Samsung HT-X710 2.1 DVD/DivX HDMI/USB Home Cinema System (Set of Four, Black)
From Samsung
You'll be impressed by the Samsung HT-X710 home cinema system's slick design, excellent feature set and incredible sound. The HT-X710 is made up of two speakers and a subwoofer, delivering the sort of top-notch sound quality you'd expect from one of the best home cinema systems on the market. Its shape and shape has been specially designed so that the HT-X710 blends into your living room instead of taking it over, and its total sound output of 400 W ensures sound is just as good with music as it is with films. The HT-X710 is compatible with a number of different DVD and CD discs and also supports DivX, MP3 and JPEG formats. It even comes with an extensive connections system, including an HDMI socket, an auxiliary input and a USB port, allowing you to hook up your external devices.
Amazon Sales Rank: #98 in Home Theater Color: Black Brand: Samsung Model: HT-X710 Dimensions: 22.60" h x 26.77" w x 17.36" l, 35.20 pounds
Probably a sweet starter system Received this Cinema system as a bonus with a television purchase. It arrived ahead of schedule and in good order. Opening the package revealed the main control/player console, a subwoofer and two speaker towers. These units are in Samsung's gloss piano-black finish with A Touch of Color (red) accents. Everything was packaged very securely in the box, and wrapped to prevent scuffing. The box also contained a multi-function remote which could be programmed for your tv, an iPod/portable media player dock with many cradle adapters, speaker wire, and wall mounting brackets for the console (and the other bracket may have been for the subwoofer). A brief glance through the setup and owner's manuals told me that my current system, at least in terms of audio, blew this system away. So rather than connecting it, I gave it to a college-bound friend for his dorm room. Without evaluating sound quality, I'll share some of my discoveries. The speakers, at around two feet tall and with a touch of red, were incredibly sexy, and I considered keeping them for back-channel speakers on my current system (replacing the bland little gray boxes), but I didn't want to break up the Samsung system. The console and subwoofer also feature an attracive, rounded-corner, fluid aesthetic -- very non-traditional. The console has only 2.1 speaker outs, and did not have an optical/digital out which might allow the system to share multi-channel audio with other components (ie: into my HT receiver). It wasn't clear if the HDMI connection would pass 5.1 or 2.1 audio to the TV. The speaker-out connectors look similar to a large Firewire connector - not an RCA, spring-clip, or screw-down post. The included speaker wires have this connector on one end, the other ends are bare. It does have component-out and HDMI out for video, but no composite out - meaning it must be connected to a newer/better tv. The console has a composite video and left/rt audio in to receive from a VCR for example. It also had an iPod port and a USB port...altogether I was pleased with the amount of inputs. It also has an antenna-in for the stereo receiver (and included antenna). For existing HT owners this system will probably be a step backwards. However, it would be an excellent starter system for someone who had a rag-tag assortment of devices and wanted to simplify, or who was otherwise starting from scratch. The 2.1 sound is only a limitation for users wanting an immersive HT experience. The beautiful styling make this a system to show off. Great value: good sound and a modern look at a decent price Others have reviewed the technical specs well so I will focus on the things they did not spend much time on. The unit is in my living room. I needed something that would be part of the furniture and not look like an obvious audio system. I needed it to sound good, but not be very loud. I also wanted very few wires and a small footprint unit that I could hide away. The Samsung meets all of these objectives. It's got one power cord and the speaker wires are very easy to hide. The odd shape of the speakers is an advantage if you mount them on a pedestal. It is difficult to distinguish the speakers from the furniture - they look like art. One of my guests was looking around for the speakers because the speakers do not look like typical speaker units. The sound quality is good, but not great. The sub-woofer is sufficiently powered to be loud when needed, but won't blow out your windows. I have played classical, jazz, instrumental and rock/pop and they all sound good. There are no equilizer settings, but for casual listening, it's fine. The surround setting are not very effective, so if you really want simulated surround, this system might underwhelm you. All in all, it's a great buy at the price point (mine was $285 on AMZ) and it's still a deal at anything less than $350. Good but won't fit a standard AV cabinet This is a good simple all-in-one stereo system, as mentioned by others. The sound is fine and I think the nontraditional look is cool. The unit does not switch from one input mode to the next very quickly, but that is a minor issue to me. The main problem I have is that the box and advertising would seem to indicate that the central unit can be placed 'upright', as shown in this image, or laying flat like a more normal system. Lies! The system is useless when laying flay; the DVD player makes a complete racket and you can't read the display on the unit. Therefore, if you need a home theater to lay flat in a standard AV cabinet then you must look for something else. If you want it to sit under your TV looking like it does in the image (as I do) then you should be fine.
