I have the Sony STR-DE715 receiver and it sounds great. It is Dolby Digital (AC-3) ready receiver, in Stereo mode it delivers 100 watts per channel x2,: both channels driven into 8 ohms or 4 ohms, 20 - 20,000 Hz, 0.09% THD and in Surround mode: 100 watts per channel x5,: five channels driven into 8 ohms, 1,000 Hz, 0.8% THD. Attached to PSB speakers it sounds great. I give it 5-Stars.
People must know that even if you have a very good receiver and you attach it to poor speakers it will not sound good.

YOU!!! ARE!!! A!!! F*CKING!!! IDIOT!!!

This is a solid receiver, certainly for home theater use. For the money, it's a B+ or A-. (I paid just of US$200 for a demo unit.) It may be true that Sony's marketing people are deceptive about the wattage numbers, but I doubt many people actually need 100 watts per channel for movies. I have yet to get the volume past 50%, and it has been extremely loud approaching that point. (Music is another story. I would strongly discourage people from buying this or any other receiver for high quality music reproduction.) The sound is clean, full of punch. The DSP modes are decent. The real virtue of this receiver is that it is ready for Dolby Digital with plenty of equal power to each channel. In the mean time, it has solid Pro Logic performance.

Bought this receiver open-box for $200 incl. tax.Common criticism: no bass (true)
Solution: Infinity BU-120.
Hooked w/RS-2 rears and RS-5 towers.
Sounds great, bass thumps.
Total setup: $1075
Love it.
Soundfields sound OK, mainly use DSP in DVD player to control AC-3 settings.
DIRECT PASS feature is a nice one...very crisp.
4 stars for value.

After listening to my friend's high end home theater system, I finally decided that it was time to upgrade my ten year old stereo receiver to a new AV receiver capable of surround sound.
Being in the computer industry, I assumed that in the past ten years similar advances had been made in audio that would allow even an inexpensive system like the Sony to sound good.

Boy, was I wrong! I purchased the Sony from Cambridge Soundworks, where I've purchased all of my speakers, at about 7pm. By 9pm the unit was back in the store as a return.

I realized that I simply couldn't afford surround sound at that time. As soon as I hooked it up, I tried several CDs. The difference between the Sony and my ten year old no-name receiver (well, actually, it was a Vector Research) was monumental. I spent the next hour switching back and forth between the two, unable to believe that it could possibly sound that bad.

For home theater use it was somewhat bearable, but for music it was far from ok. I couldn't stand to listen to music on this thing! It made me ill.

If you're thinking of buying this unit, or any of the other low end Sonys, DON'T. Save up your money for a while and buy something better.

I've been using the Denon AVR-1400 for the past few months, and I would recommend it for anyone looking for a cheap receiver. You should be able to find it for under $400 U.S.

The difference between it and the Sony is like night and day. My old stereo still sounds a little better, and that difference is going to force me to end up selling my Denon and upgrading to a Harmon Kardon. If you can afford the HK to begin with, avoid the Denon. If you're not that discriminate and have a tight budget, go for the Denon.

Price

Sound!

After one year of use, it got into "Protector Mode" and it has been in storage ever since. No significant documentation from Sony on this, but it will cost me $150
to fix, and no guarantee of not going back into "Protect" again. I think I will just proctect my $s

After reviewing a lot of similarly priced receivers, I am planning to buy this reciever because it has plenty of features not found in other products at the same price (eg learning remote, ready for Dolby Digital, ample power) and because I believe it sounds better than the other products. I also think it is significantly better than the STDRE-515. Finally, it one a the Sound and Image Awards for best reciever under $1000.
If anyone has comments on the deficiencies or otherwise of the product, then please let me know. By the way, why does Sony have such a bad name in many HiFi type forums?

This receiver in my point of view is not very good. The receiver had alot of trouble producing the bass i wanted (of course my expectations weren't too high). But there are alot of good things about it. 1 it's dolby digital ready. 2 it has sufficient power. 3 it has alot of options (althought the DSP modes do not change the audio sound a bit).
ps. For all you people who think that this receiver actually delivers full 100 watts to all Five channels.

This receiver is rated 100w x 2 20-20,000 hz
The Home Theater is rated 100w x 5 1,000 hz

This is not actually truthful. 100w x 2 Full bandwidth means that it will be able to produce 100 watts continiously for the Full Bandwidth. 100w x 5 1,000 hz means that alone the amplifier can produce 100 watts when designated on 1,000 hz only. This means that if the Full Bandwidth is used the power will go down. This is one way sony tricks you. 100w x 5 at 1,000 hz is actually 80w x 5 20-20,000 hz. Don't believe me? here's a very good example. Yamaha RX-V793 and R-V1103 are the EXACT same. Except with different appearances and different power ratings. the RX-V793 is 80w x 5 20-20,000 hz and the R-V1103 is 100w x 5 1,000 hz. This can be found at www.yamaha.com/yec

(Yet at least Yamaha admits about the Power and how it's actually misguiding)

For the ULTIMATE Home Theater (Low End that is) purchase this receiver and the Yamaha DDP-2 Dolby Digital Processor. Both products can be found for the lowest prices at www.jandr.com

The STR-DE715 is $299
The Yamaha DDP-2 is $349

After having this receiver for about 3 months the amplifier and front panel went out. It took Sony a month to fix it. The sound is good, however the learning remote does not have enough memory storage for even three other components. Also, there is limited support in the remote for a Sony VCR.

I bought this reciever for $680 Australian dollars 3 months ago. I am fairly new to Home Theatre Hi-Fi and I did a lot of analysis (including looking at this site and others)and shopping around at various stores. I was comparing it with the Denon AVR 1400 and Yamaha 592 (both of which retail for a 2-3 hundred dollars more in Australia)
I must admit that I was influenced by the features such as:

5.1 input
learning remote
100 watts * 5 (albeit at limited bandwidth)
Good price compared to other similarly featured receivers.
Compatibility with my Sony Video
the fact that it was awarded Best AV Reciever under $1000 in the 97/98 ? Sound and Image Awards

Sound quality was only one of the factors (herecy, I know). I thought both the DENON and the Yamaha sounded better, but then again for the extra dollars I would expect them to sound better. Besides I still liked the sound of the Sony.

After a few months, I am still reasonably happy with my purchase although I am not ecstatic.

I have had more problems than I would have liked.

When I play music and use one of the DSP modes, the sound leaks to the surround channels. I think this might be related to unshielded speaker cables or a faulty reciever.
The DSP Pro-Logic modes do not sound quite right. It is almost like there is too much echo in the L and R channels.
The FM reception seems to be quite poor, and occasionally I can hear a hum which sounds like some form of high pitched interference (perhaps from one of the power cords). I am not using an external antenna, and I assume that this would help reduce general static.
I am now more aware of the advantages of having S-Video inputs. Although, I think that I should be able to get around this problem by ensuring that my future TV has S-Video inputs, as at this stage the only AV component I can see my buying that will have S-Video connectability is a DCD player. Still it would have been nice.
Occasionally (once so far and only for one component) the learning remote forgets what it has been told. I understand that this is not uncommon with learning remotes.

I will be taking the unit too the service agent to look into this problems, in the next few days but if anyone has a theory (apart from "I should have bought xyz brand"), then I would love to hear from them. Email Michael.Cuddihy@NOSPAM.dofa.gov.au Remove NOSPAM

The Yamaha 493 or 592 would be a strong competitor for my dollars if I were to make the same purchase again. Overall, I would give this reciever 2 1/2 out of 5. More without the problems.

Michael Cuddihy