Clean, powerful, beefy amp. Nice looking. Cool running. Great HT receiver.

Remote - poorly designed layout, not user friendly at all.

I have to say that my initial impression of this receiver is the same as it is after using it for over a year.

It has always been 100% consistant with none of the problems that others are reporting.

The remote is simply bad. First of all, the layout is sloppy and very user-unfriendly. The flip-up access lid is a tried-and-failed approach to remote making and Sony, once again has embraced it here.

But to put things in perspective, remotes come a dime a dozen, and when I get to the point when I can't take it anymore, I'll shell out the bucks for a GUI programmable remote.

Onto the front panel of the receiver. Beautifully designed as far as the eye goes and though they have some great ideas for user navigation, they seem to fall short in other areas. Simple controls like bass and treble are buried in menus instead of readily available; surprising since, once again, Sony has embraced the flip out panel. They could have easily hid an ugly array of controls. Instead, you are left with an impression that the interface is a little sparse, at best -- basically beauty over function has played into this.

Where it counts, the guts, I think are the saving grace of this unit. Hefty transformers and giant heat-sinks show the quality of materials that obviously went into this receiver. You can tell by the sheer weight of it, that they haven't skimped in this department. Sometimes, size does matter, especially when you are trying to create an efficient environment for a receiver. Skimping on things like sufficient mass for heatsinks lead to poor, distorted sound characteristics, not to mention imminate failure at some point (heat and time are not good things for any electronic product).

I've never pushed this receiver to ear-bleeding levels, but I can say that it holds steady through all the paces I've put it through. Watching DVD's like Matrix, still put shivers down my spine as the bone-shaking, tightly responsive bass keeps up with even the most dynamic segments. There seems to be no practical limit of what this receiver can handle. It gracefully performs, beautifully, no matter how hard it's worked.

For the record, here is the combination I'm currently using:

Front Speakers: Acoustic Research AR1's *
Rear Speakers: KLH junkers (next to be replaced)
Center Speaker: Acoustic Research AR2C
DVD Player: Sony DVP-C650D (5 disc carousel changer)
CD Player: Sony CDP-CX400 (400 disc changer)

All optically bound for audio, S-video for vid.
* serves as my LFE sub

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer (forget model)

Build,look,power and price

Remote and nothing else yet !! Runs little hot after 5-6 hours

This website helped me to decide due to some honest opinions.
I have been using this receiver to drive 6 speakers over a year(Please see below).I have tested some movies like "Matrix","Run Lola Run","Macanna's Gold", some of the latest animated productions, music DVDs - Eagles "Hell Freezes Over", Bee Gees "One night only" etc. This receiver handeled all highs and lows in both DD and dts crystal clear.

About the "Hissing" noise - if source selected and volume nob turned beyond 7 then noticeable 2 feet away from the speaker.I did not notice any hising noise between tracks (usually 3 sec for CD's) or prolonged silence sequence in movies (about 5 to 7 secs). I have never listened beyond volume set past 4 although when trying the power of this receiver I have turned the vol past 7 and ended up walls, floor and roof shaking.I am not really concerned about hissing , since I will not have this monster turned on unless I am listening to or watching something.

Dimension of my living room 14'W X 11H X 24'L and all the speakers were adjusted accordingly.

My DB830 connected to the following using Monster cables

BOSE 301 (IV) front
BOSE 201 (IV) surround
BOSE VCS10 center
YAMAHA YST85 Sub.

Sony DVP 650 DVD/CD player
Sony CDPX55 50+1 CD player

Overall I am happy with this unit.I will recommend this to anyone who is not extremely critical and will be able to find in the market.
A note on purchase - Crutchfield dropped their price and did not credit me a penny, so careful about their policy.

Similar Products Used:

Lots of other Sony products

Excellent construction, Great price, Amazing sound for the money.

none yet

For the price I paid I am extreemly happy. I went to stereo advantage to buy the ne str-db840 which they had for 399.99 but then i saw the db830 open box with no price on it. At first they told me $300, but I was able to talk them down to the $250 that I ended up paying.

Similar Products Used:

sony str-de825

Price, Quality, Sound & Features

Remote - Can't read the letters on the glo-keys

I would like to see a better receiver for under 600 bucks, and this one can be had for almost half of that. I can't say enough about this thing, DD is great. Hooked the unit up to a 650d dvd and the sound is amazing. No question, this is one of the best values in home receivers now, do yourself a favor and go buy one before it's too late!

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, H/K, Onkyo

construction, power, inputs, easy to follow manual and easy to hook up.

