Building a Home Theater on a Budget

Two people used this for the same job and came away disagreeing, which turned out to be the useful part.

What separates a good product from a merely impressive one is what it does on an ordinary Tuesday, three months in, when you are tired and you just want the thing to work.

Filed under Audio & Video, which on this site means we care about the boring parts: whether it holds a connection, whether the app is still maintained a year from now, and whether anybody answers the phone when it breaks. The question is never whether a thing works in the shop. It is whether it still works in six months, on your network, alongside your other devices, without you having to think about it.

The full breakdown, including the parts that did not go well, is what the rest of this piece is for.

T

Tomasz Mieczkowski

Writes the consumer electronics beat for Drafted Tech. Everything filed here was paid for at retail, which is the whole reason this site exists.

Comments (4)

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  • O

    Owen S.

    Jan 07, 2026 03:00

    Been waiting for somebody to actually test this rather than unbox it. Bookmarked.

  • O

    Owen S.

    Jan 07, 2026 20:00

    Bought this on your recommendation two months ago and I would say the same. The app is the best part, which is a strange thing to say about hardware this expensive.

  • R

    rjm

    Jan 10, 2026 00:00

    Did you test it on mesh wifi? Mine drops every few days and support keeps telling me it is my router.

  • O

    Owen S.

    Jan 10, 2026 16:00

    The support story is what put me off. Nine months is not a warranty, it is a hobby.

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