Super Sound Sony
Written: Apr 19 '01 (Updated Apr 22 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent movie performance, in both picture and sound; small unit; DTS & DD 5.1; radio
Cons: Distortions at peak volume level.
The Bottom Line: If your after a super easy to use surround sound & DVD player system, look no further. The S300 is excellent in almost all areas.
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| MichaelHatton's Full Review: Sony DAV-S300 |
If you think a home cinema costs £1000 plus, think again. This Sony DAV-S300 includes everything you need for home cinema. When I first got this I was very impressed, the first DVD I ran of it gave sharp vibrant images, and plenty of options for DVD's. The setup for this system is easy for anyone, the plugs are colour coded and easily connect. The sound is as impressive as any micro Hi fi out there. Bass comes flooding out the subwoofer, and the mid to high frequencies are handled by the satellite speakers. Yes the Dolby 5.1 decoding is included too, and gives great atmosphere. The system can also handle CD's and VCD's. From the size of it, its impressive how they have fitted an amplifier, radio tuner, DVD player, and Dolby decoding in the tiny silver box. Hook it up to a good TV and you'll be rewarded with excellent pictures, and excellent sound. The most impressive of all is the price, this is unbelievable value. If you went out and bought the surround kit separate; speakers, amplifier, Dolby decoder, radio tuner, DVD player, sub woofer, this would add up to £1000 minimum. So take my advice and buy it, its a great starting point for the DVD age.
This is a Home cinema all in one, so what that means is you get enough equipment, which will launch you into cinema category sound and picture. What you need do is buy a TV or projector and connect it to this system, so lets go through what you get when you buy.
Sub-Woofer
This is what’s known as a low frequency sound producer, the design here is a passive type. The passive means it is powered by an external amplifier, and is a Bass Relfex type, meaning Bass frequencies come from a port at the front and also from the front of the bass woofer. The Sub woofer you’d get if you buy it is a 30w (watt) sub woofer, with a medium sized 7” (17.5cm) driver. This piece is especially important when produce the deep low down bass frequencies in music, radio and best of all movies. The ideal place to put it is beside a TV, and not too close to a corner or a wall. Placing near a corner will enhance the bass incorrectly making it over powering and far too blurred. Its frequency range is 20Hz to 200Hz.
Satellite Speakers
You get five identical speakers with the package, each incorporates a 3” (7.5cm) driver and bass reflex port at rear. These are 4 x 3.75 x 4 inches in dimension and weigh 1 lb, so they’re almost cubicula. Each produces the lowest of mid range frequencies and the highest of 20000Hz. These drivers aren’t as fussy as where to be placed but require a good place to be heard; each speaker must be placed in the right place, right/left speakers must be placed the same distance from the centre channel speaker (which must be in the middle), each of the three speakers should be in a line. The surround speakers should be equal distance from the front three and at ear level. nd are well built, and feel like I can stand on them.
The Unit
This box is amazing in size as it holds, an amplifier, radio tuner, DVD drive/CD driver, Dolby and DTS decoding chipsets. And is 2.75 x 14 x 14.5 (HxWxD) a nice square, and has, Digital outputs, Scart output, composite video output, sound outputs and Coax output, and a few others. The front fascia is a silver/chrome affair with a dot matrix pixel display behind a 1cm glass plate, and the drive is on the left near a power button, beneath the display lies a number of buttons for basic functions such as play, skip, setting and volume control. Playback has incredible detail and DVD menus are quick and easy to navigate with the remote. The remote has a flip lid, which reveals a number of settings for the volume of each speaker. And a few other buttons for picture display. Unfortunately the output through Scart isn’t RGB compatible, so the S-Video output is the best option. Build quality is excellent although the remote buttons seem out of place in areas, but not so obvious. The casework is heavily shaped and will take the hardest of knock to bend.
And apart from those you also get a scart to scart lead, and plenty and I do mean plenty of speaker wire, there’s 15 metre for the rear!
Performance
Picture
Playback from the Mask Of Zorro reveals a very colourful presentation and the speedy DVD drive is capable of retrieving information within seconds. Pictures have brilliant detail and smoothness, while the onscreen menus are easy to navigate. Move over to Toy Story 2 and the pictures give a bright colourful picture detail and a dynamic look. Animations are filled with subtle surprises and smooth delivery, and then there’s the sound.
Sound
Power, precision and detail spring to mind here, playback of The Mask of Zorro reveal a crisp delivery of the vocals while sword fights have a shiny atmosphere. Move over to cartoon adventure Toy Story 2, and bass power arrives in brilliant style and punch, while voices and sound effects mould together very well. The combination and movement of bass to midrange reveal a smooth sound, and awesome sparkle and shine. Move over to CD’s and the stereo sound is as capable as most sub £150 Hi Fi’s while the stereo imaging isn’t as precise as most Hi Fi’s; from the cinema speakers, which are designed to perform in atmosphere, which they do in style. Playing Dolby Digital DVD’s give unbelievable atmosphere and dynamic moments from front to rear and rear right to left front. Just the intro to the Dolby 5.1 screen has brilliant punch, impact and precision. While capable, it couldn’t match a full separate system, but then, that would cost twice as much. It does also play DTS which is the AMD from Intel, or the Pepsi to Coca Cola… basically the rival to Dolby and seems to be slightly more spacious.
Why I Bought It
I was out in a electrical store one day, and was just wandering around, and decided to look at the TVs. In one corner was a surround home theatre system, all connected to a 52” Sony rear projecting TV. At that time I noticed five speakers, and a s ubwoofer around the room. Jurassic Park was playing, and I was wondering what DVD player they were using. I saw a small silver box with volume control. But where’s the DVD player? There’s sound but where’s the picture coming from. SO I asked the assistant, he said that the picture was coming from the Sony DAV-S300 under the TV, and I was quite amazed, it had no external amplifier and DVD player. It was basically all in-one! I thought, now that must cost a lot since its in here. So I went ver and saw, £530! No this can’t be right, but yes it only cost £530! But I was not yet fully convinced. So when I went home I decided to research the system. At the local newsagent, I bough a magazine which I liked, What Hi Fi (UK mag), and the system was in there, first page and what was the mags score? Five star. Well I was so convinced I bought it. And now it’s mine! I love it, though I am determined to get a bigger set, I’ll keep this until then and maybe put it in my bedroom!
I thought about what to play, and have played various discs, among the ones I haven’t already named I played The lost World: Jurassic Park, Saving private Ryan, and a few others. All seem to work tremendously well. The only thing is, I won’t be using my PlayStation 2’s DVD playback when it goes in my room. Oh well…
Overall
You will say WOW out loud each time a movie ends, and why go to the cinema when you can watch in you own armchair. The precision of sound is brilliant while picture amazes even up against the £400 DVD rivals, but when you get all the above for a price of a DVD player only a year or so ago you can say this is a true bargain.
Recommended:
Yes
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MichaelHatton
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Location: Darlington, England
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