[davidosus]

I recently bought a Sony BDV-E470 Home Theatre System at Costco Canada online for $335.99. It hasn't arrived yet.

Sears Canada online has a Sony BDV-E370 Home Theatre System for $269.99.

The only discernible difference seems to be that the E370 is 850 Watts, the E470 1000 Watts.

What should I do?

Return the E470 and buy the E370?

 

[eljay]

The 470 appears also to upscale USB-connected input to 1080p, to offer DNLA-compatible content streaming, and to be Wi-Fi enabled. As for the wattage specs, the difference between 850 and 1,000 undefined watts (as opposed to nnn watts (RMS) per channel at nn% distortion) is probably negligible. So, in my opinion, you should go with the HTiB that offers the feature set you're most interested in.

 

[davidosus]

Thank-you for replying!

To the best of my knowledge the E470 does not come with a wireless LAN adapter. I'm looking on page 8 of the manual.

It seems the E470 model is identical to the E870 - the difference between these two is the E780 has tall surround speakers.

Is the extra wattage worth $70?

 

[ScaryBob]

In that price range, claimed power figures that high are phony when compared to real high powered amps. The fact that they are claiming more means the amp and power supply will be a little better. Any improvements in a system that cheap is probably needed. That's not to run the system down but to point out that it won't compare well to most higher priced amps that actually can deliver that much power.

 

[57]

In case you're wondering why we're skeptical about $300 HTiBs with "1000W", here's a thread you may wish to review:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=83242&highlight=Watts

There's also a link on what to look for in HTiBs/AVRs in that thread.

 

[davidosus]

I appreciate the time all of you have taken to reply. Thanks!

I've probably spent more time researching this than it's worth.

No less I've poured through the manual and looked online at Sony's support website for clues as to what the differences in these systems are.

The manual covers six different models... the E870, E570, E470, E370, T57, and T37.

Some are rated at 1000w, others 850w.

There are two base speaker sizes and two surround speaker sizes.

Two models come with an USB wireless LAN adapter.

Sony's support website offers a firmware update for each model bringing feature parity.

That's it. I see no other differences. Other than wattage each receiver seems identical to the other, regardless of what Sony's website says or doesn't say.

So it seems I have to decide if I want the larger base speaker and higher wattage of the E470 model.

 

[ScaryBob]

For the relatively small price difference, I would stick with the 1000w system. It might help to Google online reviews to see what owners of these systems think about them. If they have a significant number of reviews and one seems more reliable than the other, go with that.

 

[lex_rx]

Don't forget that Costco effectively gives you two years of warranty. Unless your credit card will do the same at Sears.

Otherwise, it seems to be a coin toss between the two. Get either one, set up, relax, and enjoy.