Price Paid:  $0.00 from onecall.com

Summary:
I've owned this receiver since autumn of 1999. Although a few of the other components have changed in that time, I still use the Sony DB830 as the cornerstone of my home theater. Unlike experiences others have had, my receiver has performed flawlessly. I've had input gripes (see weaknesses below) from the beginning and more so since a recent monitor upgrade. I am now faced with replacing my receiver and it looks like it will not be Sony, because of these issues. However, I still have enjoyed this receiver and do not regret my purchase. Lots of bang for the buck.

Strengths:
Easy to customize and use. There's a sound field for all tastes. Take your time and follow the manual and it's a breeze. Any equipment, regardless of manufacturer, can be difficult at first to set up, but once you find your parameters, all you do is turn the receiver on and off anyway. There's plenty of power for my needs. In home theater mode, the sound never ceases to blow me away. It leaves me wanting a little in the music mode, but that is a weakness of my speakers. Coupled with great quality speakers, however, this receiver delivers great sound. Most sub/sat combos are sufficient at delivering outstanding home theater performance, however they are lacking for music enthusiasts. If you are using your receiver for music as well as home theater, get some decent front speakers and sub and stop complaining that your receiver is not "musical" enough.

Weaknesses:
Sony, in it's infinite wisdom, has assigned digital audio inputs. Coaxial input is only available for DVD/LD and not TV/SAT (optical only). Digital audio inputs of any type are not available for VIDEO 1,2, or 3. There's also no S-video inputs for TV/SAT or VIDEO 2. This whole combination has made for creative and aggravating hookups. My original satellite box wasn't as much of an issue, but now my cable box has only coaxial digital audio output and has to be plugged into the DVD/LD slot. That relegates the DVD player to the TV/SAT inputs with no S-video. Can't use VIDEO 1, because of assigned digital audio that doesn't include it. I use my receiver as the component switcher for my home theater, so the work-around was frustrating. I ended up having to use composite video instead of S-video and suffered with lower quality video for a while. Not a big issue with a smaller tv, but a recent upgrade to a 42" plasma and a need for component (R G B) input switching has me now searching for a new receiver.

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo, JVC, and two other Sony receivers.

Price Paid:  $500.00 from London

Summary:
Just to follow up. Fixing the Protector error in London (at a qualified sony service center at Queens Park) cost about £100 ($150). It required replacing four £7 parts (as well as about 8 parts that were free) and about 1.5 hours of labour + tax. Not cheap, but maybe worth it if the fix actually lasts...

Weaknesses:
Don't buy this unit. Most lower cost versions in the UK are illegal (no tax) imports from Dubai. That being said, who knows whether they are of inferior quality to the "officially imported" ones.

Similar Products Used:
Regards, Roland www.riskjobs.info

Price Paid:  $350.00 from The Stereo Center

Summary:
This is my first time reviewing, I just found this site and wish I had known about it along time ago. I was pretty slow getting into the home theater seen, and was slowly collecting the pieces and parts I needed to make it happen. I was extremely happy with my 2 channel system I was running. I have a beautiful Luxman LV-105 I had hooked up to an old set of Phase Tech PC60 with a PC50 Passive Sub. I picked up a set of Phase Tech PC-3’s for the Mains and Power 10 subwoofer and used those with the Luxman for about a year. I tried in vain to find a matching Phase Tech center at the 50% off price I got the mains and sub for. After a year, I finally broke down and paid retail. During that year I picked up a 36” Wega XBR, so when I got the center it was time to go receiver shopping. I had originally had my eye set of an ES unit and went to my good friends shop, The Stereo Center in Flint MI. I didn’t do much research and relied on my friend to steer me in the right direction. My first gripe was that the showed me the 930’s remote when I looked at the 830. It was a major disappointment when I got it out of the box. More on the remote later. At the time he was an ES dealer, and said this DB series were called ES crossovers, that they had them on the bench opened up side by side and all the internal gut of the machine were exactly the same as it’s ES equivalent. The only real difference was that the ES carried a 5-year warranty and the DB series carried only one. That sold me. I brought it home paying $350 and hooked it up in 2 channel for a couple weeks. I had the sub hooked up to the mains with the internal crossover. When installing it I came across another annoyance, there is no optical input for a CD player, so I had to go through the Mini-disc/DAT input. After a few weeks I went back and got all new interconnects and speaker wire and it was time to get everything working. This ended up costing way more than I was planning because like the great friend that he is my buddy just happen to have 5 SL-7700 DVD players in stock that were recently closed out. I broke down and pick up this great player for $400. Hooking up the rear channels, using my old PC60/50 combo, I ran into the dreaded overprotection circuit. I had stapled the wire to keep it in place and had accidental hit the wire and shorted it. Now I ran across the problem with the Sub

