price

very poor sound quality, especially at high volume
noisy fan
tacky speakers - no stands
big, bulky sub woofer
difficult to use control unit

Absolute rubbish!

Customer Service

very poor. I had to wait a month to have the power unit fixed.

-This is a really nice SMALL system. Perfect for very small rooms like dorm rooms on a school campus or something in the likes of that, but isn't powerful enough for a medium-size room or bigger. The sound level can be reasonably high in the latter, but you'll catch yourself always listening to movies at max volume for that cinema-like sound.

-The sound is pretty clear for the price, lots of treble, but sounds just a little bit mettalic if you really pick at it.

-I have used and abused this for over a year and was a satisfied customer until I bought a bigger system, see why in the weaknesses section.

-The aforementionned volume level. Not quite strong enough for big rooms.

-The subwoofers, which is fully protected underneath, has it's own fan which gets noisy as the volume in a movie pumps up. For example; you'll be watching a movie, then there is a loud scream or an explosion, after the fact, you'll hear the fan of the subwoofer going at it trying to cool down the subwoofer or something in a wooshing sound. It can get annoying, but you get used to it for 300$.

But what bothered me is that after more than a year, the fan started to be a bit looser, and started flickering, and THAT was much harder to cancel out of my mind. It is normal wear, but after 1 or 2 years of use, I didn't really feel like getting it repaired, I wnated something bigger for my high-volume needs.

-It is somewhat rare to find new DVD-players that have the optical output. Most systems nowadays have the DVD player built in, which makes this system rather obsolete. I enjoyed it, with it's quirks here and there, but I moved on.

-It is a nice "compact" system for the price, it gives good sound quality (not great, but a solid "good") but its lifespan is rather short compared to some other similar products, I think, don't quote me on this last one, though.
I'd say it's a good starting system, like a stepping stone, for future audiophiles as it teaches you what to look for in a system and what not to look for.

I'd give it a 6.5 out of 10, because of the noisy subwoofer.

Description:

* "Top-loading CD player with motorized, illuminated door"<-- That is a total lie; there is no Disk input anywhere. This is an amp system only. This model being an amp is actually a better deal, though, then would be one with disc input.

* 30-preset FM/AM digital tuner, 8 watts per channel<-- that is true and kewl, you can listen to the radio in 5.1, even if the signal is only 2-way.

* Magnetically shielded speakers for placement near computer monitors or televisions<-- another big lie. I tried it. Not recommanded for PC use. NOT shielded AND the suv-woofer is too big to put at your feet, 'takes up too much space for the office. But if you really want to, you can find a way to really distance your speakers from your PC and monitor, it could work, but it would not be cool.

* Optical digital-audio output, stereo analog-audio input<-- Lie, again, but the reality is acutally better. It has the Coaxial input AND the Optical input, which are the 2 best connections available on the market for non-professionnal equipment. That is somewhat rare. There are S-video and RCA video inputs to relay the amplification of signal from, say, a video game console to your TV, if you use those.
* Full-function remote control <-- True, and is btw the 2nd coolest remote I'ce seen in my life. It can learn the signals of any other remote juste by aiming it at the Sharp remote. The Sharp remote works on either batteries or AC-plug. With batteries, you could walk around your neigbourhood and change the channels of up to 24 TVs because of the Sharp's 24+ programmable buttons.

* The satellite speakers don't come with stands yet do come with a good length of cable. Set-up is easy and colour-coded.