Sony DHC-FL7D Theater System
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- Front Speaker: 1 Way
- Main Speakers Power Output: 143 Watts
- Included Components: DVD Player
- Number Of Speakers: 5 Speakers and Subwoofer
- TV Resolutions: 720p (750p) 1080i (1125i)
- Subwoofer Power Output: 285 Watts
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Never coming in....
Pros
Easy install, audio calibration, sounds good.
Cons
Menu system, needs more audio inputs.
Recommended it?
No
The Bottom Line:
Typical family will enjoy this system. Only 1 audio input makes future expansion impossible (suggesting to buy receiver, speaker, dvd player separately or have a receiver included).
Before I (try) to jump into the review let me just first say this...
This system is not designed to be as a receiver, meaning those things you might have seen in the past where a bunch of wires go in and out. It is practically a DVD player.
So I guess when they say Home Theater System... don't be fooled next time =|
On to the review.
The main selling point or what one should always look for first is the wattage (power) your speakers can give out. It is what you are shopping for.
What attracted me the most (besides the fact that I had Sony Points and got this free, after paying my dues) was that it gave out 1000W which is pretty descent. There are more out there of course and the higher the better (sometimes). The second thing to look for is the number of speakers. In this case it is 5.1 (for those who are new... the whole number means the number of regular speakers and the .1 is the number of subwoofers which is usually just 1). These days a 5.1 system is pretty standard.
Ideally this system will do fairly well in a regular house and probably really good in a college like room. If you have a huge house bigger than the average... you have money... go buy something else.
HDMI... I wasn't sure what it was so I read up on it and I suggest you do the same. From what I understand/remember is that it's basically your AUDIO and VIDEO put into one and with better qualities. Something standard.... probably not but it's still nice to have IF you have existing product that support that or I guess future products as well. For more info (www.hdmi.org)
I didn't use HDMI but I will probably in the future just to see if there is a difference versus using the RCA cables... the infamous yellow, red, white plugs.
So this system pretty much has only one input (where you can plug in your TV sound into it, how nice of them to think of that at least) so that you can use the speakers. The rest of the connectors are pretty much outputs. That's why I stated in the beginning that this is not like a true receiver.
I'm getting too semi-geeky-technical here.
How does it sound? Right out of the box it sounded horrible. Did I notice it? No. Why? I thought it should've sound fine out of the box. So to safe you the trouble, Engineers have come up with this automatic speaker calibration which is something I LOVE now.
The idea is basically you have a microphone (your ears) and you set it around the area you sit (don't worry cable should be long enough) and then you run the calibration through the menu system (menu system it's not all that great). It does the test and when I played the movie again the sound was more in tune. So having this Auto Calibration feature is a MUST for the normal people.
The DVD player looks good and the speakers as well. Having a 3 or more DVD/CD changer is rather silly to me and it's something you should consider too. Sometimes they might charge a bit for this DVD player/receiver that comes with the speaker and you'll be stuck with this fancy but useless 5 DVD/CD changer. You might be better off just buying the DVD player separately and the speakers too.
The different modes that the system provides offers you enough to choose from as sometimes you listen to music and and want to hear the bass or when watching the movie you can hear the voices more.
It's a typical DVD player... so you can have subtitles, different audio options and what not. Navigating with the remote is pretty easy.
Can't really tell you much about it because a lot of the features are somewhat standard.
Installation was pretty easy, they even have some different setups you can do in the menus and the cables are long enough to route the rear speakers back.
So in any case, this system is pretty good since it is my first home theater system. The fact that it has the calibration helps a lot and makes it so much easier instead of using the equalizers and what not. Controls are pretty straight forward and the picture quality to me didn't bother.
Overall I would say buy it because it is a Sony brand but personally I think Sony products are not all that great and that they charge more (because it's a Sony) doesn't help me much.
If if wasn't for the Sony points... I wouldn't have gotten this anyway but it does the job of a home theater system :)
This system is not designed to be as a receiver, meaning those things you might have seen in the past where a bunch of wires go in and out. It is practically a DVD player.
So I guess when they say Home Theater System... don't be fooled next time =|
On to the review.
The main selling point or what one should always look for first is the wattage (power) your speakers can give out. It is what you are shopping for.
What attracted me the most (besides the fact that I had Sony Points and got this free, after paying my dues) was that it gave out 1000W which is pretty descent. There are more out there of course and the higher the better (sometimes). The second thing to look for is the number of speakers. In this case it is 5.1 (for those who are new... the whole number means the number of regular speakers and the .1 is the number of subwoofers which is usually just 1). These days a 5.1 system is pretty standard.
Ideally this system will do fairly well in a regular house and probably really good in a college like room. If you have a huge house bigger than the average... you have money... go buy something else.
HDMI... I wasn't sure what it was so I read up on it and I suggest you do the same. From what I understand/remember is that it's basically your AUDIO and VIDEO put into one and with better qualities. Something standard.... probably not but it's still nice to have IF you have existing product that support that or I guess future products as well. For more info (www.hdmi.org)
I didn't use HDMI but I will probably in the future just to see if there is a difference versus using the RCA cables... the infamous yellow, red, white plugs.
So this system pretty much has only one input (where you can plug in your TV sound into it, how nice of them to think of that at least) so that you can use the speakers. The rest of the connectors are pretty much outputs. That's why I stated in the beginning that this is not like a true receiver.
I'm getting too semi-geeky-technical here.
How does it sound? Right out of the box it sounded horrible. Did I notice it? No. Why? I thought it should've sound fine out of the box. So to safe you the trouble, Engineers have come up with this automatic speaker calibration which is something I LOVE now.
The idea is basically you have a microphone (your ears) and you set it around the area you sit (don't worry cable should be long enough) and then you run the calibration through the menu system (menu system it's not all that great). It does the test and when I played the movie again the sound was more in tune. So having this Auto Calibration feature is a MUST for the normal people.
The DVD player looks good and the speakers as well. Having a 3 or more DVD/CD changer is rather silly to me and it's something you should consider too. Sometimes they might charge a bit for this DVD player/receiver that comes with the speaker and you'll be stuck with this fancy but useless 5 DVD/CD changer. You might be better off just buying the DVD player separately and the speakers too.
The different modes that the system provides offers you enough to choose from as sometimes you listen to music and and want to hear the bass or when watching the movie you can hear the voices more.
It's a typical DVD player... so you can have subtitles, different audio options and what not. Navigating with the remote is pretty easy.
Can't really tell you much about it because a lot of the features are somewhat standard.
Installation was pretty easy, they even have some different setups you can do in the menus and the cables are long enough to route the rear speakers back.
So in any case, this system is pretty good since it is my first home theater system. The fact that it has the calibration helps a lot and makes it so much easier instead of using the equalizers and what not. Controls are pretty straight forward and the picture quality to me didn't bother.
Overall I would say buy it because it is a Sony brand but personally I think Sony products are not all that great and that they charge more (because it's a Sony) doesn't help me much.
If if wasn't for the Sony points... I wouldn't have gotten this anyway but it does the job of a home theater system :)
