Got the 935 and love it! For the price of $ 375.00 you can't go wrong! So what it is not a high end HK or whatever, it has plenty for the price which 'real' people can afford.

More than anyone should need in a home receiver. Setup is simple and sound is fine.

You know I just realized, how Sony still hasn't fixed the problems. I have a friend of made a recent purchase of this unit, and to my disappointment, there are still hissing problems. Maybe this will be a nice reciever when Sony decides to fix these problems. ES is nice, but I'd rather spend the money on an HK, Onkyo, or higher end Yamaha. You might not get a defective reciever but for the ones that are out right now you wouldn't want to get them. Sony does make nice products, except for recievers, and TV's. Sony is also selling their name. Which is all part of marketing it's your money, try to spend it right, and make sure that if you do purchase this, that the problems still aren't there. 1 star because Sony still hasn't fixed these problems.

I recently purchased this product from a website named www.cameraworld.com and I don't think that I could have purchased a better product for the money that I spent. The sound quality of the STR DE935 was good, however I don't have a set of high end audiophile quality home theater speakers. I am running everything that I own (Advent A1123's in the front, A1122's for the surrounds, Advent 550CC center channel, and an Advent A550S powered sub with a 250 watt Carver Sunfire Amp)through this A/V reciever. Advent speakers sound great considering what you pay for them and they don't reveal the tiny flaws that this reciever might have when using much better speakers. Dont get me wrong...I understand that if I paid 2000 dollars for a set of floorstanding NHT's or Paradigm reference home theater speakers, I would probably be able to detect the problems with this reciever. Take into account that this is Sony's mainstream line of home theater recievers and NOT the higher priced, better quality ES line. If you are like me and didn't bother to spend 2000+ dollars on speakers, then you should definitely purchase this reciever because it makes sense to...plain and simple. When hooked up to a semi-decent set of home theater speakers, the Sony performed above my expectations. With all of the bells and whistles that come with the STR-DE935, it is one of the top recievers in it's price range. As far as people complaining about their reciever heating up or taking a long time to warm up...get that checked out. Once again, this is a MAINSTREAM, STAMPED OUT, MASS QUANTITY PRODUCTION!! THIS IS NOT HAND BUILT STUFF THAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT HERE. For every hundred or so recievers, there might be defective ones. This is the case for all mainstream electronics equipment. With all of this in mind, the Sony STR-DE935 is a great all around reciever with many features and should be strongly considered when purchasing a dolby digital/DTS reciever. I give it 5 stars!!!

I agree with the last review on this product. I ran my Polk RT5000 home theater system through the Sony STR-935 and it sounded great. I bought the speaker package for 5200 dollars and ran the speakers and the reciever seperately for about 30 hours to break them in. When they were ready, I hooked everything up in my home theater room and tweaked the reciever settings to my liking. When I played the dolby digital/DTS demo tracks on my Phillips DVD855AT player, it sounded absolutely marvelous. The STR-935 never seemed to sound distorted with the volume cranked up. I could only detect a slight amount of distortion in the rear channels right after the reciever was turned on. This faded away after the reciever was on for about 5 minutes. To sum it up, this Sony DD/DTS reciever performs very nicely for a reciever in it's price range. I later upgraded to an ES reciever, but it was only because I wanted better connectors and a more sturdy piece of audio gear. 5 stars!

My STR DE 935 was plagued with the same problem that has been written about below. I had constant static coming from the right rear speaker (of which it never went away, no matter how warm the receiver was). The unit failed its own test tone. The most appauling failure came when I heard static from the right rear when I was listing to a CD and only the front two speakers were active. With the exception of the static, the rest of the receiver performed great. Dolby Digital sounded amazing, and the unit had plenty of imputs.
I thought that the 935 would be free of the problems that occured in the 925, but I was wrong. How can Sony let so many bad units pass QC, do they not test the rear channels down in Malaysia? While I was both impressed with the what the receiver was capable of doing I am disappointed at Sony for letting these lemons out. I am returning this unit immediately.

My 10 year old NAD receiver lit up (literally) and fried its main boards a few weeks ago. A sad time as the sound quality on the NAD was very good.
I first tried a Technics SA-DX930 as an entry into Home Theater and found (IMHO)it somewhat lacking in "depth" at lower volumes. In addition, the Technics got very hot- the cooling fan only kicked on at the higher volume levels. However, all in all not a bad unit- it had some neat features and a simple layout.

I returned it to the store and picked up a Sony STR DE 935. I have heard all the BS from sales reps about the low quality of Sony's compared to Yamaha's but thought I'd give it a try before throwing in the towel and spending big bucks on a receiver. To me, anything is a trade down compared to my old NAD.

Now on with the Sony -

Set up was extremely easy despite some of the comments to the contrary. The remote control is neat ! It takes about half an hour to figure the remote out but it works with all my components:

Panasonic DVD
Pioneer Big Screen ( on and off and channel selector only)
Sony VCR

Sound quality seems to be very good - especially CD/DVD's. This Sony has decent BAss ( considerably more than the Technic's). No noticeable distortion/hiss detected.

Lot's of gizmos and gadgets on this unit. Center speaker sound is also cleaner and stronger than the Technic's and is controllable. Surround sound via DVD is very good on all five speakers.

I have 30 days to play with this receiver.. and I am critical. So far I am very satisfied. However, if it chokes I would not hesitate to swap it out for a more expensive unit ( Yamaha 1105. perhaps).

I rate it a strong 4 stars overall(reserving 5 stars for the really high end stuff) and 5 stars in its price range.

Bought it for $499. Sounded very good. A lot of options. Broke week later.Returned it(getting Sony ES).

This is a follow-up review. First off, I've tried my best to get this unit to overheat, hiss, snap, crackle, pop, whatever, and I've been unable to do so. I've played it loud for long periods of time, soft for long periods of time. I've left it on without playing anything for long periods of time (overnight - by mistake), and nothing. It's not hissing, it's not crackling, it's not overheating (it gets plenty warm though - my advice: ventilation). It's not doing anything it's not supposed to do. I've played with the soundfields (and contrary to a previous review, they do NOT all sound alike, most of them are significantly unique), but once I set the speaker EQ levels to where I want them, I find that I don't change the soundfields all that much.
If you get a good one, there is nothing to complain about (except the remote). It does what it was designed to do, and does so better, and with more features, than anything else in it's price range. The problem obviously lies with QC. Unfortunately, when things are produced in this quantity, it's tough to make sure everyone gets a good apple (ask Ford or GM). I realize that people that do spend the same amount of money (or more if you buy it at an actual store) and has problems with it, has every right to be upset and give it a bad review. But when you're in this price range, you have to be prepared for things like this to happen, certainly moreso than if you are willing to pay, say $700 and up.

And for those who incessantly bring up the names Denon, Yamaha, Onkyo, etc. and compare it to this unit, don't bother. Until these higher-end units come with $400 pricetags, it's an invalid comparison, no matter how hard some of you try. If you want to spend more money and get a better-sounding receiver, my advice to you is: spend more money, and get a better-sounding receiver. Quit whining about the Sony.

It looks nice but it is awful!!! It is not good for either music nor home theater. All the manufacturers was trying to catch up with Sony in the past, now the roles are reversed!