Great sound, vesatile sound & tone control options, great build quality for a unit costing $375.

Remote control, front panel digital mode indicator light overkill, wish the instructions had some narative and examples on proper use of the sound set up controls.

For $375 this is a great bargain. The sound delivered to my M&K speakers is quite impressive. There is substatially more detail in both movies and in straight music programs than with my older Pioneer unit. Setup was fairly easy using the instruction manual. However, I think Sony fell short in explaining how to best use the three band tone control system. This is an exceptionally powerfull system since not only the amount of tone shift is controlled (+/- 10db), but also the freqency around which each of the bass, midrange and treble are controlled can also be shifted to suit room conditions as well as personal preference. This is almost as good as having a multiband graphic equallizer! If anybody out there has a handle on a source for instructions or suggestions on how to use this sysstem please let me know.

The remote control is the weak point of the system. I think somebody at Sony's design team could chalk up the remote as "It seemed like a good idea at the time". Some reviews I read on this site complained the tuner was not the best. the tuner in the unit I purchased seems to work just great. Maybe Sony read the reviews and fixed the problem. It would be nice if they fixed the front panel blue light that indicates the unit is in digital mode. Way Too bright.

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Pioneer VSX-5300

Very good for home cinema

Really bad for Hi-Fi music

Don't expect to hear music for this amplifier. It's
great for Dolby Digital /DTS but NOT for music.
I think that mini-hi fi's with half cost sounds better
(only music)

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Yamaha

Excellent value for money, Solid-looking and sounding

Awful remote, too bright an digital audio indicator bright, speaker distance settings interdependent

Only been using it for a month or so, here's what I found:

CONS:


* THE REMOTE CONTROL is all but useless - the keys are supposed to glow in the dark but the buttons, eg the two rows of source select buttons - are two small, designations illegible in subdued light and layout is anything but intuitive. The DVD menu controls are hidden under a hard-to-open cover, which is a pain, considering this unit is supposed to be the heart of a Home Theater.
Cannot control my Thomson S2029 TV despite three Thomson codes listed. Cannot control my Jerrold/GI cable box despite about 10 codes listed. I guess it's just me.

* THE INFAMOUS (see other reviews) ULTRA BLUE digital audio INDICATOR - you cannot switch it off, and it is outright annoying, You also can't turn off the little source leds and the DSS logo - you can't see what is written next to the led at a distance anyway, and you should know what you're listening to, why not letthe user turn it off luckily, these are much smaller than the blue light.

* SPEAKER DISTANCE CONTROLS ARE INTERDEPENDENT.
I very much prefer to enter it in feet/meters than miliseconds as with other receivers, thank you Sony. But I enterd the fornt speaker distnce (the first on the list) and then L, R and rear, which changed my front speaker setting automatically. I guess it does make sense once you've read the manual and figured out the right sequence of setting up speaker distance, but tis oculd be a bit more user-friendly.

* DIMM. RANGE [NARROW/WIDE] - Granted, the receiver is packed with controls and various settings, but I couldn't believe it - there is a setting for WIDENING "the dimming range" enabling the dimmer button on the front panel to go to 0% visibility - If set to NARROW, your choices are 100% 60% and 40%, if set to Wide, you also get 0% choice. I wouldn't be surprised if there's a ALLOW USER TO CHANGE DIMMER RANGE FROM NARROW TO WIDE YES/NO setting somewhere, but luckily it's on by default :)

* A1-II control bus ONLY works with SONY AUDIO components, not Video - heard that the US version has an S-control which would turn TV, Receiver, DVD on swithcing to the right source on the receiver as soon as a put a DVD in the player. Oh well, maybe future Sony video devices will have it.

Other than the above, one solid piece of equipment, especially for the price.

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Technics DOlby Prologic Amp

Simple to setup, clean design.

Remote control takes time to learn, no optical input for CD player.

I really like Sony's ES series, such as my 508ES CD player. The lack of optical input for this player did not keep me from buying this receiver though. I just use the MD/TAPE input instead (and reprogrammed the remote to control the CD player). As most know, the 840 & 940 bridge the gap between the ES and 'lower end' models.
Overall the sound of this receiver through my Celestion SL12si's is Wonderful. My wife keeps reminding me that 'we are not deaf', so I have to turn it down while listening to music or watching a DVD movie.
There is a hiss sound as others have mentioned when no input is on and one turns the volume knob up half way. Really though, would I hear this while listening to music? If I have to turn it up half way just to hear the hiss, I can't image how LOUD the music would be.
The remote takes some getting used to. Even though most of my system's components consist of Sony, I still find myself using mulitple remotes to perform different operations. I haven't tried the multiple setup routines for the remote yet to do several functions at once. It's too bad Sony doesn't allow us to program the remote by pointing another remote towards this one and assigning a button to do a certain function. (are you listening Sony?)
The volume via the remote is a bit touchy when listening to headphones. Near the very bottom of the rotation the balance is also uneven going from strong right to more left then balancing out evenly. This is critical to me as I use the headphones at night while listening to our baby monitor at the same time.

