I’ve been looking for a suitable surround sound system for a while. Thankfully I got the opportunity to trial the Samsung HT-C5500.

This home theatre system consists of a blu-ray player, iPod dock and 5 speakers (Including Subwoofer)

Installing

This was pretty basic, all the cables are colour coded for easy plug in, and easily integrated with my Samsung HD LCD TV and HD DSTV PVR Decoder. I ran it all through the Samsung system so I could make use of the 5.1 Channel surround sound and have the PS3 plug in for great audio. This all sounds complicated but using the HDMI cables made everything really easy.

I never hung up any of the speakers, but I would seriously recommend that if you have an apartment, and don’t have a large TV room, I would probably opt for the system with wireless speakers. The cables are a hassle and get in the way. Also it looks like an absolute mess behind the TV with all the metres of cabling that I haven’t used.
It uses an advanced sound auto calibration that helps set up the audio, which is pretty damn cool (measuring how far, and where the speakers are in the room using a mic)

Use

What made it really great is the integration with my TV. The multi-unit remote that came with the system made it so that I could put my TV remote in the drawer, and switch on the system’s remote. I guess that’s what happens when you buy same brand devices. It also allows easy playback of DVD’s with Samsung’s Annyconnect+. For HD TV signal it’s excellent, providing more than enough power from the 1000Watts available. I watched quite a few blu-ray DVD’s and found the sound quality excellent. On a few occasions, I thought I was going to blow out the sliding door, that’s how strong the subwoofer is. This said, I struggled to find a setting (Rock, Hall, Jazz etc) that adequately rendered voice. Sometimes struggling to hear voices / talking on shows / dvd’s.

This system really does eat any media you throw at it. You can connect AUX, iPod/iPhone, External HDD, and browse through pictures, video, movies (DivX, Mp3, Jpeg etc)

Great features

The one main feature, which I wasn’t able to try due to not having WIFI, is Samsung’s ‘Internet@TV’. What is this you say? Well, using either your router, or wifi connection, allows access to the net through the system. It integrates and allows for full sharing from any device that is also connected to your WIFI network. Remember though, you have to buy the LAN adaptor separately (doesn’t come with the system) to stream over the system or use this functionality. Truly genius because it also allows you to download and customize widgets off Internet@Tv applications library, such as Twitter / Facebook that can run in conjunction with whatever other media you’re running.

Pros of the Samsung HT-C5500

Cost – Around R4000
Integration & ease of set-up
Sound & Video quality
Wifi Connectivity
Looks great (piano black finish to everything)

Cons of the Samsung HT-C5500

Anytime+ system sometimes freaks out, struggling to connect to other inputs if there is a DVD in the tray, and makes it hard to switch between DSTV, DVD, iPod etc.
Sucky that you need the Samsung LAN adapter to make use of the wifi functions of the system (which isn’t standard)
Would opt for the wireless speakers.