FA: Sony DAV-S888 & Yamaha YST315 Sub!

On Thu, 8 Apr 2004 18:36:17 +0100, Nige used to say...

At least the person taking the pic wasn't nude!

It looks like Nige got Betty from Coronation Street round to take the photo. :-)

Andy

I'm shocked mate!!

Last time I saw your system it was full sized seperates with what some people called "proper" speakers!

Why did you buy an all in one system?? Most people have the opinion that all in ones are gash!!

Craig

To be honest, they wrong it's superb, one weak point was the sub which is now replaced!

Nige

I thought they were too, but was suffering from a misconception based on snobbery and the misassumption that lots of big boxes have to be better than one small one. I recently bought an Acoustic Energy Aego P5, and bought it as a stop gap, but the thing is awesome for what it is. Previously I had Kef Ref Thx speakers, a Denon A1D and a Rel Q200 sub - as daft as it seems in some areas the Aego is better. Ok, it's not as good with explosions and other bass dependent sound effects, but for dialogue and general background noise it really does take some beating.

My dad has also recently bought a Pioneer DCS313 for his bedroom, and for what it cost, that's an amazing bit of kit too. Sure, the AV purists will always go for separates, but there is some quality out there in the all-in-one market if you know what you're after. There is a lot of crap too, just be wary of that.

Andy

My opinion is that the main problems with all in ones are the lack of power (as with most cheap AV amps they can do 100w per channel.. one at a time...) and the fact that the sub has to work hard and have a high crossover point due to small satellite speakers.

:D

I must admit, I heard an abeit VERY expensive Teac Legacy system which was all in one and the sound it put out was amazing :O

Craig

Shouldn't buy cheap shit then. Have a look at Yamaha's DSP-Z9, or if £3300 is a little steep for you then there's always the DSP-AZ1 at £2000.

Alex

I think top-end AV amps are a waste of money IMO. Better to buy a decent 5 channel poweramp, keep that for yonks; and change the av pre-amp section every now and then.

For example- £1000 for a decent 5 channel poweramp. That leaves another £1000 for the pre-amp. 5 years later the pre-amp is probably obsolete, so just replace the pre-amp section. I would probably assume a £1000 5 channel amp will still have better amp stages than most AV amp's double of that.

No need to sell off the poweramp and buy another. At least when you're selling it you're only loosing depreciation on a single section, not the whole lot you'll need to buy again (av amp) - with the av amp you'll be lucky to sell it off, unlikely to have much interest in the unit, and loose alot in the depreciation (ie Yamaha A1 from £1400 to £300)

Also if something in the AV amp blows you have nothing.. if the poweramp blows you can easily pickup another multi-channel poweramp.

I wouldn't spend more than £1000 on a AV amp- any higher than that and I'll be looking at seperates.

Nige, I was going to buy a new amp today from john lewis and they didn't have any :(

But I carried on looking round, albeit disappointed with my mate and stumbled across this:

Now I asked the bloke if my speakers would work on it and they wouldn't becuase of the speaker plugs on the back. I carried on walking round for a few minutes and then remembered what you said and I snapped it up for

230 quid :D

Got it home and I was astounded by the sound it produces!!

Even music sounds good. So now my sony amp and floorstanders and dvd player has been passed onto my mate for 70 quid and my room looks much neater.

Even the dvd player has a beter pic than my seperate one!!

Just thought i'd share my experience ;)

Craig.

For once, I agree with our Nath :D