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none, this replaced older Philips FA-80

Build and sound quality

I could have used one more video input but my system isn't run of the mill

I had the de 845 and exchangedit for the DB840. The difference is night and day. The DB is built much better and the difference in sound is incredible. I really love the cinema studio ex DSPs and the game DSP. Remote is excellent too.

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DE 845

Well built. Nice looking. Lots of inputs and pre-outs for all channels. Good sound. Price is very reasonable.

None worth noting.

This is a very nice receiver and a good performer on both movies and music. It is built quite solidly and is packed with features that you wouldn't expect on a mid-line model.

Out of the box, it sounded pretty good, but on movies it tended to get a little bit spitty on the high end. The receiver has equalization settings(frequency and volume for all channel's bass, mid and treble) for each of it's digital modes. These made it fairly simple to even out the extremes in the tonality for movies without affecting any other modes. The EQ can also be turned off if you desire. With a subwoofer, you can adjust the bass crossover separately for the front, center and rear speakers in 30 Hz steps from 60Hz to 180Hz. There is an analog direct mode, for listening to analog sources without any digital conversion.

The remote isn't great, but it isn't bad either. It is okay for normal day to day use, but for occasional operations it is a little awkward. Also, there is no way that I have found to do station scans on the tuner with the remote. It can only be done from the front panel. Once you get your stations set from the front panel, though, it is a snap to move through them with the remote.

Overall, I'm extremely happy with this purchase and will probably enjoy this unit for a long time to come.

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Kenwood VR-309, Denon AVR-2800.

Sound quality, power, sound fields, inputs

Doesn't fit very easily on my bookshelf, no component video

I am no audiphile, but I did listen to many products out there with a discerning ear. I listened to Denons, Yamaha (995/795), HK all the way down to the Circuit City-type stuff. This Sony sounded incredibly good, which was surprising, because the word seemed to be that until you stepped up to the ES level (add at least $200), Sony was spunk. But this model features much of the same componentry as the ES (much higher quality than the Big Box Retailer Sony's)minus a few things a guy like me just doesn't understand or care about.

While this piece does not compete with the 995, it's pretty close, and for $300 -$400 less I couldn't rationalize the Yamaha to myself, let alone my wife. Vs. the Yam. 795 - this unit sounds as good or better, has way more inputs, more sound fields, way more power and costs $100 less.

A great buy and the sound is outstanding- so it gets a 5 on Value. I do wish I had another $300 in the budget for the 995 which does sound better, but I'm still extremely happy with my purchase.

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None

great sound, power, inputs

remote, tuner scan

I use the reciver with sony micro satellite system sa-ve505. Performance very good, both movies and music.

Realy good receiver, price and performance.

Ease of use, inputs, power reserve, and sound fields.

Tuner set up and scaning.

Out of the box this SONY receiver was very easy to set up and use. The speaker set up was a joy with the variable cross over frequencies and depth of field perameters. I particulary liked the indicator for sensing digital data. The tuner set up was a minor annoyance in that scaning through the FM band was only possible at the receiver itself.

On to movies, I set the receiver's Dolby Digital sound field to Cinema Studio EX., B and selected the "Green Mile" for viewing. The 360 degree sound field and dynamic power reserve were most impressive considering the modest price of this receiver. You will need a powered subwoofer if you want to get the most punch and rumble from Dolby Digital and DTS encoded sound tracks. However, the 100 watt per channel power specification should satisfy most user's desires.

In the stereo music mode the receiver showed its very minor short commings in the high end which can sound a bit brittle with some program sources such as piano and cymbals. The upper midrange and mid bass were comparable with serparate components costing sereral times more.

For $369.00 you will be hard pressed to find a receiver of this quality and simplisity. I recommend this receiver for those of you who want to break into home theater without breaking the bank.

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Adcom GFA 555, Adcom GFP 555, Denon TU 450, Adcom GSP 560, B&W DM 330I, and Definitive Powewr Field Subwoofer.

Design, sound, features.

Remotekontroll: too many buttons in same size and color (some in in brigth color and hard to read), bass and treble control. Radio: Not sensitive. Have to buy new speakers *lol*

I connected it to my spdif output from my SB live 1024 soundcard. Using pionner internal DVD player and winDVD software I was able to get the Dolby digital sound out to my sony thru the coaxial input, and it sounds just great!