Decent sound and features for the price.

Poor remote design (coloration scheme). Unit gets very hot creating thermal breakdown of power amp transisters.

Bought this receiver for my parents about 8 months ago and it was working fine for what they needed. They complained alot about the sorry color scheme on the remote with the light green lettering on top of white buttons (Whose ignorant idea was that). The main fault of this receiver is the heat build up and cheap amp construction.
Was over at my parents house and went to turn on the receiver and a loud pop came from the receiver followed by a protector message on display and smoke billowing out of the top. Have owned several different Sony receivers and this one by far and away is the biggest peice of junk that you will ever see. Do not buy! If you do you will be taking a trip to the repair shop eventually.

Similar Products Used:

STRDA 333,555,777 ES , STRDB90

Decent sound and features for the price.

Poor remote design (coloration scheme). Unit gets very hot creating thermal breakdown of power amp transisters.

Bought this receiver for my parents about 8 months ago and it was working fine for what they needed. They complained alot about the sorry color scheme on the remote with the light green lettering on top of white buttons (Whose ignorant idea was that). The main fault of this receiver is the heat build up and cheap amp construction.
Was over at my parents house and went to turn on the receiver and a loud pop came from the receiver followed by a protector message on display and smoke billowing out of the top. Have owned several different Sony receivers and this one by far and away is the biggest peice of junk that you will ever see. Do not buy! If you do you will be taking a trip to the repair shop eventually.

Similar Products Used:

STRDA 333,555,777 ES , STRDB90

DD/DTS, can hook up to sets of speakers, 4 a/v inputs, optical inputs.

Remote sucks, but no big deal since I use the Radio Shack 15-1994 universal remote for my home theater anyway. Not enought S-video inputs for some people, though it had plenty for me.

I've been using this receiver since early June and I can't think of a single thing to complain about it. It sounds great when decoding DD and DTS and does a great job with music as well. Overheating hasn't been an issue for me since I have nothing stacked on top of it, and it isn't closed in glass. It gets a little warm when watching a long movie, but not too bad. I guess it would be worse for someone with a larger room who needed to turn the volume up louder. I've never had mine up past around 45% for a movie. It just gets too loud after that! This receiver is just an outstanding buy for the price. I paid around 326 for mine at Sears. I could have got it cheaper elsewhere but I wanted the six months with no interest deal. It sounds great and is louded with speakers. I reccomend it for anyone other than major audiophiles with tons of money to spend. Obviously some receivers that cost 2 or 3 times more are going to sound better, but this unit should more than satisfy most consumers.

Similar Products Used:

First dd/dts receiver I've had, but I've listened to a bunch in stores and at friend's houses.

32 bit DSP signal processing, Dolby Digital and DTS decoding built in, nice equalizer settings.

THD rating in surround is horrible .9% WTF is that about?, when you get the volume nob about half way you can hear an audible amount of "hiss" when no music is playing, no front A/V inputs, no digital out, no digital in for cd-players

I got this receiver for $338.95 from HH Gregg because I lied and told the HH Gregg salesman Circuit City had it on sale brand new for $350.00. This is my initial out of box review because I don't think a good review can come from being used for less than a month. I think I should wait a while...make sure everything works as expected. Anyway my "out of box experience" went very nicely, set up was a breeze, and I had the house shaking before I knew it. Pro-Logic sounds good and I can't try DD until I get a DVD player. Equalizer is nice, you can adjust crossover points as well as the normal bass, mids, and treble as well as an added bass boost that gives a little too much bass for my taste but it's always fun for annoying my neighbors. It RUNS EXTREMELY HOT!!! I so much recommend you buy a fan for this is you don't plan on having it in an open area and you have it on for long periods of time. I took my Pioneer VSX-D608 back and got my money and bought this because the Pioneer had no REAL bass and did not get loud at all. Let me tell you that this one blows my pioneer away. I will be doing another review in about a year to report on how my new MONSTER is doing! Value rating 5 because of the great price, overall 4 so far because of the bad THD rating and the hot temperatures it operates at.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-DE525, Pioneer VSX-D608, Pioneer SX-1700(1993)

I went from a Aiwa avd75 to the sony because i wanted to keep the sony consistent with all my other home theater products, This was probably the best decision I have made. If you try any other reciever under $600, it will not even come close to what all the capabilities of the Sony has, the power rated on my old Aiwa was 120 watt per channel, the sony is 100watt per channel and it blows away the Aiwa I had a the same volume level. This thing is so customizable, I challenge anyone to show me a better receiver for under $600......Sony has made my a life long customer!!!!

