EQ on all channels, Looks cool with the blue light in DD.

Too much distortion. May be a lemon. Blew up too of my speakers due to it.

The receiver looks great. Performs well but the sound is not very clean. You only relaize it when you hear the same stuff on a receiver like the Yamaha I upgraded to. The receiver is good enough for an apartment HT where you do not want to trouble your neighbors. But for a HT enthusiast I'd say keep the volume below 12 o'clock. If you go over you will hear the distortion and then a chemical smell of your speaker coil burning up. I may have overpowered my speakers too. But I do the same with the Yamaha with no damage.

Speakers: Energy Take 5
Great speakers and 5 year warranty replaced the speakers I blew for nothing.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha RX-V 596; Onkyo 575?

EQ on all channels. Tweakability

Flip-down on remote to access all features.

After searching long and hard, this receiver was the only one I could find with parametric 3 band eq on all 5 channels. Being able to tweak the mids makes this receiver sound so great. The JVC had eq on only the front L-R, so I took it back after 3 weeks. I think all receivers should have this level of tweakability. How many HT systems have you heard that the center speaker sounds tinny, nasal, muddy? That's because most receivers do not send the signal through tone controls. A little eq fixes most of these problems! I know for purists that EQ is a dirty word - buy better speakers!But if you're on a budget, this receiver will make most "affordable" speakers sound absolutely great.

Dolby Digital and DTS DVDs sound amazing. I'm using a subwoofer with it....Many rave reviews from friends who've heard it!!! Paid $569.00 Cdn - Futureshop only sells the STR-DE945 for $699 - The 845 is a much better value.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 495, JVC RX-7000VBK

lots of sound modes, great sound outputs, lots of inputs/outputs for other equipment, cool remote

heats up very quickly, no front a/v hookups

this is a great product, i love the fact that it has all those cool sound modes (27 to be exact) eventhough i dont use any of them. i like the remote, but its a bit confusing. and until i can figure out what to do about the unti heating up so fast, i dont really use it for a long time (i dont want it screwing up, even though i got the bestbuy warranty), i would have bought the sony str-de545 (it was for $300) but they were out of stock on those, so the salesman said that he would give us a discount on the str-de845, we were buying speakers and a dvd player also, so we got him to lower the price to $325, which is a steal for this unit.

Similar Products Used:

sony str-de345

Tons of options and power for the BUCK...$

Gets pretty hot after a medium duration of use.

Personally, I feel the SONY STR-DE845 is a great reciever for the amount of money. All the options and listening modes are not to useful in most situations, but you find ways to customize a few of them to suit your extra needs. I'd rather have extra added options, than to not have them and hate myself later. I have it running a pair of Yamaha NS-A1638 speakers and a simple Sony 3-piece surround set. This setup is perfect in my apartment and a SubWoofer is not even needed because of the deep clear bass it provides. I like alot of jazz music and DVD's... so it works well with both. Try the Stadium mode for live sporting events and tune the effect to about midway... you will be suprised...
DVD's like Blade, Matrix, and Saving Private Ryan kick much ass... with an Optical connection that is!!!
The remote has its goods and bads... but you can't satisfy everybody!

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD, RCA Home Theater, Classic Pioneer Audio Components

Remote, Sound Fields, Customization Level

No digital input for CD players, No little red light on volume knob anymore, No on-screen display

Decided to go with the Sony over the comparably priced Yamaha and Harmon Kardon because of the overwhelming amount of features available only on the Sony. I know the Yamaha and HK are supposed to sound better, but I really cannot hear that much of a difference between the three of them. To make a long story short, if you are an average Joe that wants a great sounding receiver at a reasonable price, this is your machine. If you are someone that will not settle for less than perfect sound quality, and has all of the tools to prove it, you will need to look elsewhere. TIP: If you already have this unit, use the Live House setting for all of your music. If you have good speakers, the clarity of the sound reproduction will blow you away. It really does feel like you are at a live show!

Similar Products Used:

Sony str-de705, str-de135, Older Technics receiver

Awesome power without the need of a powered-subwoofer. Individual eq settings for each sound mode.

Cant use rear speakers for normal stereo. Only one coaxial intput on dvd source when i need to use it with my digital cable box (showtime and ppv channels broadcast in Dolby digital), no optical for cd source, dont like flip remote.

Great product for the money, has cool blue light when in digital mode, nice display, great features.

Similar Products Used:

Toshiba hifi vcr, scientific atlantic digital cbl box, sony dvd

Top sound to speakers

Remote; powering up and down the different components although I bet there's a "detailed" book for it somewhere

High quality of sound, provides ample power to all speakers. I especially enjoy how it pushes the yamaha sub woofer I have. Listening to TV with the "StereoMovie" sound selection is intense. This is the best receiver for the price range. I'm not sure it wouldn't out-do the high-end receivers in some of the basic functions.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 515 surround sound receiver

Provides enough connection capacity for cable, satellite, and DVD, plus coax digital for older CD. Sounds fine

The remote sucks. It does not support our new satellite receiver, our cable box, our RCA vcr, or our JVC CD player jor can you teach it.

We first tried a 935 which turned out to be defective (it could not switch video). However, I was able to compare the audio between the 845 and the 935. Not surprising they sounded the same.

I really dislike the remote. You spend all your time scrolling around on the tiny LCD screen or popping open the star trekkie communicator flip cover. It is supposed to be a "universal remote" but my $9 Target special can actually run my other equipment, which the $145 replacement value sony remote is *unable* to do. For that kind of money, sony could have shipped a decent remote with the unit . For simplicity, I will probably have to buy a decent learning remote to run my other equipment, switch tv input automatically, etc. as we operate the 845 via remote. Simplicity of operation was first on my wife's request for this piece of equipment. The Sony remote fails miserably for non-sony equipment in that category.

Listening to the amp on a decent pair of electrostatic headphones (older Stax ST-6 headphones) illustrated to me that it is a fine audio enthusiast range piece of equipment. It hit our price point for a "good" but not "audiophile" piece of equipment.

Similar Products Used:

Other AV receivers and various audio amps

REALISTIC DIGITAL SOUND, REMOTE CONTROL, GOOD FM RECEPTION ON FACTORY ANTENNA

S-VIDEO IN JACKS DO NOT SUPPORT THE S-VIDEO OUT JACKS. EQ DOES NOT HAVE AUTOMATIC PRESETS IN THE SOUND FUNCTION, SPEAKER PLUGS SUCK

GREAT UNIT, BUT MISS THE SPECTRUM ANALYSER IN D1011, THE DOLBY DIGITAL BLUE IS TOO BRIGHT. WATCHED "THE GREEN MILE" ON DVD LAST NIGHT, THE THUNDER WAS SO REALISTIC ON THE REAR SPEAKERS, I THOUGHT IT CAME FROM OUTSIDE. IT TOOK ABOUT THREE HOURS TO PROGRAM THE REMOTE. THE POWER BUTTON TURNS TV AND RECEIVER OFF AT THE SAME TIME EVEN THOUGH THEY ARE TO DIFFERENT BRANDS. BOUGHT IT FROM PC-WONDERS FOR $306.00 + FREIGHT. IT ARRIVED IN 3 DAYS AFTER I PLACED MY ORDER.

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SONY STR-D1011 DOLBY PROLOGIC

lots of power and inputs,and output

none

I had adcom for 5 yrs but it started as a stereo system only and i want to get into home theather. The sony str845 is a brand new unti , and i joyed it so far.

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none