Best Home Theater Reviews

Great sound for a small system
Great sound for such a small system. We totally love the rich sound it gives and ability to add on to this unit with more speakers as well as an mp3 player. I would recommend this to anyone looking for a system that takes up little space for such wonderful sound. Good job, Yamaha!!!!

Nice sound, cryptic operation
Yamaha MCR-E810SL DVD Mini System looked like a good bet. I listened to it at a local stereo store and was impressed by the sound. I should have played with the controls however & am now paying the price. My wife hates it because she does not understand how it works. My best friend who is a stereo nut likes the sound but was also turned off by the control issues. I'd return it but I feel I've had it too long to justify a return. It does sound nice but one should be able to use it easily & not have to open a manual to change the radio station.

Incredible System
I had been in search of a system (or some kind of configuration) that would work for my application, which was playing high-fidelity music from my Mac, and wow, this IS IT. By the end of my search I had decided to go with a mini system, and after researching the Onkyo and Denon options, I decided to go with the Yamaha. And I've got to say, I'm so glad I went with the Yamaha...all the rest had one negative or another, but this Yamaha has it all - incredible clear and precise sound, great bass performance without a sub, but incredible with one, peerless aesthetic fit and finish, and marvelous build quality. Just in the weight of the amp/receiver, one can feel the heft of Yamaha quality. And the speakers - heavy, meticulously crafted, and the finish, wow, if you sat it on top of a Yamaha grand piano, it would disappear. Other pluses: subwoofer out (obviously), plenty of inputs, simple and capable remote, excellent iPod compatibility (with purchase of the dock, which is reasonably priced), and Yamaha's PureDirect feature, which is present on the company's high-end hi-fi amps and receivers, and allows the input signal to bypass all the internal processing of the receiver. This is excellent if you are using, for example, an SACD player, and you want to hear the most direct, unencumbered sound that can be output by the player. The DVD/CD also seems very capable, admittedly not for today's HD applications, but with progressive scanning and component video output it ought to get by quite well in an office type of setup. And there are little details I appreciate as well; for example, on the remote, there are dedicated input buttons, for CD, tuner, aux, etc. rather than one input button that forces you to scroll through all the inputs to get to the one you want. Overall, I would say I am extremely pleased with this system - there's nothing mini about its power output or capability, only its size.

AWESOME
This is the first Yamaha mini-system I have owned and it is, by far, the best system that I have owned. I have previously had Sony and Aiwa mini systems and JVC component systems. In comparison to these, this Yamaha system has the best sound quality (wow!), flexibility (cd, dvd, mp3, etc) and ease of use. In addition, this sytem has a lot of power for its size (120 watts).

I also purchased the IPOD dock and it works amazingly well - the controls are intuitive. I am very happy with this sytem and would recommend it to all.

If I had to offer any criticisms of this, they would be - only a single CD player; no mid-range adustment; no built in EQ.

Stunning Looks - Even Better Sound!
This speaker set out-performs it's price and competition. Decided to upgrade receiver for blu-ray TrueHD audio & planned to leave Infinty speaker set in place. Got a great deal on JBL CS6100's that I couldn't pass up, and it came in before new Pioneer VSX-1018. Hooked them up to old Pioneer VSX-D811S expecting some improvement over Infinity... and was blown away by the sound difference. Bass is tight and punchy and sounds much bigger than 10" without any boominess. Center channel is clean and crisp and surrounds create nice sound envelope without overpowering the center. Excellent construction, wire-connections and mounting system... and they look so good they draw compliments from visitors before I even power them up! Now that the new receiver is in, TrueHD sounds better at my house than it did in Best Buy's home theater room!

An unbeatable deal for the price!
I was actually a little hesitant about these speakers. I was torn between these and the Harman Kardon HKTS-18's. I actually found these on eBay for an unbeatable deal. Well, anyways, on to the speakers....

Wow! I never thought these speakers could so good! I bought them to replace some old Sony satellites that just had to go. And boy, am I ever glad that I bought these speakers. I bought them along with Onkyo TX-SR606 and they sound incredible. I've played Blu-ray movies on them and heard DTS-HD MA, Dolby TrueHD, and PCM sound. OMG, I've never heard sound so clear. After hearing these tracks, I will never go back to standard DVD ever again. The speakers are so clear and have lots of punch. The subwoofer is amazing too. It pumps out some SERIOUS bass. I also like the design of the speakers. They have a glossy, aesthetically pleasing look that will fit almost any home. Probably the only negative thing I would say is that the mounting options that come with it are not the best. I prefer to use speaker stands, but I had to buy other brackets and screws in order for them to fit on my old stands. It wasn't too bad, but it would be nice if all manufacturers would agree on one design for speaker brackets....

