Essentially it's great, but the build quality is a little iffy. But, what do you expect considering it cost £90 :p
Firstly, great sound (for £90, brilliant in fact). I'm not a sound connoisseur by any means, but it sounded great to me.
Secondly, it actually looks vaguely attractive. In comparison to the system that replaced this (the logically named DS534) it's positively gorgeous.
Thirdly, the number of inputs. It costs a packet to find anything with an optical input these days - twice as much as this system did.
The only issues (and I mean only) are the remote, which is prone to breaking (apparently); and the design of the subwoofer/amp. Because it's all sort of integrated into one big box, it means that the whole thing has to be replaced if it breaks...which is what happened to me. After a year and a bit (typically, it was 2 weeks after the warranty ran out) the subwoofer started making weird sounds. So much so that it made it unusable for TV. If I could have, I would have just got myself another make of subwoofer and plugged it in... but obviously that wasn't an option. Bah. And, of course, I couldn't find another DS533 anywhere and the cost of repair would be uneconomical. *Sigh*
Anyway, I'm getting off the point. If you want a cheap system, it's really not bad. And it was copiously loud enough for me (although quite how well it'll cope as a stereo in my noisy 6th form common room I don't know. Actually I'll find out tomorrow...). There are louder systems, of course. In fact I now own one. But then again, it cost £70 more than the DS533.
I've given it 4 stars because of the annoyance of having to find a whole replacement after it went wrong. And maybe the remote, although I liked it.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Jun 11th, 2008
helpful by (100%):
