I buy this from Crutchfield in December of 2003 for $ 450 and to this day the machine itself have never malfunction on I -lrb- see below about the speaker -rrb- . since I buy this system I have move six time - 4 of which be short distance by truck , but 2 of they be via trans-pacific shipping -lrb- to China and back -rrb- . while in China I have to use a transformer due to different voltage . so this machine have really hold up ! except for the speaker . one of they start to have a bit of rattle about 4 year ago . I purchase a additional pair from eBay , so I replace the bad one , leave myself with a spare . a few month ago , another go bad . the spare replace it . but now yet another go bad . -lrb- I be begin to wonder should I just buy speaker from a different brand , or should I buy a new system ? I be inclined to the former , but I wonder if the output from this system be `` flat '' or pre-equalized like some bose system be ? -rrb- like the other recent reviewer , I use the optical input of the system a lot . I have it hook up to my plasma tv , which output digital audio via the optical toslink . it be really nice that the dav-fc7 automatically recognize the source as mono , stereo , or Dolby Surround depend on the program on tv ! all in all I have be really satisfied . if only the speaker be more robust ! -lrb- I also rate the sound quality as 4 star , but not because of the rattle problem . when the speaker function normally , the sound be very good . but I have a brother who be a audiophile so I know what really expensive speaker sound like and I must say this be just a tad below perfect sound . but for the price I can not complain . -rrb-