From Digital Living Today If you're looking for a high-quality home theater receiver that comes complete with everything except the kitchen sink (or rather, a monitor) look no further. Electronics powerhouse Philips offers the extraordinary MX990D. Featuring a 550-Watt Surround Sound receiver, the MX990D comes with 5 satellite speakers, a 50W subwoofer, and a separate DVD player, the Philips DVD711. Quite a bargain. What's more, all of these components are first-rate and loaded with features. The receiver offers 12 audio input connections (both digital and analog), 4 video inputs, and coax digital output for recording directly onto a CD. Thoughtful additions such as "stereo mix down" -- a feature that allows you to make a quality stereo recording from a 5.1 surround sound film soundtrack -- make the MS990D a true pleasure. The five speakers and subwoofer are custom matched to the receiver. This degree of calibration allows for special features like Philips patented Natural Surround system, which creates the illusion of phantom speakers to produce the impression of a 'wall of sound.' You'd think that since Philips was throwing in the DVD player, they'd pick their entry-level model. On the contrary, the 711 can accommodate many audio and video digital formats, including CD-Rs, CD-RWs, CDs and videodiscs. In the video department, the 711 boasts a Perfect Still feature, with a zoom control that allows you not only to freeze a frame, but to move in to look at the image more closely (very sci-fi!). All of this comes bundled with a 51-key universal remote, and, amazingly, a truly reasonable price tag.
