LG's 5.1 HB954SP Blu-ray HTIB system makes room for your iPod or iPhone

If you've somehow managed to hold out from joining into the HTIB revolution, the time for caving is upon you. LG has just tapped Sir Mark Levinson to engineer the acoustics behind its latest bundle, the HB954SP. Packing a 5.1-channel sound system that includes 1,000 total watts of power, a quintet of oval drivers and a ported subwoofer, the system gets direction from a BD-Live-enabled Blu-ray player that's actually a fair bit more stylish than the tried-and-true black rectangle. You'll also find a pair of HDMI inputs, an iDock function for charging and controlling your iPod / iPhone right from the BD deck, 1080p upscaling of traditional DVDs, touch sensitive controls, a USB port for loading up external media and an optical audio input. There's nary a mention of price, but it should splash down this November for a hefty premium.

[Richardpaulknight Posted Oct 10th 2009 8:23AM]

Fail.

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 10th 2009 8:54AM]

Thats what she said..

[(Unverified) Posted Oct 10th 2009 9:18AM]

Mark Levinson was involved, yet it still looks like an LG product... It better sound good!

[Prospero Posted Oct 10th 2009 9:35AM]

DIIIEEE!!

[Jeff Kibuule Posted Oct 10th 2009 9:42AM]

I learned the hard way not to buy a HTIB, mainly because it's missing all of the connections for components that a real A/V receiver would have. It becomes cumbersome if a TV is doing all of the A/V switching, plus it means pumping audio through an intermediary device.

Besides, I'm pretty sure it's cheaper to buy your own components too:

Sony STR-DN1000 700 Watt A/V receiver: $350 from Amazon and has bevy of inputs.
Polk PSW110 100 Watt subwoofer: $200 from Frys.com
Speakers: Some old speakers from the silly Samsung HTIB I bought

Total cost is maybe $700, but you get far better quality than you would have buying the components on your own.

[Reisa Posted Oct 10th 2009 10:22AM]

For audiophiles you're totally right. But for me -- the whole HTIB thing has been great. I just want "decent" directional sound. Getting that plus a DVD (or Blu-ray) that doesn't need any real configuration for, say $300 or less is great. Plus, so many things impact the audio in any given location. My last "real" component set-up was so expensive, and my wife would get frustrated that she couldn't figure it out. I figure this is a pretty good trade-off.

[Bort Simpson Posted Oct 10th 2009 1:47PM]

DIIIEEE!!





but i might get the Okely sunglasses to match my Nokla mobile

[gadgeek Posted Oct 10th 2009 5:22PM]

i remember the Mark Levinson name was a sign of high-end sound reproduction. Now he'll sell his name to anyone for the right price. Just looking at the components and the "1000 watts total" marketing gimmick leads me to believe this is no where near my past ML listening experiences.