Panasonic SC-HT70 DVD Home Theater w/Surround Speakers -- Everything but the TV
Written: Jan 25 '02 (Updated Jan 25 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ease of use, high value, five-disc changer.
Cons: Smallish passive sub, no component out, no DTS.
The Bottom Line: If you're starting with just a TV, this may be the best home theater bargain for you.
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| radioguy's Full Review: Panasonic SC-HT700 System |
The Panasonic SC-HT70 integrated home-theater audio system is all about convenience. It's easy to shop for, with one purchase decision, and one box to bring home (as opposed to the many choices and multiple boxes inherent in buying separates). It's easy to set up, with not much more to do than pushing the proper speaker wires into the proper receptacles. It's easy to use, with just a single main box (computer users might think of it as the "CPU") controlled by one remote. It's easy to shop for, appearing on the shelves of retailers from K-Mart to Circuit City and at many online merchants.
Also, equally important, the HT70's street price of $400-$500 makes it easy to pay for. Retailers describe this system as "flying" out of stores, and it's not surprising, considering all its practical advantages and the modest price. If you shopped very carefully, you could probably buy separates and get the same features and functionality for the same price. However, it would take a savvy, disciplined, and very determined consumer to buy all this stuff separately and end up with an equally-low total price tag.
If you are easily swayed by salespeople, you will find it quite a challenge to outdo the value of the HT70 by purchasing separates. It would be easy for you to end up paying far more (though you would also most likely get gear of far higher quality).
Of course, just because this system is cheap doesn't mean you want to buy it. If you're an audiophile who's spent the last few years listening to classical music with a Macintosh amplifier playing over, let's say, a high-end pair of B&W speakers, you probably won't be terribly pleased with the audio reproduction quality of this product. On the other hand, if you've been listening to your DVD audio over your TV speakers, you'll probably notice a significant improvement, audio-wise, with the HT70. The chief practical drawback of the HT70 is that its modest amplifier output power and small speakers limit it to use in fairly compact rooms.
Welcome to the SC-HT70
The SC-HT70 replaces the almost-identical SC-HT80 which Panasonic brought to the market last year. In addition to the aforementioned DVD/CD drive, the HT70 includes a an AM/FM tuner, a surround-sound amplifier, a set of five surround speakers, and a passive subwoofer. Besides a VCR, this setup has everything you'll need for a home theater except for the TV set.
Is it For You?
Keep in mind that the HT70 represents solid value mainly for people who own just a TV and want to move on to home-theater sound quality. If, for example, you already own a DVD player, then the HT70, with its integral five-disc DVD/CD-changer drive, would make less sense for you.
If you do already own a DVD player, you can get much more audio performance for your $450 by buying Kenwood's HTB-504 Home-Theater-in-a-Box (HTIB). The HTB-504 includes a Kenwood A/V receiver, five surround-sound speakers, and a self-powered subwoofer. Due to the Kenwood system's far more powerful amplifier section, larger, higher-response speakers, and its self-powered sub (which will provide far more bass response than the passive sub in the HT70), the HTB-504 will handily trounce the HT70 in audio volume and fidelity.
Please see my review of the very-similar predecessor to the HTB-504, the HTB-503 [Unfortunately, due to the lack of product updates at the time of posting, I had to put it up under the HTB-502 category. I hope to review the 504 soon, as a category has recently been added for that HTIB. Oddly enough, there is still no category for the 503 in this crazy, mixed-up world that we like to call Epinions]:
http://www.epinions.com/content_15283031684
Speaker Configuration
The SC-HT70 has five identical surround speakers plus a passive sub. The passive sub is powered by an amplifier within the main unit. While it's optimal for a sub to have its own integral amplifier, designed to work purely with the very tight band of frequencies covered by a typical sub (usually between 50 to 150 Hertz), the sub here, at 18 pounds, is at least hefty enough to provide a bit of kick. However, with only a 6.75-inch driver, it would probably be more accurate to think of this as a passive woofer than as a passive subwoofer.
On last year's SC-HT80, the center-channel speaker was similar in shape to all the other speakers, but with a somewhat larger woofer than was used in the other speakers (4.0 inches versus 3.3 inches). For the HT70, Panasonic has made all five speakers (front-right, center, front-left, rear-right, and rear-left) of equal size, with a single 3.125-inch full-range driver and a weight of 1.8 pounds each.