I'd like to start my review stating that I bought this Receiver because i had just bought my speakers and I had practically no money left.
I was impressed with it right out of the box, and once I listened to it I was very happy, it has many features and a nice array of inputs and outputs in the back. It has many surround modes but they really don't work, for DVD I use the Auto Format decode and for DSS I use Normal Surround.

I have to be honest though, it's a very good receiver for its price, but it doesn'r cut it for me so I'm going to change it for a SONY ES or YAMAHA DSPA2, they are more expensive, but they really get the job done.

I bought this unit from CC as an open box buy and bought it cheap. Ugrading from prologic to digital has been a great. So far the Sony works very well for the price I paid. However the sound fields are abundant but not necessary, You may listen to a couple of them now and then but not really. The DD decoding has been very good, I havent tried the DTS yet. I noticed that you really have to set up the EQ. I built my main speakers and know the cuttoff frequencies of the crossovers so I was able to set up the EQ on the reciever and it has REALLY improved the sound. The bass boost is plentifull and enough power for the speakers. The reciever does get hot after a movie but have it well ventilated and no problems so far. Considering the price I paid I feel I got a great bargain.

Complete hookup options, including video and monitors; sound tuning with internal EQ and balancing; Sound quality;

Remote control doesn't support low or medium budget devices; hard to read in dark room;

After having this unit without a good videophile solution for over 18 months, I recently got a nice wide-screen Toshiba 56" set. Hooking up this TV and the Sony STR DE835 took less than 30 minutes. That included a Satellite receiver, CD changer, a VCR, a Sony DVD, 5 speakers and one subwoofer. For those who've complained about the complexity of the hookups, I recommend you practice more or hire someone (or complain less) because this thing almost installs itself. Of course making room for the plethora of wires is a must and laying everything out ahead of time helps, but that's where practice has taught me lessons.

The sound has been spectacular for months. Perhaps the folks who've said "not audiophile" don't have good enough speakers, because with the Yamaha towers and Sub, this system is the hub of 660 watts RMS output. It'll go higher, but that's distortion kids. No, it's not high-end Audiophile, but it doesn't cost $1000 or more either. But it's a nice medium audiophile solution for lower volumes. Perhaps that's why I've had it for 18 months and no "overheating" observed, even when stacked. (I echo other reviewers who recommend not putting it in a closed pretty rack).

The true strenth is it's Dolby digital 5.1 sound. With movies this thing confuses me as to what's a noise outside and what's coming out of the rear speakers (little Minimus-7's). The sub doesn't even have to be on with the Yamaha tower's 12" woofers. They do tend to rattle the house a bit, but what do you expect when rocking out? The sub makes the bass more stable and smooth, so I highly recommend adding that little item to this system to make it truly well-rounded in the sound dept. Getting another remote is a good idea too, except for the sound field settings. If only I could find the "ultimate" universal controller...

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 1638 Tower speakers, Yamaha YS160 Sub, Sony DVD; DishNetwork Model 2200

Tons of features, great movie sound

Cannot Hook up External EQ, dumb hard to read remote, need a lot of time to set this unit up properly.

My best advice for most people is to read the manual thoroughly. I can usually hook up and figure out anything I work on. I needed the manual MANY times to set everything up nicely. This unit has tons of features and take some time to get to know, but once you get it, its great. Movies sound awesome right of the bat. The sound fields actually sound like they should. Music on the other hand sounds flat and very lacking. You need to seriously need to tweak the internal EQ to get decent music sound. The one thing I HATE about this thing is I cannot hook up an extrnal EQ. Having both a Kenwood 7030 eq and a set of Bose 901's W/ active EQ = They are now completely useless. For those of you who love and depend on external EQ's, Look elsewhere. If you use it without, it's great. Also the dumb green and white buttons can Never be read when trying to select the component you want. Sure they glow in the dark also but DUH you still cant see the green. They should have backlit it also. Anyway...I feel sorry for the people who don't have a lot of experience in hooking up these types of systems it can be a long and tiresome headache. Also note this unit was also sold as a STR-SE591 model number which was sold with a complete entertainment center.

Similar Products Used:

sony 705, 1015

Worked fine at first, lots of inputs/outputs (2 sub outs).Nice lights and that's about it.

overheats, "protection" kicks on when turned-up to about just under half-way (seems to mostly happen with DTS tracks)

Recently blew-up and am trying to get fixed now. Two fuses blew and sparks and burnt smell emitted from grill. Would not recommend to anyone, piece of junk. See David's review from 12/18/00. Same situation!!! Spend a few dollars more and save yourself the hassle!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony mini-system that was just pro-logic but worked great.