Archive for 'Electronics'

Cable broke at the Jack after six months
Cable broke at the Jack after six months. The foam ear pads disintegreated after 5 months. Sound is great

Do not get microphone version!
Just bought these with the microphone. Whenever you move at all - there is a rustling sound coming in through the microphone - then when you go out, EVERYTHING is broadcast through the microphone when you are trying to shut out the world. If you want to call their clueless tech support in the Philippines and listen to the most painful music ever on hold...you will find out you can only disable the microphone when using a PC. IF you are using these for calling...they are too good for that - and the mic will ruin your experience when offline. Now need to see about returning to Amazon and getting the ones without a micUltimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones

Great earbuds, but the cables are terrible
Based on sound quality alone, I love these earbuds. I'm not an audio engineer or even an audiophile, but the difference between good and bad headphones is quite striking. These fall into the good category.

However, I cannot recommend these to anyone, unless you are willing to replace the cables every couple of months. I have owned these headphones for 5 months and have had to replace the cables 3 times. The cables always seem to start shorting out around the connector. The piece connecting the cord to the plug is probably too rigid to allow for any movement without stressing the joint. I am not an active person by any means. I sit at a desk all day at work. The only activity I do while wearing these is walking (not even at a quick pace). I plug these into my mp3 player, put the player in my pocket, then sit and walk. After about a month, the cable invariably starts to short out. I have read other reviews which site the same issue.

tl;dr Great headphones, but the cable sucks. Do not purchase these unless you are willing to replace the cables every month or so.

Excellent sound, shoddy construction.
I've been buying earphones from Ultimate Ears, now owned by Logitech, for a long time. Do not get me wrong, the sound that emanates from these IEMs is amazing. I have never heard more detailed sound from any headphone below the 0 price range. However, the build quality is shoddy, so I fear the expensive item will fail once out of the warranty period. Luckily, support under warranty is excellent.

Unboxing the earphones is a cheap experience. Ultimate Ears treats the product as a BestBuy bargain headphone. The packaging is cheap and empty of even a basic user manual. Accessories are lacking - the carrying case is too small to carry the earphones in. I'd use a hardback sunglasses case instead.

The Triple.Fi 10, even years after its release, is still considered to be a leader in sound quality among the higher end IEMs. The highs shine with excellent clarity while the mids flow like a river of silk. The lows are tight and clean while having plenty of presence.

The seal is okay, but I'd recommend getting custom fit earpieces for these. One downside to the large side of the earbuds is that one cannot sleep with them on. They are not exactly comfortable to wear, but not terribly uncomfortable. I personally find them to be ugly, but aesthetics are personal opinions.

The build quality is abysmal for 0 earphones. My first pair's cables broke three times in warranty, and eventually the earbuds kicked the bucket as well. Luckily my warranty replaced them for free, thanks to Logitech's excellent and responsive customer service. My current pair has gone through 2 cords within six months. It is an incredible hassle to have to replace the cords, so I eventually ordered 2 cords so I would be prepared for the next failure. Logitech complied and provided them for free. I am very gentle with these Hi-Fi earphones. There is no excuse for such shoddy build quality when you pay so much money for a luxury product. These earphones will be my last from Ultimate Ears.

In conclusion, the Triple.Fi 10's sound quality is amazing. However, the build quality is incredibly poor for such an expensive product. While Logitech's support is excellent, I simply do not trust 0 in a pair of shoddy earphones. If you can, buy from another manufacturer until Logitech can work out the quality kinks.

Great sound, crap cables.
Love the way they sound. Love the way they fit. Hate buying cables every 2 to 3 months.
Come on Ultimate Ears. It's time to redesign The cables.

