Electronics Store

Solid performance. Easy to use.
Nice speaker system for our large bed room with flat screen. You can get the sound low enough for eary mornings and before sleep. You can crank it up for the Blu-ray movies also.

Great Buy
Love it, very easy to hook up and it sounds great, I am very happy with it.

I don't think this product works very well at all...
I purchased this product about a month ago in hopes to overcome the issues I was having with the inadequate speakers that came with my Plasma TV. When the product arrived I set it up via HDMI and gave it a go. I began noticing immediately that the speakers were not picking up voices or other sounds when playing movies and other media. In order to get anything out of the system I needed to crank the sound bar to the max setting and lower the sub woofer to the lowest setting. Even with this done I ended up holding the remote the entire movie turning the volume up and down as the scenes changed. It was even worse when watching an older movie on DVD where the range of volume shifting was huge and my finger was tired from pressing the control for two hours. The design of the sound bar and sub woofer do look nice and the set-up is very easy. Having a fourth remote on the coffee table was not that great. I got tired of messing around with the system since it clearly does not work much less replace the speakers on my TV... and packed it up for return. I would like to get a product like this as the design and ease of set-up use is nice. They just need it to actually provide sound loud enough for everything to come out clearly while reducing the variation in volume as scenes change.

Htc100
I use this sound bar every day I play games with it and it sounds great I got it fore cheap at amazon about 120 off original price I recommend this to all customers

Nice for a smaller room. Max sound level a bit weak.
I got this to replace the built in speakers on my 44" flatscreen. I like it a lot - nice slim design, good sound. Though I found to hear dialogue you have to play with the settings; otherwise, even at Max volume dialogue is nearly inaudible. Read other reviews about connections - I ended up not using HDMI because it forces you to use the Sony speakers but sometimes I want to use my TV speakers at lower volume.

Ok Laptop - TERRIBLE Customer Service
I have never dealt with such poor service in my entire life as I dealt with for my Sony Vaio VGN-FW. Less than six months after purchasing the computer the network connection stopped working. After two hours of dealing with Sony tech support they finally sent a technician, who replaced the network card but still didn't solve the problem. The next step was to send the computer to the Sony fix-it center where it was to be "assessed" and "processed". Then, I got the news - according to Sony the switch to the wireless card was broken in the off position, it was somehow "my fault", and it would cost 0 to replace. This was a complete and utterly false and shameful assertion on their point, especially since the only time that the wireless switch had ever been used was when the Sony tech had toggled it in her diagnostics. After two days and considerable agony dealing with the customer service center I was finally able to get Sony to agree to replace the network card with no cost. All told the experience cost me two full days of my life and a month without my computer - all to get what I should've had all along . . . a working laptop. I bought a Sony due to their reputation as a top-notch brand, but I will never make that mistake again - they were deceitful in how they approached the issue and they made every attempt to screw me along the way.

Great computer
I bought this for my fiancé 6 months ago. She loves it. Windows 7 is great, the computer is wonderful. She dropped it once and spilt soda on it, and it's still working great!! I've owned a vaio for years and mine is still working great, and I plan on buying another one.

Sleek looking laptop
From the reviews, most of them have already reviewed the technical aspects of the hardware and its performance, so I'll focus mainly on the aesthetics and user friendliness of the design.

I like the sleek black matte finish, it's definitely very stylish and is a nice alternative design-wise to the similarly stylish Mac Powerbooks in terms of looks.

The screen is a very nice size, as I watch blu-ray dvd's on it and it does not diminish the viewer experience vs watching it on the your regular TV.

My only criticism is the size and weight, for someone looking for a portable laptop, this is definitely not suited for that, but for my needs it is perfect as it is smaller than a desktop and portable, but the screen size is big enough that I don't suffer from eye strain when working.

No Way. Uh-uh. Forget it
The people who rate this machine highly haven't had it very long. I've had mine 13 months now, and feel that I can judge the quality. First the good:

Battery life (with the Centrino) is excellent. I bought the high capacity battery and routinely get close to four hours of battery life using it for office procedures.

Screen: Very good--although see the other ratings.

Durability. No. No. No. The case is extraordinarily cheap plastic, and it's falling apart. The first thing to go was the keyboard, which developed some quirks like not responding to typing a key, and a key falling off. (The key, prtsc, is definitely NOT one that gets much use. Sony sent a tech to my house and they repaired it immediately.

But.. I was in Africa as my warranty expired and two things happened. First, those cute little knobs on the right and left that are the on/off button (right) and the Power Cord socket (left) broke off. Best buy tells me that this happens all the time. Just got my repair estimate of around 0 just to replace these two injection molded plastic things. Think I'll ever buy another sony? Think again.

