A Very Nice System
Written: Feb 07 '01 (Updated Feb 14 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: dts Decoding, 600 Watts of power
Cons: Lack of Coaxial Digital Input
The Bottom Line: Most bang for the buck, dts decoding found only in expensive receivers, and few systems have a 100W sub-woofer.
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| exocet44's Full Review: Panasonic SC-HT280 Theater System |
The Panasonic SC-HT280 is a very powerful and inexpensive system that is packed with features such as dts and Dolby Digital 5.1 Decoding, AM/FM tuner, and optical inputs.
The box includes the receiver, SA-HT280, one subwoofer, and five identical speakers. All of the speakers, including the subwoofer, can handle 200W each, but the receiver is capable only of 100W each. With the exception of the sub-woofer, each speaker and replace another. All the satellite speakers have a movable brand tag, so they can be placed vertically or horizontally. Also included in the box are a FM antenna, an AM antenna, 6 sets of speaker wire approximately twenty-five (25) feet long, so altogether about 150 feet of speaker wire is included. The FM antenna included is so-so, you are better off hooking up another antenna. The speaker wire are not well shielded and are suspectible to interference.
Now the stuff not included in the box. There is no optical cable, so you cannot enjoy dts/DD sound until you purchase one. Optical cable is general expensive, but Radio Shack is selling 3' for $24.99, part number 15-1580. Also, no RCA type cables are included, so if you wish to hook up the audio from TV/VCR/DVD,etc..., you must purchase the wires separately.
The receiver has enough inputs to handle DVD, TV, VCR, Cassette, CD, and a turntable, as well as a 75 Ohm connector for an antenna. However, there is no F-Type connector to attach the antenna, instead, you must strip the antenna wire to the copper core and insert the core into the jack.
Now on to the sound quality. The sound is superb, and there is no distortion until you crank it up to around 80% percent of the maximum power. The sub-woofer is quite powerful, and you can set the cross-over frequency, Panasonic recommends 150 Hz. Also, the 25 level setting feature for the sub-woofer is wonderful, you can reduce or increase the bass to your desire. The speakers handle all frequencies well, there is no distortion on high trebles. Unless you wish to crank up the volume all the way, this is an ideal system for the average Joe, and even for all but the most discriminating audio-philes.
There is even a nifty feature called "Simulated Surround" as one of Sound Fields. Sound Fields are factory equalizer settings. In Simulated Surround, the receiver sends the left/right audio source to the surround speakers also, allowing you to fill your room with audio. The receiver also mixes the two channels to create another channel for the center speaker, a very cool feature, especially when playing music only encoded in two channels, such as Radio and CD. The other four Sound Fields are Hall, Live, and two others which are forgotten, but you probably will never use any Sound Field except for Simulated Surround.
Those are the pertinent details about the Panasonic SC-HT280 and I hope they have been helpful.
-Akshay Upadhyaya
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
exocet44
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Location: Middlesex, NJ, USA
Reviews written: 3
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
16/M. Tech-enthusiast. Caustic
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