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My Overall Rating : ★★★★½

Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W 5.1-Channel Theater System Review

The HAV-HDX589W is a 5.1 system that includes two “tallboy” left and right front speakers, a center channel, and left and right surround-satellite speakers. All of the speakers are made of molded plastic with irremovable grilles. The front tallboys rest on adjustable stands that require a bit of assembly out of the box. Each speaker can be wall-mounted as well.

Up front, the center channel is a bit bulky, perhaps to complement the flanking tallboys on either side. The surround speakers are small, only going about 3 inches deep.

All of the satellites, along with the subwoofer, use proprietary connection wires that are color-coded for easy setup. The subwoofer and its 6-inch driver are neither powered nor do they have adjustable volume.

The receiver is a bit thinner compared with devices we’ve seen in the series in years past. An LCD screen rests above a set of quick access buttons that correspond to all five discs as well as some basic playback control functionality. Outfitted in a slick, black covering, the unit should have no problem blending in with most modern electronics.

The included remote control can be overwhelming at times. It’s a bit cluttered and some buttons have too many commands assigned to them. We did like how it felt in our hands and we’d imagine the controls simply take some time getting used to.

Setup
Prior to performing the auto calibration setup, the DAV-HDX589W’s sound was acceptable, but the subwoofer volume was too loud for our tastes. That said, if you’re a fan of a lot of bass, you might be satisfied with the sound and forgo the auto or manual speaker setup routines.

The manual setup is simple enough to do, but after we completed it, the balance between the satellite speakers and subwoofer was less than ideal. The subwoofer had a big, boomy sound and the satellites provided us with very little bass on their own. In other words, most of the bass came from the subwoofer, way over on the right side of our listening room.

Next, we put the DCAC (Digital Cinema Auto Calibration) auto speaker calibration system through its paces. DCAC adjusts the volume level of each speaker and the subwoofer and measures the distance between each speaker.

Digital Cinema Auto Calibration is simple. Plug in the supplied A.CAL microphone and navigate the onscreen display menus to initiate the autosetup program. The whole process takes less than 5 minutes and all of the measurements are taken from just one microphone position.

After autosetup, the subwoofer volume was raised once again, which was much too loud for us. It would be nice if Sony included a subwoofer volume adjustment on the remote like many other HTIBs do, such as the Samsung HT-AS730. This makes life much easier when going from disc.

The DAV-HDX589W lacks bass and treble controls, so it doesn’t offer much opportunity to adjust tonal balance. The one “tone” control, the “Dynamic Bass” button on the remote, boosts bass. But since the DAV-HDX589W has plenty of that, we never really needed to use that feature.

Features
In addition to DVDs and audio CDs, the HAV-HDX589W can play MP3 music and JPEG photo files off a recordable CD or DVD. The unit can also play the increasingly rare SACD format. The five disc-changer is surprisingly fast, although the noise when swapping discs borders on distracting.

The HAV-HDX589W provides you with three connection options for hooking the system up to your TV. There are ports for composite, component, and an HDMI connections, but you’ll only be able to control the resolution output settings when using HDMI. The HAV-HDX589W can output DVD video at 480p, 720p, 1080i, and 1080p.

You cannot bring your own video source into the HAV-HDX589W–only a third-party audio source. There’s room for an analog RCA connection or, if you’re looking to add a digital source, there are optical and coaxial inputs available. The front panel also offers an audio-in jack for connecting devices that accommodate a 3.5-millimeter line-in.

The HAV-HDX589W system is equipped with Sony’s “S-Air technology,” which powers its wireless rear speakers. We’ve reiterated time and time again how misleading this “wireless” claim can be, and with the HAV-HDX589W there’s no difference. The only thing wireless here is the audio sent from the receiver’s transmitter to the rear speaker’s receiver. The system uses a pair of S-Air cartridges that plug into both the receiver and the surround-speaker receiver.

The surround-speaker transmitter must have power and be hard wired to each rear-surround speaker, meaning the whole thing actually adds one more wire to deal with–the power cable. However, it is nice to eliminate long rear-surround speaker wires, as hiding the front-to-back speaker cables in a living room can be quite a chore. The rear speakers perform well and are simple to set up. We couldn’t tell any difference in sound compared with a hard-wired satellite.

The HAV-HDX589W (as well as its sibling Sony DVD home theater systems) includes an outboard iPod dock that plugs into the unit’s proprietary DMPORT connection. The dock works with fourth-generation iPods or later and will work with the iPhone and iPod Touch. We should note that the device puts the iPhone into airplane mode while in use. Unfortunately, there’s no onscreen (TV) display for the iPod, so you’re stuck manually navigating through music on the iPod itself. You can also swap in other DMPORT accessories from Sony, such as a Bluetooth receiver or network audio streamer.

