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.

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.

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.