Just as I thought things couldn't get worse, my hard disk failed. Fortunately, I'm a conpulsive back-up person, so I'll be able to fix that myself. If I had to rely on Best buy, it'd be another 0, which is the cost of another computer. I'm not going to get another one yet, but if I did...

Never Sony Never Vaio again.

Rock solid, dependable, stylish laptop!
After using an extremely noisy desktop PC with the bazillion cables they have, I wanted to simplify my PC setup and decided a notebook was it. After seeing many laptops in person at the store and reading several reviews, I decided to go for this Sony Vaio. I was almost sold on an HP until I looked up their reliability scores! They're the worst (25.6% malfunction rate!) I've owned the Vaio 2 months now and am impressed daily with its performance and style.

Battery- I am getting somewhere near 3 hours of battery life with wireless running and full brightness on the LCD. For the size and power of this machine, that is wonderful.

Performance- It's speedy enough for me and I am more of a power user than anything else. I have many programs, files, and internet tabs open at once. I do image editing as well. Windows 7 Home is just featured-packed and perfect for my needs. The Vaio's video card runs the Sims 3 flawlessly (and I came from a 1GB video card on my desktop). Minimizing games is near instant too. Roomy hard drive, ample memory. This laptop won out against others because it can be maxed out to 8gb (once the price comes down).

Style- A++. No other laptop in this price range beat the Sony Vaio in style. It's gorgeous. I have the gray. It looks similar to a Macbook in it's minimalism and beauty. I love the "VAIO" abstract design on the top of the notebook in metal, beautiful.

Extra features- The green light near the hinge is simply a huge bonus. Not only is it eye-candy, but when you get low on battery it'll pulsate green. If you get very low, it'll pulsate orange. After a few days of using it, this becomes extremely handy! Webcam works well.

Keyboard- Roomy keyboard is extremely pleasant to type on; doesn't feel like a laptop keyboard in compactness. Very large printed letters on the keys, good for those hard-of-seeing; other laptops had extremely small letters. Volume buttons are well placed and I enjoy the "S1" special button - I use it for mute! Could have illuminated keyboard but I can live without that as my eyes hurt looking at a screen in a dark room. Touchpad is nice and buttons are easy to use.

Screen- Large, spacious, glossy screen. A lot of things look good on paper until you see them in real life. I noticed the 17-18" LCD's just got cumbersome and didn't give much more screen but sure added to the bulk and weight of the units. The Sony Vaio has the sweet spot of screens in my opinion. Brightness is good, not perfect. The glossy screen pops all the colors and I would probably never go back to matte.

Heat- Other laptops (at least the HP's and Compaqs I've owned) of the world get extremely hot - like boil your hands and lap hot! Not this laptop. The hand rest area stays cool, very impressive. The only hot spot is the fan exhaust on the left, which is understandable. I never knew laptops could be cool without a chill mat, thanks to the Sony engineers, it can be!

Speakers- Placed on top front of laptop, not under your palms like some manufacturers. Good placement but speakers could be better, kind of tinny. But you can always hook up externals. I didn't expect perfection here.

Size/Weight- Surprisingly portable and not too heavy. You can't have everything so I am happy with it.

Durability- I have only owned it two months but so far, so good. I will update any issues I have with it. But given Sony's reliability compared to HP's, Sony has a much better chance of being reliable. Asus/Toshiba/Sony have the least chance of malfunctions. See here:

[...]

USB placement- I am happy with having the 3 USB on the right, probably because I am left-handed. But imagine a world where everything is meant for right-handed people and you see my lack of sympathy, sorry. :/ I personally like all the USB in one spot. I like the headphones jack on the front of the laptop for accessibility. I suggest not buying a laptop `blind' - see it in the store first is my opinion, then buy it online if you desire to do it that way.

Card reader etc- I would have preferred the card reader on the top versus the MagicGate (which I don't use) on the top. To put an SD card in I have to tilt the laptop up - small complaint. I like the physical "wireless on/off" button.

Crapware- I only had to uninstall 1 program that was bundled with the machine: I believe it was a trial version of Norton Antivirus that was annoying.

Identical to Motif in sound
The Matinee is essentially identical to the Motif in terms of sound. There are three differences, none of which justified 0 price difference for me:

1. Matinee has last gen electrostatic panel - virtually identical in sound.
2. Matinee = vinyl finish only (matches my Sources), no stand (don't need one)
3. Matinee = paper cones (like sources), Motif (aluminum cones)

All the technical specs on the martin logan page are identical between the two.

