The Sony DAVDZ870w is a 5.1 Channel, Surround Sound Home Theater System with wireless rear speakers. ‘Home Theater’ system in this regard simply means that the amplifier has a built in DVD/CD player. The Sony DAVDZ870w includes:
- 4 x tower speakers (left front, right front, left rear, right rear)
- 1 x center speaker
- 1 x sub woofer
- 1 x amplifier
- 1 x remote the
The amplifier inputs and outputs include:
- 1 x AV Out (red, white, yellow)
- 1 x HDMI Out
- 1 x Digital Optical In
- 1 x Coax Digital In
- 1 x RGB Out
- 1 x USB Input
- 1 x mini-jack Out
For anyone not familiar with a wireless system it should be noted that the rear speakers are not completely devoid of 
wires. They do in fact plug into a wireless receiver, which it self plugs into a power point. For this reason the rear speakers are best placed up against a rear wall and behind a couch. The benefit of a system with wireless rear speakers is that you do not have to have wires running across the floor from the amplifier. If you own your own home that might not be a problem but for anyone who rents and is unable to modify their surroundings then a system with wireless rear speakers makes sense.
The Home Theater System itself is nothing special. Featuring a CD/DVD player, as well as a USB port and DivX codecs for playing AVIs. The DVD player is promoted as upscaling movies to 1080p but we have found there to be no noticeable difference between an upscaled and a normal DVD. Not through our Samsung LA32R81BDX anyway.
Setup of the speakers was not too difficult but we did find the automatic calibration feature to be completely useless. It left the rear and center speakers far too quiet to be heard and did not produce an effective 5.1 environment. Fortunately this can be overcome by setting up the speaker volumes manually through the same menu.
Once set up correctly the Sony DAVDZ870w sounds excellent. The towers themselves do have a fairly flat response but having the sub woofer there adds warmth to the lower frequencies. Music also sounds quite good through these speakers although not quite at the level of a good HiFi system. In either case they will sound vastly superior to any television’s built in speakers.
The DAVDZ870w also has a number of different play modes with the optimal choice being A.F.D Multi. This will play audio in 5.1 Surround when available and 2 Channel audio will be split between the 4 towers for anything else. This is particularly good for music as you can have stereo audio in two separate areas of the house!
Summary
For about an $800 system the Sony DAVDZ870w is quite a good buy. Once set up correctly the surround sound experience is excellent for a system in this price range, and the wireless rear speakers add flexibility to your speaker placement.
