Did you see that? Yeah, but did you hear it!
Written: Jul 04 '02 (Updated Jul 04 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Exceptional Sound Quality Reproduction - 5 Piece Total System
Cons: No CD-R, CD-RW, or MP3 support, and can be consider bulky
The Bottom Line: If you want to look around for a better system, go ahead! For about $3000 you can find one, but why bother?
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| vandalz's Full Review: Sony SA-VAD900 Theater System |
Looking at home theater systems can become frustrating and confusing. I should know, I used to be looking for that perfect replication of the "cinematic" experience. Luckily for me, I am now an employee of Sears in the electronics department.
As an employee of Sears, I have the opportunity to play with all of the toys of my department ( I.E. Home Theaters, DVD Players, Projection TV's ). So, naturally since I love watching movies, I decided I would play with some of the systems.
I started playing around with the Home Theater systems, but nothing really stood out as better than another. Not because they weren't good enough, but because if one had this feature, the other didn't, but it had one to make up for that loss.
Then I noticed a new product, the Sony SA-VAD900 Complete Package, that we were selling. It was priced down from $1000 originally, to $599. Now, my curiosity peaked, and I began to wonder why this highly priced piece of equipment was being knocked down so much. So I did what any employee would do, I hooked it up, and began to play with it.
Hooking Up The System:
Hooking up the system was a breeze. It took me a matter of five minutes, and the system was up and running. Keep in mind, I have had a background in electronics for a couple of years, and have worked now it both Radioshack and Sears, so this could be a contributing factor to the speed in which the system was ready. For the normal consumer reading the manual, it shouldn't take more than ten minutes to be up and running.
I pulled all of the components out of the box which included the Left Main Speaker ( Also the housing for the 5 Disc CD/DVD Changer ), the Right Main Speaker ( There are also the two largest enclosures ), the Center Speaker, and the Left and Right Rear Speakers.
I positioned all of the speakers where I determined that the imaging would be best for display and for viewing pleasure, as I would be both using and selling the product. Once in position hooking up the wires to the speakers were a breeze.
The wires are color coded with black and gray, and the speakers positions are clearly marked by each of the speaker terminals located on the back of the Front Left Tower Speaker.
Next I began to hook up all the video components, and the radio antenna. This wasn't any harder than breathing. After all this was done, I turned on the system. This is where the real fun begins.
S-Sound = Extreme
S-Sound is a term that I have made up for this review, but it can stand for Superior, Superb, Substantial, Slammin' or just easily Sony Sound. Sony is no slouch when it comes to sound performance, but truly I don't believe that Sony has every made a better sounding system.
I was really skeptical of the subwoofer output seeing that it is only comprised of one 8" subwoofer with a RMS rating of 75 watts. I have previously owned a Home Theatre package by RCA and needed an external 10" 200 watt subwoofer just to produce the type of lows that I needed, but not with this system. This system belted out the lows in a fashion unbelievable to my own ears.
I wanted to test out the system both musically and visually so I placed a DVD in the player. Within moments, I was thoroughly impressed. I like the movie Independence Day so I figured with the extreme moments that would generally make most systems cry, I would push this one to its limits. Nope! That's just not going to happen. Before you ever get the volume anywhere near its maximum, you will be running from the room. Although this system is only 200 Watts total RMS or Continuous Power, it pounds. Even with just one 8" subwoofer, this system will rattle the walls or at least the shelves on the wall.
The sound is crystal clean in any format. There are many different formats to choose from as well. You can choose Cinema, Virtual, Hall, Live House, and more. Each is different, but not so different that you'll hate one and love the other. Each just adds its own dimension to the sound and imaging of the system.
As for surround sound you have Dolby Digital, Dolby Pro Logic and DTS. Now I know that there are systems out there with THX2 and 7.1 capability, but who really needs all that right now. Technology has far exceeded what most DVD's are actually encoding. With all this you are guaranteed the cinematic experience without the bothersome whispering, the sticky floors, or the high prices on food.
As with all things, we want to know what is good and bad about a system. Well here is the run down of what I think is an advantage of the system, and what I think is a disadvantage of the system:
Advantages:
* Full surround sound capability is a fairly compact system.
* The system itself is only 5 pieces total, so there aren't a ton of wires just running loosely all throughout the area in which it is located.
* Five disc CD/DVD Player Built In
* 200 Watts of Total Audio
* Superior sound for the price
This is just a small list comprised of some of the more prevalent features that make this system worth the purchase.
Disadvantages:
As always, there is a disadvantage. First and foremost the CD/DVD player will not play CD-R's, CD-RW's, or MP3 format. Then there isn't a component output on the system. This shouldn't pose too much of a problem seeing that you don't really need to hook the system up to anything because it already has everything built into it. The other really big disadvantage could be the amount of space that the speakers take up. The two towers speakers each stand almost 3 feet high, and most wood consoles that are pre-manufactured will not house them.
Now, like I said before, looking at home theater systems can become frustrating and confusing, but not will the right system right in front of you. If you don't believe me, just come visit me, and I'll give you a demonstration of the system. I'm positive that you'll like it.
Even if you don't, I can guarantee you will spoiled for the rest of your life on the superb quality system that Sony has produced. Not many can say that they have everything so neatly packed into one system, and still brag about the performance, but Sony truly can.
Since I now own this product, I have given my old system to my Fiance, and she has fallen in love with it. She really thinks I was being nice when all I really was doing was dumping the old system in order to make room for the new one - Shhhhhh.......... we won't tell her that, Wink!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
vandalz
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Location: Pascagoula, MS
Reviews written: 157
Trusted by: 44 members
About Me:
Freelance programmer finishing up a project shortly. Watch for updates!
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