Power,Options,Price

High Dollar Heater

Wow, this amp sure has had a rough time on this page.
This is the first Home Theater system I have had the pleasure of putting together, and I'm very happy with it.
I have tried to hear the hiss that everyone says is there, but I can't seem to hear it. The remote is a little to busy, but is controlable. Wish you could adjust the tone with it. The dts play-back is outstanding. As for the heating of the house with this thing, I have added a small 110v fan and wired it up to a male elect. plug and use the switched outlit on the back side. Unit stays nice and cool now and will probable will last longer, ( I Hope )

system is:
sony 545
yamaha tower w/ side fire woofers
yamaha 3-way bookshelfs for the rears
energy xl center
rca 100w powered sub

good detail, decent power.

ugly, no phono inputs, cheap speaker jacks, just one s-vid (what's the point of that?), runs very HOT, and of course - HISSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

Stay away at all cost. My $50 computer speakers don't have this much hiss. I bought this for the cheap dts, but it is not worth it. it runs so hot it almost fried my dvd player. and the hiss is just not acceptable. $300 is a lot of money to pay for garbage like this. hiss hiss hiss.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 5240

Nice price, 5x100W, DD, DTS etc.

VERY BAD HISSSSSSS, remote (you cannot read what's on the buttons).

Nice receiver, but i couldn't stand the hiss in all my speakers. Even my wive heard it (she said to me, what is it that i hear when i play a cd??). At first i thougt it was the settup or my equipment. But when i looked at this site i knew what the problem was. I brought it back to the shop and i am getting the STR-DB840. I heard this was a good receiver.

Good luck in finding the receiver you like, but DON'T BUY THIS ONE. You know what they say about warned people.

Similar Products Used:

Traded it for STR-DB840,

this reciever is damn good i dont hear any hiss

remote is hard to see

this reciever is damn good i bought it at circuit city and people you should not listen about the hiss because you dont even really notic it i had a sharp before this and it is a hell of a lot better. It has a lot of bass. And alot of nice features like you can tell it if your speakers are large or small and if you put large it will pump out alot more bass. And alot of cool stuff like that. And for all of those people that dont like it then what are you still doing with it bring it back to the store and get your money back ya shmucks!

Similar Products Used:

sharp

Decent power, A & B speaker switch.

REALLY NASTY ANNOYING HISS.

STAY CLEAR OF THIS RECEIVER!!! THE HISS ALONE IS ENOUGH TO DRIVE A PERSON CRAZY. I got my receiver home, hooked it up to my bose cubes and my Energy AC-300(Greatest center channel), turned it on and heard this annoying HISSING noise over all my speakers. It was nothing loud so I figured I must have some connections loose or something. I went to the store and purchased monster speaker cable with gold compression clips. Changed all my speakers over to the monster wire and powered up my receiver. To my surprise there was no difference. I called Sony to see what the deal was with this receiver after reading all these negative reviews. The Supervisors from Sony told me the only thing they could do was mail my receiver to Pennsylvania and "fix" it. I was not about to agree with this. I didnt pay $300 for a refurbished receiver. I argued with them for over an hour and a half to replace it. NO LUCK. They wouldn't replace it. I called all my local stores to see if there was an unusually high return rate on this particualar receiver. I found out there was. I went back to Sony with this new information. They told me there was nothing wrong with this such receiver and they still would not replace it. I ended up going back to best buy and thy are currently "fixxing" it for me. AS FOR SONY, THEY CAN BE SURE THAT THE PRESIDENT OF THE DIVISION IS GOING TO RECEIVE A LETTER ABOUT THE EXTREMELY POOR METHOD OF NOT BACKING UP THERE PRODUCTS. I AM ALSO WRITING A LETTER TO THE BETTER BUSINESS BEAUREAU ABOUT THIS INCIDENT. I'LL SEE WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY ABOUT THE WHOLE THING. I'LL POST A FOLLOW UP TO LET ALL YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT. BUT TAKE MY ADVICE, DO NOT BUY THIS RECEIVER. PURCHASE THE ONKYO 484 INSTEAD. IT HAS LESS SOUND MODES BUT IS MORE POWERFUL AND AN OVERALL BETTER RECEIVER FOR THE SAME PRICE. GOOD LUCK TO YOU ALL.

