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Koss C220 DVD/Receiver Home Theater System

Koss C220 DVD/Receiver Home Theater System

List Price: $349.99
Your Price: $199.99
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great Sound at a Great Price
Review: This Koss DVD Home Theater is everything and more for the price. It came in 2 days, only took me 30 minutes to get hooked up. The instructions were good and everything was color coded to make it even easier. The only confusing part was how to hook up cable/satellite. The remote is a bit complicated, but only due to so many features. The sound is great. I watched James Taylor Live at the Beacon Theater on DVD and scrolled through all of the sound options, like Live, Performance Hall, Stage, etc. Each option gave a whole different feel and the speakers really did perform. I am going to suggest this system to my relatives who are not big audiophiles, but want good sound for their movies etc. Overall a great deal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great product--
Review: This unit is very easy to set up and so far has worked great. The quality is much better than I expected. I live in an apartment and it sounds great in my living room. I even have to keep the woofer at half power. I suspect it is made by the same people that make oritron dvd players, as that is what my parents have and their remote is almost exactly the same, and the onscreen menus feature exactly the same graphics. It is definitly not manufactured by koss, they must outsource or license their name for it. But it still is an excellent system. I use it for the radio as well as cd playback. However every once in a while it will skip excessively with cd's, all I do is eject it, then re-insert it and it works perfectly. My friends pioneer does exactly the same thing. No, it does not have digital inputs, and it may not impress your audiophile friends, but it definitely does the trick especially for the price. I looked at several other dvd players/surround sound systems for around the same price and the quality was definitely not up to the level of this unit. I would recommend this to anyone not wanting to shell out XXX$ for a "name-brand" system.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Excellent Audio, But OSD Lacking
Review: This is my first home theater system. I read the reviews and purchased the Koss C220 with a good idea of what to expect. The audio output is excellent...the best my ears have ever listened to. The subwoofer has the capability to vibrate my hardwood floors and windows, but I rarely keep it that loud.

The cons... The on-screen display (OSD) is not very user-friendly. You just see a row of icons on the screen, and it is not obvious what they control. Scroll all the way to the right, and more mysterious icons appear. The same goes for the remote. This unit definitely has a learning curve. I think Koss (or whoever designed the system) used icons so the same unit could be shipped to any country and not have to change the OSD depending on the language spoken there. The elapsed time is displayed on the front of the unit, and cannot be displayed on the screen which is unfortunate. As others have mentioned, the unit is a bit temperamental depending on what you want to do. You must be in the DVD mode to insert or eject a DVD. To configure the audio, you have to be in DVD mode with no DVD in the drive. To set the clock on the display, you have to be tuned into one of the two A/V tuners. I have to dig out the manual every time to figure out which mode to be in and icon to press everytime I need to configure something.

The DVD player seems overly sensitive to any scratches on DVDs, CD-Rs, and CD-RWs. The DVD players on my computers have no problem reading the same CDs and DVDs. The speaker wires are plenty long for my small living room. The DVD unit is relatively heavy and barely slides into the shelf in my entertainment center. After using the C220 for 6 months, the CD tray needs a little help going in and out. Oh well, I mostly watch TV anyway. I purchased a display unit, so I don't have much money invested in it.

Overall, it is a excellent starter home theater system, and now I have a good idea what to look for when I upgrade.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Excellent For Price
Review: I got this System about 4 months ago and so far, it hasn't frozen once. It extremely easy to set up. I have watched a number of movies, and the sound quality is better than I expected. I guess thats because of all the Dolby Digital stuff on it, which is great by the way because usually Sound systems with so much dolby digital stuff on costs ALOT of money, but this was at a very good price. The only little thing that bothered me in the beginning was the noise of the fan, but you'll get used to and then won't even know it's there. If the rear speaker don't seem to working or are at a low volumewhen you listen to the radio, it's just how it is, theres nothing wrong with it, but with movies and cd's you will be able to hear it better.You can hook up Game systems to it and it WILL work fine,...Overall, the sound is excellent, the video is also excellent. This is extremely good for a beginner at Sound Systems. Buy This! It's a MUST HAVE!!!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great System for the Price
Review: I would like to comment on some items in the other reviewer's review:

"o no warranty; no address or telephone number in packing materials. Try 800/726-3801."