Cable broke at the Jack after six months
Cable broke at the Jack after six months. The foam ear pads disintegreated after 5 months. Sound is great

Do not get microphone version!
Just bought these with the microphone. Whenever you move at all - there is a rustling sound coming in through the microphone - then when you go out, EVERYTHING is broadcast through the microphone when you are trying to shut out the world. If you want to call their clueless tech support in the Philippines and listen to the most painful music ever on hold...you will find out you can only disable the microphone when using a PC. IF you are using these for calling...they are too good for that - and the mic will ruin your experience when offline. Now need to see about returning to Amazon and getting the ones without a micUltimate Ears TripleFi 10 Noise Isolating Earphones

Great earbuds, but the cables are terrible
Based on sound quality alone, I love these earbuds. I'm not an audio engineer or even an audiophile, but the difference between good and bad headphones is quite striking. These fall into the good category.

However, I cannot recommend these to anyone, unless you are willing to replace the cables every couple of months. I have owned these headphones for 5 months and have had to replace the cables 3 times. The cables always seem to start shorting out around the connector. The piece connecting the cord to the plug is probably too rigid to allow for any movement without stressing the joint. I am not an active person by any means. I sit at a desk all day at work. The only activity I do while wearing these is walking (not even at a quick pace). I plug these into my mp3 player, put the player in my pocket, then sit and walk. After about a month, the cable invariably starts to short out. I have read other reviews which site the same issue.

tl;dr Great headphones, but the cable sucks. Do not purchase these unless you are willing to replace the cables every month or so.

Excellent sound, shoddy construction.
I've been buying earphones from Ultimate Ears, now owned by Logitech, for a long time. Do not get me wrong, the sound that emanates from these IEMs is amazing. I have never heard more detailed sound from any headphone below the 0 price range. However, the build quality is shoddy, so I fear the expensive item will fail once out of the warranty period. Luckily, support under warranty is excellent.

Unboxing the earphones is a cheap experience. Ultimate Ears treats the product as a BestBuy bargain headphone. The packaging is cheap and empty of even a basic user manual. Accessories are lacking - the carrying case is too small to carry the earphones in. I'd use a hardback sunglasses case instead.

The Triple.Fi 10, even years after its release, is still considered to be a leader in sound quality among the higher end IEMs. The highs shine with excellent clarity while the mids flow like a river of silk. The lows are tight and clean while having plenty of presence.

The seal is okay, but I'd recommend getting custom fit earpieces for these. One downside to the large side of the earbuds is that one cannot sleep with them on. They are not exactly comfortable to wear, but not terribly uncomfortable. I personally find them to be ugly, but aesthetics are personal opinions.

The build quality is abysmal for 0 earphones. My first pair's cables broke three times in warranty, and eventually the earbuds kicked the bucket as well. Luckily my warranty replaced them for free, thanks to Logitech's excellent and responsive customer service. My current pair has gone through 2 cords within six months. It is an incredible hassle to have to replace the cords, so I eventually ordered 2 cords so I would be prepared for the next failure. Logitech complied and provided them for free. I am very gentle with these Hi-Fi earphones. There is no excuse for such shoddy build quality when you pay so much money for a luxury product. These earphones will be my last from Ultimate Ears.

In conclusion, the Triple.Fi 10's sound quality is amazing. However, the build quality is incredibly poor for such an expensive product. While Logitech's support is excellent, I simply do not trust 0 in a pair of shoddy earphones. If you can, buy from another manufacturer until Logitech can work out the quality kinks.

Great sound, crap cables.
Love the way they sound. Love the way they fit. Hate buying cables every 2 to 3 months.
Come on Ultimate Ears. It's time to redesign The cables.

Junk
Junk,rubish,paper wieght, flashlight, 90% percent of the web media either crashes the thing or wont play, trasported DVDs crash it after 9 or 10 minutes, opera browser goes insane at different times, this thing has no ability to upgrade opera, flash, or anything else for that matter. so far this hynk of junk has been no more use then a mp3 player for the near blind since it has a big screen. archos has no intention of upgrading and has not released a upgrade for it since nov 09. you cannot upgrade opera at all which is STUPID since browsers upgrade and patch constantly. they built this as if it was the last thing you'll ever need and nothing new will ever come out as far as internet software goes. for another 150 bux i could got a wal-mart acer tablet. with windows 7.
tech support is abismal, might be a little better if your from new delia or the philipines. oh and it also will do practicly nothing with out droping another 0 on plugins and a docking staion for anything you might want to use it for. also there are no messenger programs that work on it

good uses for an archos

paper wieght
low lum flashlight
mp3 player
trading for crack
impressing people until they try to use it

DO NOT BUY Archos products!!!
DO NOT BUY Archos products!!! My Archos 7 has stopped working after 10 month and it has been a nightmare working with Archos support. They are slow, unfriendly and very unprofessional.
DO NOT BUY! DO NOT BUY! DO NOT BUY!

