The sound on both Dolby Digital and dts are great and the pro-logic sound is great. It has a great amount of features and many different sound feilds.

It gets hot but nothing to worry about.

This reciever is a great in vestment. Make sure you search around the net for a good price. The features are endless. I love this reciever. I watch about every move on it. The Matrix sound great I love it. For the price it is a great union. Definately a worhty investment

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-835

Ease of setup, Price, Sound

Haven't encountered any yet

I got this reciever from Crutchfield. I originally ordered an 835 and there was no output when I went to set it up (defective unit), so all they had were 845s. Easy to set up, sounds great. DVD movie with 5.1 surround is awesome. I have only had it a few months, so I will have to come back and give a more thorough review.

Incredibly "tweakable", awesome sound when connected to Sony SA-VE315 surround sound speakers, full featured although not very universal remote

no light on volume dial, some rear speaker hiss when rears are pushed above 3db.

(Hey, there is a volcano in my living room!) I have the Sony STR-DE845 and the Sony SA-VE315 surround sound speaker package. I must say that I'm completely blown away. I had previously owned a 7 year old Onkyo and a nice pair of Cerwin Vega speakers. I loved that system to death, often boasting that it was the best I'd ever heard. Playing DVD's on it was a blast but nothing prepared me for what I was about to experience with my new Sony setup (Hey, my walls are crumbling!).

The first thing I noticed was the amount of options and the level of tweakability the Strde845 has. I mean you can play with everything. Equalization on each speaker, bass cutoff points, speaker distances, speaker volumes levels, and on and on. By the time I was done tweaking everything, I had this beast roaring like a lion (Hey, a heard of elephants just trampled my carpet!). It has 10 or 15 surround modes that are interesting to play with as well as the basic array of acoustic environments (hall, stadium, arena, game, etc.). To some, all these options and tweaks may be a negative, but I especially enjoy being able to tweak the sound based on the acoustics of my room. I spent over 4 hours on that aspect alone. So if you are like me, you'll be in heaven with this system. Another nice feature was the ability to create different equalization for each selected sound source. So I have one equalization setting for my DVD player, one for my digital cable input, one for my video game input, and so on (Hey, I think my patio door window just exploded!).

As for the remote, it was an adjustment, albeit one I liked. You can operate virtually every function of the receiver from the remote, which makes it really nice when you are customizing the sound. Some have complained about the fact that to get to most of the most important buttons you have to flip the cover open. I found it to be a good idea since any accidental button pushing could result in a dramatically different sounding system. Besides, after tweaking the sound, I rarely ever need to change anything (Hey, a T-Rex is creating impact tremors behind my couch!).

As for the sound of the receiver, I hooked it up to the aforementioned Cerwin Vega speakers and it produced result slightly less impressive than my Onkyo. It is obvious that this system was primarily made for home theater use, and let me be the first to tell you that it is here that this receiver shines. After connecting the Sony SA-VE315 speaker package to it, my movie watching experience entered another dimension. The sound reproduction is simply astounding. Crystal clear highs, bellowing lows, sound fields so realistic that I frequently am confused by what are real sounds and what are sound coming from my system. The sound imaging is so remarkable that many times nothing seems to be coming from the speakers themselves. For instance, a herd of stampeding elephants seems to run a across the floor in front of me as opposed to the sound merely panning from a speaker on one side of the room to the other (Hey, someone just ignited three grenades in the middle of my living room!). Or an exploding stick of dynamite appears to blow up behind and to the right of the TV as opposed to one side or the other. These types of effects are most evident in the surround sound marvel that is Saving Private Ryan (see the sound review at Amazon.com/dvd). The explosions are so real and BOOMING and coming from so many places in the room that after turning it off, you'll feel a slight adrenaline induced "buzz", as if you'd been on the beaches of Normandy yourself. Simply UNBELIEVABLE!

I bought these two items separately at Sears. Sears will match Internet prices but the salesmen don't like it because it cuts into their commissions. They also add shipping to the price. However, I did save about $150 off the retail price for both items. My recommendation on this system? Go get it. Now! (Aw man, a lion roared and scared my wife and kids upstairs... hmmm... cool!)

For any more questions about this package, email me.

Similar Products Used:

None

Price, numerous features and settings, power is great, sound is awesome, really punches.

Remote is somewhat cumbersome to use until you familiarize yourself with it real well. Equalizer is set for all soundfields, rather than individually.

This is one awesome piece of equipment. There was a JVC unit and a Kenwood unit I was contemplating, but this one was the best. I looked and listened at the local stores and this one was best.
It is comparable to some high priced, high end models. My In-Laws have a Sony that they paid $1500 for, it was the top of the line Sony at the time (1 year ago) and I can't notice to much of a difference, if any at all.
Power is great, design is easy to follow, illuminates well, and has more bells and whistles than you'd use.
The equalizer is good, if you know how to control the settings. You have to listen real well to notice the changes. My advice, use the stock settings until you know exactly what your after. Or just use the soundfields w/o the equalizer.
Overall, I wouldn't trade this for anything else. (except maybe the new 6.1 A/V R's.)