Mine shipped with a warranty card and contact information.

"o works only with remote control supplied; no universal remote code so now I have one more clicker to kepp track of"

That depends on the type of universal remote you have. You are correct though, most universal remotes do not have a code for Koss.

"o tiny speakers supplied with unit have a tinny sound; "

I think the sound on the unit is terrific. I certainly have no complaints.

"o If you switch from DVD to TV, DVD reverts back to start of disk. A major pain as now you have to sit through a minute plus of start-up material."

I agree, this is a major PITA. And the reason I gave it four, instead of 5 stars.

"o lacks a mute button. Oh thos enoisy commercials"

My remote has a mute button, and it works. I think you should read the manual or look for the speaker with a line through it on the remote. :-)

Overall I think this is a wonderful unit for the price. It is only slightly more than a standard DVD player. The unit also plays MP3s, and has AM and FM tuners as well. What a happy surprise that was!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: You don't even get what you pay for
Review: I bought this in early 2003. DVD drawer will only open with the remote. Now half of the remote functions won't work and there is no other way to access things. My center speaker stopped working (no dialogue). It is not the speaker. But the remote won't work when I try to change the mode to a different output. So is now useless.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Great System for the Price
Review: I would like to comment on some items in the other reviewer's review:

"o no warranty; no address or telephone number in packing materials. Try 800/726-3801."

Mine shipped with a warranty card and contact information.

"o works only with remote control supplied; no universal remote code so now I have one more clicker to kepp track of"

That depends on the type of universal remote you have. You are correct though, most universal remotes do not have a code for Koss.

"o tiny speakers supplied with unit have a tinny sound; "

I think the sound on the unit is terrific. I certainly have no complaints.

"o If you switch from DVD to TV, DVD reverts back to start of disk. A major pain as now you have to sit through a minute plus of start-up material."

I agree, this is a major PITA. And the reason I gave it four, instead of 5 stars.

"o lacks a mute button. Oh thos enoisy commercials"

My remote has a mute button, and it works. I think you should read the manual or look for the speaker with a line through it on the remote. :-)

Overall I think this is a wonderful unit for the price. It is only slightly more than a standard DVD player. The unit also plays MP3s, and has AM and FM tuners as well. What a happy surprise that was!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great System At A Low Price
Review: The C220 is our first DVD player. We decided to purchase the Koss system since we could get a complete system with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound for not a lot more than a basic DVD player would have cost.

Setup was very fast and easy, although the right and left front speaker wires could be longer. Wire for the rear surround speakers was plenty long.

The first DVD we played was "Jurassic Park III." My brother-in-law was with us for the system's premiere, as was his German shepherd. When the movie started and the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound kicked in, the dog looked around in panic and then bolted from the room! After we stopped laughing, we watched the movie. My brother-in-law noted that this was the first time he had watched a VHS tape or DVD where he could hear every word of the soundtrack. This is likely due to the C220's adjustable "Dynamic Range Control" (DRC), which acts like a variable audio compressor. On the video side, the picture quality was excellent.

Since we purchased this system just recently, I cannot comment on its long-term reliability, etc.

The sound from this system is very impressive, especially for such a low price. While the Koss C220 won't satisfy audiophiles seeking a 100% authentic theater experience in their home, it's performance will certainly delight the vast majority of people. Speaking as a 17-year veteran band director and music teacher, the Koss C220's performance gets a big "thumbs up" from me!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: waste of money
Review: This product worked well for a year. Now the dvd drive is dead. I wish I had spent more money on a better quality system. I purchased this product based on reviews on Amazon.com. $220 down the tubes.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bad Buy
Review: Junk had it for six months dvd player went down now it will not work . Look for a better one. 220.00 shot.


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