Price/Performance, Input Naming, Remote

No significant ones as of yet

This is actually a review of the DE845. I recieved mine last night and have been tweaking away since. I love the new remote that comes with the 845. It's the same one that comes with the 935 except no two way to slow everything down. Also I'm using a toshiba 1008 DVD player with only coaxial out and the purty blue light still comes on. Overall I love the sound and build quality of this unit. After despising all this talk of sony this and sony that I can say for now I'm a sony believer

Similar Products Used:

RCA audio theater

Price

Rear speaker output, remote, display died

I would not recommend this product. I thought it was a bargain at $329 from Monkey Ward. After using it 6 months, I've found the remote it terrible with light lettering on light buttons, the rear speaker output is very weak on one side, and the display has disappeared. If I was a Sony stockholder, I would sell right now. Once you buy a Sony Receiver, you should learn never to buy another Sony product. I would suggest buying better quality equipment.

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I know what to expect from a product.

Great sound, Price, decodes pretty much everything

none so far

Im reviewing the STR DE 845 actually (not the 835). The 835 seems to have been obsoleted and isnt available in local stores. The good thing about this is that I dont have the "green-on-green" remote problem - looks like the remote has been upgraded to the one that comes with 935. I checked this at the store.

Paid $389 at Circuit City. The sound is very good, and there are a ton of inputs to play with. After a night's worth of fiddling with all the input, I stuck with the optical cable input for my DVD. The "cool blue" Digital light and the Dolby digital yellow LCD came alive ONLY when I use the optical inputs (someone had a doubt about this earlier in a review).

I was very amazed (still am!) with the types of things you could control (speaker pos, height??? wow!) with this reciever. Watched "the sixth sense" and it scared the bejesus out of me! The one I owned earlier was a Dolby-prologic only, and the difference is plain White and Black.

The remote's LCD is a welcome change, and helps out most of the time to control my entire audio/video suite (except my VCR, need to figure out how soon).

Similar Products Used:

SONY STR DE325

everything

remote, but i don't care, it's just a remote, but i know where all the bttons are without looking at it anyway, so it doesn't really matter, i didn't buy the reciever for the remote, so anybody whose complaining about the remote, just shut up, and look at the great reciever you have

great price, great product, very nice machine. who cares about the heat, they all get hot.

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nothing compares to this

Looks, feel, display

Ordinary 2Ch Stereo sound - straight out of the box

Had the Technics for a day and returned it...thought they had corrected the "hiss" in the rears when in surround mode, I wuz wrong! Bought this baby and the diff. is like night and day - WOW. If your on a budget this is above avg value and maybe then some. First impressions of 2Ch Stereo are just OK at present until (like others) I learn how to set up the equaliser and various adjustments. Bass boost doesn't seem to act like the 'loudness' button found on most other devices I've had over the years either (maybe it wasn't intended for that (?)...still haven't read all the manual yet aye! Noticed there is no CD label on any of the digital inputs/output, but my Phillips CD-R sounded fine plugged into the Coax in pos. so no worries. Bought a pair of Sound Dynamics RTS-7 loudspeakers to go with the 835 today so maybe there is more to add to this review later, but for now I give this baby 5 for value/presence (looks good and sounds above av. in my living room) and 4 for overall rating cause I gotta fine tune it a wee bit more + un-pack and plug my RTS-7's in IMO.
PS. can anyone email me with some of their settings...

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Technics SA-AX720

Dolby digital/dts

normal stereo

After adding a sub I have to edit my review below. With a Klipsch KSW-15, in dolby digital or dts mode this thing ROCKS! Normal stereo is still flat compared to the pioneer but the sub helped a lot. For more video than audio this is a great deal.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, yamaha, carver

Lots of Features for the $$$

Remote Control

So far I am very pleased with this purchase. I paid $399 (US) although I have seen it advertised as low as $369. You definitely get a lot for your money like the Dolby Digital and DTS decoders. The various sound modes are neat, but there might be some overkill, and learning the differences between them is a little confusing. The remote is nice due to the fact that I can control my JVC TV and VCR, although as others have stated, the "glow-in-the-dark" function buttons are piss poor, no matter if you are in the dark or light. I haven't noticed the "heat" problem, although due to the appt that I live in, I haven't cranked the volume all the way up yet. Overall this is a great receiver and have no regrets purchasing it. I had also looked at JVC's RX6000BK and Pioneer's 609 receivers before I settled on the Sony.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer

Price, features, RECIEVER

Nothing Major

I picked this reciever up at a great price 329.00 delivered from cameraworld.com. Price is amazing for the quality you recieve from this sony product. Features are unmeasureable. And it sounds great. It does run hot, but don't they all. I can't stand people taking points off for the remote. It is a little confusing, but nothing to get upset about, just read the instructions. Great reciever, recomend to anyone.

Great sound and features!! Also ability of expanding and adding components to the back. Like the fact that you can try different modes (ie. Jazz, Game...)

Need a Ph.D. to figure out the remote. Don't care for the flip top of the remote!

Overall, I am very happy with this receiver and would recommend it!!

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None

nice set of features, good price, good power, cool blue light indicator for multi-channel sound

remote control, runs a little hot

I haven't really compared this unit to other Dolby Digital receivers, so I can't make a fair comparison. But I have been very happy with this unit so far.

This receiver comes with many DSP modes (sound fields), and I think most are pretty much overkill. But the choices are there, nonetheless.

The sound quality is very nice, especially for this price range. I've tried both DD and DTS discs, and have been very amazed indeed! Even pro-logic sound is better on this unit than my old pro-logic receiver.

I have noticed a very slight buzz in the rear speakers while the volume is being adjusted...a mild annoyance at most. I also notice a little "pop" in the speakers when certain lights are switched off in my apt.

I must echo the complaints here regarding the remote control. Who designed this thing? I don't know who has the night vision to read those white buttons with light green lettering in the dark, but it's not me!

The blue light on the other hand....way cool! Hard to explain what's so cool about a silly blue light, but it is a nice feature that looks sharp in the dark and confirms you're hearing true 5.1 sound.

Haven't connected a powered sub yet, as I live in an apartment and just can't justify it. I rarely even use the bass boost. In fact, at night I often use the dynamic range control, which has been implemented nicely on this receiver with over 10 stages of control over the range of volume.

Bottom line: You'd be hard-pressed to find a better receiver with this many features at this price point. Yes, it is entry to mid-level in quality, but it's priced right. With DD and DTS decoders, 3 optical/1 coax inputs for digital sound, S-video ins/out, 2 subwoofer outputs, and 5.1 channel inputs (for connecting to an external decoder), it's a very well-rounded package.

Similar Products Used:

Sony Pro-logic receiver