Price. Powers five speakers, has subwoofer output.

Sounds like garbage in almost all sound modes, runs at about 150 degrees fahrenheit, clip-ons instead of binding posts.

I purchased this receiver for only $250, not bad in 1997 for 100x5 sound. It was the second receiver I owned, and far superior to the crappy little JVC I had prior.
The sound modes with the exception of Jazz club and dolby are uniformly awful, enough so that I listened to nearly everything in bypass mode to cut out the garbage. still didn't sound that great, but it was fairly loud.
Lots of features, most of which don't work well enough to warrant use, although one reviewer apparently was pleased with the 5.1 inputs. When I purchased a dvd player I upgraded my stereo.
This receiver runs so hot I returned it at first, only to find that it was a standard condition. You will not believe how hot it gets after only a few minutes. Watch independence day at full volume, and you won't need a radiator.
Still holds a warm place in my heart, but not a good receiver.

I was searching for decoders for my new HDTV to get a digital signal and
stumbled onto Brads write up. I must say ,I like your style dude, you tells
it like you sees it! Keep it up!

I have had this receiver for more than 2 years now and it's pretty damn good. The power isn't as clean as I would like, but it was very adequate for a first receiver. When inputting my DVD 5.1 it performs quite well. Every movie sounds fantastic. The controls are a little unwieldy and I like post connectors for speaker cable, but no real complaints. It does get very warm indeed, but I never had a problem. My receiver is on almost 10 hours a day as I run my TV/PSX/DVD/CD through it. I could probably lay a plate on top of it and warm dinner, but if it doesn't shut down or shound crappy, why should I care. I will get an STR-DE835 soon and sell this 615, but for 2 years it has done me well.

I thought I had a half way decent surround sound receiver that did all the things it was supposed and in my opinion did them fairly well.

The different modes were not so different and in general sounded much the same. Not all that much power either but it did the job fairly well.

I think quality control on the part of Sony must have been severely lacking for many of the units. The fact that so many reviewers' receivers get hot is testament to this. I on the other hand have a unit that gets normally warm but no different from other electronic equipment that I own. It seems fine to me. Other than that, the unit does what it is supposed to do in a journeyman way. Nothing done exceptionally well but acceptable for the price. I doubt I would choose it again what with is available today but it meets my purposes as a secondary unit in the den. All in all, I rate it average or a bit above.

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Harman Kardon AVR70 which is not so similar but is head and shoulders above the Sony

500 watts,nice sound

no digital decoder, no S-video

I think all of you people giving this reciever a bad rap are just c**k suckers. This reciever has good quality sound and enough inputs to hold anything you want. I have a TV/VHS/DVD/CD all hooked up easily. This reciever makes them all sound very good. If you want a better reciever you will end up spending a lot more money. I have some expensive speakers hooked up and they sound great. I am happy with my Sony.

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lots