Home Theater Starter Kit

The Sony DAV-FR10W offers a clean, sleek-looking audio system with great sound, and it's an ideal first home theater for its simplicity and ease of use. The setup comes equipped with a five-speaker system (four 43� free-standing speakers plus one 14� central unit), in addition to a subwoofer. A five-disc slot-loading changer plays DVD-Video, SACD, audio CD, and MP3 and JPEG files (via CD-R/RW). It’s not totally wireless, as the left rear speaker needs to be plugged in to the wall, be positioned with a clear wireless line to the main unit transmitter, and you then also have to run a wire from the left rear speaker to the right rear speaker, while there also has to be a line running between the disc-changer and the infrared transmitter. But other than that... Another complaint about the system is the lack of bass and treble controls, but the overall sound quality is so good that it usually squelches any criticism.

By: richard rowe