Sony BDVN7200W 3D Blu-ray Home Cinema System-Black

It's 4 and half stars actually - but that's not an option :-)This systems forte is it's ability to provide great surround sound *and* great reproduction for traditional stereo music - in my experience that's unusual. For this it's best to get the front speakers off the floor, they operate fine as floor standing but the difference for music (and any other source) if you get them up to say .5m above floor level is significant.For me this is a third Sony system - HT-IS100 -> HT-AS5 -> this the 7200. The AS5 is a great surround system but really cant do music justice, but its still in the family as a 'hand me down' as its such a great system..Niggles - there's been some reviews about distortion in front left/right or both speakers - I've experienced it in the front left, but it was difficult to regularly reproduce so I haven't gone down the path of warranty repair as yet. It also seems very dependant on source, free to air tv being the worst culprit. I did give the centre speaker in the left a poke (suggested to free it up in some reviews) and lately (last month or so) i really haven't heard the problem.Power - the unit claims 1200W (which of course is always marketing nonsense..) but comparing to the AS5 this unit does 'seem' less powerful - that being said this unit will run at max with absolutely no distortion and at that volume for either music or bluray, its then best to go into the backyard to listen to it :-P It's plenty powerful enough in the end but it does seem to depend on source - with on deck bluray being best - I've reverted to everything plugged into the TV and using the tv-bdv optical for return audio - I'm not sure this has made a huge difference but unsurprisingly it does tend to even out levels between different sources which is a side bonus.Music sources for this abound - but I have been a squeezebox user for a long time and was disappointed to not see it supported - but I didn't know, which I do now, that the squeezebox server can be configured to present as a DNLA server these days, so config that and it will show up in the menu bar as a dnla music server on the 7200 - nice!I have a newish Sony middle range 4K tv (KD-55X8505B), Youview, PS3, FireTV and a NAS presenting Twonky DNLA, PLEX and Squeezebox DNLA - so needing quite a few ethernet connections at tv these days :-PAll this kit plays together pretty nicely and the BDV sits nicely in the centre of it all playing audio for pretty much anything you can throw at it. Its video codec support is also pretty good too you use DNLA video sources a lot..It's iPlayer and Amazon Prime apps are solid & reliable from my experienceAll in all the sound *quality* from this all in one is the best I've ever heard - you'll have to go to separates to get better..Sadly the left front speaker distortion was intermittent and developed further and speaker has now gone in for warranty repairs.. colours my opinion I'm afraid.. :(

This arrived ahead of schedule, but I had to wait a while to install it. I made sure it worked straight out of the box, but then had to wait while our through-lounge was redecorated, which was frustrating. I had to buy it early as we ran the front speaker cables under the flooring during the decorating. The wireless part of the system is that the rear speakers are connected to the main unit vis a radio link so there are no speaker wires running round the walls to the rear, which is why I bought this particular system. Please note that there are wires from the radio link unit to the rear speakers themselves, but these are out of sight behind the sofa.It is now fully installed, and it is an excellent piece of kit. The quality is stunning, I haven't heard better. However, I sometimes have to put a bit of time in with the various EQ and Sound Field options, but it is well worth it. One thing I have found is that we can have a comfortable sound level downstairs, but when I go to bed (I go early because I have early starts for work as an HGV driver) I can't hear the sound upstairs - weird really, when we just had the TV speakers, we had to turn the sound down when I went to bed but I could still hear it in the background. Remember, this system has a sub woofer, so there is loads more bass than before, so work that one out!I have a wide range of musical genres in my collection, but am hearing things in the music which I have never heard before, and this is on recordings I have had for years and years. The detail and separation is remarkable, and the bass is almost beyond description. The bass is so clear that it seems like the bass guitarist on my Gordon Giltrap CDs is literally in the room with me - when he plays with a plectrum, I can actually hear the sound of the plectrum moving across the string ahead of the "pluck". Astounding.Downsides are that on three occasions, the radio link to the rear speakers has gone AWOL, and needed a system reset to get it working again. Secondly, for such a sophisticated digital/computer based system, the user interface is very clumsy. To make any changes, e.g. to speaker levels, I have to go via the Home page, and then navigate my way via the Settings page to the appropriate section on that page and make the adjustments. The whole system simply stops playing whatever I am watching or listening to, and there is no sound or visual until I have cycled my way back to the screen for whatever I am watching or listening to. There are no real-time adjustments, apart from the Sound Field presets, so I have no idea whether the changes are correct without cycling all the way back to the appropriate screen for what I am watching or listening to, and if not correct, I have to keep going back and forwards through this whole rigmarole several times until it is right. Very poor, Sony, and easy to achieve in software - I have a Sony Sound Editing programme on my PC which is brilliant, and does make changes in real time, so they do know how to do it.Apart from that, I am absolutely delighted with the system, and can highly recommend it