Great design. Solid sound quality. High-end features without the high-end price. Excellent sound reproduction for music or movies. Nice crisp, clear display. Equal sound quality to $1000+ amps.

No true 5.1 stereo mode. (Can be modified with an external speaker splitter for surround stereo). Email me for details.

I wanted the very BEST receiver my money could buy. So I started researching. Consumer Reports rated this receiver as on of the top 10 models of the year. I now know why. There were a few others that rated higher, but NOTHING in this price range was even close (for example, the Onkyo TX-DS696 is probably one of the finest receivers out there but it costs almost $1000). And this Sony STR-DE675 has almost all the features you''ll ever need. One very convincing bit of research I would encourage anyone to do is listening & comparing with your own ears. Trust yourself and your ears, they''re the best judge. The selling point I encountered was listening to this very model alongside $1000 amps and I couldn''t tell the difference. It''s because the difference wasn''t in the sound reproduction, but it some of the exotic features the more expensive amps offered (non-essential features, especially for the added cost). The sound of the Sony STR-DE675 was of equally incredible quality. I''ve had this for over 6 months now and love it! It produces top-notch quality sound: very clean & sonorous for music and crisp & clear for movies. The display is a distinct soothing blue. It has all the digital inputs you''ll ever need. On and on and on. Also, if you are considering a lower-end Sony STR model, please reconsider. At this step-up you get all the high-end features without paying the high-end price. For example, it has heavy-duty high-guage wire clamps for the speakers (as opposed to the simple, spring-loaded ones of the STR-DE575). Integrated s-video outputs. Lots more that are SO worth the nominal price jump. The ONE oversight Sony had on this design is that it doesn''t have true 5.1 stereo (so you can listen to CD''s with all 5 speakers). It has digitally recreated modes, but not the same as true 5.1 stereo. If you are somewhat adept at wiring you can fix this problem with a simple external speaker selector/splitter. If you do not see how just email me for details. Now the music sounds just as enveloping and incredible as the movies do with the surround system for both. Bottom line: this is a TERRIFIC amp; you can spend alot more for a few extra features, but you cannot do better for the price.

Similar Products Used:

Test drove Onkyo, Harman-Kardon, Yamaha, Kenwood, JVC. Bought the Sony SRT-DE675 (and love it)!

jazz musice sounded very nice with rich highs and decent lows.

movies and DIALOG!!!! very poor voice reproduction

after having this receiver for about a year i have learned quiet a bit about stereos and have come to one conclusion.If you want that real kick in the pants perfomance that will shake your house dont buy a sony.Im very unimpressed with the 675.For movies the center chanel carries little bass and sounds flat out terrible to the average to extrem audiofile.I really suggest staying with the big boys such as the marantz and onkyo receivers if you want true theatre sound.The sony is a below average performer for movies in my opinion.

I''m impressed with this reciever. I previously owned a Dolby Pro Logic Kenwood that was purchased about 6 years ago. It was OK, but I wanted a Digital receiver for my DVD and Xbox. First of all it is very easy to setup and there is little tweaking needed to get good sound. I have Bose Acoustimass five speakers and they sound great through this reciever. I usually have to turn it up to about 34 to get a good loud theatre sound. Music sounds great, just remember not to use surround for your music. For those video game nuts out there, let me tell you how great Halo for the Xbox sounds pumping through this reciever. Saving Private Ryan on DVD sounds absolutely amazing. Bottom line is that it is not expensive, has crisp clear sound, and is easy to use. Once again, I highly recommend this reciever.

Lot of inputs, banana speaker plugs, switched AC plug.

Remote, no front panel a/v input for camera.

I purhased my first receiver for a week. The first impression was very good. It is a very good- and hard built-looking receiver. The second impression wasn''t so good I couldn''t use my sony TC-W290 cassette player with the remote. The second function keys on the remote aren''t changheable. At the end I connected my cassette player to the aux input and my record player to the tape input. I don''t find it for an elegant solution. But I forgot it when I turned the volume up and I started to listen my favuorit CD-s even in surround mode. The 5X100W is more than enough in my 30m2 living room. For this price this is a very good choice.

