Sony HTCT100 Sound Bar with Subwoofer - Black by Sony
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List Price: Our Price: $225.00 You Save: $74.99 (25%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Speakers See more digital camera details and other models |
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Digital camera reviews of Sony HTCT100 Sound Bar with Subwoofer - Black
Digital camera Review: $$$ Sweet Spot
Summary: 5 Stars
Please, check out the reviews on various tech/audio sites, then find one of these units on sale and BUY IT! If you are still listening to your TV's speakers you are missing soooo much this system has to offer. No wires to try to hide like a true 5.1 system, you are up and running in no time. Very rich bass and acceptable highs complement a very crisp mid-range response from a suprisingly compact system. If you can, run all HDMI cables for the best sound possible. This will never be even a "simulated 5.1" system, but it does provide great 3.1 sound at an absolutely fantastic price point. Make some popcorn, dim the lights, crank up the volume on Movie mode, and enjoy your big screen as never before.Digital camera Review: 2nd times a charm..
Summary: 4 Stars
I ordered this off of amazon because I read reviews that this was the best soundbar on the market for the size, power, and price. When I got it in the mail however I had a different experience. I have an xbox 360, 32" samsang, and a phillips blu ray player to hook up to this bad boy. Once everything was hooked up via hdmi cables it.. didn't work. The sound cut in and out every few seconds and the picture did not come in at all. I was so frustrated. After I tried different blu ray players, tvs, and hdmi cables at my house I determined that it was the soundbar that was the problem, specifically, the sub that housed the reciever.
I went through the exchange process on amazon and in 2!!! days I receieved a replacement soundbar in the mail. Hooked everything up and it sounds beautifull. You really get what you paid for with this product. I have yet to turn it to its loudest yet and I've enjoyed many explosions through its speakers. I give it a 4/5 rating only because of the bad soundbar I receieved and because of the lack of connection options it has. I have hdmi which works perfectly with it but if you don't have that option then you don't really have much else to choose from in terms of connecting devices. Also, the lack of slots or appropriately named hdmi slots is kind of annoying. Do you really need a slot for a DVD player AND a blu ray player? Besides those two, the only other slot is for cable/sat. So as of right now i have the blu ray hooked up to the blu ray port and the xbox hooked up to the dvd port. Not that it matters what you hook them up to as long as you know what you're getting when you press the DVD button but why not name one of the slots external device or something else.
Buy this product if you're like me who can't afford the best surround sound system and live in a small townhouse. This is your best bet for the cash.
Digital camera Review: 3 HDMI inputs that all Pass Through!
Summary: 5 Stars
The simplicity of this system needs to be appreciated -- just plug in your DVD/Blu-Ray player, your cable/sat TV, and a third HDMI device -- they all pass through to the TV (or other single display screen), with several sound controls - volume, independent control of center sound-bar and sub-woofer (the other reviewer who complained of male speech coming from the sub-woofer should have tried these independent controls; they resolved the issue for us). In addition, available specialty sound fields include Standard, Movie, Music, Sports and Game. Our system is set up in a moderate sized (12x16) room and has all the volume needed. (I plugged an older iPod into the TV-in audio RJ45 jacks rather than buy the separate media port.) Sony got this one right -- for a small system it's outstanding! (Note: the receiver functions DO NOT include an FM radio tuner -- but the cable/sat music stations come through that connection fine and your cable remote can select those channels.)Digital camera Review: 3.5 Stars for respectable fidelity w/ decent bass
Summary: 3 Stars
Let me get my bias on the record...I generally don't care for Sony products believing them to be over-priced, typically of compromised build quality and cursed with poor corporate support when problems arise, and this opinion is founded on 30+ years of audio retail experience. That said, this soundbar/subwoofer system is not too shabby.
The WAF (wife acceptance factor) dictated that the TV in our family room not benefit from the luxury of a full blown 5.1-audio system and the sonic performance of our flagship Toshiba 46-inch LCD was marginal. Given that we have a dedicated THX moverooms.com theater in our basement, I was willing to settle for something more generic and initially planned on investing in the Denon DHT-FS3, which I have heard and thought sounded pretty good. While doing my due diligence, reading the reviews, comparing the prices, I kept coming across positve references to this Sony system. So, without even seeing one, let alone hearing it, I ventured out on a flimsy limb and made the investment.
Ok. Received it last night and here are my impressions:
First...it looks kinda cheesy. The matt black plastic sound bar is petite both in height and depth so its not too difficult to accept. The subwoofer though is just about ugly. And its big. The reviews that say its the size of a desktop pc are right on the money even down to the fan exhaust on the back. But how does it sound?
Actually pretty good extended high frequencies, nicely balanced midrange w/ good presence and depth, not the least bit nasally. The subwoofer, like all subs, must be placed on the floor, definitely likes to be placed in a corner, and doesn't suck. Its about like any $200-$300 amplified sub. It adds some bottom octave presence, tends to get boomy if you drive it too hard, and did I mention it sounds best when corner loaded?
The remote sucks. The set up functions suck. There are moments of bizarre unpredictable sudden spurts of wide soundstage that I suppose novice audio folks might consider surround sound-like, but generally this is a product best suited for applications where its cosmetic appearance is more important that sound quality. There is no surround sound to be heard here. Its a definite improvement over the TV audio.
For anyone interested, I did hook up my HD Satellite DVR and my upscaling DVD via HDMI to the subwoofer/amp, so the Sony handles source switching, and did not see any loss in image quality.
I do recommend users invest in an RTI system controller if the rest of your hardware is not Sony branded, so you can work it all intuitively, seamlessly and flawlessly from one remote.
Digital camera Review: 4.5 stars - sound quality to price ratio is great
Summary: 4 Stars
I would by again. Sound quality to price ratio is great! Easy Sony Braiva hook-up.