how good are all in ones

[john.-h123]

i am currently looking around for a good system to go with my soon to be bought plasma screen , probably a pioneer 436-xde, my chosen systems at the moment are the Sony DARRD100 or the pioneer RCS-55 which are dvd recorder and sorround sound all in one . how good are these or similar systems i want something that matches well with my screen , that is neat and tidy and a good sound, are these systems crap really??? please any advice will be great.

[shahedz]

HI John
it really depends on you as to how good you think these systems are, in these forums your surrounded by enthusisasts varying to all degrees.
i personally hate all in one systems, i dont rate them highly at all. but then i am also the type of person who has 2 amps (one for music and one for movies) , but 3 of my friends have all in one systems and they love them, you could drop a £5,000 system in front of them but they proabably wouldnt be able to tell the difference. i would recommend that you have a demo of the all in one systems you have narrowed them down to , and a full blown seperates unit, and if you are happy with the all in one go for it, at the end of it , it has to please you. if not , and you can tell the difference between the seperates then go for the seperates, i would personally go for the seperates but then again what i go for doesnt matter to you!! i wont be listening to it, overall having seperates is easier, for instance if a DVD player goes wrong easily replaceable, in an all in one, you need to get it repaired or replace the whole unit etc, also all in one units take less space , tend to be eaiser to connect up, seperates take a lto more room need more plugs etc, all in ones tend to look neater, but in balck and white for sonic performance a seperates is better, much better. but a decent set of seperates tend to cost you more than an all in one system,

[stainway]

They are not that bad-I have got JVC THR-3 and I am very pleased .I had always Hi-end components-Sansui, but I need it something smaller and all-in one.
I guess it will be plus if the system has component out and progressive scan as the Pioneer does not (I just had look at the date sheet, maybe I am wrong).Anyway try to get a demo and listen, because sometimes they look very cool on specification and in real world they sounds like a crap.
For the JVC you can have a look here:http://www.jvc.co.uk/product.php?id=...=feature#table

If you want wall mountable speakers there is a THR-1

I've got a Denon DHT500,one of my mates has got a Bose Lifestyle and another mate has a £10,000,000 all singing all dancing separates set up(£500 per foot cable,amp,pre amp,pre pre amp etc)and you know what.....they all sound very similar.It's a bit like buying anything...theirs cheap stuff which is rubbish but if you pay a decent amount and stick to established manufacturers then you won't go far wrong.While their is no denying that the top end gear is slightly better it is hard to justify the extra cost when you compare the sound quality against a decent middle of the road unit which I believe the Denon is.

[Smiffy 2]

I went from a decent seperates system to a Denon DHT500SD "all in one". My wife could never get her head around how the seperates worked, and used to comment on the number of ugly black boxes that were beneath the television!
The Denon looked much neater sat underneath all on its own, both the missus and the kids got used to using it fairly quickly so everything should have been alright in my world. Nope! I've now gone back to seperates (abeit on a budget this time, and the component parts are silver instead!)..
The Denon was fine up to an extent. Picture quality was good, connectivity was excellent, sound quality was ok. But this is where it let itself down.
The sound quality was nowhere near as good as my seperates system.
To be fair, it had no right to be, and if I hadn't been spoilt with my previous system I would most probably not even have noticed..........but I did.
I also had a couple of little "niggles" with it, which other users have commented on, not enough to make me want to throw it out of the window, but enough to make me wary of future problems.
This is the biggest drawback with "all in ones". As others have mentioned, if you get a problem say with the amp component, you have also lost your DVD player and tuner whilst the unit is away being repaired.
As I say, I have now gone back to seperates, invested in a decent, (to my ears at least), set of surround sound speakers and am really, really pleased with the improvements all round.
I haven't spent a fortune, in fact the price of my new kit is only slightly more than a good "all in one" but I am a lot happier with it.
And if my DVD player or receiver plays up, I can at least work around it, or upgrade the item and build up the system as and when I want.
My missus still commented on how difficult it was to understand how to work it all. My solution? A "Harmony" all in one remote.
Now shut up woman, and listen to the music!
Hope that helps
Rob

[Nick_UK]

Keep the TV, change the missus