PLEASE EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE HAD THE SAME PROBLEM WITH THIS RECEIVER. SOMETHING HAS TO BE DONE.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, previous Sony

I don't own one of these recievers but I had a similar problem with a humming noise coming from my speakers. I fixed the problem with an AC line conditioner. It turned out that my reciever was very sensitive to AC noise. Has anyone tried this with this reciever?

good-s video

cant hook vcr up with s-video

i have never had it hiss,i think the remote is fine
the only problem is i cant have s-video if i have my vcr hooked up......if you can help please reply!

Easy to get your money back after the hiss drives you insane (At Least At The Sony Store It Was Easy)

Hiss

Here is the low down on the hiss.

It is not my SA-VE315 speaker set.
It is not the cables to my speakers.
It is not the cable connect to the receiver.

It is the receiver that causes the hiss.

I took it back and got a Yamaha. Same speakers, same cables and guess what, no hiss.

I will never again buy a Sony receiver after the "Snake" A.K.A the 545

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RXV-420

lots of features, lots of power, good specs for the money.

The all-too-familiar HISS of champions.

I loved my nice Kenwood that I've had for 10 years, but decided it was time to move on to something newer. Before finding THIS site, I found a couple good reviews of this Sony unit, and decided to get it online without demoing the unit in a store.

Big mistake.

The hiss in any mode other than the purest mode (2 channel, NO tone adjustments) was too much for me to take.

I listen a lot as I go to sleep to quiet, ambient music (Brian Eno mostly), and for this, this Sony unit does NOT do the job.

Aside from the hiss, the volume knob works in clicks, not a smooth progression, and I like a volume late at night that's LESS than the Sony '1' setting. You can't fine-tune the volume, so I ended up having to decrease the db output of my CD player to compensate... too much trouble, especially with the hiss.

So I got a Yamaha 596. I was going to get the 496, but it was out of stock and I got the 596 for only $20 more.

I LOVE the Yamaha. My review of it is under the Yamaha 596 section.

If you plan on listenting to music that doesn't have many quiet spots, or if you listen to music generally at a higher volume level, or use it for the radio primarily, this MIGHT be a great receiver for the money. But I cannot deal with the hiss. I cannot vouch for its AV modes -- I only used it in 2-channel mode. I WILL say that its optical connectors ADDED hiss versus the standard RCA connectors on my CD player. That surprised me. But in multi-channel mode, the hiss will be there -- but I don't know how noticeable it would be hooked into a TV/surround system. Maybe it's not noticeable then, I dunno.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood A/V receiver bought in 1990 ($300 then)

Price, Good Quality Sound, Easy To Setup

Sony Name, Bad Colours on Remote, Slight Hiss, No Digital In.

Purchased Sony STR-DE345 to give 5.1 ch sound capability in my room. It only has RCA inputs for each channel of 5.1 sound, luckily my Nintaus DVD player has a seperate RCA output for each channel. Connected it to my Magnat speakers, can only notice a slight hiss from rear speakers when turned up near full. It does not get very hot at all, although does make a rather loud "click" when switching modes. Has sound and video inputs for TV, Video, Cable and DVD, also has audio inputs and outputs for CD and MD. Dolby Digital Decoding is good, producing a nice sound. Unfortunatly the product is somewhat ruined by the terriblly laid out and poorly coloured remote control (Sont should take a look at Panasonic's remotes) and also by the fact that they've not provided atleast a coaxal digital input. Also a clock would have been a nice feature for standby mode. Purchased the STR-DE345 in Australia for $261, and considering the price is good for a small home cinema setup.

Similar Products Used:

Magnat AMP/SUB combined