The surround-speaker transmitter must have power and be hard wired to each rear-surround speaker, meaning the whole thing actually adds one more wire to deal with--the power cable. However, it is nice to eliminate long rear-surround speaker wires, as hiding the front-to-back speaker cables in a living room can be quite a chore. The rear speakers perform well and are simple to set up. We couldn't tell any difference in sound compared with a hard-wired satellite.
The HAV-HDX589W (as well as its sibling Sony DVD home theater systems) includes an outboard iPod dock that plugs into the unit's proprietary DMPORT connection. The dock works with fourth-generation iPods or later and will work with the iPhone and iPod Touch. We should note that the device puts the iPhone into airplane mode while in use. Unfortunately, there's no onscreen (TV) display for the iPod, so you're stuck manually navigating through music on the iPod itself. You can also swap in other DMPORT accessories from Sony, such as a Bluetooth receiver or network audio streamer.
Finally, the HAV-HDX589W includes an AM/FM tuner with programmable presets. There is no built-in HD Radio or satellite radio option.
Performance (video)
Overall, picture quality was solid when we ran the HAV-HDX589W through our series of HQV benchmarking tests. While the system did not pass the 2:3 pull-down section of the HQV benchmark, jaggies and artifacts were largely absent.
More importantly, imperfections found during our benchmarking tests were almost impossible to find in every day real-world viewing. We were more than satisfied with its performance while viewing "The Two Towers" and "The Fifth Element" on DVD. Of course, true videophiles will want to skip a DVD system altogether and go for Blu-ray instead.
Performance (audio)
Thanks to the DAV-HDX589W's abundant bass, it sounds big and powerful. Even with the subwoofer turned way down, we were always aware of its contributions.
We couldn't resist pumping up the volume on the circle of drums scene from the "House of Flying Daggers" DVD to see how the DAV-HDX589W would fare. The big drums had plenty of power, but the subwoofer's soft definition muddled the drums' impact.
Surround effects of the birds and insects during the scenes in the bamboo forest sounded great. The DAV-HDX589W's wireless surround speakers behaved perfectly; we never detected any dropouts, sputtering noises, or high hiss levels that plague some wireless speakers.
Dialog was nicely balanced, as the little DAV-HDX589W center speaker had a full, natural sound.
Jeff Beck's "Live at Ronnie Scott's" concert DVD sounded less terrific. Beck's guitar wizardry was fine, but Tal Wilkenfeld's hard-hitting bass and Vinnie Colaiuta's drums sounded bloated. Turning down the subwoofer volume helped a bit, but the sub's tendency to thickness was impossible to tame. The drums' cymbals were aggressively harsh when we listened at high volume.
CD sound fared similarly, with a lot of bass, clear-sounding vocals, and less-than-smooth treble. Since the DAV-HDX589W can play SACDs, we listened to the David Hazeltine Trio's "The Jobin Songbook in New York" SACD. Hazeltine's jazz piano sounded well above average for a moderately priced HTIB, but the speaker's underlying harshness was definitely more apparent here.
All testing considered, we think the DAV-HDX589W did a better job with movies and we wouldn't recommend it to buyers who'd use it primarily for music listening.
Conclusion
All in all, we found the Sony HAV-HDX589W to be a capable (if unremarkable) DVD home theater system, with quick response time while changing discs, solid sound during movie playback, and good DVD video quality. The somewhat high list price of $429 gives us pause, but if you can find it for closer to $350, it's a pretty good deal.
If wireless rear speakers aren't essential, you may want to look at the step-down DAV-HDX285 model, which is $130 cheaper. If you'd prefer a multiroom listening station, there's the DAV-HDX587WC, which goes for the same price. Alternatively, Sony makes the HT-SS360, a solid 5.1 HTIB with three HDMI inputs. This model is available for about $325 and will let you bring your own video sources.
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Sony DAV-HDX589W:
