Sony DAV TZ145 Home Theatre Review

Sony DAV TZ145 is a good 5.1 system for listening on regular basis like with television but no way of audiophile grade. Here is Sony DAV TZ145 Home Theatre Review From Practical Angles. From the point of sound processing, old Panasonic SA-AK15 with auxiliary input from mobile phone blows away it on clarity and beautiful bass. Installing Sony DAV TZ145 demands expert technician to deliver what it has to offer out of it’s 60W x 6 speakers. Else it will sound worse. Price tag is justified if SONY logo is wanted, a player for old VCDs needed, and continuously falling quality of Sony is taken in to account. It has really cool white VFD display delivering a premium feel. It is good for playing old MP3, VCD, DVD and converting 2 channel sound to pseudo 5.1.

What Sony DAV TZ145 Home Theatre Offers?

5 speakers, one DVD player and a remote. Quality of speakers with cables really good. The chassis of the main unit aka the player is also great. It has HDMI output and a decent, detailed on screen setup to set the distance of the speakers. However, the phrase “Home Theatre” is a farce for DAV TZ145. You have to buy lot of accessories to make it compatible to modern Smart TV, Smartphones. It is 5.1 only when you are playing discs. It has terrific audio input options – only 2 channel RCA (actually it is composite audio-video input).

You have to buy a Bluetooth dongle and RCA to 3.5mm jack to make it Bluetooth enabled. We discussed about such USB Bluetooth dongle to make audio wireless earlier. Those China made dongles do not cost huge. They can be powered by putting inside the USB port of Sony DAV TZ145 Home Theatre, RCA to 3.5mm jack will go from it to back of RCA to 3.5mm jack, mode will be TV/Cable to support auxiliary input from RCA. Sony markets the usage of the USB port for smartphone charging!

Now, 4K/UHD Smart TVs such as Samsung 7100 series does not have RCA output but optical output. You’ll need a digital SPDIF optical coaxial to analog RCA stereo audio converter unit. Such units cost around $15 and needs external power. Still, you are not getting 5.1 sound.

It is complex matter which size of video it actually can play via USB pen drive. It seems it is for playing 720p videos.

Conclusion

You are buying a pseudo 5.1 unit. Sound quality is enough good for regular listening particularly with TV. You’ll not really understand it is pseudo 5.1 till you purchase a real 5.1 unit. Your TV program via a top set box or a cable/satellite box demands a separate audio return to play thru Sony DAV TZ145. It appears that the circuit used by Sony is old design. At this cost, the sound is amazing compared with other brands. Panasonic omits the DVD player at the price tag. At closer price, Logitech has Z623 THX-Certified 2.1 speaker system with faux audiophile look. Sony DAV TZ145 easily found on sites which sells used electronics. The reason is obvious – peoples buy 5.1 home theatre to route 5.1 sound from modern cable/satellite box.

Sony DAV TZ145 sells because there is not many options at that price, peoples do not want to switch on costly audiophile grade system for listening television, some cheaper player for old VCD, DVD players needed, 5.1 amplifier can use the nice speakers and route from Blu Ray player.

Sony DAV TZ145 is not easy to send to scrap. The speakers are really good. Sony saved money in the player-amp unit (which a good DIY 5.1 amplifier will fix). Upgrade by buying 5.1 amplifier plus Bluetooth dongle and RCA to 3.5mm jack and/or digital SPDIF optical coaxial to analog RCA stereo audio converter unit not difficult.