Good sound, resonable price, good features, design

remote, could have more features,

I really like this receiver. It's my first receiver but it has all the necessary features I need. It was relatively pricey versus similar receivers that had more features at a lower cost. I must admitt, what steered me to buy the STR-DE845 was the name Sony. This is still a bargain compared to the top brand recievers. I had read good reivews about this reciever. I really enjoyed the LCD remote although pushing the knob up and down was difficult. The back of this receiver was basic but had the necessary connections I wanted. I don't usually crank the volume high so I can't comment on how it does at high volume. At low-mid volume, the sound is clean and crisp for movies. I would like to see more different level of bass other than just the 1 bass boast setting. Watching movies on certain modes puts out too much bass for my liking. I don't know if it's my speaker but there's too much boom which shadows the background sound and dialogue. Overall, in my opinion, this a good speaker. If you are a novice consumer like me, this should satisfy your needs and is relatively easy on the pocket for those with tight budgets.

A easy to follow manual, the other strenghts that have already been listed.

Remote looks impressive but is abit of a pain to use.

This is my first venture into surround & boy, am I impressed! I did quite abit of comparing between this Sony, the Kenwood VR-409 & the Pioneer D509S. The Sony was the most expensive but I think it has the other two beat for quality & features.

Hooking it up was much less complicated than it looked at first. The manual was VERY easy to follow for this. I had been considering buying Paradigm speakers before the receiver as I could afford them, but I decided to get this first & use my old speakers. I connected them to my two JVC speakers & used my 20 yr old Sansui speakers for rear.
During the setup you can set it for no centre or sub (which I don't have at the moment). I popped Pink Floyd:The Wall
DVD into my Panasonic A320 & couldn't believe the sound out of those old speakers. If it sounds this good now, it will sound incredible with good speakers.

I'm obviously new at surround & easily impressed but I think this is a great receiver.

Similar Products Used:

none

Great Power, Digital/DTS capability, A/V equipment compatibility, durability, Remote functions

Remote will not operate Pioneer CD player (older IR model)
Battery Drain sever from remote w/ back light on

I just made the jump from Pro-logic to Digital. I researched for months on different brands, price ranges, compatibility, etc. This unit has a lot of features for the $$$$. I was not a big fan of Sony until I bought this receiver. Paid $295 through internet resources. Remote was a bit difficult to initially set up & learn, but now (other than Pioneer CD player) works all other A/V equipment. Have Sony D560 DVD player w/ built-in digital decoder, Zenith 2200 HiFI VCR, Sanyo 27 inch TV, KLH 5000 Series Loud speakers, Jensen surrounsd speakers (Pakage deal w/ old receiver). No Passive Sub hooked up yet, but my loud speakers seem to generate enough bass to crack the glass in my wife's china cabinet.
If after you purchase this unit, I suggest buying the Coaxial digital cable vs analog (5.1) hookups as the surround sound is vastly superior in digital mode. I love the blue light that illuninates a dark room when the digital recordings are decoding during playback. I have yet to sample S-video or Component Video, but plan on it in the next 6 months to a year and hear it is a must for a complete HT experience.
Thanks to my brother-in-law who got me hooked on HT & on Sony products.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer/Aiwa HT Prologic Recievers

Output levels, functions (EQ & SS setup)

Remote could be better (big Sony weakness)

I originally bought the DE545 about a month ago and was not that impressed. It sounded fine but didn't stand out. Decided to exercise my 30 day return from Circut City and upgraded to the 845. I am so glad I did! Even though the unit has the same 100 watt power rating as the 545 it's output levels appear to be much better. Drives my sub well and my old speakers even sound better. I'm about to purchase 5 Tannoy Reveal professional studio monitors for my surround sound system. These only run $300 a pair and I highly recommend these as a surround option (much better than consumer speakers). Can't wait to here them through this reciever.

Similar Products Used:

STR-DE545

TONS of features, High output (100 Watts)

Weird cell phone like looking remote, EQ a liitle too much (personally I just like the bass/treble nobs), Can't play subwoofer in stereo mode, Sounds a bit harsh at high levels (listening to music)

I just got this thing graduating from a much older unit I had when Pro Logic was the new technology. Granted, I don't have the dvd to be able to see how it does with digital movies, but for music, this receiver is so so. It does have a TON of feature on it and all these crazy listening modes ... but who ever uses these things? Some do I guess, but personally I don't. For getting the best sound out of music, I'd suggest a HK receiver over this. I've heard both, and the HK is MUCH better.
Also, the remote is AWEFUL, but that's been stated.
Good receiver for movies and the 'feature' person, but not good enough for everyday music.

