Price Paid:  $100.00 from radioshack

Summary:
After doing tons of research and taking back my home theater in a box for the second time, I decided to opt for a seperate receiver and speakers. I came across the Advent AHT850 at radioshack for $150cdn (Reg. $500cdn). Being skeptical since I never heard of this brand, I did weeks of research only to come up with nothing but a few pictures. I tried to find specs or consumers who own this product with no luck. After checking out www.hometheaterforum.com I found a user (thanks LanceJ for your input) who used to own Advent speakers(not this model). "Yep, I used to own a pair of Advents, but I bought them waaaaay back in 1984 when International Jensen owned the Advent Corporation. Advent (along with Jensen) was bought by Recoton Inc., the audio accessory manufacturer(!) around 1995 and to my and others dismay they really messed with Advent's audio philosophy. I soon lost interest in Advent's speakers. They also soon became difficult to find & I couldn't even listen to them. FYI:last summer, Audiovox bought all the audio divisions from Recoton Inc. (Advent, Jensen, and Acoustic Research)" Well, from his opinion, I decided to go with the Advents. I check out radioshack.ca to see which store has it in stock and apparantly most stores have display models only. I find one store which has 2 in stock. I make a call and the employee tells me the box is damaged but its still brand new. This is good news to me. After buying it, I see some of the specs on the box which got me excited. Upon carrying the box, it felt twice as heavy when I bought the HTIB which included an receiver. I'm opening the box to realize its packed very nicely. I almost poked a hole in the sub as I didn't know it was facing down, which is a sealed sub too. Which really let me down though, the system does not come with speaker wall mounts. FYI, these are very expensive and for someone who's on a budget, this system isn't for you. I will later on have to make my own mounts somehow. I also had to run to the local electronics after finding out there's no wire. I spent an extra $30cdn on that. I recommend using 16 gauge for this system. After all that and setting it up without using the manual,to my dismay, this is an absolutely wonderful system. I mean, how hard is it to hook up speakers?. I can honestly say, it somewhat compares to my friends Paradigm's (retail is in the thousands)as he came over just today to check them out. Being rather surprised and then finding out how much I spent on them, he got rather angry:). They are all made of wood unlike the cheap plastic stuff in HTIB. I couldn't find any specs on this system, so I'll type them up for all you to see : Center Channel Driver Compliment:Dual 4" with .5" Tweeter Frequency Response:80Hz-20kHz /-3dB Sensitivity:92db,2.83V/1 meter Impedance:8 ohms Recommended Amplifier Power:25 to 100 Watts Finish:Black Ash Dimensions:6.00"Hx13.37"Wx6.25"D Weight:6.5lbs Satellites Driver Compliment:4" with .5" Tweeter Frequency Response:80Hz-20kHz /-3dB Sensitivity:90db,2.83V/1 meter Impedance:8 ohms Recommended Amplifier Power:25 to 90 Watts Finish:Black Ash Dimensions:9.25"Hx5.87"Wx6.25"D Weight:4lbs Subwoofer Driver Complement and Sealed Enclosure Bass Reflex 8" high-excursion woofer in a down-firingconfiguration. Frequency Response:30Hz-150Hz /-3dB Sensitivity:90db,2.83V/1 meter Amplification:Power Output:100 Watts RMS into 4Ohms Total Harmonic Distortion:10%@100 Watts output Crossover Frequency (-3dB):30Hz-150Hz Special Features:Gain-Variable Auto turn-on Finish:Black Ash Dimensions:15.63"H(incl. feet)x11.81"Wx13.00"D Weight:20lbs After watching a couple of movies, all I can say is wow. The bass is tight and mellow without being boomy. When I first turned on the test tone, the bass scared the hell out of me. Even when its set to -5 its still deep that you can feel it. The center sounds crystal clear and doesn't sound tinny as with other center channel budget systems. The satellites have an awesome midrange, which most of you know, the range the human ear hears most. My advice is go out and buy one at this remarkable price because you don't know what your missing out. It can be found at radioshack for $150cdn. Use the in-store locater to see if its in stock at your location.

Strengths:
Very high-quality system at quarter of the price Sub is AMAZING! &satellites are crystal clear

Weaknesses:
Does not come with speaker wall mounts and wire. Very dissapointing.

Similar Products Used:
Philips MX1055D