Horrible Service + Bad Product = Returned and Never Purchase Again
Step 1 - Receive Archos 7
Step 2 - Turn on Archos 7
Step 3 - Cuss defective unit
Step 4 - Call customer service and get nowhere
Step 5 - Get refund and forget the name Archos

Just for some background on me. I have been an IT professional for several years.(Not Geek Squad LOL) I liked the Linux interface and the features that the 7 has. I called and wanted to exchange the item, but the turnaround for a replacement unit would be almost 30 days. I wanted to just pay for a new one, but they could not overnight the package to me even at my expense. Customer service said they could not get the package out that day.....being is was noon on a friday. OH NOES!

The thing was an absolute brick when I got it. All it would do is sound like a jet trying to take off. Trying to grind its way into the atmosphere. I would have given 0 stars if possible. They had their chance to make it right and did not. I guess I will have to get on the Ipad bandwagon as much as I hate to.

Not for the faint of heart.
I received an Archos 5 IMT 250GB as a Christmas gift from my wife, she took my "hints" and got me one, I simply fell in love with the device just by looks an feel (no real test there yet) but this unit had a hard drive the vibrated too much so I returned it, by then she fell for it already - again, just by looks - and with her blessing I got one Archos 7 IMT 320Gb for me and an Archos 5 250Gb IMT for her. In the meantime I read so many reviews that were so polarized (you either love it or hate it) that I was already feeling bad and insecure about the purchase decision, anyway both devices arrived and I started to get my first objective impressions of the A7 based on usage with my music files. I felt really bad when I copied some of my WMA lossless that I had in my PC ripped for the Zune I was replacing only to find out that the A7 did not play them. I went back to read the specs to see if the Archos IMT play them or not and I could see that it said WMA and WMA protected but it did not say WMA lossless, it was a bad start for me, I ripped one of my CDs in several formats to see if they were supported or not, first hand, and not just going with what the manual said. I learned that it does support FLAC, so that is the format that I am going to use to re-rip my collection.

The main reason why I chose the Archos was the capacity, I was very happy with the Zune, we had a total of 3 at home (one for each of us, Me, Wife and daughter) but we needed more space (especially me) if we wanted to use lossless compression. I had a 120GB and it simply could not handle the size of my library and I was not even ripping videos.

After "solving" the music issue I tried to play VOB files and could not and I had no clue what plug-in I needed, by then I had already purchase the HD dock, and according to the ad I read, it came with a free Hi-def plug-in. so I tried to install it going to the Archos website and I could not do it, I call their support and it took me 3 different people during 2 days to do it, the first two did not have a clue and simply gave me the run-around, the third did it but treated me like a retard, was arrogant and made me feel like I was holding her for doing something more important than helping people with stupid questions. Anyway she insisted on telling me that the A7 did not support Hi-def and had to purchase the Android model if I wanted it, she helped me in getting the Cinema Plug-in. Later on I learned by reading that the free plug-in for the A7 was the Cinema one and not the Hi-def as simply as that but the A7 did support it. So an "F" for Archos Tech Support so far.

Going back to the video, with the Cinema plug-in I was able to play VOB, then I tried uPNP to watch videos on one of my PCs and my Archos was unable to do it and got a message about needing a plug-in, by then I was on the verge of returning the unit, it seemed that I could not do anything without running into an issue, finally I paid for the plug-in () and was able to do it with the Video Podcast plug-in.

