Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
If you're an audio junkie and don't have loads of cash, you will not be disappointed. For such a low price (we paid around $350) I challenge anyone to find a better-sounding system on the market. Onkyo and Yamaha are probably the closest relatives, but the comparable Onkyo is a lot more expensive and the Yamaha speakers just don't have the warmth. Forget Sony and Panasonic; some of them might look pretty in a gimmicky way, but you lose badly on the sound. This is the real thing.

Strengths:
Instruments and voices all clearly defined and separated and all surround-sound imaging can be precisely customized. As great with music CDs as it is with DVDs.

Weaknesses:
Would prefer real metal mesh cover the speakers (doesn't apply to subwoofer). The silvery synthetic fabric looks nice, but will it stay that way? I worry about long-term -- but by then I will probably upgrade the speakers to NHTs or Boses.