Performance
Playing a CD is a piece of cake, and although ripping a CD to the hard disk is easy, it's unbearably slow, and you can't use any other feature of the system while it's ripping. Similarly, copying music from a PC over Ethernet directly on the Centre's HDD was intolerably sluggish. Although the 7500 would locate our networked computer, it would produce 'Not found' errors when trying to connect to it, though over simple home networks this is unlikely to be an issue.
We had problems on occasion getting the Station to connect to the Centre too, but once the systems played ball we found browsing content over the wireless connection extremely simple. If you're looking for a jukebox for your lounge and a media streamer for your bedroom, you won't get much more simple to use than this. When it behaves itself, that is.
On the main Centre, although on occasion a little harsh in the high end, sound quality is very clear, bright and well balanced. Bass is smooth, and not overpowering. Philips has made significant advances since the WACS7000 and the extra effort has paid off. It's no rival to a decent rack of separates and good speakers, but it's more than acceptable for an all-in-one.
Most types of music sounded fairly good, a notable favourite
being Ingrid Michaelson's terrific track Glass, which had decent
overall tones. Some drum 'n' bass from Pendulum was handled well, but
lacked that floor-shaking power the hardcore extremists will crave. The
smaller Station didn't impress with its sound, however. It's acceptable,
but it's a far cry from the often-decent sound of the main Centre.
Conclusion
The Philips Streamium WACS7500 is a costly system considering its lack of format support, small hard drive, slow performance and temperamental network functionality. It's uniquely useful as a whole package despite that, however. It's absolutely not for the audiophiles, as a Sonos system paired with a cheap home server and decent speakers will give you far better experience.
But for the average music fan who wants a multi-room streaming solution, it's very likable -- just be prepared to spend some time getting used to its quirks.
Edited by Jason Jenkins
Additional editing by Nick Hide
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User reviews2
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bmc 11 October 2011
Good: concept of music sharing and storage
Bad: freezing of both station and centre makes it impossible to enjoy.
Comment: I've had this for abouyt three years. There have always been problems such as disconnecting from computer and station freezing. Last while centre now freezes making system almost totally unusable. Don't expect any support fro Phillips as it isn't there.
OAS 30 March 2011
Good: this device has the pontal with some nice featurs
Bad: Software is absolutely pants
Comment: Where do I start, well I first bought the center and the station, within a month the station just stopped working, but the center was fine. Took the whole lot back then made the bad and very expensive decision to buy the center alone, the first year was fine no problems, then after about 15 month it started to be unresponsive, constantly getting a message on screen, (cannot read CD) whiles their is no CD in the machine and would not respond couldn't get back to the home screen nothing couldn't even turn it off, I called Philips and was told that, it is now out of warrantee, then was given an phone number to call, t arrange an repair myself, called the guy, £90 just to look at it, could be anything up to £400 to repair. Now it sits their gathering dust, £650 well spent, should of gone for Sony
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