Price Paid:  $600.00 from Hi-Fi shop

Summary:
SONY SAVE 750 (Model before 835) The SONY SAVE 750 was more expensive than the 835, it has white speaker cones with black suspensions and a better sculptured aluminium enclosure. Its subwoofer is much more attractive and larger with a grey flared port in the superb silver front. It uses the 835's wall mount supports - amazing - titanium plastic ball joint swivel supports, easy to put up - easier than the metal Realistic Minimus 7 supports. Also it uses the standard SONY stands, which are very useful if the front speakers are standing in front of a window. Sound of this system is impressive with the Denon AVR 1802! Bass from the 24Hz sub has to be the death knell for big speakers like the Realistic Mach 2. This system with its SACD tweeters produces great satellite music in 5Ch stereo. But hook the sub up to an old Technics SU-Z2 or a nicam tv output and you have to suspect the Denon AVR 1802 sub output channel combination! These subs produce wall-shaking bass, but using a 1978 harman A-402 amplifier with Goodmans Imagio 120 loudspeakers, you get a chest thumping experience, stereo effects that leap back and forth between speakers and music peaks that leap out and zap your ears. The SAVE 705 doesn't do that from satellite using 5 ch stereo with the AVR-1802, but you have to look at the genius in these old Hitachi built harman amps of the 1970s. DVD is a bit better. Sound from 2 Realistic Minimus 7s and the Canadian Realistic SUB-700 subwoofer in push-pull, (M&K style) just about equals the SAVE 705, when using the Realistic Mach 2 tweeters! These push-pull subs produce huge spacious bass effects with these spherical baffle horn tweeters, (such horns widen the sound field, JBL still make such horns for professional stage monitors)stereo sounds that are felt despite the mono claim of the bass signal and when the SUB-700 is not in push-pull, it produces far more sumptious bass, apparently far below the rated 50Hz, but none of the stereo movement effects. Of course you can't just switch it to one or the other, but great as the SAVE 705 is, there are things it doesn't do, things which far cheaper 2 speaker sub/sats could do. It makes you think. The first Kenwood Pro-Logic systems made a hissy, very blurred sound, but their bass effects on Batman were enough to induce a heart attack. M&K sub/sats aren't up to that job either, they are very blurred, now Cerwin Vega sats with a REL storm sub do produce a stunning clear and spacious result, but you are paying much more and the sub is huge and ugly, with massed wires! Taking the SONY SAVE 705 or the cheaper, (uglier)835 system as a convenience system, it is as good as the 1990 "Realistic" brand Nicam stereo system it replaced. Plus the bass can roar like an underground train going through the whole house! This powerful stray bass is not necessary and the 6ft cable is a bit short to position sub far away from chairs. Tannoy and Lowther used horns to create such effects near the loudspeakers. Lower power bass might do, the HT-BE1 and 35Hz JBL sub/cube sat systems are worth looking at.

Strengths:
SAVe 705 is silver, beautiful, compact, very stylish and an ideal replacement for the formidable Realistic 7 loudspeaker system. Back speakers have blue grilles and front ones silver! When you get new speakers you can't accept a loss of quality, if you get a wall shaking bass, a Realistic Mach 2 system replacement in a bargain, tiny sub/sat system, that is enough. Much more aesthetic than custom Realistic sub/sat 2 channel spkr set.

Weaknesses:
Wall Shaking Bass is not chest thumping bass, great surround is not a thrilling ghost train like experience found with old 1970s stereos and GLL ICT 120 single point speakers. (Small short horn ICT versions of vintage long horn DC Tannoys with separate chest thumping bass driver and indestructable tweeter similar to Optimus Linaeum type in effects) Power-save function on sub is not much use. Does not have push-pull's leading edge bass definition using a horn like the the Realistic PRO-1377! Denon AVR 1802 is using a lot of watts compared to Realistic for very similar sound. Speaker cable sats has to be thin or can be tricky getting cable/pod set up! Stray powerful bass could upset your neighbours big time! This is a Realistic Maximus X-100 sound, it rocks more than the Mach One! (which has a 65Hz resonance frequency and brass wire in the bobbin! Hello copper drive systems!)

Similar Products Used:
Realistic Minimus-7 and steel wall mounts, Realistic SUB-700 converted to push-pull and Realistic Mach 2 spherical baffle super horns - Wow! what a system with 2x13 watts rms of input from the tv!

Price Paid:  $579.00 from J & R Music World

Summary:
I have looked for speakers that are small and carry a big bang for 11 years and this is the system to get. I looked at the Bose AM 15 but at a side by side the Sony's where much clearer and handled the power great with great bass and super highs. These are a must buy!

Strengths:
Size. Great sound output.

Weaknesses:
None

Price Paid:  $580.00 from etronics.com

Summary:
I purchased this system in april of 03 and at the time only had a dolby prologic pioneer reciever I got for christmas about 5 years ago.It was very painful for me to have such a good system hooked up to such a crappy reciever.I knew that prologic hooked up to any 5.1 system will make it basically pointless and sound terrible, so I put it away until I could afford to order a new reciever. I finally ordered a new reciever the Sony STR-DE995 and another satelite for 6.1 DTS ES and I could not believe the sound,I have two movies I recommend to anyone wanting to test Dolby Digital EX and DTS ES Terminator 2 the Ultimate Edition and Gladiator. I would reccomend this system to anyone. Especially someone about to make the mistake of buying a Bose system.

Strengths:
stylish frequency huge sound from a small package

Weaknesses:
no mounting brackets

Similar Products Used:
bose lifestyle

Price Paid:  $580.00 from Etronics.com

Summary:
Well these were my first step into the home theater side. I was recently using four large speakers to get my sound and had no subwoofer. I choose these speakers for the range in sound that they had. I looked into the Polk Audio, and a very nice Klipsch setup, however I found that without purchasing a better subwoofer 28Hz was about the lowest a theater package would go. Well Sony went to 24Hz and have an extended frequency tweater rated to go as high as 70KHz. I will never hear that pitch so I didn't really care about the highest sound. I wanted speakers that could produce the sound I wanted for movies and PS2 and not have to spend a fortune and lose my living room doing it. When I first hooked up these speakers I have to say I was really set back with the sound that came from such a setup. I am a strong believer in larger speakers, but needed to save space in my new house. These sound incredible! Home theater will never be able to live without these speakers. I don't really care for Sony speakers and even when I went to my local store to listen to speakers never thought of Sony as one to think about, but they really made a good product here!

Strengths:
- 24Hz - 70KHz of Great Range - Very Stylish! - Easy to make 6.1 since you can purchase single speakers. -Fits the budget at $580 -Great sound on PS2 using Pro Logic II

Weaknesses:
-No wall mounting brackets -Subwoofer needs a lot longer cable than the 6 foot one supplied. -Music listening does not match larger speakers (this is to be expected)

Similar Products Used:
I own a set of NHT speakers, and no I will not part with them! These speakers are not a replacement by any means just my sound for my 6.1 theater listening. Music listening needs to always go throw my