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While at the movie theater, nothing brings the story to life better than good sound. What’s better than being immersed in the sound of raindrops as they titter-tatter on an old shingle roof? Or how about when you can hear jet plane fly by and your eyes immediately travel from one corner of the screen to the other. There’s something satisfying about the movie theater experience when you can experience a movie with your eyes closed, and still know what’s going on.

I, for one, love movie theater sound. And now that home theaters are more affordable than ever, I jumped at the opportunity to buy this Emerson 5.1 home theater system. Emerson’s AV301 home theater system does not disappoint. Despite its few minor drawbacks and quirks (which will be mentioned below), you’ll feel you’re at the theater without ever leaving your front door.

Out of the Box

Out the box, this home theater comes with DVD/CD player-receiver, 5 satellite speakers (2 front, 2 surround, and 1 center), subwoofer, remote control w/batteries, AM/FM antennas, owner’s manual, and an RCA cable.

Set up

Set up is extremely easy, as all 6 speakers are color coded and correspond to a receptacle unit on the rear of the DVD player. Also, the receiver comes equipped with many input (RCA, AM/FM antenna) and output jacks (headphone, coaxial audio, S-video, component video, RCA, and active subwoofer). Unfortunately, there is no input coaxial digital audio jack; meaning if you want to enjoy the full surround sound, you have to play the DVDs off of the player provided by Emerson.

Front and Center Speakers

The size of the front and center speakers allow them to blend into your home, but don’t let their small size fool you. They pack some serious punch. All of the front speakers are capable of putting out 30 watts of sound. Though I like to watch movies with lots of volume, I still haven’t heard any garble or distortion from these front speakers. They all have places on the rear of the speaker so that they can be hung on the wall. Unfortunately, the cords are a little shorter than desired, but not too big of a problem for the front speakers. They center speaker’s cord is about 5 feet, with the right and left speakers’ being about 8 feet. They also are magnetically shielded to prevent color distortion of the TV set. Overall, if all other speakers were disconnected, these front speakers put out enough volume to be enjoyed.

Surround Speakers

These speakers, on the other hand, are somewhat disappointing. Initially I could hardly hear them, so I manually turned up the surround, or rear speakers’ volume. While Emerson claims these are also 30-watt speakers, I’ve experienced some distorted sound at high volumes. Also, the speaker cords are relatively short (roughly 12 feet), and might be too short for some living rooms. I had to splice some old speaker wire to place them in the place I wanted too. I’ve experienced if you manually turn them up a little, and not too much, then they do provide some great background sounds during movies.

Subwoofer

The 50-watt subwoofer is probably the highlight of the system. Its built-in amplifier and 5.25” driver will shake your house. The volume on the subwoofer can also be changed manually, which is a good thing because I probably woke up all my neighbors upon first using the system. It too has a short speaker cord, its only drawback. The sound from this bad boy is sweet. It practically sings with your favorite artists, yet it has the fortitude to shake the house during the crashes, thunder strikes, and sword clashes of your favorite movies.

Overall Sound

The 5 speakers and subwoofer work wonderfully together. It just may take some fine-tuning on your part. Luckily, Emerson makes it possible to change the individual volume of each speaker. It’s also possible to change the sound delay to each speaker, so you can input how far away from yourself you’ve placed each speaker.

DVD Player Functionality

The system operates smoothly as a DVD player. It includes the same functionality as most DVD players out there, a zoom feature, fast forward, slow motion, etc. The DVD player automatically detects how the disk’s sound is encoded, and either chooses Dolby Pro-Logic or Dolby Digital accordingly. This means you’ll always be hearing the best possible sound. Another bonus is the parental control feature, which makes it possible to disallow the kids to watch certain movies. Plus, those who have a high definition television can enjoy the progressive scan mode (only possible with a component video cable).

CD Player Functionality

This system works great as a CD player. Not only does it play your burned CDs, but it also plays CDs that have mp3 audio files on them. The Dolby Digital Decoder splits the stereo sound from your CD to the 6 speakers in the system, creating an artificial surround sound affect. You can manually adjust the sound to 3-stereo, DD II, stereo, stadium, stage, hall, disco, live, or rock, according to your preference. It is also programmable and has a random setting.

Remote Control

The remote control is ergonomically designed, so it feels great in your hand. You can manually input the chapter or track you would like to jump to. It also includes a while designed directional pad, which makes it easy to navigate around in the menus.

FM Radio

With the included antenna, the FM radio’s quality is respectable. It has a 40-station preset memory, making it easy to tune in your favorite stations.

Picture Disks

This is a nice added feature that makes it possible to play your Kodak picture disks on your TV screen. Additional audio input is allowed, so you can hook up your iPod or Nintendo without problems.

This is a home theater system I would definitely recommend. While it’s by no means perfect, its good design, user-friendliness, and thumping subwoofer make up for the few quirks that come along with it. If you’ve never owned a 5.1 home theater system, then this would be a great place to start.

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