Similar Products Used:

None so far.

I can''t imagine performance any better, unless you are interested in 6 channel systems, which would be impractical for me because I have run out of space in my listening room. An indication of the thoughtfulness behind this receiver is that it delivers full power to 4 ohm loads. Many other receivers cannot handle low impedance speakers, and you won''t know that until you get them home.

I would have liked to see a line level center channel output so I could easily connect it to my wide screen TV input. All Sony provided was a speaker output. I solved this problem by adding a 4700 Ohm resistor to the speaker output, which lowers the level the right amount. I also think Sony went crazy with the number of surround modes, which seem to be intended for people with only two speakers. If you buy a discrete digital receiver, why use only two speakers? Doesn''t make sense to me. The result is receiver operation is complicated unnecessarily.

I have been incredibly impressed with the smooth, wide frequency response, the channel separation of the dolby digital surround, and the incredible fun I''m having using this receiver. Even the ProLogic circuitry seems to have improved separation over the circuitry in the receiver I replaced.

Similar Products Used:

Pionerr VSX-455

Great sound, Easy to setup, Great sound.

None that I can see now.

This is my first receiver and I think it''s great. I did a lot of research and just wanted an entry level Home Theater system. I spent $100 at Costco for speakers plus this receiver and for the average listener I can''t find anything missing. For the money this has enough hookups to keep me going for years. PS - If you can''t afford the "Monster" cables or just don''t want to spend the money go to Wal-mart and get 100'' of 16 gage RCA speaker wire and for 14.95 get the RCA digital coax set of 3 sold as composite. Best Buy wanted $60 for the Monster speaker wire and $50 for 1 digital coax cable. There might be some small difference but I just thought it was a MONSTER Rip-off!!!

Similar Products Used:

First Receiver.

Lots of inputs and outputs. Good sound decent wattage.

Poorly laid out remote, limited eq, non-summing composite vs. s-video inputs.

Good receiver for the price, great sound quality. Plenty of inputs and outputs. Running with Polk RT55 fronts, JBL Pro-series III bookshelf in rear, JBL S-Center, Powered subwoofer. The Remote control leaves a lot to be desired (way too complicated, and not laid out very well), and as stated in other posts, EQ section is unexpectedy weak (kudos to Sony for being able to "tune" the EQ to specific frequency ranges (also known as "parametric"), but the band is too narrow which restricts flexibility in adjustments - a well-tuned shelving eq would have been better). Also one thing that is particularly annoying: The composite (RCA) inputs are NOT switched to the S-video outputs. That means that if you have an older piece of video gear (i.e. a VCR), you have to have two video cables connected to your Monitor - One for S-video signals, and one for composite signals. this is not a big deal, esp. if your monitor has multiple inputs, but it is something they should have addressed.

Price wise, a golden jem in the sea of Receiever wars. My father enjoys the unit, and so I am happy. The universal remote works well with sony stuff, like CD player, DVD player, tape deck...

The fact that you buy a good receiver at a great price should not diminish the perception that this is a weak receiver. Frankly, Its great for its worth, and it is very good for everyday use.

