Philips HTS3544 Home Theater System with iPod Connectivity (Silver)

The one and only pro to this system is the sound. It is phenomenonal for the cost of the system. This sucker packs a lot of bass, almost too much bass at times. I primarily use mine for playing CDs over DVDs so this review is more in regards to CD use. It does read and play data discs which is cool.

The cons are numerous but minor. So much so that I can live with them in comparison to my last craptacular RCA RTD258 system (see my review for that one). Here are few of the more noticeable cons for me:

*Proprietary speaker connections. The wires are not the kind that you slip into a slot and are easily spliceable. These end in a clunky color coded plastic knob that you connect into the back of the system. I hate to think what am I going to do when one of these suckers breaks... Also, there's a limited amount of wire so you have to make do with what they give you. The rear speakers have a substantial amount of wire over the front speakers. I also discovered even though the speaker connectors are color coded and the speakers labeled, they're interchangeable without sacrificing sound.

*Slow response and disc load time, but not half as slow as the RCA I replaced this with. It's still a bit frustrating but not so much that I can't live with it.

*No volume control for each independent speaker. I give the RCA credit in this regard. I was able to individually adjust the volume for each speaker: left, right, front, back, center, and bass. Not an option with this unit. EDIT: there actually is volume control for each speaker but it's not intuitive or a part of normal volume control. It's not included in the quick start set up guide. You have to go to the on screen menu, scroll to a systems set up tab, scroll down to speaker volume and then adjust the speaker volume.

*No bass, treble, balance, or equalizer controls that I am aware of. All you get are presets(i.e. lounge, jazz, rock) which I absolutely hate. They never sound right or appropriate for the music it purports it should be used for. I primarily listen to electronic music and I'm very particular about what sounds I want highlighted. To add insult to injury, it doesn't even offer an electronic preset.

*No 1.5 speed with sound. This was an awesome feature I've only seen on my JVC DVD player that I've had for years (and it still works like new). Maybe it's not offered anymore. You could watch a movie at the 1.5 speed setting and still hear what is being said, which brings me to my last con.

*Only one AUX jack. Most systems I have seen offer at least two so I can connect my JVC DVD player, my record player, and/or my headphone jack to play music from my computer or Sansa mpe3 player. It does come with an iPod dock but what use is that to me if I don't have an iPod? EDIT: there is a mp3 input jack in front of the system that makes up for the one AUX jack but you need a male/male connector thingy to use it.

Overall, a vast improvement over the RCA RTD258 I replaced. The sound is great and for under 200 clams I got what I paid for and I'm pretty satisfied with it.

In the future (probably when those plastic connector thingys break) I will invest more money and purchase a higher end system that includes all of the above missing features. But for now, I'm pretty satisfied.

The sound and DVD player are good, but the major let down is that speakers and sub-woofer all have the same length wires and proprietary connectors. The speakers close to the unit end up with extra wire, whereas the rear speakers are useless because the wiring is too short to get them far enough behind you to create surround sound.

You would literally need to sit right in front of your TV in order to have the rear speakers behind you.

For the money this is a great system. It sounds great and I was very impressed with the quality for the price. I couldn't afford a real expensive system and I am definately happy with what I got!

I've owned this system for over 6 months and I absolutely hate it. The sound is lousy, the controls are not fast responding (i.e., lag time between pushing buttons and the device recognizing it), and the DVD player has frozen up on me a few times. I'm shopping around and when I find a good deal on a replacement I plan to give this one away b/c I wouldn't feel right selling it to anyone else.

I realize that most of the reviews on this product are very good, so maybe I just got a lemon...but either way I would have liked to have known it was possible I'd be getting such a terrible system beforehand. I will absolutely not buy Philips again.

I bought this for my husband's birthday, and I think by far, this is the best gift I have ever given him! It was affordable, super easy to install, and has supreme quality sound! The speakers rattle the windows in the house!!

I would highly recommend this product for a gift for the man in your life, or anyone looking for an affordable surround sound!

His favorite feature : The iPod dock that allows him to not only listen to his music, but change songs via the remote as well. (as it charges too) Even works on his iPod touch!

I really hit a home run with this one :)