Pretty solid sounding, Brighter than my Marantz

Hissing in Surround Speakers in Prologic

A friend of mine bought this receiver. He brought
it over to compare to my older Marantz (Prologic only).
I must say that DD 5.1 rocks. I must have watched the T-Rex section of Jurassic Park a hundred times with my Prologic receiver. Listening to it in 5.1 was a whole new experience.
It was like going from black and white to color.

For the money, musically the Sony sounds OK. This highs
were as good or a little better than my 75W Marantz. The
lows were not quite as strong.

However, for HT it THERE IS HISS during Prologic play in the surrounds. The hiss is very noticable. In 5.1 I did not notice it as much if at all.

Since in the near future a lot of my movie watching will be off of VHS rathern than DVD, I'm going to spend a little more and get the Denon AVR1801 (or maybe the 2801 for $500 w/ ship from CrazyEddie.com)

Note: I used my PlayStation 2 for the DVD player. It has
an optical out and sounded pretty darn good.

Powerful, easy to use, crisp sound in dts and dd 5.1, a wide variety of outputs and inputs.

No volume display, cheap surround speaker wire holders, crappy remote, a few useless dsp modes

In terms of intangeables, this receiver is very solid. The strengths far outweigh the weaknesses, because the strengths are of monumental importance, and the weaknesses are personal nitpicks. This receiver handles all sound well. On DVD the sound really shines, and this receiver lets you hear the difference between dd5.1 and dts, which isn't always evident. The remote is not helpful, I only control the receiver with it, but what is necessary the remote can do, like volume, changing settings, etc. There are a variety of outputs, although I wish there were digital outs for video 1 and 2 modes. For less than 400 dollars, this baby supplies enough power, sound quality and low frequency control to outduel local movie theaters. Once you make the investment, you will notice the difference.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Onkyo, Yamaha, Pioneer

power is awesome! 3 digital inputs, 1 digital output

volume does not show on front of receiver.

I got this receiver from circuit city for 249 open box. This receiver rocks, it has awesome power which rocks my house at even when you crank it up only about 30 percent. Gladiator on DTS sounds great! It has afd mode which automatically detects what kind of input is being fed to it. The rear channels sound great. The overall bass is great as well. I don't even think you need a subwoofer with this product. Pump up the bass + 10 on each channel and your floor will shake!!!! Go buy this receiver!!! what more can i say? It is worth 400 dollars right off cc shelf!

Similar Products Used:

jvc

Power, Display, Price, # inputs

Remote, volume knob, rear speaker connectors, and personaly i could have used another COAX digital in...

I will have to agree with all of the other reviews and say the remote is lousy and I can see that flip out part breaking sooner or later. It also could use some kind of indicator on the power knob that lights up. It has more then enough power for my mid sized room. (For HT as well as Music)

Other then that it is a good theater system for the price. This is an excellent entry to mid level reciever for anyone who is looking to get into HT and still wants to crank their music. I have a Sony CD and DVD so compatibility is a problem.

Word of warning... I listened to the DE545 in two different stores and there was a Hiss. (salespeople were very quick offering a heap of different excuses for it)I would not go with anything below the 845 but the choice is yours. Just listen to it in a good quiet room.


**I am matching it up with The Energy Take 5 w/ 10" sub. (Will review on them in a few weeks when they are broken in and adjusted to my liking.)

Similar Products Used:

Sony 100watt pro logic reciever

Many...remote, outputs and inputs, watts per dollar, DPS's more than most will use.

Remote in night vision...you must put under lamp for the main buttons to glow, and yes volume indicator doesn't have an indicator for night view...but here's the answer use your ears!

FIRST: MANY thanks to each of you who have taken the time to review this and other components, and to Audioreview.com for such an great tool.

