PHILIPS The Power of One: Five Soundbar Speaker Systems

Literally a home theater in two boxes, the HTS8100 includes a subwoofer and a soundbar connected via a long proprietary cable. The subwoofer houses the amplification for its own 6.5-inch woofer and the three speakers within the soundbar. That means you don’t need a separate A/V receiver. Instead, you connect sources directly to the HTS8100. The subwoofer back panel sports AM/FM antenna jacks, two stereo analog inputs, and one coaxial digital audio input. The soundbar contains a vertically aligned DVD drive, with HDMI, component, and composite video outputs, plus one more stereo analog input, a USB port, a 3.5mm aux input, and an iPod dock connector. The HTS8100 is the only system in the test that includes both a DVD player and an iPod dock.