Sony HTSS360 5.1 channel Home Theater System (Black)
Sony HTSS360 5.1 channel Home Theater System (Black)
- Surround sound home theater system optimized for HD
- 3 HDMI inputs with Active Intelligence
- Cosmetically compliments BRAVIA TVs and Sony BD players
- BRAVIA sync
- iPod and other sources playback, with DMPORT accessories
Take advantage of the advanced audio capabilities of Blu-ray Disc movies with this dynamic surround sound system. The HT-SS360 features a sleek, slim receiver with all you need to enjoy the dramatic sound quality you crave. A perfect complement to your Blu-ray player and advanced gaming platforms, this you’ll appreciate this system’s simplicity in set-up and connectivity. Three HDMI inputs are included for connecting HD sources with a single cable and directly accessing them through the remote c
List Price: $ 349.99
Price: [wpramaprice asin="B001VKIE5Q"]
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Sony HT-SS370 Surround Sound Home Theater System, Black
- 1000 watt, 5.1-channel surround sound system ideal for Blu-ray Disc players
- HDMI Repeater lets you connect multiple devices and send to your HDTV with just one HDMI cable
- BRAVIA Sync compatible for controlling multiple devices with one remote
- Wireless S-AIR support for adding wireless speakers with multi-room capability
- Digital media port for iPod (iPod cradle sold separately)
Complete your entertainment experience with 5.1 channels of high-quality surround sound and 1000 watts of power with the HT-SS370 surround sound system. Connect multiple HD devices using a single HDMI cable per device and turn this great system into your entertainment hub, plus operate all your compatible BRAVIA Sync devices using one remote control. Add optional S-AIR accessories and enjoy the convenience of wireless rear speakers or multi-room streaming.
List Price: $ 349.99
Price: [wpramaprice asin="B0035ER1QE"]
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Great system, with a couple exceptions,
I own a new 40″ Sony Bravia LCD that I hooked this system up to. I was very impressed with its sound and its wide range of features for the price! However, there were a couple areas that I feel need to be addressed.
PROS:
- Excellent sound, especially the Movie DCS mode which adds a ton of depth to any movie
- Easy setup
- Excellent integration with a Sony TV. I can fully control my LCD from the receiver remote after hooking up the HDMI cables.
- Full HDMI switching makes initial connection and switching between sources a snap. I can switch between cable and my PS3 with 1 button.
- Wide range of format handling, including Linear PCM.
- Wide range of sound modes.
- No color distortion issues when switching between HDMI sources. This seemed to be a problem in older models.
CONS:
- I found the bass to be a little lacking due to the fact that the subwoofer is passive. I swapped the included one out with this: Yamaha YST-SW216BL Advanced YST II Front-Firing Active Subwoofer and it brought the sound to a whole new level!
- Uses proprietary speaker wire connections. Sony makes it very hard to swap the subwoofer like I described previously because the receiver uses proprietary plugs for the speakers instead of generic speaker wire attachments. The system comes with 4 thin speaker wires with plugs to the receiver on one end, and bare wire on the other to hook up to the satellite speakers. However, the subwoofer’s is HARD WIRED, so it can’t be detached at all. What’s worse is that Sony only sells their speaker wires in packs of 5, for a whopping $55.
To use my new subwoofer, I simply found an aftermarket plug with a small length of wire on eBay, spliced it with some standard 18 gauge wire of my own and hooked it up to my new sub. Voila, it worked like a charm.
OVERALL:
Out of the box, the system is a solid 4/5. With a powered subwoofer and a little bit of handiwork to get around Sony’s greed, it can be improved to 5/5.
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|Just about perfect except for HDMI and center speaker issues,
As someone who was in the process of purchasing my first blu-ray player I was looking to upgrade my older Sony surround sound system as well. I was looking for a couple of things in a new system: One, that it had plenty of HDMI inputs and two, that it had a high-quality sound for the price point.
As for the most important item, the sound, this is a great system. People have said it is like listening to a $500-1000 system. I don’t know if it sounds as good as a $1000 system, but I would say it does sound wonderful like a $500-700 system so for the price it can’t be beat. The highs sound very clear and crisp and the bass is deep with depth without losing too much ‘punch’ or getting too ‘muddy’. The only minor issue I have with sound is that when dialogue gets loud the center speaker (on rare occasions) ‘flinches’ and has the slightest sound like feedback. It could be the case itself vibrating as I have it sitting against the T.V. base/stand so this could be the problem as well.
