Panasonic SC-PT660 Theater System

I went out looking for an economical home theater system that would serve multiple purposes. I got what I was looking for. The first thing I learned about the Panasonic SC-PT660 DVD Home Theater Sound System is that the sound is a lot louder and cleaner in the confined space of a home than in a cavernous "Big Box" retail store.

We bought a new home and had a little money left over. The wife and I had never had a TV in the master bedroom due to space limitations. The kids had alternated months having the the second TV and game system in their rooms. All of a sudden we had an extra bedroom and a larger master bedroom. The second TV went to the computer/game/extra bedroom. The main TV and component stereo system went to the master bedroom. The wife and I went shopping. 

We had neither the budget nor the desire for a high end system. We wanted something economical, reliable, and versatile enough for the wife and kids to be able to enjoy surround sound off the satellite and DVD's, and for me to be able to listen to the radio and play my CD's. Asthetically, we wanted something that would compliment our living room rather than look out of place. Of all the competition we looked at and listened to at the various stores we shopped, the SC-PT660 system fit our modest desires perfectly.

Once home, it was pretty easy to install. The speaker wires have color coded plugs at the ends that you match to like colored outlets on the back of the main unit making speaker hookup simple. I chose to mount my speakers on the wall. I didn't want to pay $20 each (or more) for wall mounts so I made my own adjustable speaker mounts. I went to a hardware store and spent $15 bucks on 8 L-brackets and some small nuts, bolts, and washers. First I used some extra spray paint to paint all the brackets. I then bolted the brackets together in two's to form four C's. One side to the wall, the other side to the room to attach the speaker to. When I went to the store I took a surround speaker to make sure I got the correct size bolt to run through the bracket into the rear of the speakers.

The only installation problem I ran into was in the length of the speaker wire to the rear surround speakers. I needed a few more feet than what Panasonic pre-installs on the speakers to run around my living room to the speakers. The simplified, color-coded plugs made that problematic, but not impossible to deal with. It involved a trip to the store for some speaker wire and some crimp connectors. I had to cut the Panasonic wire and add in lengths of store bought speaker wire using the crimp connectors. Not a big deal. And it didn't effect sound at all. I compared the speaker with the altered wire to the one I hadn't done yet and there was no noticable difference. Once installed, I was ready to go. I could have avoided all of that if I had wanted to spend an extra hundred bucks because the Panasonic SC-PT660 Home Theater system is wireless ready. There is a wireless transmitter on the rear of the main unit which is compatable with the Panasonic wireless surround sound accessory SH-FX67. I didn't want to spend the money on that so I made due with tools that I already own and a trip to Radio Shack.

Power wasn't one of our considerations but the SC-PT660's 1000 total watts are plenty enough to fill our 13 by 22 foot living room with all the sound we can handle and then some. The sub-woofer shakes doors and rattles windows when explosions come on the screen. That bass together with the 250 watt center speaker, 2 125 watt front speakers, and 2 125 watt surround speakers made it sound like I was onstage with The King himself while watching Elvis, Aloha From Hawaii. It sounds spectacular. Ronnie Tutt's drum segue from Zarathustra to C.C Rider and J.D. Sumner's bass vocals sound absolutely thunderous through 250 watts of subwoofer. For moments when you don't want to feel like you're at a concert or the scene of a propane truck/freight train collision, the system delivers quiet just as well as it delivers exhileration. While watching a golf tournament, for example, the surround system makes it seem like the commentators are in the room with you. When they're not talking it seems as though you can hear spectator murmuring and birds in front of you, behind you, near, and far. I don't know what high-end home theater systems sound like because I was never in the market for them but as good as this system sounds I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

The only problem I have experienced so far was an On/Off power issue. The unit operated normally for a month or so and then, one day, nothing. It just wouldn't turn on. I followed the steps in the troubleshooting section of the manual, but still nothing. The manual mentions that sometimes condensation will cause the system to not operate. The solution is to let it sit for 1 to 2 hours untill evaporation takes place and to retry. I let it sit overnight and all the next day untill I got home from work and called the "Big Box" retailer I got it from. Since it had been over 30 days since purchase, they pretty much washed their hands of the problem. I called Panasonic and performed the same steps I had performed while going through the manual. By the end of the call their representative gave me the contact information for an authorized service center and a reference number. I took it to the service center a few days later and they gave it a cursory once-over to see what the problem may be. It wasn't immediately obvious to them so they wrote up a ticket and said they'd call me when it was fixed. They called me back a week later saying to come and get it because they could find nothing wrong with it. I was perplexed to say the least. They were too. They couldn't figure out why it was not working for me on a Tuesday, not working for them on a Friday, but all of a sudden working for everyone a week later. I got the unit home, hooked it back up and it worked fine...for a week. Then the kids told me it quit working again. I was too busy to deal with it at that moment so I planned to call Panasonic back the next day after work. When I got home from work the kids were sitting there watching a movie. "Thanks for fixing the DVD player, dad!!"

Um...you're welcome???

It's been working fine for ever since and my family and I have been very pleased with it. That said, would I purchase it again? No. Would I recommend it? No. Every time I reach to turn it on, when my finger gets to about two inches above the power button, the question flashes through my mind: "is it going to come on?" I can't recommend that uncertainty.