Price Paid:  $451.00 from radioshack

Summary:
Tuner:The system comes with a am loop antenna and indoor fm, which does quit well for my setup. You can preset station in preset mode to skip surf or tune manually. CD player: 5 disc cd changer which loads from one tray. Many sound option ar available for this mode. Prologic, Surround and stereo. Disc play options include random, programed order and repeat. Tap Deck: I used it once and it''''s pretty good sound quality. There is a 9 track tape search thing so you can recall 9 songs form a tape like a cd. Connections: 2 aux inputs, 6 channel input. Sound Options: Dolby prologic, surround and stereo. With Dolby prolgic it''''s like turning any source (not radio)into a theatre like sound. Surround only uses four speakers and is impresive. The Stereo mode is a bit lacking for 200 watts. The voices seem a bit low. The super woofer alone is an atraction by itself. There is also preset sound fields and one custom. 3D AI(acoustic imaging) equalizer. Speakers: The Centre has 100, front has 100/ch(bi- amped w/superwoofer), rear has 35/ch. The manual doesn''''t recemend using different speakers though.

Strengths:
Super woofer, sound quality in prologic mode, 5 disc changer, 5 speaker package. 370 watts!!!!!!

Weaknesses:
Cds change take a little long and noisy. Stereo mode lacks in vocal area. Remote is a bit hard to master.

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood XD 500 Mini system

Price Paid:  $485.00 from Betta Electrical

Summary:
I have this connected to a Panasonic RV-41a DVD player which has built in DD decoder. I output 6 channels from the DVD into the HiFi. This is my first attempt at home cinema, but it produces a terrific sound to me. Sounds terrific at all volumes. Even at max, volume is clear. Bass is good, but no substitute for a sub-woofer. It goes very loud, but not quite wall shattering. I usually watch movies at just under max volume. CD player sounds fine as you''d expect. I also connect the audio OUT from the TV into the AUX to listen to TV/Video?Playstation thru the HiFi. Sounds good. Has an output for Subwoofer which I haven''t tried. Great value for money.

Strengths:
Price ($485 Australian), performance.

Weaknesses:
Slowness of CD changer and the fact you can''t change a CD while listening to another. Also the speaker wires are NOT clipped into the speakers, they are built in (making it harder to replace with quality wires).

Price Paid:  $340.00

Summary:
This mini system is 370 watt of pure power 5 speakers has tape recording when it is on stand-by it uses only 0.30 watts 5 cds to casettes

Strengths:
best power every 370 watts! Can't beat it's sound, value is the best.

Weaknesses:
perfect the only ploblem it could be shinyer like the SC-AK78.

Price Paid:  $340.00

Summary:
This mini system is 370 watt of pure power 5 speakers has tape recording when it is on stand-by it uses only 0.30 watts 5 cds to casettes

Strengths:
best power every 370 watts! Can't beat it's sound value is the best

Weaknesses:
perfect the only ploblem it could be shinyer like the SC-AK78