After just a few months, the CD tray began to malfunction, and playing CD's was impossible. Sent to Sony repair under warranty, paid $$$ out of pocket for shipping (ouch!). A week after I got it back, the tuner stopped working. I will soon be paying as much in shipping as it would have cost to buy a new, better, unit! Believe me, it's worth an extra few bucks to buy something better, or at least something from a manufacturer with a better warranty and better customer service! Don't be fooled by the brand name, I was.

...keep your expectations low!

For a cheap shelf system this Sony can certainly crank...BUT with an ungodly amount of distortion and resulting listener fatigue above 50% volume mainly due to the lousy speakers (typical of all shelf systems) and subwoofer. Keep in mind though that 90% of mass manufacturers like Sony, Phillips and Panasonic routinely inflate their watts-per-channel numbers to pull in the naive and uneducated consumer...Sony claims that the speakers do 125 wpc and the subwoofer 150 wpc but when you consider how quickly the sound distorts as you increase the volume, more realistic numbers would be closer to 40 wpc for the speakers and 70 wpc for the subwoofer. Still impressive compared to the shelf systems of just 10 years ago, which had no subwoofer and were barely pushing 15 watts per channel---but no comparison to what even the cheapest low-end component stereo system can do!

The subwoofer does not have its independent volume control so it does a good job as long as you stay well under 50% volume, go beyond that and it overpowers the music with its muddy boominess. At low to moderate volumes the subwoofer does a decent job, though. I ended up turning my subwoofer sideways away from the corner of the room where the shelf system sits, which did help to lessen the bucket-like boominess.

All of the above is normal at this price point, right? Well yes and no. Compared to similar offerings in this price range by Panasonic and Phillips (I won't even mention all the Walmart off-brands) this Sony more than holds its own---in fact if those were the only choices I'd take this one in a heartbeat.

HOWEVER...if you know where to look you can get a MUCH better component system for just an extra hundred bucks or so! Go to jandr dot com for entry level Onkyo or Sherwood stereo receivers under a hundred dollars, DVD/CD players like the Toshiba 3960 for fifty dollars and bookshelf speakers like the Polk R15 or JBL E20 for one hundred a pair. (As for a tape deck who on earth even uses cassettes anymore these days?) This setup by itself will already sound three times better than any all-in-one compact system costing three to four hundred dollars, even without a sub. If you must add a sub you can start with a cheap one hundred dollar Yamaha (or even better, a Dayton sub from partsexpress dot com) that will blow away this Sony's sub.

About the only justifiable reason to get any compact shelf stereo is if you are truly pressed for space and money, and if you only listen to music (not too closely) at low to moderate volumes.

With any compact system you will get a very limited range of sound-shaping options, for example this Sony only has 3 preset equalizer settings instead of allowing you to set bass and treble manually, and there is no balance control. Also because everything has to fit within a tiny little box, there is bound to be more electronic noise and interference in the signal as the miniaturized parts are crammed much closer together, which is why the sound becomes fuzzier the louder you play music, and the unit can heat up if pumped at high volumes over any extended period of time. Most importantly, there are much fewer connectivity options, meaning you can't hook up as many different things (video games, TV, VCR, PC, iPod, etc.) into the shelf system at the same time as you can into a standalone receiver...for instance with this Sony you only have one set of auxilary inputs.

So that's why I think the extra hundred or so dollars would be extremely well spent. But then again, if you absolutely cannot go over two hundred, this Sony is a very good choice in this class.

I am greatly satisfied with this system. You will not find a better one for the same price.

first of all U HAVE TO GET THIS. THIS THING IS SO FRIGGIN CRAZY THE BASS IS SO CRAZY THAT I PUT IT NEXT TO A JUNKY PANISONIC AND THE PANISONIC BROKE THATS HOW CRAZY THIS IS. THE USE OF THIS SYSTEM IS EASY. HOOK IT UP,TURN IT ON AND JAM. JUST MAKE SURE UR NEIGHBORS ARE GONE. THIS THING PUMPS AND THE GAME SYNC IS CRAZY. IT CN BE USED FOR TV TOOO! GAMES SOUND SWEET BUY IT (...)

I was so satisfied after purchasing the MHC-GX250 five months ago for my bedroom that I went out and purchased the Sony MHC-GX450 for my living room. The results have been just as great as my first system. Simple and easy to set up, it took me all five minutes to get it up and running. The bass on this thing is crazy, which is great for parties and get-togethers. If volume is what you want, you'll definitely get it from this system. The difference between this system and the MHC-GX250 is the this one comes equipped with an extra 325 watts, which becomes very evident when you want to crank it up to the next level. Surprisingly, it delivers light music just as well as it does heavy. I just turn the bass off and switch it to either 'jazz' or 'soul' mode, and I'm sleeping like a baby. Since I bought it, there haven't been any problems with the unit. This is a great system for the price and I encourage potential buyers to search no further.