Photo gallery: Sony DAV-LF1 DVD Home Theatre SystemDesign
Similar to floating screen design of Sony WEGA flat panel LCD televisions, the control unit of the DAV-LF1 features sexy glass panelling around its edges. The rest of the main component is finished in frosted metal with a square touch-panel display surrounding the LCD to the right. The soft-touch pad controls volume, disc navigation and rotates through the home theatre system functions: DVD, video, satellite, FM and AM radio. Once we upacked and set up the entire unit we realised why Sony also calls it a DVD Dream System.
Subwoofers are often obtrusive, large black boxes -- such as the one found on Bose's Lifestyle 48 -- which are best kept hidden in a corner of the room. However, the attractive DAV-LF1 sub is made of brushed aluminium and polished metal split into two distinct sections. All the connections are housed at the back of the eye-catching unit on the lower half. A heavy duty white cable connects the glass-panelled control unit with the sub. Sony supplies an installation card and a thorough manual for setting up the system.
Four slimline floor standing speakers compliment the design of the main unit and continue in Sony's polished and frosted metal theme. The centre speaker sits horizontally, houses the infrared receiver for the remote control and has a grey mesh covering.
Features
The distinctive characteristic of the DAV-LF1 is the ability to wirelessly transmit sound to the rear speakers. However, we have a few caveats about Sony's implementation. The small infrared transmitter plugs into the subwoofer and sits at the front of the room beaming the signal across the room to one of the surround speakers. This implementation, unlike others that use 2.4GHz radio frequency, relies on line of site between the two devices. The alignment doesn't have to be exact nor do you need a protractor to set it up as the system allows about 10 degrees leeway.
This is fine if your living area accommodates placing both components high in the room. However, in our test environment, every time someone walks past either the speaker at the back of the room or the transmitter placed on top of the TV, the transmission path is blocked and rear-channel audio cuts out.
The other thing that irks us is that the rear speakers need to be linked to each other by cable. As they need to be powered as well, you'll need to plug another cord into a wall socket. Not exactly an ideal wireless solution in our eyes, but it does eliminate the need to run a cable from the front of the living room to the back.
Sony rates total system power at 600W (five speakers at 86W plus 170W from the subwoofer). In other words, it is very loud -- capable of such a high level that isn't conducive to harmoniously living in an apartment complex where pounding bass travels very easily through floors (and letters of complaint are very easily slid under doors). The imminent eviction notice aside, the DAV-LF1's remote control include a DSX button that drops (or boosts) bass significantly and Night Mode, which boosts dialogue and sound effects while keeping overall volume lower. The remote is generally well laid out and features a sliding back panel that conceals advanced controls, such as sound field selections. Dolby Pro Logic II Movie and Music modes are supported, alongside Cinema Studio EX A, B and C. Sony based the three cinema modes around sound characteristics found in the Cary Grant Theater, Kim Novak Theater and the Sony Pictures Entertainment scoring stage. The three cinema sound fields aim to reproduce the best sound for watching general movies, movies with many sound effects and classical music, respectively.
Performance
Listening to a sample Super Audio CD (SA-CD) containing multi-channel tracks left us in awe of the DAV-LF1's capabilities -- making us close to close our eyes to fully immerse ourselves in the fantastic sound coming from all directions.
When the infrared beam is not blocked, surround sound from the DAV-LF1 is impressive. Sony provides a range of environment simulations for music, such as hall, jazz club and live concert.
Unfortunately the review unit Sony sent us was a European model with a SCART output for video. As the SCART interface is not commonly used in Australia, we had no chance to test DVD play back. Sony Australia tells us that to cope with demand, a limited shipment of units arrived in Australia over the Christmas period that featured the SCART output, with a component video adaper and cable in the box. However, all future models sold in Australia will include component video and no SCART.
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