not best receiver but best than price.

Using with digital(optic) give to not bad sound.But power is ver low and high performance is bad.

If u using only 2 channel have a not a bad power.

good look and optical inputs that make the sound 10 times better

everything else

hey im normally a techwood man they have the best home audio sound for the tight pockets but i blew mine up and got a sony as replacement for no extra charge and i dislike this head unit its not powerful enough and its hard to program and set up half the time some of the speaker channels dont work half the time and the presets are lousy for metal music its not the worst thing ive owned but i wish i still had my techwood

Similar Products Used:

450 watt techwood 5.1 dolby surround amplifier

None that I would normaly subscribe to a Sony product.

As outlined in the review

I should have been forewarned by the price I paid from Brands Mart for my new Sony STR-DE598…………….only $99.00 for the unit.

I purchased two of the receivers; since I have been buying SONY equipment for 30 years without a single complaint, I felt that the subject receiver would be a great performer.

The receivers are not worth throwing away. When you go from one radio station to another, the sound levels increase or decrease at ear shattering levels on the increase and hard to hear output on the decrease.

If you like classical music this unit is not for you. The distortion that occurs during peak passages makes enjoyment of your listening experience impossible.

There exist other problems with tuning in the various AM/FM stations as well as with a remote that is hard to operate due to the crowded unlit keypad.
Only some one with a “tin Ear” will find this equipment acceptable

Different modes to choose from. Easy to set up. Nice bang for buck

Remote is cluttered. Distortion at high levels (not sure if this is my speakers or teh amplifier)

I was looking for a receiver to handle both music and home theatre and was on a pretty tight budget.The Sony appealed to me from both a price and a feature perspective.I have it connected to a set of sony floorstanding speakers at the front and sony surrounds, as wel as a 10" active sony subwoofer I did, however go for pretty decent cabling from teh amp to the sub and the speakers. The entire system cost me $800 . :)

First impressions on the home theatre was pretty dismal , then i figured out how to get it to play dolby digital and DTS. It sounds pretty good. With my lounge being pretty small, it seems to have ample power.

As far as music goes, i was pleased here as well. 2 channel plays pretty decently, but does seem to distort if you crank it up. Vocals are clear good stereo definition. The bass isnt that grand in 2 channel ( here agin not sure if it is my speakers).If you are on a tight budget, and want decent sound, I woudl highly recommend this product .

All in all, am very pleased with my purchase.

Similar Products Used:

yamaha 430

Features - AV Sync, 6.1 decoding, 5.1 input, Crossover frequency selection etc..

POWER.

At first and on paper at least this receiver shows a lot of promise but after the dust settles you will find it to be lacking. After having owned a previous generation of Sony AV receivers I was always quite satisfied with the performance and power delivered so much so that at times the 100watt receivers fet overpowered so when it came to upgrade I was ecstatic about a 6.1 90 watt sony receiver. Feature wise its excellent having AV sync crossover frequency selection and plenty of decoding capability, 5.1 input, and even the new style speaker posts are great. Menus and settings are easy to access and the display is not too bright thus not distracting at night. Weight is also very light so its easy to handle and set up. Now for the bad part. This is not 90 Watts per channel at least not in the same scale as their older models since my Sony 825 series recceiver was considerably more powerful. This becomes apparent when you listen to both music and movies but especially on movies since this is a bigger load for the amp to handle. What ends up happening is that the receiver is audible only in the last third part of the scale which is loud but its also where distortion starts to become evident as well as bleed thru or worsening of channel separation. It gets loud but not in a clean clear fashion. In the case of music playback it is just adequate but will prevent you from going full throttle. Needless to say I am very dissapointed and feel let down by a company who has always produced well performing receivers in the past. Not ready for prime time.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-1090, Sony STR-8XX Series.

does what a reciever should do for the price. Easy setup, runs my DVPS7700 dvd player. Sounds better than I expected. XBox games sound great and more fun to play now. Easy setup, not crowded back apron for connections. Short chassis depth makes it a snap for cabinet installations where to much chassis can make hook up a chore. Doesn't over do with too many surround modes I don't need or want.