Anyway, I've absolutely loved these speakers. If you want the best bang for your buck, get these speakers. They probably will not satisfy audiophile ears, but for those who are new to home theater products, they will blow you away. Skip Bose and get these magnificent speakers! JBL is awesome!

Great sound, great value
A few weeks back, I decided it was time to replace my 12 year old Sony TV and 17 year old "stereo" system with its two cheap speakers.

End result, after lots of research, was the purchase of the following, all from Amazon.
- Samsung LN40A650 LCD TV
- Onkyo TX-SR606
- JBL CS6100 6-Piece Home Cinema Speaker Package
- Logitech Harmony 550 Universal Remote

Also connected are;
- Scientific Atlanta cable set top box from Time Warner
- Sony SLV-D300P DVD/VCR which is 2-3 years old
- Nintendo Game Cube

Installation was in a 20'x30' room.

My goals were to have a high quality TV with decent sound, and keep the entire cost under 00 if at all possible. Goal achieved, even with the purchase of the incidentals; some speaker wire, banana clips for speaker cables, an optical digital audio, cable, etc.

- Speakers... even if you go to all of the places you can visit to hear speakers, you have no idea how they will actually sound in your own environment. And, speakers are an object thing. My concerns here were that the only review I could find on the audiophile web sites was for the smaller CS480 speakers. the CD480s have a single woofer and tweeter in satellites vs. the dual woofers in the CS6100 package. The reviews of the CD480s indicated that they were a bit bright, a bit lacking in mid-range under some conditions. I don't find that to be the case with the CS6100s, maybe because of the dual woofers. Having all the mounting hardware in the box is a real plus, and they give you two choices of mounts, fixed and swivel. Enough high quality speaker wire in the box for a medium sized room. Sub-woofer speaker cable included. A nice, classy look as well..

The opening sequence from Top Gun (with the windows closed and the wife gone)was the first test. No disappointment here. Next, a bit of Opera. Again, they performned well. Country and classical music, movies with dialogue... these do a very nice job and compare VERY well with speakers which cost twice as much.

A definite "I'd buy again".

JBL CS6100BG (Great)
I purchased this system because of the great price and the previous reviews I had read on this product. The speakers look great and they even worked with the previous mounting brackets that I had. I could hear a difference in the sound imediately. Crisp, Clear and lots of base. The subwoofer is really more that what i needed, but I really enjoy it. The ony problem that i have is that the subwoofer does not have connectdions for speaker wire. I do not have a subwoofer out from my receiver. So right not I am not getting the full sound from the sub. No problem though, I believe it is time to upgrade my receiver. I am really stoked to hear the sound after I get the new receiver.

Great Great Great
I can't say enough about this speaker system. You can tell that JBL took great care in construction and sound quality. The mounting brackets are top of the line and the speakers are surprisingly solid for the price. I replaced my former JBL tower speakers with this set and I haven't looked back since. Great product from JBL as always.

Awesome Sound! Not so great distance with Remote
I just received this speaker system and it is very impressive. Sound is much better than my stock speakers of my Panasonic 42" PX600U, which was having a vibration problem with certain High Definition discs because I like bass.

I paid a little extra 1 1/2 years ago because the Panasonic HDTV had a pretty decent speaker system as these things go. When I hooked up HD DVD and Blu-ray, my stock speakers seemed as if they were shaking apart in certain scenes having a vibration bass problem. This speaker system cleared that right up, as I can turn down my HDTV speakers and turn up the TVee speaker.

It is not a surround sound system and it doesn't pretend to be. It is perfect for my bedroom. I love being able to adjust the boom boom with the upside down trash can bass speaker. Very cool how it is wireless, except that you need to plug it in to an electrical outlet. It does make a slight hum, but nothing too noisy. And it does automatically shut itself off in a few minutes after your TV shuts down.

Voices seem more clear and equal to the background and special effect noises. I had a heck of a time adjusting my HDTV to get the voices and special effects to behave together.