Similar Products Used:

JVC, Sony, Pioneer.

Features, Sound, Power, DTS, Layout

Knob Volume indication is useless

I LOVE THIS MACHINE !

My configuration:
JBL Northridge Series Speakers:
Front: N38
Back: N26
Center: N-Channel
Sub: Sony SM40AW 12'' sub

Nice match between speakers and SONY-845. My floor is concrete, with padded carpeting. Accoustically this is very challenging for any system, but it does help separate the "boys from the girls" !

The 845 delivers solid performance accross all digital formats. The soundfields are a bit too much. No one needs all of them, but some of them do "add" to the lsitening experience. The DTS decoder works great ! I have never needed to drive the volume above 50%. My listening room is 20 x 30 with 20 ft ceilings.

Unit does get hot, so set it up with ample ventilation. A note here: My Luxman R-113 "cooks" compared to the 845, and has been working hot for over 15 years now. The key is to avoid "stacking" or enclosures that do not allow for convection cooling to take place. If you "must" stack, use some wood strips to allow extra clearance between units.

The audio quality is superb both in Movies and CD's. I do belive in "matching" your speakers with your amp, and in this case the JBL's Northridge Series appear to be a great match.

I can't stand the people in the forum, that mention Yamaha and Onkyo components being better or worse. Put these comments under the Yamaha and Onkyo forums. If you don't like Sony products, and just feel like trashing them go somewhere else. Be objective folks. People read these comments in an effort to make a purchase decision. Also, please try and mention your entire setup, speakers, sub, room dimensions, so that others may weight and compare your review accordingly.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha, Luxman

No light on volume know, remote is kinda wierd, some of the DSP effects are gimmicky

I bought this reciever at best buy to replace my old pro-logic only reciever, and I have had no problems at all with it. I have a DVD and a Dolby Digital DirecTV reciever hooked up to the Sony. I've view both Dolby Digital and DTS encoded titles and all I can say is, 5.1 sound is awesome. I'm no audiophile or anything, but this Sony is definately much better than my old Pioneer.

For me, this reciever is a perfect match for me, and I have no problems rating it at 5 stars.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneeer VSX 454

power,inputeoutputs,remote,sound feilds,e.t.c

volume control bites ###

GREAT POWER,LOTS OF HOOK UPS.CAN USE TWO SET OF SPEAKERS AT ONE TIME.

Similar Products Used:

ONKYO 555

Amazing power, great price (Yes it's more expensive in Australia!)

The writing on the buttons on the remote

This was my entry into the home cinema world... and with this amplifier at the helm I am LOVING it! The range of sound fields, the auto-detecting of sound source for digital input, the ability to control most of my other equipment (none of it Sony) with the remote, the crisp sound, the awesome power, the ability to clearly hear the difference in DTS and DD on Gladiator (I thought the whole DTS thing was crap... I thought DD sounded incredible... how could you hear the difference... oooooh, that's how... yummy!)

I love this thing, I can't see myself upgrading it for a long time to come!

Similar Products Used:

Sherwood Pro-Logic

Power, configurability, ability to integrate entire HT, value

Remote, volume level view

This is my first purchase of a "real" receiver. I purchased this primarily for a home theater set up (along with DVD, VCR, Big Screen TV, Cambridge SoundWorks speakers). The system was easy to set up, although I could not get the VCR to work through the receiver and sent the wire directly to the TV. The sound for both music and movies is outstanding. There is no "hissing" that I have read about with some systems (thank goodness I didn't get the 545, eh?).

My only real complaints are regarding the remote and the volume level view. As has been mentioned adnauseum, the remote, although very cool looking, is functionaly inferior and takes too much effort to make some adjustments. It does not control my cable, so I got a universal remote (a learning one) that could do everything. Unfortunately, given the design of the Sony remote, the signal transmitted would not "teach" my universal several key controls (switching components, and surround modes). I also would prefer to be able to see the volume level - a simple LED would have made a world of difference. These complaints are, however, minor and clearly outweighed by the positives of this system.
Overall this is a great system that I felt confident in purchasing given Consumer Reports favorable review.

Great power, little to no distortion, great soundfields

No lit volume knob--(got to go up a model to get it!)

I had originally bought the str-de545 for the price and power it had, but when I had heard the huge difference between the two models, the 845 just blows it away!! The sound is so much more spatial, and CLEARER. I also love the many optical ins and outs available. The remote is a little hard to get used to because its just different, but its great once you get familiar with it. Most people watch movies in the dark or in dark lit rooms when watching movies and with there not being a lit volume knob is a hassle but its alright. All in all this is a great receiver and have had no probs with it--i really recommend this receiver!! CYA

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-DE545