All-in-one design, Both AC3 & DTS Decoders, Affordable, Great sound for smaller listening environments.

Non-backlighted remote, Sound not as full as larger units with bigger speakers.

I was looking for a DVD player with as many features as possible in a $150 to $300 price range. I had planned to add a mini surround theater package priced at $150 to $200. The Sony DAV fit all these requirements and fell close enough to my price range.

This system is used in a small condo living room. I wanted good sound with a bit of the theater feel.

I have owned the Sony DAV-S300 since May '99.

Listening to DTS DVD's like "The Eagles Hell Freezes Over" DVD are why I am happy with my purchase of this system.

For listening to audio cd's we use an older home stereo system with full size speakers (This eliminates the complaint of like of rich sound, that the other posters have found while playing audio cd's).

In summary, if you are looking for a simple home theater system for an apartment or smaller entertainment area, you want some bells and whistles, be able to play both DTS & Dolby 5.1 and are budgeted to just under $600, Check out the Sony DAV-S300.

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Looked into Basic DVD player with Cambridge Soundworks Home Theater Speakers.

Small, sleek , value for money

Music field very focused, sounds a little empty when playing CD's.

I had shopped around quite a little bit before finally deciding on the sony. My final two choices were the sony and the panasonic SC-HT80. Comparing the two, I have to say that the panasonic sounds better due to the better bass unit. But the build quality on the panasonic was in my opinion inferior and the speakerwires were static, meaning that they were hardwired into the speaker, which is something i dislike.

Coming to the soundquality of the unit, i have to say that aside from the bass , it is easy to seperate the various sound sources and the sound quality actually quite good. However I found CD music to be a little thin. My biggest complaint was that the sweet spot for this was actually quite small. thus you have to be in the right postiion to fully enjoy the music. Same can be said for DVD's.

All in all a very good system for the price, I would recommend it for anyone needing a system in the bedroom.

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none

Looks, Sleek Display

No CD-Text, Sound Power

This isn't so much a summary, but an information bulletin:

For those who have had no success with CD-R recording:

I've had 100% success so far - I've burned 4 CD-Rs for use on the Sony DAV-S300 and they are all reading fine. Two were Audio CDs and two were Video CDs. This was only achieved with a single brand of CD-Rs; so far all other attempts at using other brand CD-Rs have to date failed. Here are the details you need:

CD-R Brand: Mr. Write CD (their web site, according to my box, is www.fct.com.tw and they list a US contact on their web site). I bought a box of 10 of these CD-Rs rated at 8X from my retailer here in Singapore and it cost me US$5.73.

This is a light-blue / silverish CD-R.

CD Recorder Used : I wrote the CD-Rs using a SONY CRX-100E

I'll be interested if any one else had any success using other brands of CD-Rs

This unit is great for the person who does not want/need to spend the big $$$ on a full blown system. It has all of the niceties (DTS, 5.1) that will make The Matrix great. Only rated at 180 watts, but it fills my room that is 20 x 27 with enough sound. The ease of setup is a plus as well-took less than 20 minutes from box to play.

Not many, but I was most disappointed in the playback of CDs. I was expecting a little better sound. The Eagles "Hell Freezes Over" on DTS sounds awesome, but put in the regular old CD and it sounds, well, plain. The remote could use a backlight as well, for it has numerous buttons that are hard to see in the dark

All in all, The Sony DAV-S300 represents a lot of bang for the buck. I bought this the first day it was avaiable in our area after hearing the comments from the CES show this Spring. It delivers in every way. For the money, there is nothing out there that can touch it.

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None

Beautifull design; small; good price; easy operation

FM-tuner has no RDS functionality; does not play CD-R(W)'s; audio CD's sound a little "empty"; display too bright

Pros:
Beautifull design;
Small, sleek package;
Small easy to hide sattelite speakers;
Good price;
Easy operation: good On-Screen-Menus;
Amplifier has enough power for small and medium sized rooms;
Enough inputs/outputs for the normal user which only has a television set and a VCR.

Contras:
FM-tuner has no RDS (Radio Data System) functionality;
It does not play CD-R(W)'s;
Audio CD's sound a little "empty", not really dynamicly;
Passive sub does not have a real punch;
Remote control is a bit plasticy;
No separate volume levels for each source;
No direct source selection (DVD->VIDEO1->VIDEO2->TUNER->DVD-VIDEO1->........);
Some basic controls are behind the flap-panel on the remote control (time-display, TV volume, ....)
Dezoning the DVD player seems to be quite difficult;
The display on the device is too bright, sometimes it is hard to read it;

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None

Better sound than I expected.

Inputs and outputs.

I don't have much to add to the other posters, except for one point. I was disappointed with the input/output options and the dedicated speaker situation. Other than that, it's a great unit. The sound probably will get lost in a room that is bigger than medium-size, but for a small room it's a great product. The satellites are o.k., but the center channel speaker doesn't have enough oomph for a room bigger than, say, 12x12. I'm particularly pleased by the sound when we play cds. JVC makes a slightly nicer system (the THA10), but I just couldn't see spending the extra dough.

Extremely compact, easy to install and use.

A bit light in the amplifier section

This is an excellent piece. Originally I had a 100x5w JVC reciever and the proscan DVD. The proscan began giving some problems and my entertainment center was getting overstacked as I planned on adding a cd recorder. When shopping for a new entertainment center at sears, I notice the sony on a open box buy with no manual or carton for $349. After listening to the unit, I was impressed and for the money I felt I could not go wrong. The sony was simple enough to learn with no paperwork which is very rare! The sound was good with the impressive small subwoofer. The 5 small surround speakers gave much more than I had originally suspected. The flip up remote is very nice along with the GUI on screen programming setup. This small piece made my other large much more expensive reciever and dvd seperate seem inferior! Although the JVC had more power, it still could not measure up overall. Very smart, and compact.

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Dumped my old JVC 5.1 reciever and proscan dvd for the sony compact.

only look

everything except good design

Those who gives 5 star to this product cant listen a saparete sytem.DVD AV receiver and Surround Speakers.
I suggest u to buy a saperete sytem.You can make it only 200
$ extra.

Nice clear sound, great value for money, gives you a nice complete system with all the features of those high priced systems.

Could do with a bigger subwoofer, but thats only becuase I like alot of rumble when the explosions happen.

Bascially, the DAVS-300 is a very nice system. Ofcourse I only spent $1300.00 AU on it, for DVD and Surround Sound including Subwoofer, thats pretty good. Sure you could go spend, $1000 on a reciever, go get a dvd player for $500-600 then you need speakers etc, you may come back saying but those are so much more louder then the davs-300, but you can only have the sound up so loud until you will go deaf or it just sounds crappy, aswell if you have the money to burn on a high priced system go ahead, but for most people i would think this would be more then they need. The only thing I have added to my system is 2x12" 500Watts subwoofers, but i like my bass:)

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Packaging, All in one.

Software weak in sound tuning, Speaker hardware awful.

I dumped the stock speakers and installed a superior package made by Panasonic. The Panasonic stuff is rated at 100 watts per channel for the satellite, mains, and center, 200 watts for the sub' so no power related distortion.

My living room is small, about 15'X 16' so this system suits it well. If I wanted to play CDs I'd be unhappy so I wack the rating for the poor performance there.

I knew it didn't do CD/Rs or MP.3s so no problems.

As long as it keeps running, I'm happy.

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Sanyo DWM 1000 (really lousy dialog sound)