The only good thing or feature about 'Sony BDV-E690' is that it has a built-in BDP. Otherwise it is a waste of money. When I say "waste of money" I am weighing my words carefully. As mentioned above, it does not allow scope for expansion/growth. It is good as long as you just want to pop-in BD or DVD into the player and enjoy cinema with surround sound. Sound quality wise, it is average to decent, nothing exceptional. But the problem comes in the "growth/expansion" part.
It is rare that you will not want to connect external devices to an HT system. For instance, the most common requirement is, you will want to connect your HD STB to the HTiB and enjoy full surround sound while watching HD movies on HD channels. This Sony system does not have HDMI or Coaxial/Optical inputs - so you cannot connect. Or you may want to connect your ipod to the system to listen to music - again out of luck. It could be that you have a DAC that you wish to connect - twang - wrong answer. Not having any external inputs is a great limiting factor. This forum has many queries on "I wish to connect my STB to my ______ HTIB" (fill Sony, Samsung, LG, panasonic, Philips, etc. in the blank), and then everyone tell them, "Sorry boss, you are out of luck". As lake1988, suggested go for a proper HTIB such as Onkyo 3500 or Denon 1312xp or Yamaha YHT 298, etc. - basically an HTIB with a proper AVR. You will feel much happier later. Price will be around 28-30K. The only thing that you will not get is a BD player. But in any case, the BDP with the above Sony HTiB is region locked for BDs (not sure about DVDs).