Out of the box the system takes a little time to set up (as does any surround system with the speakers, etc). This system looks sleek and is identical to the companion blu ray player I purchased to go with it; they have a matching black color, are matching in size and are similar in faceplate size and in overall sleek design. The receiver for this unit is about half the height and depth as my old Sony one, leaving me more space to add other components into my rack.
The speaker wires are thin and the speakers each have proprietary connections going into the receiver but it sounds so good I don’t feel any need to replace the wires so this is a moot point for me.
Once the system is arranged and the speakers all connected there is a little microphone you can plug into the back of the unit, place it in what would be the ideal listening spot in the room and using the remote you can access a little sequence of sound tests in the menu to have the unit self-calibrate itself. This is a nice feature to use to get started but I found tweaking was needed to get the best possible sound…the bass was way too loud using the self-calibration. However, in all other aspects as far as distance of the individual speakers and the volume level of each speaker, the self-calibration did very well and was pretty accurate in these areas.
The unit’s set-up and menu is all accessed by remote and uses kind of a branching mode in which to reach all of the individual settings. You have to look at the little screen on the receiver and this can be tedious but is easier once you are familiar with how to access the various areas of the menu. An on-screen menu would have been a great addition for this unit (but of course would also have raised the cost).
The HDMI connections for me were great. I have a blu ray player, a cable/satellite tuner and a 5-disc DVD upconverter/CD player all using HDMI cables for optimal performance…being able to run all 3 of those into the receiver and then running just one HDMI cable from the receiver to the HDTV cut back on the spaghetti of cables and gave me the best signal performance possible from all of my components. When you select the input on the receiver (blu ray player, cable, etc) that is what the receiver will play as far as audio and is the signal that will be sent to the HDTV as well.
However, there are two issues with this HDMI set up. First, you will not be able to use more than one component at a time. For instance, you can not listen to a CD while at the same time watch video from your cable or satellite because you will not be able to choose more than one input to play at a time UNLESS you connect them directly to each other instead of running them all through the receiver. Then you could play a CD through the receiver and play video from the cable or satellite box directly to the TV (bypassing the video around the receiver).
The second problem is that the audio and video does not always output correctly with the selection of the input on the receiver. For example, I have noticed that on occasion I may select the cable/satellite on the receiver and the audio will be there but I will not get a picture on the HDTV even though the TV is tuned to the right setting. If I turn the input on and off on the receiver or turn the TV itself on and off suddenly the picure miraculously comes on. Other times I will play a blu ray disc and I can get the picture on the TV but the audio will not be recognized or played back by the receiver (even though the picture and sound are going through the same HDMI cable) and I will have to either turn the receiver on and off or the blu ray player on and off to get the audio going. I can’t figure out any particular pattern this follows but it does happen frequently…other times it works correctly with no problems. Perhaps this would not happen if all of my equipment was Sony and the components all ‘talked’ to…
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|Great sound, good price and easy set up.,
When I recently bought a new Sony 40″ LCD TV I discovered the TV speakers were better than my old cheapie surround sound system. I then bought this Sony HTSS360. I’m a long way from an audio expert but I know good sound when I hear it and this system has it all the way from the high to the low pitched sounds. I can now hear even faint sounds/sound effects I never knew existed with my old sound system. Between the new TV and this surround sound system all my existing DVD’s are like watching all new movies. It may be a little on the subjective side but my movies appear to have better color and clarity than when the feed was direct from my DVD player. Very easy to set up and play using one remote with the Bravia Sync. In my case just two HDMI cables, sat box and DVD player, to the receiver and one HDMI out to the TV, easy.
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|Excellent companion to PS3,
Just wanted to share a few points about this product that weren’t clear to me before I purchased it.
1.) The receiver does not decode Dolby True HD or Master DTS HD. HOWEVER, the receiver accepts LPCM signals. So, if your Blu-Ray player can send an LPCM signal and it has onboard decoders for those codes (and I believe they all do), then you can still experience everything Dolby True HD and Master DTS HD has to offer. If you’re lost at this point, I’ll put it this way. If you have a PS3 and this sound system, you’re getting the full “HD” sound offered by Blu-Ray discs. Just make sure your PS3 is set to send Blu-Ray audio via LPCM, not Bitsreaming. Also, you need to connect your PS3 with HDMI to make this happen.