My only real gripe is that you have to be 6 feet or closer for your remote to work with it, and it can be a time waster if you use both your TV speakers and the TVee system together to get them adjusted just right. There is no on screen programming with the TVee system.

The syncing with your own remote was very easy and I got everything going right away with that. It is pretty cool how the speaker system turns on when you turn on your TV and turns off a few minutes after you shut off your TV.

Ok, maybe one more gripe was the price tag. A little steep I think. You do get the wireless bass speaker and don't have to hook up a wire jungle, which should count for something I suppose. I got everything up and running in less than 10 minutes, which includes the unpacking and syncing the remote. Still, 0 was what I paid as of this review. I'm thinking for 0, I would be sitting a little more pretty, not feeling like I overpaid. Atleast give me some more remote control distance and some on screen programming to synch up the TV and the TVee speakers together.

Great Reciever!!
I bought the Dcp 501 on E bay Brand New for 4.00 sent to me.I love the system.Once you sit down and get the settings right it sounds great!!I highly recomend this reciever.You wont go wrong.I use the tunner on my DVD player although the tunner on the Dcp 501 worked.It didnt respond as quickly when changing the channels as the tunner on my DVD player.Other then that its a nice unit!1

The DCP501 is rock!!
I Purchase this product a month ago and I'am so happy with it, Best ad vise is to get good speakers. If possible planing on getting a speaker package that's include subwoofer. Sourround sound is excellent, the only thing is that I had to pretty much bug the Comcast people/ The Cable Company to activated it, and it now work great with my digital cable package, save me a .50 monthly on leasing cable box.

Motorola reciever excellent product for a great price
I had a Motorola unit which no longer worked. After shopping around for another unit in stores I realized I should try to replace the unit I had since it has everything I wanted including the DVD player. I was extremely pleased to find one for sale at a great price delivered to my door!

Good - All in one system
I am very pleased with this product. I like the fact that it is an all in one system (including CATV tuner). My only negative is that the unit is very large (long in length). I use it to drive an infocus IN72 projector using s-video and surround sound speakers.

Good system except for subwoofer
I set this system up and enjoyed the great sound but the subwoofer made a humming noise. Onkyo said that it needed repair and sent me to a certified technician. For me, that is an hour drive. The tech said the power transformer was busted but they couldn't get a new part from Onkyo. So I called Onkyo again and they said to return the entire system to Amazon, which I did. After a couple more hours of driving and packing it up. It seems there is a quality control issue at Onkyo so I will stay away from their products in the future. The tech recommended Bose, Yamaha, and JBL/Infinity.

nice for the money
I bought this on amazon for 0 less than i saw it in stores...its a nice setup for the money....i just wish it had an HDMI hookup.
sounds is good and plenty for my room size.

Quality at a great price
Im very pleased with my Onkyo,I was looking for a solid performer at a fair price and found it with the Onkyo HT-S4100.

Onkyo ht-s4100
We are very pleased with this Onkyo HT-S4100 5.1 channel home entertainment system.. My heart (and ears) were set on a Bose system, but could'nt afford it. We are very happy with this one for the price. Good quality sound..Sandy

Well Rounded and Affordable
This is my first 5.1 reciever and so far I am happy with my purchase. My first impressions were that everything was larger than expected, the sub sits about a foot and a half off of the floor. I had planned to use my tv to recieve hdmi from a dvd player and an xbox 360 and then pass the audio through a single optical cable to the onkyo. However I have just learned my model toshiba lcd does not pass an hd audio signal from any incoming sources. So I have a few extra cables run but not a big deal.

The Ipod dock works great, you can turn on the ipod and navigate through it's menu's using the onkyo's remote. The FM antenna wire that is provided is garbage, but the tuner works perfectly and picks up stations I didn't know existed.

The sound from digital sources is great and there is no distortion throughout the volume range. The sub does not sound as powerful as I expected but I will give is some time to break in. Once you configure the speaker settings everything sounds balanced and matched, which it should they are basically all the same speaker. There is not much of a usable equalizer just basic treble and bass adjustments. I don't notice it much watching movies but for music it's hard to fine tune sound.

Everything was simple and straightforward and most important it sounds great. A nice value for a small or mid sized room great for watching movies. It takes the guesswork out of matching up components and speakers.

Excellent sound, compact setup
This Jwin Home Theater system is the perfect system for the beginner or intermediate users. Easy to install, compact, excellent sound and polished look. Fun karoke functions complete the set up and the entire family will enjoy it.