My basic frustration came that being a PC person I am used to download any codec I may need and install it in my PC if needed. The A7 IMT is not like a PC (I know that is obvious for most people) you cannot get codecs and install them on the device like a regular PC even if they exist, anything must be purchased through Archos if it is available.

The device has Wi-Fi and connecting it to my Network was really easy. Web browsing is not flawless or fast but it is usable, anyway I purchased this device for music so anything else is a bonus so with this is mind bear with me if I have not bored you yet.

Any web site that used flash 10 will not work correctly so until Adobe does not release flash 10.1 for ARM devices. ARCHOS cannot update the OS to get back the functionality it used to have when flash 9 was king (they do support it) what does this mean? It means no Hulu support, No Joost or the likes, same thing with YouTube, but there is a work around for it (at least for YouTube) on most non-HD videos, which is to open the video in an additional tab (there is a little arrow on the top right corner of the little screen for the video that if pressed will open the video in another tab and will play), or load the videos from YouTube XL. Adobe has promised Flash for ARM for the first quarter of 2010 (I don't think it will happen because 10.1 for x86 platform is still in beta 3 at the time of this writing with no mention of ARM) so I am not holding my breath . Eventually when it happens (most likely Q2) my A7 will really come alive.

By now most people is thinking why I gave 4 stars to it after most of the things I wrote were negative (I wanted a 3.5 would be fair but Amazon does not allow it)... Well after a while, with all additional plug-in installed, I am simply in love with the device and:
- I can listen to my music in a lossless format, I can watch movies, I can browse the web and check my yahoo e-mail (I had to switch back to Classic), I can watch Video podcasts from around the world, etc. The battery last longer that I thought possible with music (more than a day) and with video anywhere between 8 and 11 hours.

This is not a device for everybody, there is a steep learning curve. Archos should have charged a little more for the device and avoid customer frustration for lack of CODECs that sooner or later we were going to realize that we need. A stylus should have been included because it makes navigation easier. If you like tinkering you will learn to love it, if you don't, my best advice is to look for another device.

I think that for the price it is an excellent purchase, it cost as much as my Zune did when new and does a lot more, although the Zune is more straightforward and easier to use, with a very quick learning curve.

Please keep in mind that this is just my opinion, if you think that this device is not worth your time it is OK with me, I am not trying to say to those that did not like the Archos IMT (5 or 7) that they are wrong, you probably had a valid point if in your review you trashed it. Maybe a better purchase for a lot of people would be a Netbook and I am not going to argue against that (price is about the same but for media applications but I prefer the virtual keyboard for a player that I am going to use in my car most of the time).

I hope I didn't get too confusing and hope I helped those on the fence of a buying decision for good or bad.

P.S. with the help of [...], I installed hacked firmware and have more plug-ins than needed and was able to replace the hard drive with a 500 Gb (the A7 IMT came in 2 sizes, 160 and 320) so now, with their help, I made a good device become better.

Great video player with a few quirks
The reviews you read about this product are all over the map! Some people claim they have had such bad experiences with this product that they sound as if this device is sabotaging their entire life, while others love it.

I think it depends on what your expectations are when you buy the product. I bought the product for primarily one reason, to watch movies while I am traveling. For the most part, it does that task very well.

The firmware version I am running now is the latest, version 1.7.11 . For me it has been totally stable. The only issues I ever had before was that fairly often the device would totally lock up when playing movies. This was with DVD vob files, mpeg 2, mpeg 4, XVID or H.264 encoded movies. Since the last firmware update back in November, I have not had a single lockup (around 4-5 months).

The only issue that I have with playing videos is that the fast forward, rewind function is way too choppy and not very precise. And grabbing the scroll button and trying to drag the video back a little bit is like a random event. Sometimes I will miss what someone said and I want to roll it back 10-30 seconds or so. I have found that I cannot get it to be consistent. Sometimes I can get it to go back 10 seconds with a quick tap, sometimes it goes back 5 minutes. Very frustrating. But hey, just watch the movie right?!