2.) The sound from this system is excellent. 1000 watts is plenty of power for your typical home theater. In fact, it’s more watts than most home theater systems on the market currently offer. In my experience, a good rule of thumb is “more watts the better”. This is true even you don’t plan on cranking up the volume.
3.) The rear speakers on this system are not automatically wireless. That is, this system is CAPABLE of wirelessly transmitting to the rear speakers, but in order to do this, you need to purchase a transmitter to plug into the back of the receiver and an amplifier for the rear speakers. Sony calls this system AIR. So, in case it isn’t clear, this system is only “wireless ready”. I haven’t purchased the transmitter and the amp needed, but installation looks like it would be very simple. It’s nice to have that option in the future.
The only downside to this system, as I see it, is that the remote is overly complicated. Lots of buttons and I only seem to use about 8 of them. If my home theater had more Sony BRAVIA compenents, then maybe all of the extra buttons would be of more use. Overall, however, the bad remote is definitely not a dealbraker. The positives of this system greatly outweigh this one minor negative.
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|Amazing Value!!!,
I can’t accurately express how great this product is in a few paragraphs, but I’ll try. I’ll start by saying that I already had a Blu-ray player (PS3), so I was looking for a surround system that was affordable and easy to set-up, actually sounded good, and felt like a quality product. After using the system for a few days I can tell you that it has more than accomplished these things.
I paid full retail price, which was $350, but again, I only needed a surround system by itself, no DVD or Blu-ray player, which is what the majority of systems seem to be these days with BD becoming more popular. That said I was willing to pay a little more if it was a good system. The system comes with a central speaker, two front speakers and two surround speakers to achieve 5.1 surround, which is plenty for an apartment like mine. There is also a very powerful subwoofer included as well, so when I have a home I can really pump the bass. Additionally, the power is 1000w.
Knowing a bit, but not a whole lot about surround sound setup, this system made it ridiculously easy for me to set it up and get going. Each speaker is color-coded for easy installation, which seems like a no-brainer but this is not always the case. So anyway, you plug the wires into each speaker and then into the receiver and plug in the subwoofer and you’re done with the wiring, it’s really that simple. The wires are plenty long for the two surround speakers as well, so that’s not an issue. There is also an auto-calibration microphone that comes with the system that you place where you sit when you watch TV and it does its thing in less than 30 seconds and you’re system is calibrated positionally just like that.
I’ve watched a few Blu-rays so far and the sound really is great, top-notch really. If you’ve never had a surround system before, you don’t know what you’re missing! I could never watch a movie again without it. Its a very powerful system as well, I’m waiting for my neighbors to say something soon lol (which is why there is night mode included) There are many modes you can use as well, such as Dolby Pro Logic with 5.1 support, sports, games, music etc… Sports gives you a reverberating sound as if you were at the stadium listening to the announcer, pretty cool minor stuff.
Now, there are also 3 HDMI inputs included, which is partly why this system is a little pricier than others, but it is well worth it. So I have my PS3 and DVR hooked into the receiver with one to spare. It’s nice to just switch the receiver to which one I want rather than the tv, I basically don’t need my tv remote anymore. I know there is no ipod dock included, but you can buy an $8 cable (red and white tips) and play it through that, so it’s not really worth the $100+ Sony DMP dealy.
So there you have it, a great system for the price from Sony, who comes through in the clutch once again. Ignore the reviews that say they thought this had a Blu-ray player with it, I am not reviewing Amazon, rather I am reviewing this product.
Pros: 3 HDMI inputs, great sound, sleek and compact, easy set-up, auto-calibration.
Cons: a tad pricy but the quality is there
If you don’t need a blu-ray player and you don’t want to deal with annoyingly complicated set-up, this is the system you want.
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|Good Bargian,
I bought this system yesterday. It has great, even sound and multiple sound fields for different situations (movies, games, sports, etc). I like that the speakers are small (the center channel speaker) disappears in front of my television. Also, there are 3 HDMI inputs for everything I need (Blu-Ray player, Computer, etc) and one output for the television. There are also inputs for analog and digital audio sources. One drawback is that the ‘wireless’ rear speakers are only wireless when coupled with the optional AIR EZW-T100 Wireless transmitter and the Wireless amplifier for the speakers (WAHT-SA10). This wasn’t a problem until I found that the amplifier doesn’t seem to be available anywhere. Even the SonyStyle store shows ‘out of stock’. Aside from that, this is a great-looking and sounding system for a reasonable price. As long as you don’t demand wireless rear speakers in the immediate future, I highly recommend it.
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