My test system spent most of its time hooked up to a Sony Bravia in place of the usual LG 5.1 disc player. I quickly came to the conclusion that the Philips was producing an altogether more natural sound than the 5.1 rig even if it did lack the trick surround sound effects and rumbling bass.
Looks good, sounds great, pity there's no Blu-ray drive though
The system proved commendable as a reliable music streamer too, finding all available UPnP sources quickly and never dropping a connection once found. Philips include a copy of Twonky Media Server with an unlock code should you need it or you can access your media library as a Samba file share.
As you would expect in this day and age you can also use the MCi900 to directly access vast numbers of Internet radio stations which rather compensates for the lack of DAB radio. Sadly, you don't get access to any Internet music services such as Napster or Last.fm though.
Verdict
As a music system, the MCi900 ticks all the right boxes and if your video collection is DVD-based it makes a fine home theatre system too. Sound quality is excellent, as is the upscaled video output. My only concern is that for the price it doesn't support Blu-ray discs, lacks an iPod dock and won't play DivX video files (just discs), all features I'd like to see before I parted with a thousand notes. ®
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Philips Streamium MCi900 DVD and Wi-Fi Hi-Fi
COMMENTS
"....bundled an iPod dock instead."
What? You mean pay the Apple dock tax, whack the price up and make it useless to everyone who hasn't gone the proprietary and locked in route all at once? Not to mention the idiocy inherent in providing fairly comprehensive codec support and then tying it to a device that, er, doesn't.
Why would they want to do that? Is there a medical name for this particular insanity?
I fully agree that the lack of BD gives it the unmistakable stench of FAIL though. Not quite so much as the fact that for a shade more cash you could get a BD player, streaming meejah wossname and a surround system that'll hand its arse to it on a plate sonically does though.
All bark and no balls?
Looks like you're paying for looks and gimos over performance. If you buy serious audio equipment you don't get the main drive and tweeter pointing in different directions. Granted, if you're into hi-fi you only need 2 speakers but rolling in the widgets makes it look like it should be 5.1 at least, of for £1000 you should be looking at 7.1.
Suppose it's ok for rich folks that want to drop a thaasand-notes on something to swank off in front of their mates and have to replace in a couple of years because DVD had been replaced with blu-ray .... normal folk however will invest in audio equipment that will sound good and last for years to link up to a desktop which has easily upgradable parts. Then the lack of blu-ray wouldn't be an issue.
Another self-fellating toy for the ipad generation. All style, no substance.
Re : +2
I'd have to agree with the AC - although in more strident terms...
A stereo HiFi with a DVD player and a teeny, tiny hard-drive for £1,000 ? The sound coming out of it must be absolutely stunning to warrant a 70% appraisal surely... is it _really_ that impressive ?.. you didn't sound like it was...
Funkiness and sound quality aside
the speakers look like drinking fountains
+2
My only concern is that for the price it doesn't support Blu-ray discs, lacks an iPod dock and won't play DivX video files (just discs), all features I'd like to see before I parted with a thousand notes. (and is not a 5.1/7.1 capable theatre system)
Any news on wifi streaming from a media server/NAS? or web capabilities iPlayer skyPlayer etc... and 160GB is just plain wrong.. (do they still make them that small? must be using stock backlog) 1TB drives are £60 these days thats 6% of cost, and I dont see the other 94%.
Otherwise the speakers are nice, but not £1000 nice.
