Page 1 of Crazy for ditching seperates for DAVS550? Westy? Anyone?

I`ve currently got a Tosh SD220e, Sherwood RD6106 (Pro-Logic, DD5.1 & DTS) Eltax Liberty 5 Fronts, Symphony Centre and HT2 Bi-polar rears in a lovely 4m x 4m room. Trouble is I`m moving to a house with a 5m x 4m room which has a bloody fireplace and radiators which dictate that the TV is going to be in the corner of the room!

Here`s my dilema. The Eltax Liberty 5`s are pretty big and I`m having trouble in positioning them due to relatively tight space in the corner of the room either side of the 32" TV. This is causing problems when listening in stereo but I`m also having trouble convincing the missus that the big speakers should stay as the corner of the room looks `cluttered`.

So I`ve thought of trading in the Sherwood and taking advantage of RicherSounds offer on the DAVS550 thus making the speaker positioning a) easier and b) more discrete. Saving the rack space of the Tosh and the Sherwood would allow me to buy a smaller rack and improve the asthetics much to the pleasure of the wife.

I enjoy listening to CD`s and probably don`t listen as much as I`d like to as the TV`s often on so I`d re-use the Liberty`s in another room with an old amp and CD player and forget about stereo in the main room altogether.

I`ve heard the DAVS400 and was very impressed. How much better is the DAVS550? I can`t get a decent demo anywhere! I`m just not sure that it will be as good as my seperates, even though they are hardly top of the range. Has anyone taken this type of `backward` step? Any negative feedback on the DAVS550? My TV is pretty old and I`d probably run S-Video to Scart as my TV doesn`t have Component video inputs. Is it likely to be much worse than the Tosh picture wise? Any trouble with NTSC conversion?

Any comments greatly appreciated. If I take the plunge and find I don`t like it then I suppose I`ll use the 14 day return policy and get Marantz SR4300 and perhaps save some money for smaller speakers in the future.

Cheers,

readmenow

This item was edited on Saturday, 26th July 2003, 00:09

1) Richer Sounds should offer you a decent demo if you are considering spending a reasonable sum of money with them!!

2) My gut feeling is you will go with the Marantz 4300!!!!

Big A

I let my mind wander....and it didn`t come back.

Long shot, is it possible to buy a cheaper plasma & place above fireplace & keep the present audio equipment?

NO NO NO. Never put a plasma above a heat sorce.

All the best,

The 42%er

My next door neighbour has the 400, and it doesn`t have RGB scart, only S-video and CVBS. I`m not too sure about the 550, but the image quality on the 400 is really good for S-Video!!

As for the original question, I prefer to stick to seperates, although if your new room is that small, then an all-in-one might be your only choice. Go for a system with RGB scart, or S-Video if it doesn`t have RGB - so the one you mentioned would be ideal.

NO NO NO. Never put a plasma above a heat sorce.

I was assuming that the fireplace was not used because of the Radiators.

Why don`t you keep your DVD player and get a decent speaker package with an active sub?
The Acoustic Energy Aego P5 may do and the speakers are surprisingly powerful for their size. If you`re struggling for space they may be your answer. Nice little decoder to sit under the tv instead of a big amp...

Ste

Sj is right. Please don`t buy the DAV550 - it`s awful.

What Hifi have either got cack in their ears or were paid a back hander cause to me it sounds weak and thin, and that was after a good 4 hours in its presence.

Instead, go for the Acoustic Energy Aego system. 5 speakers and a sub that are pure joy to listen to and live with. People still can`t believe the quality of sound these puppies produce when they listen to them at my gaff.

Even better, the price is now lower and even better again is that the`re being updated in December, with a new sub, re-designed sattelites, (though the sub will only go around 4hz lower. But it`s still brill for its size), and a new full width processor unit with DPL2 and a new slimline casing. Personally, i think for the money it offers the most complete and robust sound for movies and music a small system has managed since their conception. The build quality and driver technology have been so well thought out and developed that even some bigger speakers don`t sound better. Yes, they`re that good.

And if the processor becomes too basic over time - just take it away, and buy a reciever and run the Aego`s from it`s pre outs. Buy a 6.1 amp, then an Aego 2 two channel system, and run a full 6.1 Aego set up that`s all but invisible.

And your missus will love them... :D

Westy

Site Technical Help Editor and Moderator

Home Cinema Editor - Area450

Guys, thanks for the feedback. I have to agree with the comments about the DAVS550. It`s very poor indeed, mainly let down by the passive sub-woofer. After handing in my Sherwood Amp and an Eclipse DVD595 (both on the master care 50% buy back guarantee) I got a Panasonic SC-HT500 for £160. I demo`d the DAVS550, SC-HT500 and a JVC package along with a slimline Pioneer dvd,amp&speaker package and finally plumped for the panny. I accept the comments about the Aego`s but they were just a little out of my price range and RicherSounds don`t stock them (negating my trade in).

Anyway the guys in the Newcastle store were very helpful and also very wary of me dropping down from the dedicated AV amp to a `style` system. I chose the SC-HT500 in the end for a number of reasons, primarily because it sounds good. It`s subwoofer is a side firing unit which keeps things slimline and discreet and the speakers, whilst not little sexy cubes are tidy enough (remeniscent of the tall B&W speakers in this months What Hi-Fi) and please my wife no end in terms of space / clutter.

The SC-HT500 has a scart socket which meant no money was spent on new cables and I was delighted with the picture quality which in my opinion is more than a match for the Toshiba SD220e. Strangely for a relatively new product the unit does not have DPL2 instead plain old DPL is suplemented by a host of DSP modes (all of which I thought sounded better than DPL2 on the DAVS550). The SC-HT500 also has DVD Audio support as well as the ability to play DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD+R.

In day to day use I`ve been very happy with it (for today at least). For watching TV at relatively low levels I`ve not missed my old system a bit. I`ve tried a few films and been happy overall. Compared to my old system dialogue and action sequences are pretty close though soundtracks aren`t quite as convincing (such as the drums on the 20th century fox intro). However the sub reaches much lower than my Liberty 5`s, papering over the cracks in the midrange and scaring the missus sh*tless.

After a day`s use I`m sure that I can live with the compromise. It might have been more difficult if I`d had traded in a superb seperates system but as it is my old system was fairly modest and if anything was disappointing in stereo. Now I have acceptable surround performance from a system whcih suits my wife and the new lounge and I also have a healthy listening room dedicated to stereo.

Overall not as scary a transition as I thought.

This item was edited on Sunday, 27th July 2003, 01:11

I was tempted by a Sony 550 after the aledged "reviews". Reviews? More like paid advertisements. Bass is flat and there are no adjustments to the tone at all. I got rid and am now running A Marantz DTS 4300 decoder and 3 sets of AE Aego2s. Massive Improvement.