None

plenty

This is a piece of crap and I advice that no one should get this crap unless they have money to waste. Can't complain about the sound quality it produces WHEN I CAN IT IT TO WORK!!!

I can't remember. It has been so long since it worked.

I have to schedule UPS to stop by my apartment and pick it up every other month.

This is the worst reciever on earth. Mine has blown fuses twice in under 5 months (and 2 of those it was being serviced). The funniest thing is that I've never played it at higher than about 1/4 volume. Mr. Sony is laughing his ass off at those of us that purchased this crap.

Great sound, Excellent Compatability with other Brand names
Music Sound fields work great
Awesome Remote Control

no DTS

I have been using the amp non stop for 1 1/2 years. When i first brought it home, It shut off on me 3 or 4 times. But has not done it since. I use it non stop, Music plays while im in bed, the TV goes though it, DVD player. My wife listens to it all day. Never a problem. Plus my model is backed with an 8 Year warranty.

Perhaps Circuit City is not a good place to buy stuff ?

At the time i purchased it. I did not know much about DVD was pretty choked to find out it did not support DTS.

I currently run Bose 301's, and a AR S112PS 12"
Sounds really good.
My rears and Center channel speakers are not worth mentioning, Hoping to upgrade them soon.

Compatability was good
I have a Pioneer DVD505 DVD player, Sony CX225 200 disc player, both hooked up via optics. Remote controls
my Panasonic 32" TV, the DVD player and all my other sony products of course. The remote has got to be the coolest item of the whole package.

A side note, I have really been browsing the reviews. And have noticed the people opinions are extreamly biased. Some have a bad expierence and Black list a product, other have never heard anything else and worship their stuff, Tonnes of people (especially in the speaker section) group 1 high quality product with garbage.

#1 rule, you pay for what you get
This amp is fairly good, is there bettter ? of course there is.

My next stereo will be Tube based

I bought the Sony STR-DE 825 from Video-Direct for $369. (I had a problem with them-- they would not ship it to my dorm) I would have gotten the 925, but Dolby Digital is the standard, so it's not worth the extra $80-100 for DTS. I have had it for 2 weeks now and it has been great except when using the coaxial Dolby Digital input from my DVD player (PC-DVD encore). Every 20 minutes or so, the receiver stops detecting the Dolby Digital input from the DVD and then kicks back on after 5-10 seconds. This is annoying when I am watching a movie with friends. It seems to come from a power surge when the refrigerator motor turns on. I have it on a surge protector and it still happens. I even tried unplugging the fridge, and it happens less often, but it still happens. This could be solved if there were a way to force it to be in Dolby Digital mode instead of auto-detect, but I don't think that is an option on this receiver. Other than that, it is an AWESOME receiver. Dolby Digital decoding sounds WAY better than the old Pro-Logic, and even the Pro-Logic is much better than my old Sony STR-D611. The rear channels have a lot of power (100 watts) and that makes a big difference. The remote is really cool, too. It remembers the station name, EQ settings, and Sound Field for each radio station that you enter! You can also rename the inputs to match your equuipment, and all settings are remembered for each input as you left them. I don't have a powered sub (mine is passive), but the receiver sends the low frequency effects to the front channels (or whichever speakers are selected as large), so it still works the same. The sound fields are cool but tend to reduce the quality of the sound, making it sound slightly tinny or noisy. I mostly keep it on straight DD or Pro-Logic. This is a great receiver for the money and I strongly recommend it.

I bought the 825 at Good Guys for $215 and got a 3 year warranty for an extra 20 bucks. This is the best reciever I have bought for the money. Evereyone complains about the bass, I have a pair of Optimus(yes radio crap) towers with 15" subs and there is to Much bass!! There is no way I will ever need a powered sub. The sound quality is very good. I have no complaints so far, excellent value.

