Sony DAV-S888

Sony DAV-S888 - Excellent quality Audio and Video system, especially excelling in the sound department where the 5.1 system delivers rich punchy sound with a variety of sources. Not to mention that it has proved to survive technological advances where this unit connects to a plethora of devices and reproduces amazing audio from DVD and Blu-ray movies which is what this was made for. The inclusion of Super-Audio CD playback is a neat and nice bonus; however, there isn't much of this around.

The Sony DAV-S888 is a brilliant system, bought mine some time ago now so it is not around anymore unless you get it second hand but you wont be disappointed, great channel separation, powerful, easy use...

Great system.

Sony DAV-S888 - Bought mine from John Lewis with standard 2 year warranty. Was ok for first year then kept skipping and freezing up like a PC. Had to keep switching off for 10 mins then it would play again, this happened even on brand new DVDs. Been back to John Lewis 3 times now. Finally identified one of main boards as cause of problem, and it's not cost effective to replace.They have offered me full refund or money towards any other TV/DVD product .

What do I buy to replace it as the new ones are nowhere as nice looking?

I've had my Sony DAV-S888 for well over a year. Picked it up in a sale for £550. A saving of £250 on Sony list price. The wife wasn't too happy about spending this much money on a DVD player, but soon warmed when she realised how much better the picture quality was than our Samsung. The 5.1 digital and DTS meant that she was happy.

Putting in an MP3 CD was a real revalation. Over 100 tracks playable. Great for parties etc. If you see one for sale, new, buy it. I've checked out sonys new range. "style over sound"

If buying 2nd hand, then check the speaker bases aren't bent, and remove the grills on the 5 speakers and check the condition of the cones. they seem quite tough but little fingers can do a lot of damage. Also check you get all 4 extension towers.

I bought the SONY DAVS888 system for £700 from a Sony centre so paid top dollar, but we wanted to watch a movie that night with it and my wife was with me, so we couldn't be bothered to worry about delivery and just wanted it there and then. It came with 3 free DVDs a free flight and we also got £50 off something else we bought, and a free additional cable I wanted.

It was pretty easy to set up with nice colour coding on all the wires. The main DVD and sound processor unit looks really good, and the sound when a movie is playing is great. I got caught out with the looking over my left shoulder thinking I heard a sound in the garden, but then realised it was the system....

The picture is pretty good but we got a 42" plasma at the same time, so not sure what proportion is the TV vs. the DVD.

I have tried playing normal music CDs and would say that my main stereo is definitely better in terms of mid range performance and depth of sound. For movies - which is what we've got it for - I have no complaints at all.

The sub is powered separately and the standby kicks in a bit too quickly for my liking when watching "normal" TV having 2 minor drawbacks (i) it makes a small click as it goes to standby (ii) when it picks up a base signal from the amp it takes a few tenths of a second to kick back in meaning you can miss the start of some base sound. More of a minor annoyance than anything else.

I haven't tried SACD but look forward to doing so. I think they did in the shop.

Overall I'm happy with the system because it looks the biz and sounds good.

Seems the problem with reading DVD's on the SONY DAVS888 is indeed carried over from the earlier model, perhaps in early ones of this particular model, perhaps all of them.

Mine stopped reading for no apparent reason after 14months of light use (1dvd a week).

Repairers advised the head had failed and charged £100, funny thing was nothing intenral changed (I marked it before repair). Sure enough 4months later it's stopped reading again, won;t be using the same repairer ...

I would not advise buying one and will personally try another manufacturer for it's replacement as I have TV/VCR and DVD from Sony and they all have quirks I wouldn't expect from Sony ... not the Sony I used to know and trust.

Originally, I owned a Sony davs800, and not to dishearten current owners, but this had to go back because it developed a fault with the cd player. I worked in an audio and tv department, and two shop floor models also developed the same faults.. not reading cd's, or taking ages to read the cd's and dvd's, or losing the sacd playback facility.. this happened to mine, and it then wouldn't read past a certain points on dvd's, it also took a lifetime to just read the cd's, and eject them!! I heard from a very reliable source that sony had quite a few problems with these systems... because they used a low cost cd player in the system!! the davs888 appeared rather mysteriously, and quickly after the 800 was released, I expect because they had changed the cd player, and just updated the woofer to a powered version to make it look a like a different model.. crafty!!

Admittedly though, the new system is much improved, reads cd's and dvd's much faster, and ejects them quickly as well, and the active woofer does make a difference, the 800 was overpowering in the low frequency range, and i found it drowned the mid range, the new woofer seems to change this, and to make the system appear to have more mid range, even though the speakers are still the same, who'd think a powered woofer could make such a difference!!

Overall, this new system is much improved, and even though I've had the luxury of having a similar system for over 8 months now, when I first got the system, was very impressed and happy with it, a great system for those who don't want to spend too much but have good sound and great looks... just don't go for the 800, even though its much cheaper now!!!

Its also good to look around, I got a bit stung for mine, buying it from a department store, but had the benefit of 12 months IFC, but mine is not multi region either, but was never a factor for me while buying the system anyway.

The main issue I had prior to buying this system was Dvd-r compatibility.-Don't worry, you will find no such problems. I have a Pioneer A04 DVD Writer and use Datasafe media with the G03 Ritek die...they work a treat. The disks are also printed with cd labels with no adverse affect.

If you are considering the DAVS550...I know someone who has this and upgraded to the DAVS888. I was due to buy the former from that someone and he told me not to bother. 'Night and day' was the expression he used.

I bought it from www.indigo-av.co.uk for £599 and their service was nothing short of first class. Any phonecalls I made were replied to timeously on request.

The bottom line is-buy this system-you will not be disappointed.