Samsung AS730 Home Theater in a Box Announced

Written on Mar 31, 2009 by Brian and filed under News, Samsung

Samsung has a press event today to unveil the latest details largely from their CES product announcements. But this new HTiB system slipped out a little early. The Samsung AS730 home theater system offers 5.1 channels (expandable to 7.1), 3 HDMI inputs and an iPod docking station. 

The Samsung AS730 will debut soon at $500, making it one of the more affordable HTiB solutions on the market, however it does lack a DVD player. Users will be able to connect a DVD player, including Blu-ray, but the receiver can’t handle the decoding of some formats, so the Blu-ray player must be able to decompress DTS-MA or Dolby+THD on its own. The receiver does decode Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro-Logic-II, Dolby Pro-Logic-IIx, Dolby Digital EX, DTS, DTS ES Discrete 6.1, DTS 96/24, and DTS Neo 6.

The 5.1 channel to 7.1 channel option is interesting, if for no other reason than most other HTiB systems don’t offer this level of upgrading or don’t promote it. The AS730 comes with 5 surround speakers, but if you move the system to a larger room for instance and want more sound, it’s a simple matter of adding two new front speakers, shifting the old fronts to the rear. In the 5.1 channel configuration, it’s a 650 watt system, 850 watts with the extra two speakers added.

One other nice touch that all HTiB systems should come with is the auto sound calibration system. The AS730 ships with a microphone that will help users calibrate the speakers by listening to a test pattern and adjusting speaker performance accordingly.