Pioneer NS-DV 55

Author's product rating:   

Picture Playback	Excellent
Sound Level	Excellent
Ease of Use	Average
Range of Features	Excellent
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Small, discreet, great sounds and visuals .  Doesn't speak Finnish
Disadvantages:	Display a bit difficult to read at a distance

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Quite right, they belong in Jumbo jets. But what if you want surround sound, DVD and all the trimmings. need your living room, bedroom, prison cell look like Jean Luc Picard's work place.

Ladeeez and gennnelmen, I proudly present the Pioneer NS DV 55 DVD player receiver. No it has nothing to do with American football.

Here we have a discreet tasteful powerful piece of electronic wizardry which will enhance, yes enhance your living space and will not disrupt you carefully fengshui'd surroundings.

item 1 a head unit the size of a 9" pizza box,with so mich more goodness packed inside.

item 2 a big subwoofer with most of the gubbins tucked inside. Not many trailing wires.

items 3 to 7, 5 (count 'em) 5 satellite speakers all tastefully matching the sub in a nice beech or black. small enough to be tasteful and can be hidden somewhat, large enough to scare the dog when Aliens is playing

item 8 a separate display like that on the popular NS hi fi

item 9 a remote the size of Rhode Island.
This is a preset/learning remote,which learns from your other remotes so you can get rid of your others. However, it doesn't speak Finnish as it won't learn my Finlux TV's controls but it does speak Dutch as it and our Philips video have bonded so well I won't be surprised if they disappear to a hotel room together.

The manual is fairly lengthy, but worth the read just so you get some idea of what it can do.

Set up is easy, various phono/coaxial connectors at the back of the head unit and custom connectors to the sub. The wires come with labels so no mistakes there. We spent more time hiding the wires to the rear speakers under the carpets than actually putting it all together so it was pretty easy.

How is it with film?
Great, quiet operation, good visuals and you can dim the display so no flashing lights. Dolby digital/5.1 DTS sound is great with a real rumble of bass. Speech, is clear too. The remote takes a bit of time to learn but lights up when touched (I remember my wife used to do that......sigh) so you can sit and fumble in the dark....steady!

CD's sound magic too, though I suspect the size of the speakers limits things, but the satellites are rated at 40w and the sub at 65 so fine for me.

A DSP means you can customize the sound to a set series of theatre, club and cinema sounds with echoes etc. The speaker volumes can be individually set so the sound can be shaped for your room.

The receiver has multo multo presets, RDS display and fm and am ariels so you can surround sound The Archers.

All in all this is a fantastic looking discreet tasteful, but useful piece of equipment.

it cost us £630 but included 2 dvd's. Compare that to a low grade DVD plus cinema amp and speakers and it looks great value as the DVD drive is high quality.
The only additional cost was a couple of IKEA speaker stands and a new beech tv video unit to stand it on. Oh, and complete redecoration of the lounge as it made everything else look shabby.

Sony do a dvd receiver too, but the speakers don't look as good and the display is a bit too garish for my tastes.

You can get this as region 2 (which we have) or multi region which is much more expensive. Finish is brushed silver for the head unit, nice glass for the separate display (which can be difficult to read at a distance)and beech/grey or black for the speakers.

I love it and ditched my old hi fi a week after I got it.