Quantcast Philips Streamium WACS700 - Philips Streamium WACS700
ubergizmo

Philips Streamium WACS700

Posted on May 26, 06 12:14 AM PDT

Philips Streamium WACS700
The Streamium WACS700/37 digital media receiver from Philips comprises of the main Music Center and a smaller Station that comes with an AM/FM tuner, an integrated amplifier, and a set of built-in flat panel spreakers. Musical storage is achieved via a 40GB internal hard drive, while the top panel contains a slot-loading CD player/ripper. The smaller Station is a client device that streams audio from the Music Center's hard drive. Both are connected via a wireless link that is independant from any home network, with the choice of linking them to the home WiFi/Ethernet setup. It costs $1000 with the option to purchase additional units for $300 each. Support for copy-protected audio files is non-existent.

Add a comment



Your Comments

Comments will be published immediately if you use a Disqus, Facebook or Twitter account. Anonymous comments will be moderated.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Legacy Comments

By PrinceCharmingofTorquay , 28/02/08 9:19 AM (CommentID #517943)


Bought the Streamium WACS700 in 2005 - within 2 years, Philips had released the WACS7000 with glitch corrections and feature alterations and 'improvements' which is Windows Vista compatible (not sure they succeeded, although the WACS7000 has a 80GB hard-drive compared to the WACS700's 40GB).
Sadly, Philips did not create a upgraded driver program/software disc for the original stereo so it will only work on Windows XP computers.
This means that if you plan to upgrade your PC to Windows Vista, and you own a WACS700, then you are left high-and-dry.
A shame because the stereo looks good. The idea that you can edit tracks that have ripped onto the hard-drive makes up for the lack of regular CD database updates by Gracenote.
On the negative side, the stereo can mysteriously reboot itself (for no obvious reason) and lose the odd music track on the hard-drive as a result. Also with modern stereos commonly having outputs exceeding 200w, the 40w this machine provides isn't enough and idealy it needs a better amplifier and speakers.
Oh and one last thing. If you happen to have all the hardware/software/cable requirements, without compatibilty issues, you'd think linking the WACS700 to a computer would be something you could take for granted. Well I'm sorry to say that communications between the two are difficult to establish - nay, very very difficult. However, if you can get them to pair up it is worth the effort, eventually.

Ratings (as things stand):-
My product rating: 6/10.
My software rating: 2/10.

Ratings (if Philips improve amp, speakers, software and connectability issues):-
My product rating: 9/10.
My software rating: 8/10.

So as you can see. This machine needs a fair bit of developing. Sadly, I didn't see enough improvements on the WACS7000 to warrant much better ratings.

Reply | Direct Link


Featured Posts


Top Stories


Advertisement