The music player works fine with the exception of the same fast forward / rewind issues. I don't know what else there is too say, select your song and it plays just fine.

The touchscreen sucks, plain and simple. To do anything precise, use a stylus. As far as typing, it is a joke. But for me, I just need to tap Video, and select my movie and it plays! Do not buy this device if you need to type very much! There ABSOLUTELY NO COMPARISION TO THE APPLE ITOUCH SCREEN! The Archos touch screen works basically exactly like the one does on your bank ATM or the credit card swiper machine at you local store.

I used the internet with my wireless for a few minutes and decided that with the touchscreen, this was useless to me.

The photo viewing is very nice, and I put every photo that I have on this device and have used it quite a bit to view my picture and share them with others.

The flash games are a joke, don't even waste your time unless you think cheesy cell phone games are really fun. If you do, then you will probably think these are great.

I went through a STEEP learning curve about video encoding from DVD's to get great video on this device. This was true with my Apple Ipod touch as well.

I don't want this review to sound negative, like I said, it depends on what you are buying the device for.

For me, I bought the device to watch movies on, because the Ipod Touch screen was too small for me to comfortably watch. In this regard, the Archos has been great. There was and still is no other device on the market that does what this will do for video.

I will give a long serious look to the Apple Ipad (Ipad?, hate the name) after they come out. Maybe get the second generation. Other than that, nothing compares for watching videos. For anything else......Get an Apple!

I just Love it
One of the best gift for my boyfriend. Because my work, I have to travel a lot and I'll never go out whitout my archos, I can see my series, checkout my messages, I'll recommended a lot...

Don't bother with the GPS
This was my second Archos product and my last one ever!!! I bought all of the plug-ins for my Archos 5 250GB unit and even the GPS. The GPS car mount broke after only about a week of being in my car. I had to send my unit back to Archos (RMA) as I kept getting "Closed GPS Conection - check Hardware settings". Even after getting my archos back, I had to re-install everything (as they deleted all of my music, videos, plug-ins and even the default background images) including the GPS software. Even after all that, the P.O.S still doesn't work. My piece of advice, get an Ipod instead, or at lease save your money.

blows the ipod touch out of the water
i bought this about a year ago now and it still works just as good as it did when i got it. im glad i ignored all of the bad reviews

will the problems end?
to any potential buyer. you probably want an ipod or zune. i had gotten this devise with an intent to store vast amounts of media and data that an ipod cannot hold. this was capable...but with added costs to play some of the formats. the system would crash and reboot more often than not. the battery life lied flat out. 22 hours what a joke. if you have to scroll through or surf the web and watch movies this device has a battery life of more like 4 hours. using the external speaker wont help that either. my final straw was after 2 months of hardly using the device and keeping it in my room to avoid exposure to any liquids, heat, or drops the hard drive went!!! having bought used off amazon it is not under warranty that i know of and i will be sending it to archos soon to be reviewed on repairs. i feel if the price to fix is more than i will probably just sell the device for parts and be done with the aggravation

great idea expect for those things the marketing team doesn't want to tell you up front
Basically the archos 5 is some marketing teams attempt to get you to pay extra to use the hardware you purchased. You pay for a media player, so you would expect to it to play all the major formats. Unfortunately this is the exact expectation that is used to get you to buy it and then pay extra after the fact to allow your player to actually do all they imply it can do.
It plays MP3's, but not any of more recent formats unless you want to pay to unlock those capabilities.
So if you want to play m4a, m4b, mp4, aac, ogg files, you have to pay extra. The same situation is true with video as well.

The OS the run on this is linux, so you could install a linux distro instead, except that in doing so the ability play DRM locked files is lost and you lose any of the hardware specific drivers meant to allow this device to perform well.

On the plus side, the size is ok, and the amount of storage is nice, but that's about it really.
If you want a the fully featured device the marketing info claims this to be, be prepared to pay up to 0 above the listed price to unlock all the features that you were led to believe it already had.

Wireless Wonder
Great little system. This is my second one. I had bought the white version. Works like a charm for the most part. Sometimes a few little hicups with the internet but I think it is more to do with my Clearwire internet.