Well the bad news is when I first recieved this reciever the left rear channel didn't work...after taking it to our "fortunatly" local Sony Factory Repair Center "a 1 week wait" it's doing great. The Repair Center was easy to work with and handled things well "so the warrenty works".
Now for the good news...this reciever works GREAT! I use the Cinema Studio Ex. B for most of the movies, this provides a 3D sound image creating 5 sets of virtual speakers in the rear from 2 speakers. The DSP modes are useful depending on your listening taste, I enjoy the different setting depending on the music I'm listening to. As for power 100 X 5 is plenty for my use. Our room is about 20' X 14' not your perfect size. At about 1/4 turn the power is plenty enough for my 10 year olds to jump during a movie or dance around like lunitics, thinking thier cool.

My speakers are old and/or cheap: Mains are Bose 501's, Center Cannon 10" w/tweeter, Rear's Hitatchi Book Shelf style 5" w/ tweeters, no Sub to date.

With Cd, Tuner, TV, Video, DVD, or Tape everything works great with the remote...yes there is a learning curve...however once you get a hang of it, it performs very well. As mentioned before the remote lacks the night vision I would prefer. Put on top of a lamp for 15 min. it's real brite for about 10 min., then the fade takes over quickly! The LCD is useful if you know where the buttons are.

I've read some recent reviews on this site that slam this reciever....get over it....this reciever will be a year old in April 2001 "Sony's introduction date" I got it over the net for $282.66 new unopened box, even with the rear channel problem I wouldn't change my mind...at least I know up front that the 2 year warrenty works.

Do your research well go to {http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-oss0iIysNiy/ProdPic.asp?i=156STRE845&a=&o= }
for a good look at both reciever and remote.
Good luck and good listening!

Similar Products Used:

none...looked and listened to Denon 1801, Onkyo, Yamaha

Compatibility with other components

Confusing for a novice

First off I have to tell you the sound is incredible. I bought this receiver and a Sony S360 DVD. They are hooked to my 32FV16 WEGA Sony TV. I am having one problem and would like to solicit suggestions. I hooked my DVD directly to the TV using Component cables. I ran an optical Digital cable to the receiver from the DVD.

The problem I am having is trying to get an older model Sony VCR(no S-Video or Component) to work. I connected it to the video1 jacks on the receiver and ran an S-video cablefrom receiver(monitor) to the TV. I am not getting a picture but do get sound across the speakers. Also tried plugging the s-Video into the video 1 out on the receiver and this did not work either. I now have VCR directly connected to TV.
Can someone help me out with this so I can route the VCR thru the receiver?

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer

Lot's 'o power. (these ppl. that say it doesn't have enough must have it hooked up to something huge) Very clean, nice looking, love the blue decoding light.

Frickin' remote could probably be used in the space program, but can't control my h/k cd player. However, would make a nice boat anchor if a bit heavier... no light on volume knob, runs hot. (could us a cooling fan)

Nice unit, clean sound. The cinema studio examples are great (i prefer "B.") The rest of the sound fields (like "game") are a bit of a joke, i prefer just running that kind of stuff flat on 2 channel stereo mode. The equalizer is nice, fun to play with, too. it's semi-parametric, meaning you can set the frequency that you are adjusting, very handy. all around good value, cheaper than the db840, and 10 w.p.c. more powerful... go figure. 4.5 out of 5 star rating.

Similar Products Used:

Sony str-db840

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.

Very nice sound, not so many buttons on the front

Volume knob protrudes WAY to much. No light on front of volume knob

I really like this receiver, especially for the price. I almost spent a lot more on a receiver, and I honestly think this one has made me just as happy. Good clean sound, and I have detected no hiss from my speakers. Everything seems to be set up logically. I really like Sony's new style with this line.

I just wish they had a light on that volume knob and that it didn't stick out so far!

Similar Products Used:

Denon, older Sony

Power, LCD remote control, multi function and adjust features

cheap center/surround speaker wire terminals

Overall, this is a good receiver for the price....matches well with my other Sony components.