Home > Consumer Reviews > Philips MCD708 DVD Micro Home Theater System

Heard this at my local Costco today, where it goes for two c-notes. Beautiful looks, especially the rosewood speakers. Unfortunately the ribbon tweeters are a bit too bright when coupled with the class-D amp...I think Phillips chose this kind of tweeter mainly for the gimmicky/marketing value rather than any sort of sound-quality decision. A soft-dome tweeter would have been a much wiser move, at least for music listeners...for watching DVD the brightness is not as much of a concern.

Another indicator of just how marketing-driven this product is: the speakers do have binding posts, but the amp has the same cheap-@ss nasty spring clips found in practically all ministereos!

Pluses do abound however: lots of great connectivity options including 2 sets of RCA inputs, as well as a coaxial and optical connections if I remember correctly. And most impressively of all: it sports a subwoofer pre-out, so you can connect a decent sub (say, the Athena AS-P4000, or a Hsu STF-2 if you're in a bigger space)...the only thing I wonder about is, whether with a sub connected the receiver uses a crossover to send all the bass to the sub and leaving the main speakers to do the midrange and treble, as most modern-day receivers do (also called a High Pass Filter). Another plus is that it has a CD alarm function as well as a sleep timer, so this would make for a fairly decent bedroom system.

Still, for the price this makes for a fine clock radio, certainly would crush that ridiculous Bose Wave radio into fine dust---but then again that's not real hard to do.

For those looking for a cheap stereo for a bedroom, den, or other similar location, I can't recommend this Philips system enough!

I am really surprised at what you can get for $100. The speakers are somewhat heavy, and even have binding posts on the rear. The amplifier module is quite heavy, and looks pretty good too. The DVD player plays DVDs, cds, HDCD (though it's not advertised as such), and has progressive scan. The unit has 2 sets of speaker outputs as well as a subwoofer pre-out. There is an optical and a coaxial digital output for the DVD player.

I got it all hooked up temporarily in my living room and was really quite shocked at the sound quality. The overall sound seemed smooth with no immediately obvious faults. Bass seemed clean and relatively realistic considering the small size of the woofers. It certainly can't fill a room with deep bass, but it's impressive considering the size and cost. The midrange seemed well balanced and pleasant. The highs didn't really seem to have any detail, but like the rest of the sound, it was still pleasant. I don't expect a lot of detail with cheap speakers, but I also don't expect as smooth of a sound as what these had. There were no blatantly obvious frequency response problems, and no harshness that made it unpleasant. Of course, this was all at low volumes. They get a bit gnarly at higher volumes, but I don't think that's what a system like this is designed for anyway. These speakers certainly are not the last word in detail and overall accuracy, but understand that my glowing review is because this is a $100 system. If I paid a grand for it I'd be expecting more, but we're talking about boom-box money here, and this far exceeded my expectations at this price. I think this stereo represents a very good value even at the $250 it originally sold for, and is simply unbeatable at $100.

For the money I can't think of a better way to bring decent music into a bedroom or a den. With the DVD player, and the aux inputs, this would also be a great companion to a TV in a bedroom or spare room.

One note though... these speakers are ported at the rear, so you can't hang them on a wall. You wouldn't want to anyway though... with them close to a wall, the bass gets tubby and the lower midrange gets too thick. I have the stereo installed right next to the wall on a shelf in my bathroom, and the sound quality is really quite poor compared to when I had them about 18" from the wall in my living room.

I bought this "micro home theater system" off the J&R Music and Computer World website last week. UPS delivered it earlier today and I just set it up a couple of hours ago. The sound is much more impressive than the JVC "DVD digital theater system" (TH-S11B) that I bought from Fry's last year, paying probably $50 more than what this Philips system cost, and regretting it ever since. As soon as I received my MCD 708 I moved the JVC into my teenage daughter's room (poor kid; I hope she doesn't complain to the child welfare department). She listens to most of her music on her iPod anyway, and at least the JVC transforms her small TV into a "home theater system." The excellent "Quick Start Guide" that came bundled with the Philips MCD 708 provided clear and concise instructions to make set-up a breeze. I do wish the speaker cables were a bit longer, but that's a minor quibble considering all you get for just under a hundred bucks. I've got to agree with Eduardo's assessment: the Philips MCD708 is totally superior to that Bose Wave glorified clock radio. My dad has one of those, but I'm going to urge him to replace it with this.

I am very happy to recommend the Philips MCD708. It provides an excellent sound, it is very versatile and also very attractive. I will say that the first one I received was defective. The DVD player had a defective lens so after calling Phillips and not getting much help I called J&R Electronics and right away they designed a plan for me that allowed me to keep the player while I waited for a new one to arrive. Once it arrived I placed the defective unit in the box and mailed it back to them. J & R Electronics was great and now I enjoy a fully functioning stereo system for my living room.

I bought this unit for use as a stereo system for my bookshelf. The system fits perfectly on a shelf with easy setup. The sound is crisp and clear. The rosewood speakers look great on my shelf and the system as a whole gives the room a slight look of class. I have played multiple types of media on it including DVD and CD with multiple types of file formats (WMA, MP3, etc); all have worked superbly. The remote control is comprehensive, but not too complex. Shortcomings include: the LCD screen does not display the song titles when playing a CD, the system does not remember your position on a CD when shut off, and there are no ports for USB or memory cards (it does have 2 RCA aux plug-ins). Although I have not explored the video qaulity of this system is works wonderfully as a bookshelf stereo. For the price, I would recommend this product to anyone.