Acoustic Solutions DS1033 > Reviews > Hear it to believe it

Author's product rating:   

Sound Quality	Excellent
Bass Quality	Good
Treble Quality	Good
Look & Design	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Posh Look, High Quality sound
Disadvantages:	Delay in charging up, cannot read LED from distance

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I bought the Acoustic Solutions DS1033 speaker system from EBay for just £65 around an year ago. When it was delivered, I could not believe the heavy weight of package.

Frankly, I did not have too many expectations for a home cinema system at this cost, but the DS1033 has impressed me a lot. Read below for the reasons!!!

Till date we had no problems what-so-ever with the system.

Dimensions:
(D)36.5, (W)20, (H)38cm.

System Setup:
The instructions are pretty simple to setup the whole system. We set the back speakers behind our sofa and the front speakers at the corners of the wall. The bass lies right in the middle of the front speakers. All the wires are colour coded so it is very simple to plug them in. You can have 3 different inputs - Optical (Used for DVD), Coaxial (spare), Aux (Used for satellite).
4 discreet 2 way satellites.
1 centre dialogue speaker.
Total power output 190 watts.

Looks:
I purchased a silver coloured system (as shown in the picture) and the presence of these speakers and stands gave a futuristic look to the room. Infact, there are no holes to drill in the walls, no clamps to be hung. The speakers and the Sub woofer have their own feet to stand on. The height-adjustable stands given another practical dimension to the DS1033. The wires are all hidden in the stands so it gives a non-cluttered look. Many of my friends have given a positive impression when they first saw the system.

Quality of Sound:
The sound is crystal clear and the DVD effects give a WOW expression. I have my SKY+ and DVD/CD player connected to it and the sound is simply awesome. The pleasure of listening of digital radio and TV channels through this system is simply superb. The bass and treble can be adjusted as per your wish. It also has a Built-in AC3 decoder.

Remote control:
Remote control is supplied with the system which is very simple and has several useful functions.

On/Off Button
Mute
Listen mode (switches to Prologic or Dolby Stereo)
Dsp (Display) Mode - All different sound effects
***Theatre, Matrix, Live, Church, Hall and Simulation***

Speakers:
There are 5 speakers and one sub-woofer. You can control and test the performance, audio level and quality of each of the speakers separately using the remote control. The woofer allows you to shutdown the whole system by switching off a button at the back.

The disadvantage about the DS1033 mainly is the time it needs to charge all the speakers. I generally have it on standby when I dont use it but when I try to activate it, the front speakers and the central speaker work instantly but the rear ones take 2 mins to start working. It dont know if this is a technical problem in my particular system or if it is a general bug. Another problem it is impossible to read the blue LED from a distance. So you have to jump out of your sofa to check what mode you have set the system on ( I know I am a lazy bum:p)

Other than that, all in all this is a great piece for its price.