I think that at this price, the consumer should expect more. These weak speakers are unacceptable.
Sony has a good reputation in the home theater kit market, so I was excited to be reviewing their latest offering in the budget price range. This field is crowded with offerings from big box wholesale stores that average about $100 so I was curious to see if the extra $100 Sony added to the price tag would make a difference, or if it was all just marketing.
Setup of the HT-DDW700 was extremely simple, an important feature for a home theater in a box kit. Unfortunately, the simplicity came at the cost of flexibility. For some reason, Sony decided to use static cords to connect all of the speakers to the system. Meaning that if you need the speakers set farther back than the maximum included cord length, you are out of luck. This adds to the simplicity of setup, but severely limits the systems potential layouts.
The included auto calibration routine and microphone was a nice touch and added to the overall ease of the setup. The auto calibration worked well too and will be a welcomed addition for people who are uncomfortable calibrating their own speakers.
Beyond setup performance, this Sony package was only mediocre. The speakers sounded fine, the mids and highs were all accurately represented; however, the speakers were so underpowered that I had to crank the volume nearly all the way up just to have a satisfying movie experience in my average sized living room.
The subwoofer was another story completely. Underpowered is not necessarily a killing blow to regular speakers because the volume can be adjusted, however cranking the volume too loud on a sub will create distortion and noise artifacts. The Sony subwoofer had to be turned all the way up just to feel any bass from a reasonable distance.
The Sony HT-DDW700 should not be used in anything larger then a small bedroom, and even then you can find a better deal. In this case, ease of setup comes at too high of a price.
