Page 1 of Sony DAVSA30 Home Cinema - Any good?

Like the look of this system, and have seen it for under £300, in both Reg 2 and Multi region options. Anyone got this system or know if its any good? Am looking for a nice compact DVD Cinema kit, multi region thats plays all kinds of fomats, DVD, VCD, CD R`s ect.. and is`nt going to cost me and arm and a leg.

Fantastic. Sony have learnt from the mistake, (in my eyes and ears), of the 550 and 880 systems and gone back to basics to produce a quality, top value system.

Dear old mother was the lucky recipient of one of these for her birthday as her nicam tv looked lonely and the DVD was in need of updating.

I`m really surprised at how good the S Master digital amp technology is. Ok so in larger rooms the Sony may not shake the house - but the sound is so bloody clean and the speakers are great - though they by no means match the Acoustic Energy Aego`s for overall quality.

The sub is great too - a little limited when it comes to all out extension but it does a cracking job all the same and convinces you into thinking the system is a lot bigger than its dimensions portray.

Plus, it has an RGB scart. None of the DAV systems have had one so far and this is a welcome addition to the range as most people who buy these sysems are using them with a normal tv that may not have S Video, (unlikely these days but there`s always one), so hats off to the Sony peeps.

Cd replay is ok, but not great, but it does play SACD`s and the quality of the image is fabulous.

For £300 you really can`t go wrong. I like it and my mum is chuffed to bits. As is my 10 year old brother who sat baffled by the sound effects moving about at the beginning of Toy Story 2, (which of course, was perfect excuse to test the bass ability of the system. It passed! :) )

Hope this helps

Westy

Site Technical Help Editor and Moderator

Home Cinema Editor - Area450

I read somewhere that this new Sony is actually made by Samsung for them. As you may or may not be aware for some years Samsung have been making Sony`s VHS videos but this is the first sony home cinema system made by samsung. I`m not saying thats a bad thing though.

Ahh - two of my fav audio brands get together to create that cracking kit!! :)

Have to agree, I am a newcomer to home cinema and bought the Sony DAV-SA30 as a starter kit a few weeks ago, and what a kit. Sound just blew me away. Set it up last weekend (didnt take too long even for me!) and rented 2 DVD`s, of which 1 was a sedate drama with only minimal sound effects, I was beginning to wonder what the fuss was about, then I put on Attack of the clones, jesus! Good job it was during the day because I think the neighbours reckoned we were hammering the walls or had light sabres on the go, fantastic!!!!!

On a slightly different note, and I know this has been covered somewhat in other forums, but not quite my question. I have my Sony connected via a scart (its only got a scart out) to my TV (which has 2 scart inputs). My NTL digital STB (1 scart output, no other output/inputs on this machine) is connected via a split scart to my TV (the other SCART input) and my VCR. I was trying for digital sound from my STB to my Sony but dont know how to get it. My TV is an ancient Grundig and when I watch digital TV through the Sony and have Dolby PLII selected I dont really get much in the way of great sound. Is there any other way of hooking these machines up that would mean I`d get digital sound passing through the Sony?? Any ideas would be appreciated.