Price Paid:  $400.00 from tweeter, etc.

Summary:
i have had this reciever for over 5 years and it still shows consistent perfomance, great pro-logic decoder, and a fabulous tuner. i am very impressed and probably going to buy a Sony STR-V555ES soon.

Strengths:
great remote, outstanding build quality

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
onkyo and sony

Price Paid:  $500.00

Summary:
Purchased this probably when it first came out sometime in 1995. The unit has been used almost everyday since and was repaired once (early this year 2001) for $199.

I have always been pleased with its stereo performance, and the Dolby surround has been good, and lately with DVDs it has improved. I recently purchased a Yamaha HTR-5460, probably a bad comparison, based on the Yamaha being low mid-priced, and the Sony originally a mid mid-priced unit. I was expecting several things:

1. Remote would control almost everything.
2. Dolby Digital would be a noticable improvement.
3. Stereo would be adequate.
4. Broken pin in the S-video monitor out on my Sony was preventing me from using S-video to the main TV. (I still use S-video to the projector, direct from DVD unit)

After using the Yamaha for a week and re-watching some of my favorite titles and cranking up the latest CDs, I returned the unit. Not to bash the Yamaha, it had a lot of great features, but I think I had used the Sony too long. The Yamaha sounded fuzzy by comparison (do some people consider that warm?) and the Digital did not make enough difference to put up with the remote.

I have Paradigm Front, Center, and rear.

I will probably purchase another, but am leaning toward another Sony, although I'll probably take a look at the Yamaha RX 8000 or higher to compare to the 5460.

Just my 2 cents...

Strengths:
Crisp Sound, Consistant perfomance.

Similar Products Used:
Yamaha htr-5460

Price Paid:  $550.00 from Andersons Electronics

Summary:
This was an entry level reciever for home theater and stereo listing.

Home Theater Use:

As a home theater receiver, this model was almost imposible to configure. Factory settings gave poor soundfield imaging and implementing changes from manual's sketchy suggestions made it sound worse. Final arrangement simply ditched the rear speakers and used 3 channel mode. The unit failed my expectations for home theater use (Anderson Electronics sales/support was non-existant..they could not configure the reciever properly either...and Sony was even worse).

Home Theater Score: 2.25

Stereo Reciever Use:

As a stereo receiver, this unit performed much better. The sound was clean with little or no noise. (persistant hum in rear channel speakers was fixed by not using rear channel speakers) Speaker connection hardware rear of unit is cheap and needs constant cleaning and tightening. This should not be the case with "high end" equiptment (Sony...take note....if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, and is advertised like a duck...it still not a duck if you use cheap hardware)

My major complaint with the unit is its poor performance with 4 ohm speakers. The sound with my Maggie MMG's is very
thin. Especially in the mid base to lower midrange regions. Better design in the amp section could have prevented this. My only solution is to either nix the Maggies or get a better performing amp/receiver..(Hello Maranz?)

Stereo Rating: 3.25

Remote and Documentation:

This is a no brainer. The remote has been replaced three times due to internal componant failure. The provided codes work poorly with my existing SONY equiptment and even worse with other equiptment. Essentially, the remote has a learning disability and should have been sent back to whatever engineer thought this thing up. (In general, SONY does not have a clue when it come to remotes....a billion buttons does not make for a good remote)

The manual spent more time explaining why you should not submerge the unit in water than it did on how to configure the receiver for home theater listening. The documentation is shameful and Sony's factory service is worse. (Audioreview should have a discussion thread on the sad state of consumer electronics documentation.)

The remote did come with batteries and the staples have not yet fallen out of the lousy manual.

Remote and Documentation Score: 1.5

Strengths:
Well Built
Clean Sound
Fair Price

Weaknesses:
Poor Documentation
Confusing Remote
Poor Theater Configuration Controls
Poor 4 ohm speaker performance

Similar Products Used:
Kenwood, Yamaha, NAD

Price Paid:  $325.00 from Magnolia Hi-Fi

Summary:
Great pro logic system. Got it on sale and had it for years.
Fair tuner and still good on music too!

Strengths:
Well built, performs very well on movies

Weaknesses:
none for the price

Summary:
I have had this model for about five years and it has served me well. Very good prologic steering and dynamics. Rated conservatively at 90wpc. I haven't had one problem with this receiver. My only criticism is that is lacks refinement in stereo, though it is by no means bad. I am in the market now for a new unit and will go with Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX. I think Sony ES line is quite overpriced right now.

Strengths:
Excellent construction, clean and smooth power for home theater.

Weaknesses:
A bit edgy for stereo listening.

Similar Products Used:
NAD, HK.