“Honey, I Shrunk The Speakers” July 15, 2007

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How small do speakers have to get before they become just a little bit ridiculous? Just ask Sony. The company has just unveiled its new £600 Bravia Theatre DAV-IS10 5.1 home cinema system with possibly the smallest speakers ever on a home entertainment system.

Even the main system, which will play and upscales DVDs to [near 1080i], measures just 21cm across and 10cm high. It also houses a FM/AM radio – not DAB - which is a bit disappointing. Still, the controls are hidden and touch sensitive and it boasts Bravia Theatre Sync to allow for one-button operation of this unit when it’s hooked up to other Bravia kit.

The golf-ball sized speakers will no doubt make placement easy but they run the danger of being swallowed by your dog. Other features include:

- Two Digital Media Ports compatible with MP3 players, including the Network WALKMAN.
- TDM-BT1 streams music via Bluetooth from devices such as A2DP 'music phones'
- TDM-NC1 hooks into your home WiFi network and streams music from a VAIO laptop or other computers."
- Portable Audio Enhancer, which applies sophisticated digital signal processing to expand the sound of compressed music from portable players.
- DAV-IS10 is capable of up scaling standard-definition signals from a DVD and outputting them in this enhanced form via the HDMI connection to your TV

There’s no power rating on this system which is somewhat ominous, since I’d like to know what kind of output and quality someone can expect from such teenie weenie speakers. Is this just another example of style over substance? Sony recently announced the Invisible home cinema so I'm sensing a trend.

Still, if you live in a home where technology comes 8th or 9th behind curtains and Feng Shui in the living room, this could be the system for you. Jump now for some more shots of the system and style-friendly speakers.-Martin Lynch