I purchased this unit only because it was marked down (at Best Buy) for only $285.00. I noticed several other Sony receivers with marked down stickers also but thought nothing of it. When I plugged the unit in it had a protection message on the panel. I took it back to Best Buy and they exchanged it for a NEW one. Again, same problem. Returned this one but asked the salesman if there was a problem with the Sony product line. He told me that everyone has been returning them because they were running hot and would not power up or quite working eventually. They had numerous boxes on the shelf that they were trying to unload. This was with all the models starting in the 500 series. This was 3/99. I checked 5-22-99 and they are still selling them however none of the boxes on display are marked down. Have they finally fixed this problem???

The previous reviews seem to confirm my experience. The first unit I had exhibited the "drop-out" problem. I would have to switch functions to get the sound back. This only happened in the first 5 minutes of each day that I turned it on. I returned it to J&R and they quickly replaced it. The second unit has worked flawlessly from the moment I unpacked it.
If you are having problems with the sound equilization, remember that the Sony allows you to set a different equilization for EACH input function. That will account for why it can sound differently from input to input. With a good powered sub-woofer attached to it, you will NOT be lacking in any bass response.

Sound quality is mediocre, overheating problems, poor binding posts.

I wrote a review 2 years ago on this product. Now that it has broken down *again* I thought that I would update it.

So 2 years ago, I purchased this for $260, which was extremely cheap for a 500W DD reciever. It was open box, but looked pretty good, so I took a chance.

It broke down within 5 minutes.

So I brought it back, and I exchanged it for another used one. The salesman felt sorry for me, and sold me a Panasonic 120A for 140 dollars, which was a steal at the time.

I figure that this thing will break down again sometime, so I blow the 40 bucks on the extended warranty.

Two years later, I am fiddling with some cords, and I hear something pop, and PROTECTOR flashes on the screen. You cannot press any of the buttons. I take it in to Circuit City, and they replace some parts and return it to me in a week or so.

After only a week, the same thing happens again. I bring it back to Circuit City, and ask how many times I'm going to have to do this until they give me a new Sony 845. They tell me that they can keep fixing it indefinately, and that the decision is up to the technician. Anyhow, I'm still waiting, and praying that it can't be fixed.

Some general comments though:

1) Although I have pretty nice Energy:XL speakers, my friend's K-mart reciever with his paper speakers sounds every bit as good as my system.

2) I spent good money on Monster 12 gauge cables, which don't fit into the speaker binding posts. I noticed that has been fixed in the 845.

3) The remote is cool, but still hard to use. It's easier to fumble for the correct remote.

4) Keep the reciever out in the open. It was in my TV cabinet when it burnt out these last 2 times

5) I saw a 5 x 100 Yamaha, sold new at Good Guys for 400 bucks. I wouldn't waste my cash on another Sony Reciever. I tried to save a few bucks, and it's cost me a lot in time.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer DPL Reciever

100x5, DD5.1, pretty blue light.. Works pretty well when not in the shop.

Overheats. Blown Fuses. Protection mode. No DTS.

Well, if you buy this receiver, be sure as heck to get the extended warrenty from the store you buy it at. Only a few months after I bought it, it went into Protection mode and refused to work at all. I had to take it back and have it repaired.

It *constantly* flakes out. It very often will turn on but not play any sound unless I turn it off, unplug it, then plug it back in. The LCD remote that comes with it is pretty crappy - its neat but is power hungry and, for me, doesn't always work. It is universal though and works with my other products fairly nicely.

That being said, when it works, it works pretty nicely. It is very loud and (despite some of the other claims I see here) I've never really heard any hissing in any DSP modes.

The blue light (for DD5.1) is very cool. The highlight of the receiver, really.

Remote control, Lots of hookups for speakers, compared to others in the past it seemed to be a steal.

Very Hard to program, sound fields not to sharp.

This stereo did its job okay for me but I have noticed ALOT of people talk about getting a protecter message on this product and it just happened to me. the receiver was working fine for 2 years and all of the sudden this message pops out, I can here music for 5 seconds after shutting it down for a while then poof its gone. It turns on shows Cd, dvd, video etc. for 5 seconds
then protector comes on. Can anything be done about this. Its there a "bad product return them to Sony " thing out there or its there instructions on the web on how to fix this. I'd appreciate any replies to my e-mail address thanks.