Dav-S500 Review By Simon Lawrence (Sony DAV S 500)

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Product:	Sony DAV S 500
Date:	15/02/03 (152 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The Latest And Greatest Home Cinema System

Disadvantages: None

You wouldn't think it to look at, but The Sony DAV-S500 Home Cinema System is a complete system in one, combining DVD player, surround sound system and hi-fi, plus some extra tricks. All this is squeezed into one modest silver box, a modern music centre. It'll play just about any optical disc you have including multi-channel SACD (Super Audio CD) and CD-RW. With tuner and amplifier also built into the system, this really does provide the lot. The speakers consist of five small cubes and one big box, the bass unit. The little speakers are certainly stylish but a lot is asked of them, especially when driving your music needs.

Plug the main box into your television and you've a complete audio-visual entertainment system, radio and all. The picture quality is up to Sony's usual fine standard, the colour purity is patchy in places, but otherwise it's stable and crisp. There's no zoom or other fancy playback features, although few people use such trickery after the first week or two anyway. There is no SCART output, which is a disappointing omission, it's composite or S-VHS instead. Sound purists will complain that the tonal purity has been sacrificed a little to get a full sound from the modest speakers. The bass and mid ranges are a touch overly boosted. This does enable it to fill a room well, despite modest power. The front speaker channels are rated at 40 W, but it didn't feel like there was that much power available.

Buying a music centre generally means you compromise in places and you can't upgrade any aspect of the system, something to bear in mind before you start. Where they score heavily is value for money. Just trying adding up what a comparable quality system would cost you in separates and you soon see why the DAV-S500 is such an attractive proposition. It does each job well and it makes for a clean and stylish installation, ideal if you don't want a mass of boxes and connectors and a small heap of
remote controls. It looks pretty cool too.

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