Philips WACS700 Wireless Media Center review

Music in more than one room. Philips offers its solution, but should we be grabbing our credit cards?

29 April 2006 11:54 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Philips' answer to the problem is the WACS700 Wireless Music Center that allows you to wireless stream music around your house to an remote station that you connect to the system.

The devices, which consist of a main base unit and remote stations all come with their own speakers attached making the system compact and easy to install. Before you panic that the house is also going to be covered in wires the system runs on a wireless g network and as long as you don't put the devices too far apart you can easily connect up to five stations, enough for the average house.

On board and the 40GB hard drive promises enough space for around 750 songs and you can transfer these to the Media Center either by loading up a CD into the main console and then opting the transfer mode or by connecting your PC to the player and copying across the files.

While great if you don't have a computer or internet connection (hey how are you reading this then) the system if you're lacking either does come with problems - mainly that without Gracenote support to name up your tracks you'll have to do it manually via the text based keypad.

It's at this point that many people might become disappointed. With more and more of us buying digital tracks, users might be disappointed to hear that because of DRM issues anything that you haven't transferred over to the console from an original CD can't be played. No iTunes store tracks or no Napster tracks.

When it comes to performance, the WACS700 and accompanying WAC700 remote unit aren't up to scratch either. Sound compared to most standard Hi-Fi units is lacklustre to say the least and just like any Wi-Fi network the system is reliant upon you getting a good coverage in your home.

If you live in a small London flat then you aren't going to have a problem. Set this up in your Georgian mansion in the countryside and that's another matter entirely.

Disappointing all round.

Verdict

Unfortunately compared to other offerings on the market, the Philips looses out not only in the style offering - the player looks shiny, cheap and plasticcy, but also in the performance offerings. Compared to the Sonos system for example, while The ZP 100 is some £400 more expensive, the system is infinitely better, and now that the company has just launched a cheaper alternative for you to connect to any current Hi-Fi system you have you can't help feeling that you just merely look the WACS700 by.

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Review Recap

Made by: Philips
Price as reviewed: £599, £199 for remote units
The good: Compact, can burn straight to the unit's hard drive without need for computer
The bad: Styling, no support for DRM enabled tracks, sound not great compared to what you've probably already got
Quick verdict: With MP3 players allowing you to take your music with your wherever you go, more and more people are looking to do the same in the home
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