We recently replaced our third RCA system (another review entirely) with this Aiwa system we purchased from Shopper's Advantage (yet another review). The sound on this stereo is fantastic. The speakers are clear and crisp, even at the highest volume (we have only tried THAT once).

The surround sound feature is excellent with real definition between speakers, but the speaker wires are not long enough to place the speakers where the manual suggests. The T-bass feature can shake the whole house (my downstairs tenant called to inform us that we had knocked a picture off of her wall once).

However, the user's guide is a chore to get through with several pages and instructions for each feature and it is not very well organized. We still haven't figured out how to use many of the functions available. I am not a stereo whiz and rely mostly on the button labels to navigate and control the settings on my stereo. This is not an easy task with this system.

The read-out, while a very pretty shade of blue, is even more confusing. It uses initials that do not match the button labels and switches off to another display too quickly. You do not have enough time to figure out which button to hit next before it reverts to the default display, taking you out of the settings screen.

We have only had this stereo for about 5 months, but it has already outlasted our three previous stereos so, as far as I am concerned, it was worth the price...$345.