Pioneer DCS-333 Theater System

These days, with prices on electronics being as low as they are, there's no real reason not to have a surround sound system as part of your home entertainment center. Whatever your budget, there's sure to be one out there to meet your needs. And though you can easily spend from a few hundred to a few thousand on your system, you don't have to go all the way to the very high end models for decent performance.

Recently, a friend bought a Pioneer HTP-2500 1000 Watt Surround System for about $190. Since he asked me to come over and set it up for him, I got the opportunity to play with it and evaluate it for Epinions purposes as well.

What You Get
The Pioneer HTP-2500 includes the SX-315 surround receiver, two rear speakers, two front speakers, center speaker, subwoofer, full function remote control, AM and FM wire antennas, batteries, screws, wall brackets, and non skid pads.

Setup
Setup is a breeze, and I wonder that my friend really needed me at all with this system. The speakers' wires are all color coded and guide you to connect them correctly to the receiver. If that were not enough, there's an easy setup guide included that shows you how to connect and place everything. In about twenty minutes, you'll be good to go. A test tone also helps insure all speakers are correctly connected.

Receiver
The receiver has multiple inputs so that you can connect a DVD player, cable/satellite box, VCR, etc. You can connect via standard RCA jacks, or through a digital coaxial input.

An FM tuner is built into the receiver. I do like the fact that many controls are included directly on the receiver front, sop if you can't find the remote you aren't lost at sea.

Speakers
The speakers are on the lower end quality wise, which is not a surprise for the price. They seem somewhat durable, though the subwoofer seems to be made of extremely cheap wood in the back, and I don't like the woofer itself is directly exposed with no protection.

Another gripe is that the speaker wires are all directly connected to the front and rear speakers. The length of the wires is reasonable, but if you want to run them longer than the included wires allow you will have to splice.

Remote
The remote allows you to switch between any of your connected devices in a jiffy. It also allows you to switch from surround mode to stereo for a CD or radio play. There's an auto setting for tone that you can use, or you can increase the bass/treble to your own liking.

Performance
Overall, I was a little disappointed in the system. It sounded adequate at lower to mid volumes, but as you increased volume distortion became quite detectable. The system was set up just after the release of Star Wars: Episode III, Revenge of the Sith on DVD, so that was what we used to baptize it.

The separation seemed good, and again at mid range volumes all seemed fairly well. When the bass started to thunder, though, and the volume got high I could pick up an unpleasant tinniness and rattling in the front and rear speakers.

Of course, if you won't be blasting your music this may not be a concern. But the FM radio did not sound all that great any volume, another distressing factor. Overall, I did not find that the Pioneer HTP-2500 performed any better than my RCA RT2380 , which runs about $50 less. In fact, the RCA seems to me to sound better.

The RCA system referenced has far less power than this 1000 watt system. But all the power in the world won't do you much good if your speakers aren't worth a dime. The HTP-2500 has the following power specs:

100 Watts per channel (500 total) continuous power handling.

125 Watts per channel (625 total) RMS

167 Watts per channel (1000 total) music power output

This is a decidedly low end system that sounds like a low end system (unlike the RCA). There are certainly better systems out there for the same or a little more money. And while it might be ok for a dorm or bedroom, I can't recommend it for your main entertainment system.