Digital Trends

Samsung HT-X710T October 3rd, 2008 | by Nick Mokey

Design and Features

The $500 price tag on Samsung’s HT-X710T system places it in the middle of the company’s home-theater-in-a-box line: It won’t take over every corner of your living room with satellite speakers and sub that will rattle the windows, but it’s no dolled-up pair of computer speakers, either. This is clearly a system for buyers just starting to stretch their legs in home audio, who place emphasis on looks and want a system that will go well with a flat-screen TV. 

The system includes five different pieces: a DVD/CD player with built-in amp, left and right stereo speakers, a shiny plastic lump of a subwoofer, and an iPod dock that tethers to the receiver with a cable.

Each tallboy-style stereo speaker gets four smaller drivers arranged in a line behind the bowed out grille, and a tweeter nestled discretely up top. Together with the sub, the entire system handles about 400 watts.

Besides playing ordinary CDs and DVDs, the receiver unit will play discs loaded with MP3, WMA, WMV and DivX files, as well as JPEGs. Although it includes no Blu-ray player (or option to add one, since it offers no HDMI input,) the included DVD player upscales video to 1080p.

Aesthetics

Since your typical A/V receiver basically amounts to a steel box with knobs on the front, Samsung has tried to shake up the typical design aesthetic with the HT-X710T. The combined disc player/receiver looks more like a multi-function printer or scanner than a receiver, with a rounded, blobby profile that can either sit up or lay down. Controls are sparse, there are no knobs to speak of, and the red LED display has been set into the top of the unit and layered over with the same translucent plastic that covers the rest of the box, making it almost disappear when off.

Unfortunately, while this configuration looks flashy on a showroom floor, we found it to be far less than practical in everyday use. If you plan to squirrel the receiver away in a typical stereo cabinet, the top-mounted display will be out of view and useless, and if you plan on standing it up so the display faces you, it becomes so tall that it fits almost nowhere in a typical home entertainment center. Bottom line: it just looks awkward, and most people will have serious problems finding a home for it around their televisions. The company does offer a wall mount, but hanging a device with half a dozen wires trailing out of it on the wall would really only make it more of a mess.

Oddly enough, the speakers fit in perfectly with your average flat-screen home cinema. Their tall, skinny profile makes them slide right in alongside a TV on a typical stand, and Samsung’s signature Touch-of-Color translucent amber material lends them a hint of class without calling too much attention to them, either. Similarly, the subwoofer is small, unobtrusive, and easy enough to hide behind a sofa or in the corner, with the proper amount of wiring.

Included Accessories

As a home-theater-in-a-box system, most buyers will expect the HT-X710T to deliver everything needed to get up and running right from the box, and it delivers on that promise. Samsung includes an analog video cable, HDMI cable, FM antenna, and all the speaker wires necessary to hook it up, meaning most flat-screen owners shouldn’t have to drop a dime on other cables. Samsung also includes an iPod dock as a movable exterior accessory (as opposed to one built directly into the receiver) which is a nice touch we don’t often see included with these systems.

Image Courtesy of Samsung