It looks pretty cool on the shelf.

A classic example of you get what you pay for. It was a very good price for a receiver. But $250 is a lot for a door stop, which is the only thing it may be good for now. Gotta love that protect mode. (Not!)

What good is a receiver that is stuck in something called "PROTECT" mode? The first year or so it would go into protect mode intermittently. I could fix it by just shutting it off and turning it on again. Now it is a permanent condition. Does anyone have a solution to this problem? I think I want my old Yamaha back. I worked for 25 years without a problem.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Sansui, Technics

Price

Doesn't work half the time

When I bought the receiver I was initially very happy. Within a month I was getting the "flashing PROTECTED" problem described by other reviewers. After 2 different warranty fixes which replaced almost every component in the receiver, I managed to convince them to give me a new receiver. It took even less time for the second one to display the "flashing PROTECTED" problem. By this point I had a had enough. Now its just an expensive radio.

Similar Products Used:

Other SONY receivers

Great sound when not in protect mode

Protect mode whenever it feels like it

Very upset with this product.Bought new in 1998 and wish i hadn't.Will never buy Sony receivers again

Similar Products Used:

Denon,Yamaha

Price, A-B main speaker switch, easily hooked up to wireless rear speakers

weak amp, no AC-3 decoder, serious distortions at higher volumes, weak surround levels

For what i paid at the time this was a great unit. I got it at the Crutchfield outlet, along with a SOny DVD player with built-in decoder, and Bose AM-6, all for under $1000!! IT was nice little setup for heading off to my first year of college. It is a entry level reviever, do not be convinced it is anything more. A year after getting this reciever i found a nice AV store and began to look at much higher end products. I bought some Dynaudio Audience 50's for $800, in hindsight i should have replaced my reciever first. After listening ot my speakers on better recievers, i realised how cheap the Sony sounded. As i result i plan to buy the Denon AVR-3300 this month. As to the guy who spent $925 to upgrade his 515--you're a moron!!! YOu should have used that money to buy a real reciever instead of jerry-rigging this cheap one. But for the price, at the time, this is a cery good reciever. So i give it an excellent value ratign and a realistic overall rating

Similar Products Used:

none

I think my str-de515 is great I bought it at 2001 audio/video as they had a sale. The model on sale was the str-de415 with a centre and rear channels, but they were sold out so the salesperson set me up with my present receiver(ste-515). I already had a pair of speakers and a custom sub box consisting of two 12 inch subs, this amp does my ears justice. I found it to be very clean. i wanted a receiver to match my 35" sony television, which it does nicley. after reading all of your reviews trashing this fine amplifier i had to voice my opinion. Sure it is an entry level receiver, but for the average perrson with bills and such it is quite the find especially if it happens to be on sale.

I checked this receiver out 3 weeks ago. this receiver is not the best receiver you can get but is for the price. the receiver beats all of pioneer's receivers including the VSX-D906S. The Pioneer Receiver sounded better than the Sony Receiver but for the price you have to pay the sony receiver is better. but if i had a choice i would get the Sony STR-DE915. The Receiver has Great Sound and has no sound loss when trying to amplify low and high frequencies. The STR-DE915 is probably one of the best low-end receivers. it beats the Kenwood Receivers i've reviewed the pioneer receivers i reviewed and was close to beating the Yamaha R-V1103. and for the man who said "the only difference in the ES is that it's hand assembled and uses gold-plated jacks. Same components though. Best of all, it's AC-3 ready." ES Receivers have a bigger difference than that. 1: The Power Amplifier is better Material and more expensive Material. 2: the S/N Ratio is higher about 119 db. 3:The Receivers Have Better Transistors, Heatsinks, and Wiring Material. 3:Sony ES Equipment are using the same exact Dolby Digital/Pro Logic equipment but the ES uses a faster DSP Processor and when there is a huge power consumption by a explosion the ES Receiver uses a the extra Amplifier that holds the power when the receiver is sending only little amounts of power. but if you have alot of money get Harman Kardon Signature Series PT 2.0 and PA2.1 or PA 5800. or get a Sony ES SDP-EP9ES Dolby Digital Decoder and a Carver AV-705x THX Cerified Amplifier. the Sony DD Decoder Costs $699 and the Carver Amp costs $999. Acompany this all by either NHT VT-2 Home Theater Speakers ($3000)(no Subwoofer Included) or Eosone RSF-600 Speaker Set ($2985)

Price, Reliability, Ease of Use, Excellent Excellent entry level product.

Rear Power, and Center channel clarity

I purchased my reciver in early '98. I have used it constantly every week for about 15 hours per week. It has worked flawlessly. I have NEVER experienced any problems described by some other folks on this forum. All my contacts are placed in a highly defined manner. This is my first receiver and because it has been a workhorse over the past 4 years, I decided to buy another Sony reciver that has digital inputs. Certainly one can spend hundreds of dollars on other high end receivers that provide a much more defined results. However, looking at the economics and reality is that I cannot listen to 100W continuously, I would rate it an A+.

Nice and Powerful

none!

I purchased this reciver a few weeks ago, Mainly for my dvd player to hook up to. This reciver hace Dolby 5.1 Surround for DVD's! and has stunning sound~! nice and powerful and a PLUS! for anyone looking to get a nice reciver for audio/video enterianment!
ROCK ON!
Jay

Similar Products Used:

..

This receiver is probably one of the best low-end receivers i have heard this one is ALOT better than Pioneers Regular Receivers and Yamaha's Low End Receivers. First time when i bought it i had some Cheap JBL Speakers when i first turned it on it had probably the Worst sound so i was going to return it but my friend asked me to bring it over. He had Cerwin-Vega RE Series Speakers i told him that it would sound like crap. Surprisingly the Sound quality had increased the high's were easier to hear the low's had no distortion and the fact that the receiver was AC-3 Ready had made me think about keeping it. So i did but after a while the sound started getting Worse and worse the amplifier started amplifing the covering frequencies the best so i decided to just try getting new speakers so i got the Eosone RSF600's the RSR350b and the RSC250 amazingly the sound was not as muddy and the Spatial effects got alot better (due to the fact that it was Eosone). But still all the things that happened got me mad so i decided to get a Amplifier added and i took it to a shop and they did some NICE work. they removed the volume knob and had it fixed at 10db and had the Equalization Turned off and they added a Dolby Digital Processor all for only $950. after that the sound was Superb . but if you have $1000 or more i recommend getting either one of there ES Models or getting a Rotel Receiver. but as you might think the Pioneer ELITE Receivers do not have the same quality sound as Sony ES Models.

I found this receiver mis-marked at Frye's for $249, so I snatched it up. It is a big step up from what I had, but definately shows its weaknesses. I am glad that I bought it so that I at least had something until I can save up for fully discrete digital amplifer/receiver. Having 100x5 would help a little bit, I end up having to boost the rears up around +7 to get good surround effects. All in all though, this is a good receiver for the price.