Welcome to our comparison of Sony 715ES vs. JVC RS2000 Projectors. Here we discuss our experience with home theater and HiFi gear as well as tips and tricks on setup. We’re here to help out anyway we can. This will be a culmination of multiple years of experience whether it be personal or as a team effort. Sit back and enjoy the content and thanks again for joining us.
Our dream is to have a home theater in every home in the USA. What is a home theater? Is it a grouping of speakers in a surround sound configuration? Is it a TV or a projection system? Is it a designed and engineered room that looks great and is functional? The answer may not be so simple. It could be one of those or a combination of all three. We at DREAMEDIA love a two piece projection system. We’re no strangers to the leaders in the industry. Recently, I was able to test the new Sony 715s against the JVC RS2000 also known as the NX7. These are both Native 4K HDR and I must admit, I had some preconceived expectations about the Sony 4K projector given its heritage. Seeing both of these side by side laid those notions to rest. Without further ado let’s jump into this comparison.
UNBOXING AND SETUP
I thought this comparison would be easy and there would be a quick decisive winner between the two. I was mistaken. Let’s first talk about the unboxing experience. Both have easy setups, a user focused menu system and look incredible out of the box too. The Sony has a premium black finish and the monster JVC casing commands the room with its massive footprint. Start up was quick and easy with both. There weren’t any unusual noises or hiccups to get the projectors setup. For this comparison, I used a level platform that was wide enough for both projectors. Both projectors were leveled and set up to display identical sized images on a massive projector screen wide enough to accommodate both images side by side. The source was an OPPO 205 into a Trinnov processor into two identical HDMI into each of the projectors. We even used the Clarus duet power conditioner to keep the power clean for both projectors. Additionally, the throw distances were the same and menu settings between the two were mimicked as closely as possible. I say all of this in such detail to let you all know that great lengths went into making sure this was a fair fight. With a retail of $19,000 combined between the two I feel like I owe it to you all to do my due diligence.
I would also like to state that all demos used were 4K HDR (high dynamic range) disks. We did not test any 1080p or 4K SDR (standard dynamic range) content and no streaming content was used. That could be an area of exploration in later reviews.
THE VISUAL EXPERIENCE
Once setup was complete with panels aligned and focused racked, the projectors were on for over 45 minutes at this point. So, let’s tackle what matters most, the visual experience with both projectors. The first demo we played was Blade Runner 2049 in 4K HDR. The black levels were a deep black on the JVC and less pronounced on the Sony. If you have ever seen this movie, it’s a very dim and bleak movie putting it on one extreme end of the spectrum for HDR brightness. Both images were spectacular. I did notice a tad bit more sharpness on the Sony as compared to the JVC on certain scenes. Usually, the up close scenes that display Ryan Gosling’s face were razor sharp on the Sony and had a little more of a film look on the JVC. This leaves no clear winner, just differences in individual preferences.
COLOR ACCURACY
Color accuracy was pretty close between the two. Brightness was unclear on which had the edge on the other. Where I did notice a difference was in the auto tone mapping HDR feature. Sony has not had this available on the 715ES predecessor the 695ES. Being that this is new tech for Sony they did a great job for sure, but still the winner in this feature goes to the JVC RS2000. Unlike Sony, JVC has been using dynamic tone mapping for years and they are on their 2nd iteration of it with the latest firmware in the JVC. This translates into a seamless user experience. You set the JVC up initially and you don’t have to touch the remote afterwards. Conversely, the Sony has a menu setting where you can choose how heavily or how minimally the HDR contrast affects the image. Even with the ability to use the remote to choose which setting works best for HDR it’s not a set it and forget it type of approach. I’ll expand on this in a few. Other than those few points these both give a stunning image.
The next demo we did was The Meg. This is from one extreme to another. Where Blade Runner 2049 is a very dark movie, The Meg is a very bright movie. This is largely based outside and around water during daylight. There is a scene halfway through the movie where there is a diver in the water showing the shark cage in the silhouette of the sun. The JVC RS2000 handled this perfectly without any additional input from the remote or setting manipulation. The Sony on the other hand was just on its best HDR tone mapping setting from Blade Runner. This combination of settings resulted in very blown out highlights. You couldn’t even see any discernible detail about the shark cage. With some fiddling of the tone mapping setting on the Sony the images turned out pretty similar between the two with my eyes gravitating still to the JVC RS2000 for overall more realistic image recreation.
We did several other demos after this like Mad Max: Fury Road, Game of Thrones and several others. The results were the same throughout the rest of the tested material. I’m only focusing on one specific feature in between the two because that is really the only difference between the two. Both give a very enjoyable and immersive cinematic experience. This comparison is really about splitting hairs. At this price point you would expect excellence and both deliver for sure.
USER EXPERIENCE
Most people don’t think about this but there are some other features that aren’t specifically seen with projectors. I’m speaking to the user experience with the projector. Sony follows suit with its heritage of having a noisier fan by comparison. Additionally, the Sony 715ES gave off a fair amount of heat more than the JVC RS2000. This may not be an issue for you but I felt it fair to note it here.
CONCLUSION: Sony 715ES vs. JVC RS2000 Projectors
In conclusion, you can’t really go wrong with either. Both have their own personality and both excel in specific areas and don’t let you down with any specific fault. At this price point I would be happy to personally own either of these. They both live up to the hype. The New for 2021 Sony 715ES had the slight leg up on sharpness. The additional processing that this unit has that the outgoing Sony 695 is a massive step forward. The older Sony models used to be much dimmer but this one brings up that brightness to a very enjoyable level. Color accuracy and motion was similar in between both sets of projectors. The JVC RS2000 has the leg up on its 4K HDR recreation. It has a set it and forget it approach and that is valuable to the user experience. The black levels were stunning as well. It did not match the same sharpness as the Sony 715ES but by itself the image still looked amazingly sharp without comparison. It was not a simple task to achieve this comparison. I’ll end off here so make sure you view this related video and subscribe to DREAMEDIA Home Theater on YouTube. I hope you are all pumped to go back home and watch a good movie now!
-Chris Mata