Similar Products Used:

Older Sony surround receiver, HK AVR300

Power, features, available connections, geat value

remote of course, it gets kinda irritating having to open up that flap every time i want to change a setting. gets hot

I am very happy with this product. I read all the reviews here and concluded that i was going to go with the sony. I have no complaints about this unit other than the remote which i can tolerate. However, since my front speakers are rated 6ohm, I had to use the receiver on the 4ohm setting which causes the receiver to get really hot really fast. If I play loud music for 15min straight, It get's hot enough for me not to be able to touch it. Sony should have installed a fan within it. Another thing that worries me is the relatively high THD, compared to yamaha it is relatively high. I bought this receiver from sears at only $299! The key here is that sears matches internet prices, so I used a shopping agent like www.pricescan.com to find me the best possible price. Overall this unit is awesome for the value, sure the remote is annoying but the benefits and value far outweigh the inconvenient remote

Similar Products Used:

none

Power, parametric eq, bass response, AB switching, Phono input.

Crosstalk between phono and cd inputs, and small hiss at anything past half volume.

I bought this reciever while my HK AVR 45 was in the shop ( second time). I was amazed at the features and eq. What I wasn't ready for was that I enjoyed the smoother sound. The bass is tighter and punchier even at the default setting. I noticed this especially on movies when at 1/4 volume, the pictures on the wall began to vibrate. I have large Infinity
SM 255 speakers w/out a subwoofer for front speakers and this reciever brought those speakers to life while I was also able to tame their brightness with the parametric eq. I also noticed that my center speaker's( Overture 1) sound seemed more on-screen and didn't bring as much attention to itself. I also didn't have to crank the surround speakers to get decent volume( opposite of my HK). I never would have thought that I would prefer a Sony over a Harman Kardon. Their are some problems such as a noticeable crosstalk between channels and slight hiss when the volume is set past halfway. Finally, I had to return it when my HK came back and I couldn't afford to keep both and Circuit City wouldn't take back the HK even though it will most likely go back again. My next purchase will be a higher end sony model which will most likely not have the hiss and crosstalk problems. I would highly recommend it however because the problems can be worked around and it is a high quality unit, esp. for price.

Similar Products Used:

Harman Kardon AVR 45, Yamaha 1105( friend's).

power,dts,i think it has a good amount of connections(im only missing one for the tape, my md used it, but i havent listend to a tape in years)pretty to look at

(hey rob, read this)take a guess...the remote

i have the 845, 330 dvd, 530 md, older cd, sony 27 in tv(next upgrade),playstation, rca vcr, and a sony dual tape player thats not hooked up, dcm speakers, custom house barracuda cable. the sound it awesome, definatly get better cables to fully use the 845's power and sound. all i know it that my system sounds better that my friends, even the ones using bose on their sonys. my main reason for writing this is for ROB FARBER lower down, my remote wouldnt work my rca vcr either. hitachi, ge, and rca are all made my the same company. try the ge ir setting. i have mine set in ge-3. i would try it for the dss too

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only sony

Remote is very useful, LCD on it is nice. All the soundfields are quality too. 32 bit processing is very nice. clean powerful sound. adapts well to any room. lots of inputs and outputs, dts

no redlight on the volume knob, no on screen displays, no number keys on the front of the remote,

this is a very good receiver for the dollars i spent. signal processing is very good. great dts and dolby digital decoding. overall, great buy

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old pioneer

Nice display, good amount of features, good power output, 3 Svideo inputs, easy to setup, has a phonograph input (as opposed to the STR-DE545, 4-8 Ohm front speaker switch

Remote tries to be too cool - ends up being annoying, no CD digital input, useless DSP modes, no option to hook up an external EQ

I got this unit as an open box buy at Best Buy for $269 which was a steal IMO. This is my first ever digital home theatre receiver, and I looked long and hard trying to get the one I wanted. A big plus is the switch to force 4 Ohm front speaker impedance, which is what my fronts are. I think this receiver sounds outstanding in Dolby Digital mode (I dont have any DTS movies, so I cant test that). Its got decent power, and quite a few good features, however there are some features which are missing, which I think a unit of this price should have. I was really disappointed to see that it doesnt have CD digital inputs. All you can use are the RCA cables. I was also disappointed that I couldnt use my old EQ that I had on my old stereo. When I found out that this unit has an internal EQ, I was excited, however the internal one isnt that effective, and only has 3 range settings, Low, Mid, and High. Another big problem is that I dont think the CD audio is very good. My old 45watt RMS Sherwood receiver sounded better playing CDs with the same CD player (Nakamichi CDC-200). Ive messed with the levels and EQ as much as I can, but I just think it doesnt sound very good. The unit boasts 27 DSP modes, but in my opinion, theyre all useless. CD audio sounds muddy in every mode other than 2 channel Stereo, which is the one I use for music. The remote has been bashed enough on here, so I'll leave that one alone. In all, I am happy with this unit as a Dolby Digital receiver, and I like the layout of the unit and the display is nice, although boring in CD mode, however Im not sure if I can tolerate the music modes not sounding very good (when compared to my el-cheapo 7 year old Sherwood unit).

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Kenwood, Pioneer and my old Sherwood receiver