The Sony 825 is one of the worst receivers I have bought! The sound is not that clear. There is some bleed through with the surround. And the piece of junk broke 4 times. First it was the Amp, then the display, then the amp again, and for the fourth time it was the amp again. I truely do not recommend this receiver to anyone. I have had a few problems with some of my preveous purchases from sony. Including a cd player, television, and mini stereo. Sony is not a good company to buy from. All Sony has is a name. Anyone who is going to buy a receiver for 400-500 dollars don't waste your money on this receiver and get the Yamaha R-V995. I will soon take this receiver back to Best Buy and get the Yamaha R-V1105.

Well, i'm sure by now, no one is buying this model, as other new ones and better ones have come along.But i will say, that this 825 performs pretty well, as far as power goes.
I compared this side by side with the same speakers, in the same room, everything being equal, with an Onkyo that was $150 more and only 45 watts a channel, and a pioneer that claimed i think 80 watts a channel, it too cost more then this sony, and they just plain old sucked!
As far as bass goes, your better off with a powered sub, my 15" advent av550s with 250 watt amp, i think is a cheap but great addition.
It takes awhile to configure everything with the sony, speaker distance, frequency response, and you do have to play around with the remote to find a good sound field, I find multi rear and enhanced A to be my favorites in my setup.
But i do bounce around to other fields.
Also, make sure you tv is set to stereo, as i found out on my RPTV it wasn't and i couldn't figure out why the surround sounded like crap.
But anyway, if anyone really had anything to say bad about this 825, then maybe they should be shopping in another category, like the $1500 and up range.
Sometimes cheap alternatives are an ok route for some.
I also wouldn't say sony sucks.
Don't buy off the shelf, your doomed to get screwed.
My only one complaint, is slow reaction to field changes, and power up.

I got the 825 for Chrismas and have been using it with Energy Take-5's (no sub) and a DD DSS system. So far, I have been exceptionally happy with the unit. For the price, I couldn't find anything that rivaled the sound and feature sets.I exect to pick up one of the new Sony DVD players this weekend to try to add some more DD material...I wish DirecTV would provide more DD!!!! My only negative comment is the remote, plenty of features (love the display), but the ergonomics just plain suck!