Pioneer DCS-340 Review

The Pioneer DCS-340 looks somewhat more pretty than its sister, the DCS-232. Its tall tower speakers are slim and sexy, the subwoofer is more sleek than most, and the little black speakers are stylish and compact. The rather plain amp and DVD unit is the only bit that lets it down - looking more like your average run-of-the-mill DVD player than one from a £350 home cinema system.

In terms of specification, the Pioneer DCS-340 is almost identical to the DCS-232: it supports Dolby Digital, DTS and ProLogic II sound modes, and can play back a good range of media including DVD, DVD-R, DVD-RW, SVCD, VCD, CD, CD-R, CD-RW, MP3/WMA and JPEG CD. The DCS-340 also supports DivX disk playback, which is rare for units around this price range. So far, identical.

In fact, the only major difference between the two apart from the appearance is the 600W RMS Amp in the DCS-340, in comparison to the DCS-320's rather budget 360W. This should allow stronger, louder sounds and a more atmospheric viewing experience.

In terms of inputs and outputs the DCS-340 is a little low on the ground. There is no video input and the only audio input is 1 analogue co-ax, which means you're not going to be able to integrate your system easily with your PC or games console. It also only comes with one video output - a SCART one. Component video and S-video would be welcome.

Setting up the DCS-340 is very easy - there were no snags at all, and configuring it is childsplay. The performance of the unit in our tests was promising - certainly producing much better audio than the DCS-232. This is still a budget system, and the sound was not as crisp, clear or emersive as higher price systems, but for the price we were not disappointed. Video quality was equally reasonable, with only minor MPEG artefacts and otherwise very clear images. Progressive scan would have made it all the better, but there's only so much we can ask for!

Pros

Nice stylish design
Reasonable specification and support
Strong audio and video quality for the price
Easy set up
DivX disk support

Cons

Doesn't perform as well as the more costly systems (obviously)
No progressive scan
No video input

Conclusion

The Pioneer DCS-340 is very impressive for the price. It looks nice, performs well for a budget system, and supports lots of different media formats. It is still no match for a full blown, more costly system, and the addition of progressive scan would be nice, but if you're not willing to fork out for something really special then this is a solid and reliable choice.

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