A train just went through our living room!

My husband had wanted a home theater system as long as I remember him. I kept thinking it's a waste of money, and that is one thing we have a shortage of... Well, I finally gave in and the search started. It did not take us long to pick out the right unit, since in a sub-$200-price range the selections are limited. We ended up with the Sony, and of course, set it up as soon as we got it home.

My husband turned on a rap station on the radio just to test the sound quality. I must say, it sounded plenty loud but the bass was quite muffled, as if it was under water. My first words were "What's with the bass? Maybe we should get the $300 one and see if it is any better". But he wanted to give this system a chance. Bummer, I thought... But when we turned on a movie, it was a completely different story. We watched the Polar Express, and my goodness, the train really sounded like it was going through our house. Very impressive. I previously saw the Polar Express at the Imax theater, and it sounded just as good at home on the Sony. Wow!

I will not go into technical details, because I don't understand them anyway, plus if you want the specs, they are available anywhere that sells this system. I just wanted to give my opinion on how the product works for non-technical folks like myself.

As I said, when you listen to music, the sound leaves a bit to be desired. When you watch a movie, the sound is very impressive, both in volume and quality.

One complaint I have about this unit, is that there is not a whole lot you can do without a remote. It has very few buttons on its big silver face, and they are by far not self-explanatory, at least not to someone like me (hee hee hee). If your remote batteries die, you won't be able to do much adjustment...

Another thing I would change is the size of the receiver. The sony dream (the next step up) has a built in DVD changer and still manages to be more sleek and slender than its $200 cousin. The latter is a good six inches tall and looks like it came straight out of the eighties. I prefer equipment that does not take up a ton of room, and looks sleek. The brushed aluminum face makes it look even bigger (as opposed to black).

The good news is that the speakers are very compact. This fact makes them easy to mount just about anywhere. The little corner speakers have mounting holes, but the center one does not. If you are unable to put it on the floor or a shelf, you have to get creative... The front speaker wires are also shorter than we needed, but we managed anyway...

The coolest feature is its automatic optimization (or how-ever they call it). It comes with a microphone which automatically adjusts the sound distribution among all the speakers. It does make the system sound great.

Another nifty thing is that the remote works on other Sony equipment. We have a Sony DVD player which is about five years old and the home theater remote works on it as if it was designed for it. Very cool!

Overall I am very pleased with this unit, and I wish I would have been less stubborn so we could've enjoyed it sooner... Oh well, live and learn :)