100W Power, AC-3 & DTS decoders for a reasonable price, Universal Remote Control, Good overall sound, SONY name.

Remote Ergonomics, Limited of Digital, Optical, & S-Video Inputs, someewhat light on the bass.

No dreaded hiss heard at any volume. I don't know what all the fuss is about, but I hear no hiss/white noise. Many features are built into the jog dial make it fun to operate. I noticed the bass was a little light, even with the bass-boost on and my subwoofer turned up over 3/4's full power. The Auto Signal Detecion is great when the DVD is playing and you dont want to get off the couch or fumble through that lousy remote (What is up with THAT??!!), although almost all of the receiver's features can be controlled through it if you are willing to search hard. Also, I have taken that thing walking through my house and have yet to find a TV/VCR/Cable box that cannot be accessed by this poorly designed thing. the power seesm fine at 100W's per channel. I cannot turn up the volume through my Advent speakers past 1/3 of the way up for fear of blowing them. They could have given us more S-Video and Digital inputs, but how many other digital devices will the average listener need to hook up, after the DVD/CD combo player? I am using the Panasonic 5 DVD/CD changer (I forget the model, but it's fairly new) with this and it sounds and looks great to me. The only thing I am disappointed with in this area is I cannot hook up my S-VHS VCR through the Video Input because there is no S-Video input for this device. But for $250, whaddya want? Besides, Most of my viewing now is strictly DVD, which blows any S-VHS player out of the water.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SA-GX-350, Yamaha ???

not too many

hissing sound

I have been a lifelong sony customer since the 70's. I had a Sony recevier that lasted 15 years until i finally bought a new one. The one from the 70's still worked great, but it crackled very loudly from the speakers when volume was adjusted. plus i think surround sound is neat so i thought id try this one. i wnet out and got all new equipment, cd player, receiver and dvd. i decided to get the 545 and i was really disappointed. First, while it is true that all recievers hiss, none i have ever seen have hissed this loudly at low volume. Mostly the hiss on my old amp came when the volume was cranked up. Not so on the 545. anything over zero and it hisses. This is not acceptable. I assumed that Sony technology would have improved in the past 20+ years, but apparantly not. I also didnt like how everything is controlled digially, wichi doesn offer alot of control over the sound you are hearing. Instead of smooth level adjustment, you get factory set levels. I also noticed there are no phono jacks. i addition, the sony cd changer i bought had a motor problem. The dvd player is good (bought the 360) but i should have shopped around, as i could have got more features like zoom on other brands models. For an old fashioned good quality receiver i would tell you to look elsewhere. i think sony has changed from a quality company to a quantity company.

Similar Products Used:

only sony, but never more

Lots of usefull featurs

HIssssssssssssssss

I just want to say that all those nice featurs worth noting if the reciver inserts so much noise to the system.
Its a big shame for SONY CO to sell this reciver under there Bran name & at the 21st.

Similar Products Used:

Teac AG-V9010

Price

Everything else

Man, I've heard rattlesnakes that are less annoying than this thing, and YES I did buy the good cable. Also, if you can't replace your space heater, give this a try, it'll bake most dinners in under an hour.

Except the HISS, none (for that price).

Many older models have a production fault, the famous HISS. Remote control is not the best.

I bought this unit in februari before I saw all this rewiews about the HISS. Of course I had it on my unit as well. However, this is now a well known problem and all units are being repaired for free. On ONOFF they told me that my unit had bin repaired but I still had the hiss. I changed it to another unit and it was the same problem with that one. I'm not really sure about the quality of the fixed units.

They offered me to fix the second unit but at this time I was getting tired of sony-products. I changed it to a Pioneer VSX-609RDS and I'm very pleased. No hiss at all and the remotecontrol is much better.

From SONY I got a mail where they told me that all new units are upgraded and do not have the hiss.problem. But the units in the stores can be old ones. I recommend swedish buyers on ONOFF to chose the Pioneer VSX-609RDS instead. Almost the same price but you know that you will get a faultfree product that even sounds better than the Sony STR-DE545

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-609RDS

Price, remote

I had the hisssssss. BUT i went to sony and i got a new processor. So now i dont have the problem anymore....

Similar Products Used:

kenwood

Features, DD and DTS built in

Damn Dirty Hiss. Remote was impossible to read in the dark.

I bought this as an open box item at Best Buy. I had set it all up, and it seemed pretty good. The Multi-channel decoding was pretty cool, and it has the sweet blue LED to let you know when it is in Multi-Channel mode.

There were problems, though. I have a small-ish bedroom where the receiver is set up in, and getting 5.1 channels of hiss is not very fun in a small room. I looked at the settings, and configured everything according to the manual. I'm using a monster cable digital coax cable and heavy duty speaker wire. It was puzzling for me to read the other reviews that said "I fixed the hiss-- get better wires!" Well, that may fix interference problems, but it doesn't fix the fact that this receiver makes a hiss all on its own. Besides, people who are buying Sony receivers are probably not all that into home theater enough to spend a ton on "good" interconnects.

Before I was going to take the thing back to best buy, I checked out my roommates Sony DE345 that he just bought a couple months ago. It makes a lot of hiss as well. He didn't mind his, but I took mine back and got an open box Sony DE835 for 10 dollars more. The hiss is nearly non-existent with my new receiver (I'm using the same cables).

I hope this sheds some light on the hissing situation.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DE345, DE835

features

hiss, hiss, hiss

This was part of a brand-new HT setup that includes a Sony DVP-650D DVD player (changer), Sony 32" Wega and a Cambridge Soundworks speaker setup. I was happy, at first, with the unit, but I did notice that the speakers that were not in use (ie, the center when playing a CD) hissed quite loudly. I then noticed that the hiss was apparent from all of the speakers. I then saw all of the posts on this forum that complain about the hiss and realized that this was not just one bum unit, but a defective product line. I emailed Crutchfield and pointed them to this forum, they called me and said "send it back". I exchanged it for a STR-DE845, which has garnered good reviews on audioreview.com, and I listened to it at a retailer.

I hope that I can post a positive review of the new receiver.

Similar Products Used:

1st a/v receiver

Clear Sound, 2 Opticals, and great quialty sound.

None

I use the Sony STR-DE545 with 4 Infinity US-1's 2 Jensen 12" subs with tweeters and soon the Sony sub. I have no hiss what so ever. The sound quality is unbelievable in all the speakers. I do not hear any hiss or any static coming out of the speakers from the lowest settings to the highest. I keep reading all these reviews and thinking I bought a bad product so I tested it out. I have my DVD player connected through optical, The TV connected through RCA's, CD player also. I have the 4 Infinity's connected to the front and the jensen's to the back. To all those people that don't like the control I have the Sony Wega 27" TV and the controls are the same and I personally like them both. I can use the receiver control to work both products. I am happy with the receiver.

Dolby Digital/DTS, 100wattsX5, Good amount of AV ins/outs

Remote, what was Sony thinking...?

Hey all! I can't, for the life of me, figure out what most of you are talking about, as pertaining to this HISS you seem to be hearing???? I didn't even do the "speaker setup" crap when I first hooked up mine, and there was no HISS coming from any of my speakers... Yesterday, I finally got around to doing said "speaker setup", and still nothing. This reciever sounds great, and has a hell of a lot better stereo separation than my old Technics reciever.

My only problem, besides the remote, is why the reciever will only show "Prologic Opt" when playing a DVD, when the DVD player says it's running "Dolby Digital"??? I've got it hooked up by an Optical Cable... Go figure....

Good reciever, and a good price! I'd love to have a Marantz, but what I paid for this would only buy me a Marantz Universal Remote... P-) LOL