The worst home theater in a box, ever

What a mess!

(Credit: Gateway)

The Gateway KAS-203 home-theater-in-a-box was an exercise in poor design.

I gave it a 5 rating, the lowest CNET score I've ever "awarded" any product I've reviewed. I'll get to the best HTIBs in the next Audiophiliac.

I liked the Euro style receiver/DVD player and the powered subwoofer, but as soon as I heard the KAS-203 it sounded so bad I thought it was broken. A second KAS-203 sounded identical to the first one, so I concluded the first KAS-203 was representative of what people were buying in stores.

On paper at least Gateway's KAS series home theater systems stood out in a field crowded with chintzy, plastic designs. The KAS speaker package featured a bevy of interesting ideas and a subwoofer designed by Hsu Research, a high-value company known for its exemplary subs. The receiver/DVD player boasted the build quality and looks of a serious component, but slipshod engineering and substandard quality control resulted in the most poorly executed $699 HTIB ever.

The sound of the four 5.75 inch tall sats were bolstered by a large center speaker, 16.75 inches wide, 9 deep, and 5.25 high. Rounding out the system was a 17 inch tall, 100 watt powered subwoofer. The entire sub/sat system came in a black ash finish, definitely a step up from the standard sliver plastic HTIB fare.

The receiver delivered 40 watts to each sat and the center channel speaker-and 70 watts to the subwoofer. That's more than a little weird because the KAS 203 came with a self-powered subwoofer, and had no use for the 70 watts. Which lead me to believe this system was cobbled together from various bits and pieces.

I eventually spoke with an engineer who admitted the primary source of the problems was a lack of bass management (the sats were getting too much bass). He claimed a software upgrade was in the works, but was unsure exactly when it would be available (that never happened). Great, but how a product as unfinished as this comes to market is beyond my understanding; apparently Gateway never evaluated production samples.

The KAS 203's sound was, well, lame. CDs were muffled and "boxy," as if the sound was struggling to escape from the speakers. Treble response was way down; they were some of the dullest speakers I've ever heard. Bass went fairly low, but it was uneven. Worse there was an irritating static sound lurking in the background of my CDs and DVDs; which was eerily reminiscent of the crackly sound of a worn LP.

The receiver's cooling fan was downright noisy, I could hear it blasting from across the room!

Gateway was somewhat ahead of the curve. Lots of companies distribute products they don't actually make, they slap their brand name on the thing and send them out to dealers. I have a sneaking feeling that more and more speakers sold by name brand companies are sourced from Asian manufacturers. That's not the same thing as having their designs produced abroad, no, they just sell speakers they had no input in designing. Happens with LCD panels, Blu-ray players, iPod docks, you name it.

What's the worst performing consumer electronics product you ever bought?

[d06svt]

It's a tie for me. Candidate A is an Aiwa Shelf System I bought when I was 13. It took exactly 1 minute and 45 seconds to eject the tray, take a cd in and read it, regardless of the CD, and it could only read about 40% of my CDs, for no particular reason. Needless to say, I returned it to the store.

Candidate B was a no-name digital camera picked up at a flea market for $15. Every picture it took was either dark, extremely blurry or a combination of the two.

[EricShook]

The Boston Acoustics MM220 Computer Speakers have to be one of these "untested disasters". It's sad what passes for acceptable audio devices these days. They were absolutely bass-less (not to say they didn't vibrate). They just shook all over the desk and spewed the worst treble I've heard in a long time. Even at the sale price of $29.99 they were a grand waste of funds. They were bought to replace an old pair of Bose Media Mates -- sadly I admit the Media Mates bested them.

[woodygg]

That's what you get for buying a Gateway HTIB.

[jaguar717]

That's what you get for buying a HTIB.

Why get a proprietary, closed setup that can't be upgraded (except for a "software upgrade"--what's that doing in my audio equipment?) when you could buy modular components that can be easily swapped? All that work establishing universal standards only to render them pointless.

[MongooseProXC]

The worst product I ever owned was a Samsung DVD Player. It skipped constantly during movies. I contacted Samsung and, with good customer service, they replaced it with another malfunctioning DVD player. Once again, I contacted them and they offered to replace it one more time. It was then that my DVD player mysteriously disappeared and never was seen again. To this day, I vow to never purchase a Samsung product again.

[Rod Roddy]

Gateway makes HTIB? That's like like Jelly Belly making granades...***?

[bbreuer9]

Easy one for me. Sony SRS-P7 speakers. They are the portable kind that are driven by the source. In other words the volume output is terrible, and the sound quality of what is playing is even more terrible. Worst $8.95 I ever spent

[jjolsen]

Well as much as I hate to admit it, my iMac G5 (since installing Leopard) has been the worst performing consumer electronic device I've ever owned.

[countertorque]

How does "The worst home theater in a box, ever" rate a 5 out of 10? Why do you have ranks below 5?

[humblehifi]

And that is why you can not truly believe any internet ratings. If cNet rated it any lower you would never see another Dell add on the page.

So "Dude, you are not getting any of Dells money" sorta will buy you stars...

Sad but true.

[tsinger254]

Exactly my thought. A few weeks ago I sent an email to the Editors with the same comment about another product that received a horrible review but was given a fair rating. It simply makes no sense, and only proves that too many reviews are purely worthless.

[humblehifi]

and that was Gateway, not Dell.

haha, sorry... so I guess it is "Mooo... You arn't getting any more of our money..."

I did not even know Gateway was still around...

[planblove]

I had an Aiwa HTIB I bought about 4 years back at Target. The thing lasted 1 yr until it just decided to retire, no longer powered up. Also, I had a 1st gen PS1, it also lasted a year until it no longer worked. 3rd runner up would be my first gen XBOX 360, lasted 2 years until it got the RROD. And all of these were well taken care of, cleaned weekly and ventilated adequately.

[vvdiaz]

That's what happens when you have computer manufacturers trying to get a piece of the pie in unknown territory. Pure marketing greed! Hope Dell's Sr. Management beat the crap of the Marketing Manager which came up with the idea during one of their Sr. Management Srategic Planning meetings!

[pubmat]

vvdiaz.....how are your rythmik subs? I was interested in buying one, and i remember you had bought a couple. What do you think?

[moneyinthebizank]

My vote for worst performing consumer electronic goes to the Bose In-Ear Headphones for a collection of reasons. These phones were the very reason I began doing research on electronics before buying. "Bose," I thought. They were designed specifically to not give the ear any seal, play hella low, and are $100 and easily bested by $8-30 pairs I bought subsequently. Also adding to how annoyingly terrible these are are how many people have these in NYC. Vomit. It's stylish as hell to have these weak @$$ headphones. They were bad enough when I had them, now I have to see everyone with them :-( Further adding to that (hate hate hate!!!) is how fly the black and white cords are. Fly cords on horrible phones.