Finally, the HAV-HDX589W includes an AM/FM tuner with programmable presets. There is no built-in HD Radio or satellite radio option.

Performance (video)
Overall, picture quality was solid when we ran the HAV-HDX589W through our series of HQV benchmarking tests. While the system did not pass the 2:3 pull-down section of the HQV benchmark, jaggies and artifacts were largely absent.

More importantly, imperfections found during our benchmarking tests were almost impossible to find in every day real-world viewing. We were more than satisfied with its performance while viewing “The Two Towers” and “The Fifth Element” on DVD. Of course, true videophiles will want to skip a DVD system altogether and go for Blu-ray instead.

Performance (audio)
Thanks to the DAV-HDX589W’s abundant bass, it sounds big and powerful. Even with the subwoofer turned way down, we were always aware of its contributions.

We couldn’t resist pumping up the volume on the circle of drums scene from the “House of Flying Daggers” DVD to see how the DAV-HDX589W would fare. The big drums had plenty of power, but the subwoofer’s soft definition muddled the drums’ impact.

Surround effects of the birds and insects during the scenes in the bamboo forest sounded great. The DAV-HDX589W’s wireless surround speakers behaved perfectly; we never detected any dropouts, sputtering noises, or high hiss levels that plague some wireless speakers.

Dialog was nicely balanced, as the little DAV-HDX589W center speaker had a full, natural sound.

Jeff Beck’s “Live at Ronnie Scott’s” concert DVD sounded less terrific. Beck’s guitar wizardry was fine, but Tal Wilkenfeld’s hard-hitting bass and Vinnie Colaiuta’s drums sounded bloated. Turning down the subwoofer volume helped a bit, but the sub’s tendency to thickness was impossible to tame. The drums’ cymbals were aggressively harsh when we listened at high volume.

CD sound fared similarly, with a lot of bass, clear-sounding vocals, and less-than-smooth treble. Since the DAV-HDX589W can play SACDs, we listened to the David Hazeltine Trio’s “The Jobin Songbook in New York” SACD. Hazeltine’s jazz piano sounded well above average for a moderately priced HTIB, but the speaker’s underlying harshness was definitely more apparent here.

All testing considered, we think the DAV-HDX589W did a better job with movies and we wouldn’t recommend it to buyers who’d use it primarily for music listening.

Conclusion
All in all, we found the Sony HAV-HDX589W to be a capable (if unremarkable) DVD home theater system, with quick response time while changing discs, solid sound during movie playback, and good DVD video quality. The somewhat high list price of $429 gives us pause, but if you can find it for closer to $350, it’s a pretty good deal.

Let’s take a look at all of the Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W features/specification:

  • 1000 watts over 5 channels
  • S-AIR multi-room capable ( AIR-SA10 sold separately)
  • HDMI upscaling to 720p/1080i of DVD media
  • Includes wireless rear speaker system

If you want to buy Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W, you can get it cheap online through Amazon.com here. They offer special discount price and reliable shipping service.

Let me show you what current owners have to say about it:

“…I’ve been using my 589W for about three weeks. The wireless is crystal clear, no problems with other wireless networks and other devices in the house degrading sound. Mine is connected to a Toshiba REGZA ClearScan 240 47ZV650U. Image and sound from DVD is great, TV to receiver the same. Really easy to set up, the speaker auto configure mic is fast and easy, still lots of manual control to personalize.

The receiver’s remote is for the Sony only and can not be programmed to control the TV, however, both the cable box universal remote and Toshiba REGZA link had no problem controlling the Sony equipment. So by menu selection, the Toshiba starts, controls and shuts down the Sony receiver…”

If you want more info on this Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W, I suggest you take a look at the Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W reviews on Amazon here. A lot of consumer positive response to this Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W here.

Here is why Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W is worth buying:

Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W 5.1-Channel Theater System : Pro

  • High quality built material
  • High Quality Sound
  • Night option on the remote.Easy to switch an appropriate sound level to not to disturb anybody
  • Easy setup
  • Good 1080p up conversion
  • Calibration mic is a nice feature
  • Simple and enough configuration settings
  • Wireless rear speakers easily connnect and have a stable connection without any sound loss or cracking voice.
  • Ipod dock is nice.You can control your ipod with remote (volume up,down,skip song etc.)

Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W 5.1-Channel Theater System : Con

  • Remote may have a backlight.
  • Lack of HDMI input

Conclusion

If Blu-ray compatibility isn’t a consideration, Sony BRAVIA DAV-HDX589W home theater system offers a good balance of features and quality.

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