Dr Gadget - Gadget Shop - Philips WAC3500 - Wireless Music Center

	List Price: Our Price: £219.91 Your Save: £ ( % ) Availability: Manufacturer: Philips
Average Customer Rating:
Binding: Electronics Brand: Philips EAN: 8712581357702 Feature: Single CD Player Label: Philips Manufacturer: Philips Model: WAC3500D/05 Publisher: Philips Release Date: 2007-08-08 Studio: Philips
Features Single CD Player 80GB HDD for Mp3 recording and playback Wireless Design 2x40W RMS Hi-Fi sound GoGear or iPod Dock
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Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Good but could be better Comment: I bought this unit for £99. I got it because it was the same price as an ipod and was looking for a bedroom CD player. The hard drive was the main attraction. The centre only has a radio and a CD player + the HD unit. The radio is FM only. It works well but the autotune doesn't pick up everything. However,the name of the station doesn't appear in the preset list. It only appears after you've selected the station? The CD player works well and sound quality is very good. No complaints there. The centre displays the song titles etc from an onboard database. The screen is small and is about the same size and layout as an older gen ipod. But, you can't tell how long the CD is and if you only want to play certain tracks you need to create a playlist. The HD is very good and can accommodate about 1500 CDs. They are recorded in mp3 format and it takes about 15 mins for a 1 hour album. But you can't play music while ripping. Features like the dynamic bass [3 levels], smart EQ and the increadible sound mode all enhance the music. Gripes? The gracenotes database takes up a chunk of HD space. You only get about 70GB. Mine's was a year out of date. It can be upgraded by downloading via the Philips website. I did this but can't transfer it via ethernet or CD using the WADM programme that comes with the centre. I can't get the firmware to update either. The wireless is next to useless. Its intended to connect additional music stations [buy seperately]. My centres was connected to the net but it does nothing. Connected to PC it doesn't stream [i've got Vista]. Isn't picked up as a media server by my PS3 or XBOX. What it is good for is converting tapes and records inexpensively. You can record via the audio input at the back. You can then transfer to a flash drive or mp3 player{but not the other way] and import into a PC. You can only play and charge an ipod, not copy tracks. I'm annoyed about the gracenotes issue and the wireless is a waste of time. As a music centre it is very good and I guess I can't complain at the price I paid but this unit could have been so much better for little extra cost. Customer Rating: Summary: Unreliable and disappointing. Comment: If I'd reviewed this 6 months ago I would have given it 4 or 5 stars. The system was easy to set up and link to a wireless network, and transferring music to the system via the wireless network was very straightforward. I didn't experience any of the problems I've read about in other reviews. Music sounded good from CD and HDD, with no noticeable quality difference. The only gripe I had was that the system was slow to load CDs as it accessed the Gracenote database to find track information before it would start playing the CD. In theory, loading track info is a great idea, however the display is so small that you have to be very close to the player in order to see what's playing. I would have preferred a larger display. Also, something else worth knowing is that when playing CDs that have continuous play like live concerts, the system inserts gaps between the tracks. As far as I know, there's no way to avoid this. So, 6 months on and what went wrong? Well I'd connected the player a few months ago to my DVD player using the auxiliary connectors and it sounded great. I sat down to watch a film this week, turned on the hi-fi and the speakers were buzzing and the sound from the DVD was barely audible. So I connected up my iPod with the same results. Conclusion: the auxiliary connection is faulty after only 6 months and having been used only a few times. I've had connection problems with Philips products before but assumed they were more reliable these days. Obviously not. So overall, a great product when it's working. But if you want to use the iPod dock or connect a DVD player or games system, buy something else. Customer Rating: Summary: Brilliant Comment: I have never particularly liked the idea of an Ipod dock type arrangement. Great for holidays but not very impressive in a lounge or bedroom. Hi-Fi's just look right but who wants to mess about with CD's especially as more and more of your collection is digital. I love this system because you can stick your collection on and never worry again about finding your Bon Jovi CD (joking, I would never ever damage my ears listening to Mr Jovi) The ability to transfer music straight from laptop to Hi-Fi is just great as is the streaming radio. Music quality is excellent. The only minor complaint is that the display is really small but otherwise I am very chuffed with my purchase. Customer Rating: Summary: Good and easy to use Comment: I received the Wireless Music Center as a Xmas Present and I am very impressed with it. Setup is easy, wireless does require you to know a few details of your router but as I work in IT it was a breeze, for those that do not you need to make sure you have no firewall blocking connection, check ports and allow details in manual, no mac filtering, wpa code required. But to be honest you should know about these things if you run a router anyway as how do you know how secure your network is without checking settings anyway?? My media PC found the device automatically and I was able to stream music from my PC upstairs to the music center which was cool, I have yet to experience any dropped connections. What is good about this wireless center is being able to store mp3's to the hard drive, for example I can copy my music from my PC straight to the hard drive. Also being able to convert CD's to MP3 format and store on the hard drive is excellent. No more trying to hunt the CD before able to play!! USB port is good as well as you can then plug in a USB pen drive and play or copy to the hard drive. If you have a IPOD you will be in heaven as you get a docking station. There are a couple of downsides though, or features I think should of been included or could be better:- The display on the unit is quite small and unless you are up close you cannot read what the title is playing, or how long to go. Only 1 CD tray is disappointing 2 or 3 would really be cool as you could rip more into MP3's as well at the same time. Digial Radio would of been nice, and the ability to have internet streaming radio stations even better. Plus the software you install on your PC to drop and drag onto the Hi-fi will only allow you to do so if you have a wired connection, which means in my case dragging a network cable from upstairs to downstairs or moving the router. I cannot see a way where you can save streamed music from the PC over wireless to the unit. I would still recommend that you buy it though !! Customer Rating: Summary: Customer Support hopeless Comment: Bought this one - easy to set up/connect, initially - copied music from dvd well and played music superbly. Took ages to follow the directions to set up the pc to unit protocol - used the supplied disc as directed but it wouldn't work on an XP Pro PC. Finally went to the phone - somewhere in Holland perhaps. First phone call - told me to load the PCM file - turned out this would only be similar to iTunes front end - no use at all. Phoned again - the next guy told me my PC was at fault and told me it was up to me to contact my PC supplier. Not helpful. So anyway - probably a great machine, if there was an efficient support service... More Reviews
Editorial Reviews: Get the most out of your music with the WAC3500 micro-system from Philips! This high-performance stereo can save all your favourite tracks on its impressive 80 GB hard drive. The WAC3500 has an FM tuner too, and its 80-Watt RMS sound is powerful enough to fill any room with music. It is also equipped with a USB port, and it is compatible with MP3 files for reading the tracks stored on your portable player. The WAC3500 even has an iPod Dock connector, so you can play the music stored on your iPod through the system?s high-quality speakers.