Technically, it should improve the speaker performance to make all five identical as this will insure proper timbre match, avoiding any audible anomalies as a soundtrack event fades from one speaker to another. The reasoning behind making the center-channel speaker larger is that, in most soundtracks, there is more audio energy in the center channel than in any of the other channels. However, based on acoustic theory, it is optimal to have the center-channel speaker identical to all the others (with most surround-sound systems, though, there's an additional woofer in the center-channel speaker to give increased presence to what's normally the most active channel in a soundtrack).
Speakers Sound Better than they Look
Although the speakers included with this system are rather compact, and enclosed in plastic cases, the overall sound quality produced is surprisingly good. These compact speakers produce decent levels of audio output. All the surround speakers include both a threaded receptacle to accept a bracket and a narrow slot to allow you to directly hang each speaker on a hook. You can also use stands for speaker placement. All the surround speakers are driven by amplifiers with 30 watts output (at 6 ohms, 120 Hz to 20 kHz, 1.0% total harmonic distortion - THD). The amplifier channel driving the passive sub is rated at 90 watts, into the 6-ohm sub, from 45 Hz to 120 kHz, with 1.0% THD. The surround speakers are all video shielded, meaning you can use them near your TV and they won't cause interference to the picture.
Operational Features/Tuner
Disc playback options on the HT70 include DVD-Video, Video-CD (VCD), CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and MP3 CD.
The HT70 should satisfy the musical listening requirements of most casual listeners. With its remote control and 5-DVD/CD changer, you can pop in a bunch of your favorite CD's and program up to 24 tracks in any order you'd like. The tuner section features 12 FM presets and 12 AM presets. Control of both CD tracks and DVD chapters can be handled with the graphical user interface (GUI) which the HT70 projects onto your TV screen. Status messages, such as play time of a disc, are projected onto the main unit's LCD screen. The basic transport controls for the DVD player (stop/start/pause) and controls for the tuner and amplifier sections (volume, tuning) can be controlled by the front-panel buttons as well as from the remote.
The main unit has a sleep timer to turn it off after 30, 60, or 90 minutes. Oddly, there's also a "wake timer" which will automatically turn the unit on after five, seven, or nine hours for those mornings when you want to be awoken by the beach landing scene in Saving Private Ryan or maybe the helicopter assault scene in "Apocalypse Now," with its rousing Wagnerian score. I love the smell of coffee in the morning.
Dolby Pro Logic and Dolby Digital
For playing back the soundtracks on your DVD's, the HT70 handles both the older, analog Dolby Pro Logic format and the newer Dolby Digital (DD) format. It doesn't work with the Digital Theater Sound format (DTS), but this isn't a giant drawback as DTS soundtracks are still fairly rare. Also, although DTS is technically a superior format to DD, many listeners have reported that they can't hear a quality difference between the two formats.
Dolby Pro Logic surround sound will be found on some TV broadcasts and many movies on VHS tape (there are inputs to let you connect the audio output of your TV and VCR to the main unit). Dolby Pro Logic is the older, analog surround-sound format. It extracts four surround-sound channels from the original two stereo channels. Dolby Pro Logic provides full-range audio to the front-right, center, and front-left speakers while it simultaneously sends a single limited-range audio signal to the two rear-channel speakers. The Dolby Digital format, also known as AC-3, or "5.1" (for the five surround speakers and the subwoofer) is found on most DVD's, some CD's, and the output of satellite receivers.
Input & Output Connections
While the HT70 is mainly designed to operate as a convenient, self-contained unit where you just have to connect the TV and speakers, pop in a DVD, and hit play, it does have a moderately extensive set of connections to allow you to use other gear with it such as a VCR or an audio cassette deck.
On the front panel, there's a standard size (1/4-inch) headphone jack.
The rear panel includes AM and FM antenna inputs, L/R TV audio inputs, L/R VCR audio inputs, L/R auxiliary input, L/R line-level output, composite-video output, and S-Video output (a higher-quality type of output which you can use with any TV having a corresponding S-Video input). Handling the speaker outputs, there are six spring-clip connectors, clearly labeled for their corresponding speakers. Connecting the speaker wires to the speakers themselves won't be a problem since they are already directly, permanently attached. Unfortunately, this makes it impossible to upgrade to thicker speaker wire, but the rather thin wire included should usually be enough to handle the 30 watts-per-channel used with the surround speakers. If the amplifier really feeds 90 watts to the subwoofer, as advertised, the sub's speaker wire might get a little hot (though the power rating is probably somewhat exaggerated and, in any case, amps only hit their rated power on very short peaks).
