Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51446 in Consumer Electronics
• Brand: Sony
• Model: DAVDZ830W.CEK
• Released on: 2007-03-10

Manufacturer's Description
All-in-one home theatre system with HDMI output

Box Contents

Customer Reviews

Wireless Cinema speakers
Just got my new DAVDZ830W home cinema system. Never had a home cinema system before. After opening the box, I quickly realised that it was a european model, with no english instruction manuals included- there was a french, german, italian and dutch manual but my GCSE French wasn't that good! I managed to find the English instructions online on the Sony website but was a bit of a nuisance as it was over 100 pages long.

Overall the setup of the system took a good 2-3 hours to screw all the stands together and wire it up correctly. I also had to buy an adapter plug because the plugs supplied were european 2 pin, not british 3 pin sockets! To be fair there was one converter plug included in the box but I needed a second one for the rear wireless speakers which have to be plugged into a power supply. Apart from the initial problems it is now up and running and the sound is pretty sweet!

I don't find the speaker system that great on TV signals- I've got sky and the sound is alright but a lot of Sky is just broadcast in normal signals, not dolby surround mode, so the sound system just sounds a bit louder than my TV (Also a new SONY KDL40W2000). (you will need to buy an audio out connector such as an optical cable to get sound from sky to the cinema system)

The real benefit of this system comes when you watch a DVD with 5.1 dolby digital on it. I watched the Brad Pitt flick Troy on DVD- top class picture- (recommend getting an HDMI-HDMI lead- also not included)and the sound was awesome! beats the TV alone sound hands down!

The speakers look good although my girlfreind thinks they are too big, the lowest height they stand is about 1 metre tall. so i've put them in the corners of the room to hide them slightly but the circular stands are quite big that the speakers attach to (probably 30cm diameter). You can put them on the wall if you like- then you don't need the stands.

The right rear wireless speaker connects via a wire to the left wireless speaker which you then have to plug into a socket. The wireless IR signal is pretty good. If you get up and stand completely in between the rear left speaker and the small IR transmitter then the signal is blocked but move out the way and it reconnects immediately. If you wave your hand about in between the speaker and transmitter this doesn't affect the signal.

Overall a very good system, shame about me being sent out a european version but apart from that I have no real complaints (apart from my grilfriend about the speaker size) top notch, recommend it.

Fabulous piece of kit
Bought this system about a month ago and I'm very impressed with it.

The box it comes in is extremely lareg and heavy but it packs a whole load of kit into it. Construction of the stands is pretty simple (a screwdriver is all that is needed) and can be done with no-one else helping.
Wiring up the various speakers, aerials etc is easy also as everything is colour coded.
The rear speakers are wired together and get their signal from a "sender" connected to the main system. This "sender" is about the size of a pack of cards and relatively inconspicuous. If you do want to turn it back into a "wired" system, the cabling is still supplied.
The system itself is very easy to use and the sound you get out of it is great.
Overall this system is great value for money for a DVD player, surround sound system, radio and wireless rear speakers. Highly recommend it!

Great bit of Kit
I can only agree with the other reviewers that this is a great product (and a great price). Having toyed with the idea of getting the DAVIS10 I finally went for this one due to the wireless speakers and cheaper price tag. Sure the rear speakers are not completely wireless but they need power and most people have a socket on the other side of the room where these would be placed. The sound output is fantastic and completely transforms the viewing experience. It also up-scales the picture from DVD quality to somewhere in between that and HD quality. Certain films/lighting conditions etc lend themsleves more to this process than others but on the whole it is better than standard DVD.

The unit does come in a big box as mentioned in other reviews and this is why the delivery gets delayed. Mine was on hold for a couple of days until a 2 man delivery team became available. It's not that heavy but the size makes it awkward and it does require 2 people to carry it. I ordered on the Friday night and it arrived the following Wednesday so not too bad. HDNL phoned to arrange delivery window and followed up after delivery with a call to check all was ok. This may have been a random quality check?

It was straightforward to put together - just takes a while and the auto calibration was superb. I had to change a few settings to sync the sound to the picture but this was also easy and covered in the manual (should have been switched on by default in my opinion though). The wireless connected straight away and is very robust - not easily disrupted like I imagined it would be. You can also swap the LH & RH surround speakers by changing a setting (as I did) to move the powered speaker nearer a wall socket and send the wireless signal along the side of the room where there is less chance of interruption. My only criticism would be that some settings are changed on screen and some on the unit display. Bit strange this and the manual was not 100% clear on operating the unit display (or was that me???). I eventually worked it out by accident and now I know it's not a problem. The speakers have large diameter bases which may be a problem for people with small rooms. If you have the space though they do look great!

Overall I recommend this product to anyone looking for a good quality "out of the box" set up.