Sony DAV-C450 Theater System

Sony is perhaps the most popular electronic company on the face of the earth. With fleets of stereos, walkmans, discmans, laptops, tv's, and more, there ain't no stoppin' them now. They've also produced a large number of speakers that have gone up and down in quality. Home Theater systems have bursted so quickly onto the scene in the last few years, and they keep getting smaller, simpler, and cheaper. The only way we've really enjoyed home theater before all of the 5.1 to 7.1 capabilities with DTS and Pro Logic stuff, was in two channel stereo to four channel surround. And that usually was with your large tower stereo speakers and a killer amp. Even though there are much more accurate and powerful home theater components and speakers available, some people don't have the cash or space. So, their next option is for a more compact system that's all in one.

One of the earlier models that Sony offered is the DAV-C450 DVD Home Theater System. Sandwiched into a sincerely small system is a five disc DTS and Pro Logic capable DVD player. Wow, what a start! Each disc can remain inside the player (just like those cartridge or carousel cd players) while you watch one already playing. The power source comes from the integrated player which boasts a built in amp that carries enough juice to give each little cube speaker 80 watts, and totals in peak of 500 watts, so 400 watts goes to the five speakers, and the remaining 100 goes to the slim front ported subwoofer. Funny how little of bass seems to punch out of it. It gives a few hums of base here and there, but there's really only enough bass to make a cat happy. A sub that gives at least some good bass should be powered with it's own amp, and this one is simply powered by a permanent wire that goes from the integrated unit to the sub. You can't call this thing a subwoofer. I call it the humming box. If this thing were cut open, I wouldn't want to look inside. I'd probably cry.

The speakers themselves sound hollow, and not very direct-now, they don't sound TERRIBLE-no. But they sure could use a big upgrade (yeah, I know, what you spend is what you get). What's interesting but not shocking is that the center channel isn't a true and dedicated center speaker. So voice and sound reproduction from the 'so-called' center channel is nothing special. The rest of the gang do their job and no more. Surround and direct sounds are average, and their 80 watts each seem more like 20, since the speakers frequency don't offer much. The volume capacity is pretty unspectacular, unless you have a pretty small room. In a room of about 10' by 15', the sound was 'just' reaching the back of the room. I had to turn up the volume practically all the way just to be moderately satisfied. Regardless of these 'Happy Meal' speakers, the sound decoding from the player is accurate, so sound is where it should be coming from, but at times they become narrow in spreading out the sound, making them occasional "sweet spot stinkers".

Picture quality is more than fair, as long as your tv is a pretty good one. Lines and images are a little crispy, but at least well defined. Colours are nothing to complain about, especially when I slipped James Cameron's "The Abyss" in for a while. Blues were not too loud, and any other images were pretty realistic. Even the faded white pipes on the mini subs or piping in the underwater oil rig station weren't too white, and not too far off from the real thing.

Still, what can you say about a system you spend $450 on? A lot of sales guys in your electronic big box stores will praise these little systems because they are DTS, 5.1, and DVD. So....so what? Have you ever bought a car with power steering, a cd player, and great gas mileage? Aside from those little pluses, it still probably handles like a tricycle, and accelerates like a sloth.

The Sony C450 Dream System is something that parents should consider for their kids in the basement or bedroom, or any of their college bound kids. There are better mini home theater systems out there. If you think this Sony system is the awesome one to buy, keep dreaming.