Bought this receiver for ~$400 10 years ago at Best Buy when my Haffler 2 channel gave up its milk after 20 years. It's worked well for the whole 10 years. I will agree the rear channels are weak in power and fidelity, but I didn't know it until I hooked up my new Onkyo SR806 ($1000). Sounds great in 2.1 mode, and will be moving out to the garage to continue duty. All of the sound fields and effects are neat to play with, and quite a bit of EQ adjustment capability. I don't like the flip up remote, in 2 pieces most of the time now, but it still soldiers on. I give it 5 stars for being a good stout soldier all these years. Plenty of relatively clean power (not the headroom or super quiet of the Haffler, but pretty good).

Strong and reliable, plenty of options, versatility, good power, plenty of inputs.

No multiple S-Video connections, and no component video connections

Got this puppy mislabeled at a pawn shop. That's an elbow in the ribs for those of you who spent $500 on this thing. Very reliable for me. Never a single issue and I've had it for 6 years. Knock on wood. Great sound quality loud or soft. Some of the effects are cheesy, but still fun to play with. I've used it w/ Infinity's and JBL speakers, so I'm obviously not very wealthy, but this reciever is a terrific piece of equipment geared toward those able to afford decent mid-grade equipment. I have it's little brother as a studio monitoring system, and it's worked fine for 3 years as well. I guess some of these are just hit or miss unfortunately. The EQ takes tweaking to find a sweet spot, and that's always the case with any piece of audio equipment.

100 watts per ch. strong DD,DTS performance

none for a 5yr old receiver

I have own this receiver for 5yrs,and never had a single problem with it.It plays great with alot of power & many surround modes. But it does not come with todays Pro LogicII,DD EX,DTS ES just really great 5.1. All the reveiews i have read about popping sounds, overheating,weak rear channels are not the case for me. The surrounds can be enhanced by virtual speaker setting that adds about 3DB'S via cinema studio ex a,b,or c. As far as i can tell i will not buy another receiver untill this thing breaks down,and then i will purchase the king of receivers (for me that is) yamaha.but for now i will con't to enjoy my sony.

Good sound quality, through Cambridge soundworks movie works speaker system.

Very dissapointed with reliability.

This is my first Sony receiver unit purchase. Easy to use features, great sound. Terrible reliabilty. Looks like my outputs are blown as well. I bought it off as friend who purchased it new about 3 years ago. I've only had it about 5 months. I was playing a VHS tape on low sound and heard a pop, saw a little flash, and smelled smoke. Now there is no sound output at all, on any channel. This will probably be my last Sony receiver.

Seemed to work ok with my separate CD and cassette players.

Tuner didn't pull in many stations well. Lasted only 3 years of very light use.

I bought this receiver when my JVC died and couldn't be repaired; wanted a different company since the last one only lasted 3 years. Well, heard the pop, smelled the smoke and 'protect' mode. I might use it one a week! Bummer

Similar Products Used:

JVC was my last receiver; but it only lasted 3 years also.

Great sound, a little weak on the rear surround channels but can be compensated. Plenty of inputs for all my components, even the ol' turntable. Easy to use.

Terrible reliability in an age of extreme competition. My image of Sony reliability is shot.

This is my first Sony receiver unit purchase. I have always been impressed with the price/performance quality of my other Sony products and I felt this receiver was a natural fit for my new home theater. This unit has extremely easy to use features, plenty of inputs, and in my opinion very good sound quality for the price. The problem is with the product quality. The outputs have blown on it 3 times in the last 2.5 years. Initially I thought it was a heat issue, but the last two times it blew the outputs within 30 seconds of turning it on. My repair shop, which has an extremely good reputation, has not been able to keep it alive during bench testing and has finally given up after 2 months (even with guidance by Sony support). The bottom line is that the product quality and/or design does not meet the usual level of Sony products and will probably be my last Sony receiver purchase.

Seems to last only 4 years.

Well after 3 and a half years, I got the pop, protect, and smoke out the top that others have reported.

clarity, ease of setting up. never had a problem w/ it in three yrs other the DVD light is out. but my next upgrade is the Denon 3802.

no optical for CD, yeah the remote is funk, i got the all in one remote from sony that is touch screen -- went from 7 remotes to 1.

people i have had mine goin over 4 yrs! and no problems! my RX is sitting on top of everything else on a self in a reg entertainment ctr. never overheated and still rocks! i also have "B" spkrs hooked for my bsmt both "A & B" playing at the same time,it still kicks. only prob that i have is my dvd light for the button went out thats it. other than that its been damn good and i also also had it at %50% vol. and had it at 1/3 vol and had cops out on it. i am running a DVD (optical),cd, Digital cable (coaxial), tape deck, vcr, n64, super nin thru it.

Similar Products Used:

400 sony cd changer($300) and also tape deck ($150), sony 32 Vega flat screen ($1000). Spkrs i have have now are, Infinitys (IL30), Infinity rear(quadpoles), Sony (ctr--soon goin to Infinity), Yamamha

Can hook up about anything to it.Great for home theater

Gets hot easy

This is a great reciever to own.

Dolby Digital/ DTS sound. Does a great job.

Creates enough heat to cook a steak on the receiver

Same old... about one year ago I melted the system. Sony fixed it for free and then I recently knocked it into protection mode. Left it off for about a hour and its working fine. I purchased a dual CPU fan and stuck it behind it. It now stays nice and cool.... just a little white noise from the fans. Great system as long as you keep it cool.