Happy Listening!

clarity above all
I recently bought a pair of Sources and was stunned at the difference versus normal speakers. I had to complete the system, and in talking to people, they told me how important the center is. Since I had electrostats that showed me so much pleasure, I splurged and went for the Matinee so I have stats for the most important channels. What a revelation! Talking that was always hard to hear became so much clearer, I started to hear things I didn't know was there. I have also bought the Vignettes and the Abyss so am complete and in love. I am never looking back and enjoy music and movies like never before.

Simply Beautiful
I bought a Matinee to pair with my Martin Logan Puritys. It made for a seamless integration, the sound stage flows as if you are actually there. A work of art to look at and superlative to listen too, a real treat. If you want to feel like your in the movie this is the center channel for you.

Awesome
I've been a Martin Logan owner for years. Recently I decided to make the move to a complete Home Theater system and bought another set of Martin Logan speakers for the rear channel, a sub woofer and a Matinee for the center channel. Oh my goodness, what an awesome performance this speaker gives. I give this product my highest praise. Martin Logan, you've done it again!

Excellent Sub
this is the entry level subwoofer of the martin logan line. it produces crystal clear, wall rattling low frequencies at a moderately loud volume; loud enough for my wife to ask me to turn it down. :)

if i'd had more money to spend, i would have gone for one of this speaker's bigger siblings, preferably the dynamo 1000. all in all, this an excellent sub and a good value.

The Subewoofer you need...
I've listened to a lot of subwoofers. I needed a new speaker to help create basis for the type of sound system I needed for my new Onkyo 607 7.2 home theater... The Martin Logan Dynamo 500 subwoofer helped to to do just that. I was amazed at the response of this subwoofer. Whether you're listening to music or a movie soundtrack, the Dynamo 500 gives a satisfactory response to fulfill the audio experience that you need for your home theater experience. When comparing this subwoofer to others within it's class, I was treated to a bass response normally espected from subwoofers at three tiimes the cost. Lovely speaker, great price.

Slighly odd redesign and missing some features in the original Bose Wave
The sound quality is still good, but the Wave II is missing some features the original Wave had - for example:

1. Unlike the original Wave, there are no buttons on the unit - just try using the fiddly remote when you're half asleep. Impossible!

2. You can't program CD track ordering.

3. There is only one alarm. The original Wave had two alarms. Oddly enough, if you look closely with a torch, the front panel display on the Wave II has available digits to show a second alarm time, just below where the (first) alarm time is shown; the display also has alarm 1 and alarm 2 indicators as well. But the remote only has buttons to set a single alarm. Odd!

4. The original Wave, via a special key combination, would show you how much power was left in the backup battery. The Wave II doesn't do this.


Also, for UK customers, the DAB module is an ugly plastic separate box. At this price it should be built in.

plastic junk at hundreds dollar a pound
It seems that I am far from alone among those who find this plastic box doesn't work for many cds, some of which are even brand new by majors such as EMI, and all of which play perfectly in my much cheaper, Chinese made Sony cd players. After all, it is 21st century and cd player making has never been rocket science. Now this shameful 0 piece of junk even cannot get that right. Turning the box over, one finds "made in USA" on the bottom. No wonder! Such products will certainly become extinct in the near future and have no one else to blame.

sounds nice but keeps turning on by itselrf
I was very excited to finally get my own wave system. I bought the extra remote and got the ipod charger/player conncecion for free with the unit. I very much like the system overall but once in a while, it just goes on by itself. I dont know if it is possibly a neighbor using thier own remote and accidentally triggering my system or whether my system is defective. that is my only complaint however; I am very happy with the unit otherwise.

Not Worth 0 At All
After reading all sorts of wonderful things about this system, I decided to go ahead and purchase it. I was looking for superb sound quality since I love listening to smooth jazz. Unfortunately the sound quality on this unit is alright, keyword here is ALRIGHT. I paid five hundred dollars for sound I could have gotten from ten dollar computer speakers. I am not a demanding consumer at all but this unit is simply unfair. It's value is one hundred dollars at best. Please do not make my mistake, STAY AWAY.

Don't buy this product
I'm not a big audiophile - if I can hear it, it's a good system! Just wanted a reliable piece of equipment.
Spent the $$$ on Bose, but was not wowed with the sound from day 1. Wish I had used the CD player
more often so that perhaps it would have broken down while still under warranty. Just over 2 years and
it's off for a 5 repair which comes with another 1 year warranty.
Bose has been KIND enough to cover shipping costs. Buyer Beware Bose!