I use the iPhone as the controller and it works well. Sometimes thought it freezes up or does not reconnect unless I turn off the iPhone WiFi and then turn it on again to reconnect.

Would highly recommend though. Sounds and looks grerat with huge variety of free music available. Have not managed to get the straming of itunes library working though.

Nicer than the Bose soundock
Very nice sound and volume for it's size. Can support AUX inputs and more! A bit pricey, but worth it.

Incredible
Incredibly easy to use, amazing technology. Within 20 minutes I was wirelessly controlling all the music from my computer using my iphone as a remote!

Flawless simplicity
To move on a quick rant. The ability to play legal music with minimal expense has been relegated lately to Internet radio sites or youtube like sites. I have been a long time user of Rhapsody and as a Mac user the browser interface as well as stability has been minimal. The PC stand-alone version is much more reliable. I would consider myself a rather technology savvy user but did not want the additional hassle of having a computer running constantly when using the squeezebox line of products. I wanted to be able to listen to music without a computer. I have also used things like "airfoil" the program that allows a user to stream all of their system sound to an Airport Express on their local network. A wireless headphone jack is a decent comparison. The Sonos was the last in a long line of similar technology that I have tried.

The Sonos just plain works. My current setup has this S5 hooked up to a bridged Airport Express which allows you to provide a wired LAN connected which the Sonos requires without using their proprietary Wireless Zone Bridges. Sonos ZoneBridge 100 (BR100)
Due to the fact I already had the Airport Express this saved the additional expense but provided the flexibility of placement that the ZoneBridge allows.

The sound quality is great for a small little unit. Obviously not to the same extent as a large stereo but impressive nevertheless. The streaming is absolutely astonishing, no hiccups, stalls, errors or lockups. The seamless synchronization between controllers and the units is also noteworthy. The unit can be controlled from both a Mac and PC using the included software and also can be controlled by iPod, iPhone, or iPad. Yes, they have an app for that.

Give this a chance you won't be sorry. While this isn't a Rhapsody exclusive player the ease of use and performance is second to none.

Awesome Speaker!
This speaker produces great sound. The sound is excellent for high & low-end frequencies. It is easy to set up and easy to move room to room to listen to music. One suggestion, don't get the separate controller. For what you spend on a Sonos Controller. You can buy an IPOD touch with a free app that lets you use it as a controller. That is what I do and it works great.

Touchy
I love this radio so much, but it is touchy. It just stops sometime (wireless), wired could be much better. That said, when it is working, it is wonderful. Your music, your way. Worth the effort for me.

Love this radio
This purchase is my second Logitech Squeezebox. I did quite a bit of research before purchasing and I have been VERY pleased with this radio. It has excellent sound qulaity, it is easy to use and it is feature packed. If I have ANY qualms it is that in order to use batteries for this radio, it is necessary to buy a battery pack from Logitech and they ONLY sell the battery with a remote control for which I have NO purpose. I would like to be able to use my own batteris and I would certainly like to be able to purchase batteries without also purchasing a remote. I liked it so well I am purchasing a second unit for another area in my home.

Happy with Squeezebox
I live in an area where it is hard to get off the air FM broadcast. This Squeezebox allows me to get news from Public Radio and get up in the morning by listening to the news.

Firmware bugs persist; Logitech unresponsive
I bought this product despite some of the reviews citing firmware issues, figuring that major firmware bugs would be ironed out after the initial few months.

Not so. After the 7.5.1-r9009 firmware upgrade a couple of weeks ago, the Internet Radio menu item vanishes whenever I switch to my local music server. The only way to get it back is to cycle power on the device. So yes there is a workaround but it is kind of like rebooting your computer every time you want to switch from Excel to Firefox.

If this flaw affected a tertiary feature like the ability to view Facebook photos on the device (yes it can do that!), I wouldn't care. But the ability to stream radio station feeds is core functionality; it is after all called an 'Internet Radio'. And insofar as the device doesn't have a CD player, I also regard playback from a music server as core functionality. Those two features need to work together.