None yet

Bought based solely on reviews from this board. Couldn't test before buying because the unit was not available locally and I had to order from Crutchfield (a positive experience).

Equipment used: Toshiba 2109 DVD. Polk 6500 HT system (then Polk RT 600s fronts, a polk CS 245 center, cerwin Vega d-2 surrounds, and a polk sw140 sub).

I exchanged the polk 6500 satellite system for the full range polks, coupled with my old CV box speakers as surrounds, and the sound from all speakers became superb. No hissing. I run these speakers between the setting 2 and 3, and both the Home theatre and CD classical music is very clear with no distortion. These volume settings may sound very low, but at setting 3, the volume is extremely loud in my 18 by 12 family room (with a wood floor). I'm worried about the parakeet we keep in the room. I would definitely buy this receiver again. I was unable to duplicate the low prices quoted by some reviewers. I paid $449 at crutchfield with free shipping. One-call wanted $499.

For those with complaints, proper speakers are key. With my 6500 system, my surrounds were very weak, and I thought it may be a receiver problem. Swapping speakers eliminated the problem.

Price for Performance. Variable center point equalization. DTS. S-video input.

Too bad equalizer function didn't have variable band width. Remote would be better if it had learning function. Absence of pre-out connections.

Power is more than sufficient for any normal size living room. Switching is logical and easy. Manual is fairly clear. There are probably too many surround modes. The best choice seems to be auto-surround: it will select the mode (DTS, AC-3, prologic or 2-channel according to the signal supplied).

The 3 variable center point equalization channels are great. Used with a $35 SPL meter, graph paper, 3-4 hours of free time and patience, you can get really good sound out of decent but modest speakers (such Cambridge Soundworks). If you start with really good speakers who knows what might happen. (Just don't wast time trying to eliminate bass room-effects.) If only it had a variable width cabability!

The remote was easy to use but would have been so much better if it could learn. New there are no codes available from Sony for new products. If I had had no other components when I bought this, the s-link would have resolved the problem of multiple remotes. (If you are considering buying everything from scratch this would be a non-trivial feature. I've seen an all s-link system and the ease of use is way cool.)

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Bose, NAD

overall performance vs pricetag

remote control

Just got this unit the day before Xmas. The performance is outstanding (nearly audiophile considering the price). The remote is difficult to use due to hard-to-read glow-in-the-dark buttons; this unit deserves a better one !

Similar Products Used:

none

Great bang for the buck

Remote

I had been shopping around for a new receiver for the past month to upgrade to digital/dts. I did not plan on getting any high end model so I stuck around with three brands: Sony, Pioneer, & Yamaha. I was leaning toward the Pioneer vsx-d608 until I came across the Sony str-db830. I bought it right it on the spot. A hybrid of the Sony str-de835/935 and the ES line? Had to go for it! Looks like the ES line and closely sounds like them just more inexpensive. I greatly recommend it for the budget conscious minded. You can't go wrong with this except the remote. It's the same remote everybody hates in other reviews for the str-de835. It definitely is not user-friendly. The green on white just does not work. I thought I was going to get the LCD display remote but that's for the 930. What it lacks in the remote it more than makes up in power and sound.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer

Wow... Dolby Digital Rocks!

Well... It Broke.

Well 9 days into this receiver I get everything set up (new center channel speaker and rears). I fire up the satellite and order "The Matrix" in Dolby digital... The little blue multi-channel decoding light blinks on and we'er off. This thing sounds great. But... 20 minutes into the movie the right rear surround speaker starts popping like mad on the thunder, lightening stuff and in a few other places. It repeated this popping throughout the movie even though I turned the bass almost qll the way down. I get up this morning and buy a pair of energy take 2's. That'll fix those crappy JBL's right? Wrong. I hook 'em up and start "The Matrix" again. Was that a pop? Maybe... Then A bit further on with the sound up pretty high it happens... Smoke began emanating from the right rear Energy take 2. Burned to a crisp... Crap. I call sony and explain... They tell me the receiver is broke, but good. I can't isolate the channels (they bleed all over each other), and the popping/crackling/lighting my speaker on fire stuff is just no good. This thing sounds great though... Back it goes to one call. Hope they treat me well. I let you know how it goes. Hope I get a good one next time.

Price, Quality, Sound

Remote

This thing rocks! I can't believe the clarity coming from this unit. When I hooked it up to my Sony DVD player I was amazed. Digital sound is unbelievable, can't even compare it to pro-logic. My only gripe is the remote, you can hardly read the keys. At $369 it is tough to complain!

Similar Products Used:

H/K, Onkyo