Strengths:
Awsome Digital Surround sound at a great value. Great build and quality.

Weaknesses:
Remote, no base volume control, no optical input for CD, no sub in 2 channel

Similar Products Used:
N/A first venture into home theater

Price Paid:  $400.00 from Onecall.com

Summary:
Just to add my 2 cents'' worth to the previous review, as my unit has done the same thing, gone into "PROTECTOR" mode on a permanent basis. I know any remaining examples of this model are probably closeouts at fabulous prices, but I''d be a little concerned about longetivity of this model. Just for info of anyone else with the same problem, Sony''s FAQ''s say that "PROTECTOR" mode may be caused by a temporary or correctable short or overheating problem. They recommend (1) disconnecting all speaker connections and (2) unplugging the unit entirely from the wall outlet for 1-2 hours to allow it to "reset," then re-connecting speakers one at a time to see if the unit comes back to life. Didn''t work for me. There is no readily-apparent problem with the unit, and even with nothing hooked up whatsoever, it comes on for a couple seconds, the display dims, and then I get the dreaded "PROTECTOR" screen. The FAQs say that if the disconnect-and-pray steps don''t work, you should seek Sony service. After the warranty expires, a new receiver may be as cheap as Sony service. I have used this unit sparingly, never at more than half volume, in a well-ventilated cabinet, and it died in mid-song using the tuner at moderate volume, so there was no real event of abuse to cause the problem. I hae very much enjoyed the sound and input/output flexibility of this receiver, but I''m a little disappointed at its just-past-warranty-expiration failure. Five-star performance for 2 years. Zero-star performance after that. I''d average that to a "3".

Strengths:
i/o and switching capability, good auto-sensing of surround modes on DVD''s and multichannel audio CD''s, clean look w/ flip-down door, flexible setup. Plus that way-cool blue light in DTS/DOlby mode.

Weaknesses:
So-so remote and apparent propensity to sudden and inexplicable suicide.

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood 4010 (OK, but remote is even weirder), JVC 6008 (P.O.S., overloads, pops, hisses, even worse remote than the other 2), Sony DB1070 (to replace this one, too early to tell) and various separate

Price Paid:  $500.00 from London Tottenham Court Road

Summary:
1.5 years after my purchase (and the end of the manufacturer's guarantee) the unit stopped working. The visual display says "PROTECTOR" and the manual states this means that the unit has short circuited.

I have only bought Sony's my whole life, but this is the same error that I had with my previous Sony Receiver/AMP. I thought that upgrading from a $300 model to a $500 model, I would have better circuitry. The previous unit lasted 3 years, before showing the same error.

Strengths:
Nice sound quality and power.

Weaknesses:
The unit is not geared towards heavy usage. If you keep it on for 10 hours in a row (say you do a big party and you pump 4 large speakers), with the volume near the max, it becomes super hot, and at times will overheat. Remote is also quite poor. Difficulty of finding optical cables in London.

Similar Products Used:
Same Receiver/Amp but 500 series. Only use Sony units, TV's, VCR's.