Naturally, I contacted customer service. They seem familiar with the problem and said it would be fixed in the next firmware release. When might that be I asked? No set date but the updates usually come out every three months. When I pointed out that was unacceptable for a bug affecting core functionality and asked for the contact information of a decision maker, the conversation stalled. So I continue the conversation here by other means.

Say what you want about the iPhone/iPod: closed system, single app store, unclear app review process, initial lack of cut-and-paste, no support at all for Flash, etc. But you know all those things before you buy the product; unlike Logitech, Apple generally isn't destroying existing core functionality with each vendor supplied update.

Making the best of a horible situation ...
Not to be Debbie Downer here, but my 87 year old father is dying from cancer and is currently in a hospice facility. He's always loved music but has been away from his collection for some time while in and out of the hospital and re-hab facilities. I just bought him a squeeze box radio and set it up with a Pandora account with 6 stations on the preset buttons that suit his tastes in music. Once I've set it up for him I'm fairly certain in his state that he'll be able to manage the 6 preset buttons and volume control. I haven't found another solution simple enough that I think he could manage at this point. I'm hopping this can bring just a little bit of joy in to an old mans final days.

I have yet to be disappointed with a Sony product
Yet another in a long line of Sony purchases I have made. Sure you may pay a little more but you won't be disappointed. Sounds great. My only minor "cons" are the sometimes difficult to understand instruction manual and the fact that cables get connected to the woofer, not the sound bar itself so you have to keep it relatively close to your tv.

My TV sounded better!
I just ordered this item and set it up. I was really disappointed, the sound isn't nearly loud enough and my new Vizio tv speakers sounded better than the sound bar. I have a small room and didn't want a bunch of speakers and wires to deal with, so I thought this would be perfect. The sound just isn't good enough to warrant keeping it.

Very good, *if set up properly*
I purchased this on Black Friday 2009. I hooked everything up correctly [or so I thought]. One thing I was not aware of was a tendency that TVs have. What I did wrong was run my components (digital cable box, PS3, etc.) to the television and then used the digital audio out from my TV to the sub woofer. This is the incorrect way to do it and it will result in subpar performance. TVs will downgrade the signals to 2-channel [left & right]. They will only put out 5.1 surround sound through the internal tuner. Once I figured this out, I made the corrections. I ran all the components to the sub-woofer via HDMI and then HDMI to the Television. I now have very good simulated 5.1 Surround sound. The sub woofer also "hits" pretty well. I had it set too high and it rumbled my whole living room.

Not surround sound
I would rate this product a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10. It certainly is not surround sound but is better than the TV speakers (46 inch Samsung LCD LED). It's neat (no wires and speakers all over the place), reasonably good quality sound and affordable. All in all - a fair deal. But if you MUST have surround sound, then get surround sound.

Great home theater for an apartment or with limited space
I've had my Sony soundbar system for about 2 months now. I decided to pull the trigger on this purchase after researching a number of other soundbar systems from JVC, samsung, and Polk. I owned a hardcore home theater system before but since I now live in an apartment, space and placement really is a BIG issue for me. I didnt want to have to run wires all thru my room and since it is an apartment, I didnt want to spend to much money hiding wires and what-not. With that said, the Sony HTC T100 is perfect for me. The entire hook up took less than an hour and with everything being hooked up via HDMI cables (which everything uses now) it cut the wires in my cabinet down by half. The sound is very good but I did notice that when playing my satellite it doesnt get as loud as I would like but when my blu-ray is on that's when this thing really shines. The voices are very clear and I was pleasantly surprised at the bass while watching Avatar. The surround on it is a simulated surround so it doesnt give you that virtual feeling as a dedicated 5.1 system would. But for the price and for one of the only systems I found that allows hook ups via HDMI it is well worth it. Keep in mind there are only 3 HDMI ports so if you have a lot of hook ups this may not be for you, but for those of you like me, in an apartment with limited space, this is the answer to your prayers