It would be nice if the HT70 included a component-video output, as this type of output is becoming widespread on all but the very cheapest DVD players. However, on most TV's, especially TV's 27 inches or smaller, there isn't a big picture-quality difference between an S-Video connection and a component-video connection. Panasonic throws in a composite-video cable so you'll be ready to hook up the HT70 to your TV right out of the box. Cables aren't included for a VCR, but if you have a VCR you probably already have the cables for it.
Remote Control
The HT70's remote will also control TV's and VCR's made by most major manufacturers. It's a rather large remote, and you'll need two hands to operate it, unless you're adept at one-hand remote juggling (don't do it -- you'll go blind!). The commonly-accessed remote buttons, such as power on/off, play, stop, fast-forward, rewind, channel up-down, and volume up-down are located on the upper section of the remote. There's a lid on the lower part of the remote, covering control buttons which you use less often.
Caveat Emptor
You may choose to purchase the HT70 online as it is widely available from Web merchants at competitive prices. Stick with a reputable retailer such as J&R Music World (their retail store is only a couple of blocks from Ground Zero, formerly known as the World Trade Center, and they could really use the business). Unfortunately, not all the mail order and Web merchants in New York City (and elsewhere in the U.S.) are quite as scrupulous as J&R. Take advantage of the store reviews, both here at Epinions and at other online sources. For example, if you read about the practices of Love4Digital, you might choose a higher-rated merchant.
See the "Caveat Emptor" section of my recent Toshiba 42H81 review for more advice on extended warranties, premium cables, and choosing a retailer, all of which is also relevant to this product.
Conclusion
If you're considering the HT70, you may have also thought about buying the somewhat-similar Sony DAV-S300. While the DAV-S300 used to sell for around $600, it's now commonly available for $400. For about the same price, or maybe an extra $50, the HT70 provides a five-disc changer versus a single-disc player in the Sony, 90 watts to the sub channel versus 30 in the Sony model, and larger surround speakers than the Sony uses. The Sony is a very compact unit that would probably be best suited to a bedroom or a kid's room. The HT70 is a more substantial unit and has enough audio kick to serve as the amp in your main home theater.
For $450, the HT70 is a pretty nice deal. It's a great system for somebody who wants to have a home theater with enough power to provide audio in a bedroom, den, or small livingroom while keeping expense and complexity to a minimum. It's also a very compact approach, as compared to having a separate DVD player and A/V receiver. However, if you want the most bang for the buck, I'd suggest you look into one of the so-called home-theater-in-a-box setups (HTIB), where you get an A/V receiver along with a complete set of surround speakers. The Kenwood HTIB's mentioned above are some of the best values now available in these systems.
Addendum
I mentioned above that, with careful shopping, you can buy separate components and get better performance for the same price as the SC-HT70. In all fairness, I should explain how that's possible. This is also going to serve as the rough draft of "Radioguy's Full-Fledged Home-Theater for under $500."
First of all, you'll need an A/V receiver. For this, I suggest the Technics SA-DX950, which you can now get for $150 after a $50 mail-in rebate. See my recent review:
http://www.epinions.com/content_53502119556
For speakers, the all-time king of inexpensive options has to be the System One sold online only at the hometheaterdirect site for $150. While the System One, like the HT70, uses plastic cases for its surround speakers, they are larger, two-way speakers. Plus, the System One comes with a genuine 8.0-inch, 100-watt powered sub, meaning it'll pack much more of a punch than the passive sub in the HT70.
If you insist on a more well-known brand of speakers, one of the better inexpensive options is the JBL SCS135 sub/sat system which lists for $400, but can be found at a few merchants (such as jandr) for $300. Again, the surround speakers (all two-way with a single 3.0-inch woofer and 0.5-inch tweeter, except the center speaker which has two 3.0-inch woofers and the 0.5-inch tweeter) are plastic, a difficult material to avoid at the lower end of the speaker market. The sub is a nice self-powered unit with a 100-watt amp and an 8.0-inch woofer. I have not reviewed the SCS135 and it's not listed here. However, the similar SCS125 has been reviewed at Epinions:
http://www.epinions.com/elec_Home_Speakers-In_Wall_JBL_SCS-JBL_SCS125
Depending on which speakers you chose, you might have to economize a bit on the DVD player. Fortunately, there are many models available, such as the Samsung M101, for a little more than $100. If you can work in about $170, the Panasonic DVD-RV31 is one of the best entry-level players:
http://www.epinions.com/content_16158723716
Finally, you'll need cables to connect everything. For the audio and video interconnects, go to Radio Shack and get the least-expensive, shortest possible cables available. You might also buy your speaker wire at Radio Shack, or, if you'll have fairly long wire runs, get a whole spool of 16-gauge wire at Home Depot.
Recommended:
Yes
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