try and get them to send it via another courier. I was ready to cancel the order if it didnt arrive today as it was with them for so long.

Great buy

I just bought this item and cannot fault it at all. Superb sound quality, looks great amazing value for money.Excellent

tiny but great!

After discovering that the DVD Micro market is (no pun intended!) very small, the MCD708 seemed the best of a pretty good bunch. The component out is excellent, especially on the new household HD LCD. Sound is great, good depth, etc. Of great interest was the ability to play DivX/WMA/MP3 which all work seamlessly and first time. The option to change/hack to multi-regio is fairly simple to achieve if necessary. A great buy!

Samsung 2.1 speakers

I bought this speaker system to sit alongside my new Samsung TV.
The system does look amazing and is finished in the same high black gloss finish as the TV set.
The sound it produces is exactly what i wanted, rich deep bass and a well defined clear & sharp treble. It comes with an HD cable so the picture quality/sound quality from the DVD player is superb. All the speaker cables are colour coded so you cant go wrong setting it up. Thankfully the blue LED's can be dimmed so as not to draw your eye away from what your watching-It does flash up new chapters everytime it passes over them.
However if you want to connect your TV to the unit you will have to buy your own leads, either optical or wired.
The coolong fan can be distracting when your in a quite moment of a film, its not loud but is audiable.
It did take me a while to get the unit programmed to my TV hand control, common functions are taken care of, but you will still need to use the units control to move from DVD>Aux to pick up the sound from your TV.
I cant find any sort of equilizer built in, so i have to settle for the sound options from the TV
Overall the sound quality is fantastic, but i'm not sure if its worth the money.
I'm stuck on the star rating:- sound quality would get 5* but the system is let down buy the cooling fan, the size of the DVD palyer, the cheap looking blue LED's and for this sort of money i would have expected and optical cable or at least the wired connections to play your TV throught the system.
My wife has just called me to say 'The TV is making a weired noise' 'Turn off the DVD player, its the cooling fan!'