First and foremost SVEN Company is famous for its multimedia products. But the next guest of our editorial staff is SVEN HT-200 home theater system, which can be used successfully separately without a computer as well. It has a multichannel input, radio and is able to read MP3 files. But first things first.

SVEN HT-200 Home Theater

Opening

The glossy carton is framed with recognizable crossed blue-white strips, the device photo is represented on the face side – the item is as large as life.

Five satellites, which are in a foam plastic box, attract all eyes. Every satellite is in its separate compartment – obviously producers decided in such a way to secure speaker system against damages during transportation. We remove the top “tier” and find a central unit, operation manual, remote control and periphery.

Central unit

The main unit fulfils two functions; there is a subwoofer and the whole electronic stuffing in one housing.

Generally speaking, such a solution is ambiguous of course. On the one hand, for the competent design of a low-frequency speaker system – what the subwoofer is, the exact calculation of internal housing volume is required, to say nothing of a phase inverter length. However, the electronic stuffing occupies some space all the same, and it is possible to define the space volume only approximately – look even at the transformer radiator.

What is more, low-frequency vibrations create vibration, which can lead to the contact bounce on a board. But, taking into account that this system is the multimedia system and it is not designed to operate in very large premises, the reduction of the system for one “box” is more comfortable during its placement. Besides, the subwoofer capacity is not so great to require a strict placement in space and cause very considerable pulsations. By the way, engineers of Yamaha Company used a similar design. The whole interface is located on the rear panel.

There are two stereo inputs and 5.1 multichannel input there. Terminals to connect the speaker system, FM antenna jack and power switch are there as well. The jack for SD/MMC card and USB port is located on the side of the unit.

The display and keys to control the volume level, to set radio stations, to rewind, as well as a channel selector and mode switch, between 5.1 multichannel to 2.1 trifonic, are built in the front panel.

Satellites

The environmental acoustics is presented by five small single-sideband speakers-satellites.

Spring terminals with markings are located on the rear side of each of them.

Remote control

Practically all functions are executed with the help of a remote control. As you can see on the photo, it is possible to adjust separately the volume of every channel, adjust low and high frequencies and the subwoofer power. The selector, buttons to switch radio stations and control tracks during reading from SD/MMC card or flash memory card are located there as well.

What is there inside?

We open the central unit. Structurally the loudspeaker and the air duct of a phase inverter are diverted to different sides, at that they are located on a different height.

We extract the electronic unit...

...and examine the rear side of the board.

We turn over the board. The soldering is quite neat.

The assembly does not give rise to complaints as well.

Turning on

In the Standby mode, the display welcomes us with the time indication. It is impossible to disconnect the display entirely and some users will have to get accustomed to this, the indication is quite bright in the darkness.

When the system is turned on, the blue light emitting diode lights opposite the active mode inscription. During a radio station setting (FM band only), the LED indicator displays its frequency.

Every station can be stored in the memory.

Other functions, as MP3 files reading or playback from an external source, create no problems. The sounding can be described as smooth, but if you want to cavil at it too much, then it is slightly “flat”, after all the satellites are single-sideband. But it is not appreciably for movies – the volume created is quite perceptible. When listening to the music, the audio-frequency balance is equalized not so much for tuning of low and high frequencies, as for the subwoofer power adjustment. It is possible to obtain quite acceptable sounding even with the modest satellites.

Summing up

In fact, SVEN HT-200 speaker system is a multimedia alternative of a “home theater in one box”, i.e. everything is the “same” only without a DVD drive. Of course, DVD disks have not yet left the shelves of devoted moviegoers finally, but their time has already gone. If you want very much, you can of course connect a DVD player with the multichannel output, but it is better to do with a computer with 5.1 channel sound card. With a quite democratic price, SVEN HT-200 system enables not only to watch movies with the realistic effect, but also listen to the music with quite good sounding.