Oh yea you sexy little sony, you know it yea play that bass.
Written: Jun 14 '03 (Updated Jun 14 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great sound, affordable, attractive, proven sony speaker reliability.
Cons: Comes only in black (in case you want silver), ummm a lot of options?
The Bottom Line: A superb entry into surround sound, only an expert will have cause to want more. For everyday people you can't go wrong with this very affordable, attractive, sexy system.
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| zlmajors's Full Review: Sony HT-DDW840 Theater System |
Does this story seem familiar?
Your at home, you have a decent TV, dvd player and a vcr. You are enjoying the tv but maybe you have the wife mowing the yard or the baby is crying and the wife isn't done in the kitchen, and so you have to turn up the volume on your tv, but darn if it just won't block out the background noises! Whatever is a 21st century man to do?!?
Yea I know what you mean, that was me, well of course substituting myself in for doing those chores lol. God I hope she doesn't read this review!
So I was looking at home theatre systems, and of course everything that is spendy I must get approval for by the wife. Not the item but the price mind you. So I was looking at systems around the $199 range and couldn't really get thrilled about any of my choices, I settled (and i really do mean settled) on a pioneer system, but while I was at target it was like a light from god (or maybe it was the track lighting) shone down upon the sony HT-DDW840 for only $299. After seeing this, the little devil inside me said to myself "hey stupid why don't you get that sony, its ONLY $100 more and it is like 550 watts vs the 300 in the pioneer!" So then the little angel inside me said, "...." well ok I have no little angel when it comes to electronics, me and my little devil made the purchase and have been happilly in devilish surround sound ever after!So on to my review!
Subwoofer: A+
Why start here? Because so many surround systems have either unpowered SW's (subwoofers) or have just craptastic controls on them. The sony 840 has an excellent SW and is totally controllable, let me explain. The SW is 100 watts, better than many of the lesser system's 50 watts including the sony 740 model (the red headed step brother of the 840), you might think this doesn't matter but when you are playing the first scene in saving private ryan and you want to FEEL the explosions, that extra 50 watts is something you will notice.
So the SW has good watts and to send sound to it, it is powered! Amazingly some makers get away with saying that their SW's are powered internally by the receiver (err what?) Well the sony SW on the 840 is connected directly to...a plug outlet lol. No cheepo version here, you paid for a powered SW and you get one.
The final part of the SW is that it has volume control for the SW itself on the SW, of course you can control the input to it but this just gives you a bit more control, a little something extra that with a different system you might really want.
Speakers: A+
With the 840 you get a sony SW, a center speaker, 2 front mini speakers and 2 surround sound speakers. The SW is 100 watts while the other speakers are all .... 100 watts too! So you are getting 600 watts in total, that is a heck of a lot of watts. The sony speakers are designed to be mounted, have easy mounting screw backs, and are small enough to be inconspicuous but large enough to put out good quality sound. The only thing back about these speakers is that it comes with a mesh covering the front of these, similar the front covering on almost any speaker, the problem is if this tears you are out of luck my friend, won't harm the speaker but it makes it an eyesore. A sony speaker i've had for 8 years received a tear and although I still use it..sniff sniff I never forgave myself.
Setup: A-
Hmm how could sony have made the setup easier? I really have no clue, but just like any surround sound system it has a good amount of wiring to it, and if you want true surround sound you are going to have to run wires around the room. Although it isn't a picnick, it is a labor of love. One REALLY nice thing I like about the wiring that sony sends with the 840 is that the ends are smelted, meaning the ends instead of being a mess of wires that you have to twist, come to a nice solid metal end. A very nice afterthought by sony.
Now the really tricky part about any surround sound system is the setup of the sound. For this I have my wife sit in the "ideal" spot on the couch while I fiddled with the different options. The 840 does come with a ton of options, and every video setting imaginable such as: Dvd, TV, sattelite/antenna, music, video 1, video 2. And for every one of those there are 5 different settings you can do. So for dvd you can choose dolby surround, movie, 2 custom ones, and so on. You can make alterations to whatever you want. A lot of options and it might make it a little daunting but when you have everything the way you want it to be you'll love the time you put into it.
Sound: A
Ah such a great system for any new person looking to get into surround sound. The sound is crisp and clear and does great even at very loud settings. I have heard a bit of static or maybe interfearence at really low low settings but there is a setting to limit the surround sound in order to play it at a lower volume but still hear it. I believe in the manual they even said "in case you want to watch a movie when everyone else is asleep". I love the sound and I love this system for sure.
Now I won't lie and say the higher end models will have poor sound, no they will have better sound but for a great entry level system, the 840 does a fantastic job.
Durability: n/a
I haven't had this system for more than a year so I won't comment on its durability.
Remote: A
The remote that comes with the 840 is a slender remote that is silver with black buttons ontop and black underneath. It is partially a universal remote. Since I have a sony tv it has taken over for that remote. So my total number of remotes is now at 3 and was the same before. This remote is easily distinguishable from the others by touch only.
Price: A+
In just about six months time, the 840 has dropped from $399 that it was last December, January timeframe to just about $299 now. Maybe they released a better version or a newer model that fills they're higher end startup model, I honestly don't know but you are getting a good deal with the 840. I paid $299 on mine and haven't looked back.
Attractiveness: A
Ah with anything visable where company sits you have got to factore in attractiveness of the system. It would not do to have a silver vcr, a black receiver and a different color tv, you must color coordinate man! The sony receiver is about 6-7 inches tall, and is about as wide as your standard dvd width. The speakers which are also black are about 5.5 inches tall and maybe 3.5 inches wide. Overall I believe sony packed as much as they could into a relatively small sized system.
Usability: A
Usability? Ok I might have made that word up, but nobody is going to use a system if it is ungainly to turn it on. The sony just isn't so, if you take the time to setup the sound on the different formats that you want (tv, dvd, vcr) then you won't have any problems easily turning on the 840, and then with one button push switching to whatever format you want. For me since i use the remote for both the tv and well the 840, i turn on both at the same time.
Other stuff...
Ok I have heard that if you have a bigger living room you might need to buy some wiring like monster wire because the back speaker wire that sony sends with the 840 aren't that long. It reached for me, but for the back left speaker barely. I wish sony sold longer strands of their wire, I love it so much.
This is a system you will need to at least look at the manual, don't think it is a plug and play system. In many ways audio is more complicated that any other format except maybe vision, we hear in stereo so if the audio isn't set right you will notice it.
Now many of you might have noticed the sony HT-DDW740, don't be fooled! Sony was obligated to put in a low end model, but would you by the the tanasonic tv or the Tony brand anything? NO! you wouldn't and neither should you buy the 740, you get a lot higher wattage from the 840, like 200+ and the 840 has dolby digital which the 740 doesn't, the 740 is like the mucho el cheapo model of the 840, none of the bells and whistles that the 840 has. Remember this is something you are going to use A LOT!! don't short change yourself!
As you can see I like my 840 a lot, I recommend it to anyone that wants a really good entry into surround sound. You spend $300 and get a system that not only you can hear surround sound on but that you are proud of. Is there anything more one really can want in a surround sound? not for me there isn't.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
zlmajors
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Member: Zach Majors
Location: Portland, OR
Reviews written: 62
Trusted by: 16 members
About Me:
Husband and father, picky when it comes to products for my family or myself.
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