Page 1 of Sony Pascal Speaker systems. Any thoughts/owners ?

Having discussed amps before now, I am nearing my purchase. However, I am caught between two systems.
Today (20th) I went out and heard the Sony HTK 475 ,

http://www.hifibitz.co.uk/warehouse/details.aspProductID=SONHTK475

which to me, sounded pretty damned good. However, our regular guru Westy has advised me to avoid this sytem due to the overly thin and harsh sound from the pascal sat speakers. I am not one to go against the advice of any person with so much knowledge but can anyone tell me how the speakers fair in an everyday set up. I have a Sony DVP735D player and a 28" panny widescreen.
I dont really have the experience in AV to consider them tinny or not, or, to bench-mark them against other set ups.

The other system that I have been looking at is the Yamaha VS10. Sadly, I still cannot locate a dealer that has a machine to demo and if I purchase this it will be on word only. After seeing it up close, I cant help but feel that it looks um, cheap. Sorry if you own it but the MDF speaker casings look a little ropey.

Finally, the Sony system certainly future proofs itself better than the Yammy but I cant let that decide for me.However, I have to consider it as DVD, PS2, SKY, Video and TV can all go into Sony with ease.
Sadly, due to budget constraints, I have to look at one of these complete systems as I cant really fork out £500 on amp and then wait another 6 months to save money for the speakers.

Oh and I dont really need a system at something 5 billion watts!!!!

I love the subjectivity of these forums, so, can anyone advise ?

Pete.

This item was edited on Thursday, 20th December 2001, 17:20

The VS10 may sound better - but the HTK475 is definitely more upgradeable. This may not be a factor for you now, it wasn`t for me when I was first getting into home cinema, but I think this is a big factor.

The HTK475 is a proper amp which you can plug almost any proper AV speakers into, whereas the back of the VS10 actually states that you should not plug in any other speakers than those supplied - i.e. no upgrade path at all.

Have you though about getting the amp from the HTK475 - it is available separately (I can`t rememebr the model no. but I think it has 475 in it) and a cheapish speaker package from somewhere like richer sounds?

Herman

Sony got it about right with their advert for the pascals. It was the one where the bloke puts them on and all the glass in a 500 yard radius shaters. This is due to the extreem high frequences!

What Hi-Fi sound and vision say "Maybe cute but steer well clear of the Pascal, unless you don`t care about sound quality."

I hope this helps.

All the best,

Andrew.

Have you thought about the Videologic Digitheatre DTS speaker/amp package? The blck version was (Is still?) available for £250 from Comet (the identical silver version is £390!!). I bought this system a couple of weeks ago and am amazed at the sounds it makes from such small enclosures (the large sub obviously helps here!). The sats use Audax driver cones, I`d be surprised if the Sony or Yamaha systems used such high-quality units! I`m sure the real audiophiles on here will poo poo this system but I`m very very pleased with it.And you know the BEST thing? The wifey actually likes it, too! Because it doesn`t look so obviously `look at my cinema system`, if you know what I mean. For £250 it`s a complete and utter steal! Read some reviews here:

http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=digitheatre+dts&sp-a=sp010a7b03&submit.x=6&submit.y=12


LJ