I recently purchased this Samsung system as a replacement to my previous Samsung system that was destroyed in a house fire. I'm no audiophile, but I do know good sound when I hear it.
Before buying this set, I had considered sound bars and other 2.1 systems (mainly Bose) as I live in an apartment and my living room isn't all that big, nor did I want the system to blow away my neighbors. I ended up with this, though for a couple of reasons:
For the money, it's a good system. It's almost identical to the last albeit with wireless rear speakers. Which is my first point. The wireless rear speakers just work. You plug in a transmitter to the back of the unit and then plug the rear speakers into a receiver unit that you plug into the wall. So the rear speakers aren't truly wireless, but they're good enough. I did buy some nice stands to put them on so that I could hide the speaker wire. The receiver box is small (about the size of a Nintendo Wii or similar) and unobtrusive. I set it next to my couch on the floor under a side table and you can't see it unless you're looking for it. Also, the couch hides the wires coming from the farthest speaker.
The speakers are good. Not great, but they'll do. They don't have any grilles on them, which is a bit annoying. They look good, but if you've got toddlers on the move or a big dog, I'd suggest wall-mounting them or putting them up on stands to get them out of the way of curious fingers and/or sharp teeth. My rear speakers exhibit a bit of fuzziness at low volumes, especially when I'm sitting right next to one of them, but turn up the volume and have a steady flow of sound, and you never hear it. I'm guessing this might be a slight loss in transmission from the transmitter to the rear receiver, but I may be wrong.
The setup for this system was incredibly easy. Samsung color-codes their speaker wires so you can't really mess it up. The only bad thing about this is that if you want new, more or better speaker wire, you're going to have to get something Samsung compatible with their connections or either do some MacGuyvering to get their connection onto your wire of choice (which may defeat the purpose of better speaker wire). The good thing about this system vs. my last one, is that the wires weren't permanently attached to the speakers so I can upgrade my speakers at any point by just unplugging the wires from these and plugging them into the back of something nicer. I doubt I'll ever need anything more, but it's an option. Back to the setup, Samsung provides a microphone for an auto setup feature and while I never could get it to pick up every speaker every time (it would miss at least one each time), it did seem to get things close enough for me.
This system works flawlessly with my Samsung 46" LCD HDTV and while I don't use the remote (I have a Logitech Harmony remote), it seemed easy enough to use and matched the remote to my TV almost button for button.
For the money, there aren't much better systems out there. Especially if you're looking for rear speakers that are wireless. It's a good starter set or a replacement to an old setup if you just want to add in the all-in-one capability of the box. Samsung HT-C650W Home Theater System
I truly love this system. I agonize over every decision and this one was no exception. I have had component systems in the past, but they never sound as good as they do in the store. I was looking for something that had a all in one type set up, so all components are matched, and looking for a price under 400.00. I checked all the reviews online and found that Cnet had the most comprehensive review and highly recommended the unit due to its quality of sound out of the box. I literally spent 15 minutes with set up including all the wiring, which is color coded on the speaker terminals and on the end of the wires, the wireless receiver and rear speakers, ipod dock, center channel, sub woofer and front speakers. Even with past systems I have owned I cannot recall a easier set up. After the 15 minutes I put in clash of the titans and was amazed. I will admit, the term "wireless rear speakers" is a bit off as you have a wireless receiver that then is wired to the speakers. So just to be clear the rear speakers are a wireless system with a wireless receiver and then short wires to the speakers. One fully set up the movie come on and I was lost in encompassing surround sound features. Especially when Hades entered the scene it felt like he was in the room as the sound moved around the 5 speakers in fluid motion. And with the smart sound feature and set up mic for room, I did not have to do any major tweaking to get the right balance between all the speaker sets. I found the DVD player to be good and equal to any upscaling player, generating 1080P output from the HDMI cable (not included). Overall I would say that especially for this price point I found the quality to be excellent. The only thing that did surprise me was how small the center channel speaker was, but one you hear the sound from it (and lets be honest it is mainly for voices), I quickly forgot its size and sat back and enjoyed the movie. Oh, one more thought, and an important one, for me, is that at low volume the sound quality and surround levels were just as accurate at medium volume and being someone whom watches movies late at night, being able to hear the dialog at low levels is imperative!!
Recently, I purchased the Samsung HT-C650 shortly after Black Friday when it was on sale for $[...]. It was an awesome price considering it has wireless rear speakers included along with the receiver and transmitter. Any wireless ready device you purchase from Sony, JVC, etc will cost anymore between $120-150 for the upgrade so based on that alone I purchased this unit.
However, in hindsight and after a weekend of tinkering with it and on the phone with Samsung Customer Support, I have decided that these units are not manufactured well.
I opened the box and set everything up and was eager to experience the new sounds, but my problems began with the initial setup and configuration. When you first turn on the system, it wants to run through a calibration, language, etc, but unfortunately the remote that was shipped was no working. All buttons on the remote worked, except for the enter key in the middle of the D-Pad. Samsung graciously is sending me another remote for free with no cost for shipping, but it will take between 7-14 days, well after Christmas. No problem, as an electronic geek, I figured I would work around it. Thankfully, I figured out the frequency the remote uses based off a Comcast Universal Remote by using setup, Ch+, power over and over until I was able to wrangle control of the unit.
The next problem I encountered was the wireless speakers would not work. The manual says to hit the remote and type 0,1,3,5 which puts the receiver into a learning mode to sync with the wireless surrounds. No problems, got through that part too.
The next stage that would be the last are the sub woofer and Digital Optical Input. Sadly, the sub woofer is single worst part of their experience. It hardly gives off any sound at all. Although it is a passive 6.5" woofer, I anticipated a lot more Oomph from that and assumed it would be similar to my former Sony Bravia system, but it was not meant to be. I even flashed the firmware on the main unit and boosted the gain by 6dB, but the subwoofer doesn't sound boomy or rumbly at all. Nothing. I can tell it is receiving a signal based on the ASC calibration test, but the gain is just terrible.
As for the Digital Optical Input, for some reason, I can not get the sound to output to the Samsung Receiver. The Reciver simply flashes the volume up and down buttons on the main unit over and over like it is waiting for something.
Sadly, this unit is going to have to go back and my search for a new home theater will have to continue anew. - Home Theater - Wireless Home Theater - Home Theater System - Samsung'
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