[ Music ]
^M00:00:03
>> Hi. I'm Matthew Moskovciak, senior associate editor at CNET.com, and this is the Sony HDS-SS360. This is a 5.1 home theater system from Sony, and manufactures are calling a system like this "Blu-ray ready home theater in a box systems." That means you get the speaker package, and you get the amplifier. And all you need to do is add either a Blu-ray or a DVD player to complete the system. As you can see, the Sony has a decor-friendly design. The front speakers and surround speakers are identical. And they're all pretty small and slim, so they're not gonna really be in the way in your living room. The center channel is even smaller, and it'll fit under basically any TV, and it's really thin, so you won't have something hanging over the top of your TV shelf. Also included in the package is an on-powered subwoofer, and this handles the majority of the bass activity for the system, since the other speakers are so small. Now, if we take a look at the back panel of the receiver, you'll see that here are three HDMI inputs, which is really good at this price. And that should be enough HDMI connectivity for just about every home theater. On the downside, you won't find any analog video connections, so if you have an older device or maybe a Nintendo Wii, you're gonna have to make a separate connections from the video device to your TV and then also send the audio to the receiver. Luckily, there are plenty of audio connections, so you'll be able to connect several other devices. Now, even with the small size of this Sony system, we felt like it did a good job on movies. The bass is pretty loud, and you'll get a pretty immersive experience from the home theater system. On music, it's not quite as satisfying. The subwoofer is doing a little bit too much of the work, and if you're only using the front two speakers, they're really not up to talk for CD sound. Altogether, we thought that it's a small system that offers a lot of HDMI connectivity, and it does offer good sound on movies. But if you're looking for good music sound quality, you're gonna want to step up to a more expensive system. I'm Matthew Moskovciak, senior associate editor at CNET.com, and this is the Sony HDS-SS360.
^M00:02:04
[ Music ]
