Why You Can Trust CNET Sony DAV-DZ720 DAV Home Theatre System review: Sony DAV-DZ720 DAV Home Theatre
A powerful 5.1 home theatre package that follows Sony's trademark of style with performance but also includes handy features like a HDMI output and automatic calibration.
The DAV-DZ720 is a mid-level home theatre package from Sony's DAV Dream System range, which matches stylish design with decent functionality. Sony's new product comes with a 5.1 set of speakers, a DVD player with digital amplifier and even a HDMI connection.
Sony DAV-DZ720 DAV Home Theatre System
The Good
The Bad
The Bottom Line
Design
For its DAV range, Sony has chosen a simple silver and black theme. The S-Master amplifier design allows for a very compact unit despite the 1000W RMS power output. Minimal heat is generated thanks to the power saving feature during idle moments, which also ensures that the unit remains energy efficient.
The DAV-DZ720's single disc loading tray, which is situated towards the left, is slow to start up with disc load times taking more than 10 seconds. The four free standing satellite speakers resemble black cricket bats and are marked only by a small Sony logo sitting at the top. The speakers themselves are mounted on thin silver poles with a flat circular base and stand 1200mm in height. The medium sized subwoofer measures 240mm by 374mm by 390mm and features a central black cover with silver sides. Its long design is obtrusive and takes up too much valuable floor space.
Thankfully, the quality of the construction and solid feel of the entire package was impressive. Build quality of Sony products have deteriorated considerably in recent years and were pleased to see a return to form the electronics maker.
Features
The compact receiver/player delivers 143W RMS per channel to each of the satellite speakers and 285W RMS to the subwoofer, which provides for a 1000W RMS total output. Technologies such as the Digital Cinema Auto Calibration or the Movie and Music Mode, which adjusts settings depending on what you're listening to, makes setting up quick for new users.
The surround sound processing modes include Dolby Pro Logic / Dolby Pro Logic II, Dolby Digital and DTS decoding and the single disc reader supports DVD/SA-CD/CD/VCD/DivX and MP3 playback. The unit can also display JPEGs from a CD and features a multiple disc resume function. To connect up all the speakers, Sony provided 50m of cables with the DAV-DZ720, which is more than enough for most users and was difficult to cover up. As mentioned, there's a HDMI connection as well as the usual Composite, Component and S-Video adaptors.
We didn't find a digital audio connection but Sony did include a portable audio input with an audio enhancement feature. There was also a single 3.5mm headphone jack, which rounds up the audio ports. An integrated AM/FM tuner is included with 30 presets.
Performance
Putting all the pieces together is a painless affair. Setting up is made easier thanks to the receiver's automatic setup and speaker calibration system. We had varying results using the auto-settings. Unfortunately, in most cases the audio wasn't balanced. Either we couldn't feel the subwoofer or treble response was too high. We recommend that users manually adjust the calibration to their liking. Turning the volume right up was an enjoyable experience. The speakers are very loud and audio quality wasn't significantly compromised. However we did notice that the bass response was lacking at these extremes.
While testing the DAV-DZ720 with the movies, Capote and V for Vendetta, we noticed that voices had clarity even at loud volumes with no hint of distortion. Surround sound effects worked well, even when we moved the position of the speakers. Listening to music achieved similar results and even though the subwoofer's shortcomings were evident, overall results were good.
We connected an iPod to test the portable audio enhancement feature. Quality was very poor considering it was an enhanced signal. Once again there was poor bass response and significant distortion in the sound. The DAV-DZ720 is a very competent package considering its price and is more suiting to watching movies than listening to music.