What more do you want? (Lenoxx Sound HT 600)

Member Name: bazzam

Product:	Lenoxx Sound HT 600
Date:	16/09/03 (1591 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Price - £99.00, Plays Everything i throw at it, Specification is great

Disadvantages: 1st one broke - can happen to anything, Never heard of Lenoxx Sound, No multi Region hack as yet, but there will be!

After just decorating the front room it was decided that we needed a nice new tv,dvd player and stereo to furnish it. We'd checked Comet and there was always something we didn't like in the deals they were offering, but thats a personal thing.

We'd seen the megadeals in the safeway offers pamphlet pushed through the letterbox and had a couple of times noticed a Home Cinema DVD system being offered for £149.99. This turned out to be the Lenoxx Sound HT500 (the difference will be revealed later). It seemed like a reasonable value piece of hardware but 'whose ever heard of them' were my first thoughts.

Anyway,the day arrived where i had a DVD-R to watch which my Pacific DVD player (From ASDA) just wouldn't play. I was horrified thinking that the disk was faulty. Then i wondered if the unit was faulty. This thought stayed with me a few days while i pondered what to do. I checked the 'net for Lenoxx and eventually found they were basically 'Fidelity', that company that disappeared years ago.

Typically a week or so later we ventured to our local Safeways later and after looking at the speaking to the sales guy at the entertainment section about my considered purchase, i thought i'd give it a try. Not that the sales guy sang its praises though - he said 'a few' had been returned with speaker and quality problems. I also noted that the boxed packages were a different model number than that advertised - HT600, which had a mirror finish on the front (with a display behind it) and the addition of a AM/FM Tuner. This suited me because i never use cassette anymore and thought i'd kill 2 birds with one stone a end up with a stereo and DVD player in one. Also it was in their megadeal at £129.00!

Whilst unboxing the items i noted that there was a big colour chart detailing the back of the unit and all the connections. Many BIG manufacturers dont even do this. There's quite a host of connecti
ons as well, including an input, Video in and Scart amongst others. Also all the connections and speaker terminals were colour keyed as well, and so was the wiring, and so was the terminals on the speakers themselves - definitely idiotproof! The unit itself incorporates the amplifier and so it is much heavier than standalone DVD players with the addition of a fan at the back to keep it cool. Looks nicer than it does on the box was my first thought when i saw it.

Well it's wired up and i press the power button. A blue screen with a blue planet and the words 'lenoxx sound' greet me. First things first i insert my DVD-R - It works! The picture is fine for normal viewing as you'd expect from a DVD Player. I'm no guru who can say that blacks are good and reds bleed because i'm not a reviewer for Home Video Expert, but i'd say that the picture quality will be great for most. Now the sound isn't quite the same story, you see the bass isn't a problem, its the front speakers - with your ear upto them they sound a bit too midrange and slightly raspy and distorting, but i may need to fiddle with the controls a bit so clear this up, so it could be nothing... we'll see.

Just into watching my DVD player on the second day and we notice the the volume bar from the DVD player is coming on screen for a couple of seconds and then going off. Then it does it again, but the volume has increased one digit. This happens every 10 minutes or so and before you know it you're turning the thing down again. Also on occasion It started to refuse to listen to the remote control, or rather it listened and gave me a defying hand on screen everytime i pressed a button.

After a week whilst getting into a film one night, we both agreed enough was enough and the next day it went back to safeways. As usual they just asked what was wrong, we had a bit of a joke about it and we said we'd take another.

We've had this rep
lacement for a couple of weeks now and have'nt had a problem with it. The speakers still sound a bit glitchy but like i say, they might need tweaking a bit.

SUMMARY: I must say that if i'd payed the usual £250 quid for this as you do for most other Home Cinema packages, then i'd be fuming. However, the price we paid was half that and at the moment i think they've got them up for £99.00! That is a bargain despite any flaws it might have. If you're the layman in the street that just wants a DVD Player and isn't bothered about a specific make, then for the same money you can have 6 Speakers, DVD Player, MP3 Player, VideoCD Player, JPEG Viewer and god knows what else for just £99.00. And if it goes wrong, so what!? So do Technics and Toshiba and they aren't as sympathetic as Safeways! :)

What are you all waiting for?

Bazza

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