Remote control buttons and scripting too small, not backlit either. Cheap binding posts. Audio level calibration like all Sony products I have used is not like what everybody else does. Pretty weak here.

For once I can write a review that says, this time I got exactly what I expected for my $199.00. A perfect Reciever for my gaming console and TV watching and DVD playback without paying for those HEE-man like recievers out there. Home theater is NOT my thing. I love gaming though and my XBOX just beckoned to have a full 5.1 rig. So here I go to Best Buy and after much pondering; the Sony made the most sense. A Pioneer 815 and 515 also was in the running, but I needed 2 optical and not 2 coaxial connections. This afterall for my gaming sounds mostly. Well, I will be if this 17 lb. unit just didn't sound half bad. I was surprised how well it drove my Sota Time domain 4 speakers. Now it wasn't magic and didn't make me believe I was really there, but hey it was clear, tight and pretty well controlled. Movies did just fine especially The Incredibles DVD, disney 39841. The sound was darned good. The jungle battle with the kids was really fun to watch. Playing my David Benoit Shadows Cd GRP-9654 it was very clear and the prologic 2 music mode made it enjoyable to here. Track 7 "Already there" was actually played with some warmth and not steely harsh sound I expect from forward sounding A/V recievers. I am not giving up my Tube rig now, but still the Sony was quite respectable in its performance here. The midrange and highs were easy to listen to, however the bass could have better definition and extention and control too. Still for such a cheapy A/V box, I was well, pleased. The reciever is equipped reasonably well, but not more generous so than any other make. Still you get 2 component video with HD 80Mhz pass capability, B speaker drive select, and 2 optical and Coax digital input. Perfect for my gaming. The speaker binding posts are cheap looking but at least all channels are binding posts and not the spring clip junk like on the cheapy Yamaha recievers. Thank you Sony at least for doing the binding posts. I use bananas and it just makes life allot easier on hook up. The FM tuner worked better than I expected too, pulling in weak stations fairly well with its feeble looking wire aerial provided in the box. AM is well, nothing more need be said there except you get the AM loop aerial included too. Progamming input custom names, and radio call stations is a snap thanks to the custom menu. Sony Also employs a "easy or Normal setup for your speakers. Nice of them to give you a choice, but I would give them that back for full Audio Calibration level adjust on all channels. Though audio calibration is poorly done. Like my last SONY, you cannot increase or decrease front channel left/right. So I used my Sound meter...a Radio Shack one and balanced the center,surrounds, and subwoofer to the front left/right reference. All is fine here. I like the selectable crossover point for the subwoofer. Other cheapy units don't offer this one. I also like how Sony didn't over do it with the Surround modes. Just a few here like Jazz mode, and few others. Following the method of the reciever, the remote is small in size and the buttons and the script are too small to read. While fairly comprehensive, I would give up the DVD control for bigger buttons,backlighting and a larger script. The looks dept of the reciever, typical Japanese look, that is to say, clean, without too many buttons on front. You have a black face U channel with some angled sculpting; can't tell if its metal though it looks it with its faint brused black look. Eight small round buttons flank the central area. Input selection are their jobs. Right side has the Volume control, not of the detented variety, but has a mechanical resistance when you turn it but not overly so. Left of input select buttons are the manual tuning up and down, and preset tuning up and down. Lower left, headphone, and A/V input port for composite video in and left/right analog input. Power is upper left. Status panel display is a well lit l.e.d. affair in white. While clear, I would have liked a bigger display but this one works fine. Another observation is the white silk screen lettering on the panel is a bit small and maybe difficult for some to read. NAD still has this one right with the white on Gray scheme. I have yet to find a clearer way to see which selections I wish to make. The rear apron has plenty of room for all its connections and I never felt crowded wiring up anything. Compared to some of the big complex A/V recievers I have used, this is refreshing. The power cord is a captured type, so upgrading the power cord is not an easy deal here if you wanted to, but others in this price are captured too, so no ding here. So all in all, this Sony isn't going to make you think you got a top flight rig for under $200.00, but what it will do is give you a solid choice for a basic theater and a nice foundation for a fine gaming reciever. Check it out if you want or need an economical A/V reciever solution. Thanks for reading.

Similar Products Used:

NAD,Rotel, Harman Kardon.