Ok, first off, my father would kill me if he ever read this review. But, since he''s slow, I can talk about this receiver without any problems. First off, my dad is one of those, you gotta pay big money to get good sound type of people. Yes, those are words to live by when dealing with HiFi, and Techno cool electronics. Enter the history of my father. My father likes music, but... He really never listens to it. In his car, his radio is tuned into the local news broadcast 24-7. That being in the AM frequency. Well, sure that isn''t that bad. When dealing with his stereo, I was told to figure out a way to get some good stuff for his B&W speakers. Yes, he has a set of 15 year old 800 series speakers, that back in the day went for 2 grand a pop. His tape deck hit the grave about 2 years ago, and his harmon kardon cd player needed to be banged and hit, in order for it to work. And his Harmon Kardon receiver, though it was in good working condition.. Well everything had to go. This is my father, He likes things simple, expensive, and sounding good. Enter this receiver... I picked it up from costco for 229 and went price searching for a matching cd carosel and tape deck. I found a nice tape deck and cd player both at Best Buy both of which were SONY. The cd player was 90 and I opted for the better tape deck. It had doble B, C, so I figured that would work with my fathers, 10+ year old tapes. Enter the configuration.. Setup took about 30 minutes to connect both the Tape deck and CD player up to the Stereo. With the BandW speakers still being helpful, I installed them to the receiver. I have had the stereo hooked up for a couple weeks, and without much adjustment, my father enjoys his complete system. With todays technology, I believe you don''t have to pay more for value. The smarter consumer can see very clearly that within a good budget, and with careful planning a complete system can be found to suite eveyone''s needs. My father asked me to buy a more expensive receiver... and I agreed. ( not to )that is! He wouldn''t opt to hear blazing DVD''s on DTS sound. But the great thing about this receiver is that it is a good unit that could handle such desiarable needs for some people. The stereo on a whole sounds terrific, and They look good on my fathers wall shelf. To end things, this reveiver works best with All SONY Gear.

DTS/Dolby Digital, 5-way binding posts, DSP effect,Sony''s Sound Fields,5.1 decoding, Digital optical and coaxial inputs, Preamp-level subwoofer output and S-video input and output.

None at all so far.

This is my first Digital receiver. I’ve spent a lot of time reading reviews of many different receivers on this site, and finally decided to try the Sony. It’s a tough choice to make on buying your first digital receiver, so read as much as you can to get a good idea on what you want. I wanted a unit that gave me 5.1 decoding, Digital optical and coaxial inputs, Preamp-level subwoofer output and S-video input and output, and best of all, a reasonable price. Since I’m not yet in the market for a full blown digital TV, I wanted all the options I would need for a future TV purchase. The options on this model are numerous. I play it through two Polk Audio tower speakers, a cheap KLH center speaker and two old Radio Shack bookshelf speakers for my surround. Let me tell you, this receiver can make anything sound good. I don’t have a subwoofer yet, but my Polk’s have 2 passive bass woofers in each tower to make up the difference. This creates more than enough bass for the average person. Sony''s Sound Fields that are on the receiver are awesome and you can set up the sound fields to your room’s size because of an option that sets the distance and placement of all your speakers. The sound is calibrated for your placement. I definitely like the 3 Digital Cinema Sound modes that Sony has produced. Also, there is an excellent level control to add more punch to your center and surround speakers. At about 24 to 30 on the volume, it makes my small viewing room seem like a large theater. My room is only about 150-sq. ft., and it rocks! My receiver is linked to a Pioneer DV-440, which also was reviewed by this site, and it is an awesome combination. I am very impressed with my Sony DE675 and don’t see any reason to replace it in the near future. The effects that are produced by this receiver are more than anyone would need. If your looking for a great middle of the road A/V receiver that will fill a small to medium size room this is it.

Similar Products Used:

First Digital receiver

Great digital/analog hook-up options, crisp, clear sound, can do alot with mediocre speakers, easy to use.

some conflict b/w DVD player and digital cable - but easy to resolve with input selector.

I love music and love movies but have never been bothered to treat myself to good components. When my brother-in-law got me a DVD player for the holidays I figured it was time to do it right. The receiver has great surround options and I was able to get excellent results with pretty lame speakers (which surprised me). There is a lot of room for digital inputs and the receiver lets you configure for less than optimal speaker setups. My wife is in love with our old 5-disc changer mini-system and I was able to hook it up digitally using optical cable. Very flexible system and you get a lot for the $$$$. Great sound fields.