great

It's power and bass

Awesome reciever, would recomend anyone who loves music to purchase one, I use irt waith my bose acoustimass 15 and it sounds better than a movie theater when watching a dvd!!!!!!!!!!!

First off lets note that I am not an AUDIOPHILE. After reading many posts on this site I guess my point is that I don't feel a need to spend thousands of dollars on a single piece of equipment to make myself feel better. Sorry if that offends, but that seems to be the case with many of these snob AUDIOPHILES, if you didn't spend X number of dollars, then you have a crappy system.
Now that I'm off of my soapbox, on with the review.

For the price, and for my needs this is a fine receiver. I was able to purchase it, through Cameraworld, for $180 + $20 shipping. Or if you want, you can get it locally for around $250 plus tax.

It does everything I need it to do, which granted, isn't much. But it also provides me with the chance to expand as it is Dolby Digital ready.

The sound is fine, and that is playing it through some crappy 15 year old speakers.

So, if you are looking for a basic, yet solid receiver at an excellent price, then do yourself a favor and check out the 425.

I began my search for an 'entry level' Pro Logic unit about six months ago and like many others looked at the 'Home Theatre in a box' solutions (which were all sadly lacking in one area or another).
When I finally decided to go component I looked at several brands with feature sets similar to the Sony STR-DE425. The STR-DE425 came out ahead on all fronts. In Australian dollars the RRP (recommended retail price) is $499.00 as of November 1998. I did a lot of shopping around and the best I could do was AU$450.00 - not bad. Combined with some decent front, centre, and surround speakers this give a very complete Home Theratre setup. It's easy to use and I would personally recommend it.

I started of having a Sony Midi System model number LBT N555AV which was aDolby Prologic system. I had audio video connected to this system. It
was then that I decided that I wanted to purchase a DVD player for my system
that I entered a bit of bad luck. My Midi system was uncapable of producing
digital sound (stereo) for my rear surrounds as it did not have 5.1ch thingy!!
Which was completely new to me. So to make things short I scraped my system
to the local cash converters and bought the Sony Home theater in a box. It
included the Sony STR-DE 425, Satellite speakers, Sub woofer and it was
a mere $900.00 ( a pity I spent almost AU$1,300.00 for my midi system and
I only got $550.00 for it). Well anyway I purchased this pack and it is
awesome!! I totally recommend it for anyone wanting a above entry level system,
On another point I don't recommend anyone to buy a midi-system or a all in one unit as you are limited to any upgrades that might come in the future. The
only regets I have about this package is that I have to purchase seperate
components including the DVD players I originally intended to buy. Overall
the Home theater in a Box is Excellent including the STR-DE-425.

I bought a Harmon/Kardon AVR5 reciever a few days ago, and must say I'm very impressed with it. Easy to setup (well, nothing's that hard...) and great preformance. You get four video inputs, which is as much as (I think) my Onkyo reciever in the den (this in my room). Anyhow, just saying it's a great product and I highly recomend it.

Lots of power, Allows lots of bass for main speakers,Seems like more than 50 watts to each surround speaker.

Would have liked to see a simulated surround mode when in prologic mode.

This receiver is better than a new Sony receiver I bought. I took back the Sony Str-De845 Digital/Dts reciever because, I was unhappy with the power and it didn't supply enough bass to my main speakers. I didn't want to go invest in a sub-woofer just to get more bass, so I bought the Sony Str-De425 receiver, even though this receiver doesn't have built in Dolby Digital decoding it is still a far better built receiver and sounds a lot better. I plan to eventually buy a digital decoder for this receiver. With Dolby Digital this receiver will be far superior than the Str-De845. I highly recommend this product to people how have large main speakers and don't want to invest money in an expensive sub-woofer.

Similar Products Used:

Sony prologic receiver(Str-200Vr)