I bought this Sony from Crutchfield for $399. What a piece of junk.Lousy sound,poor interface,typical cheap sony remote,etc.Sent it back.

I noticed a few people complained about the lack of S-Video connections. Excuse my ignorance, but why would you need to send S-Video through the amplifier? Can't you just send the S-Video from your source (i.e. VCR or DVD) to the S-Video input of your TV?

I think my next reciever will be a Yamaha or sony es. I own the sony str-de915 and am very disapointed with the dsp settings I owned it before it was released so i didnt hear it first . That was a mistake for now it will do but there will be a new purchase in the next 6 mos

I purchased the DE915 on Sept. 9th 1998 from the Good Guys. Exactly 91 days later(Dec 10th) it lost sound to the rear speakers. I called the manager of Good Guys and she said take it to Sony, you should have bought that extended service guarantee. OK FINE, so I took it to the Sony Service Center in Beautiful Downtown Burbank and they said have it back to you in 2 weeks or less. Well here it is 5 weeks later and I still don't have it back. The Sony Direct Response Center in Fort Meyers, Florida has given me several promises (Not Their Fault Just Passing Along What Some Jerk Off,sorry: Executive in Charge, In Costa Mesa Tells Them). I believe Sony thinks that they are TOO BIG for word of mouth to effect their sales, otherwise the chickensh*t technician would take your call instead of making the poor uninformed people in Florida take the heat for broken promises. I was 100% Sony with all my electronics but now I am converting to another brand, any suggestions?

I purchased this receiver (STRDE915) in December 1998, and a few months ago it started acting up. It keeps getting so hot you can hardly touch it. Yes I have plenty of ventillation in my cabinet. It then starts flashing "PROTECTOR" and then turns the sound off completely. I then have to wait for it to cool off to use it again. I took into my local authorized Sony service center, they replaced 6 transistors, 4 diodes, and an IC and said it should be ok. Got it home and within 2 hours the same thing happened. This time sent it to a Sony Service Center, took 2 weeks to get it back, they said it was fine. Can you believe this, no other explanation, etc. So I now have a receiver that works for about 2-3 hrs at a time. I didnt get a new receiver, I didnt get any help on my 2 year warranty. I recommend staying away from this receiver and I will never buy SONY again. They can kiss my a**..

I purchased this unit back in August 98 and was pretty much an obvious choice for me because I wasn't looking for a high-end product, at the same time I didn't want to buy scrap metal either. After reading some of the reviews in magazines, Usenet, public web forums, and IRC chat channels, I decided it's time to upgrade my POS Daewoo prologic receiver and step up to Dolby Digital sound. Setting up the receiver was surprisingly frustrating, but this is mainly due to my overly complex setup with 6 different audio/video sources. Fortunately, the receiver provides some of the most flexible audio settings and test tones to balance my 5 Klipsch bookshelf speakers. The other complaint that I have on it, is that I couldn't get the video monitor output to work properly. Hence I had to bypass the video with an external switch. Maybe one day I'll discover the real trick to make it work. Also, another peeve, Sony released the DE825 that features DTS, at the same cost as I purchased the 915. That's more of my fault than Sony's.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with it. It looks good, it sounds bright and adequate for my listening needs. For its price, it is a good purchase for those who do want to upgrade to Dolby Digital (or DTS now with 825).

We replaced our Sony STR-AV910 with an STR-DE915 about 1 1/2 years ago. The 910 had some problems with continual buzzing when turning on the unit. We were amazed at the sound quality from the 915. We really loved it. It allowed us to delay upgrading our speakers until we had more cash. That is until 3 1/2 months ago. We turned on the unit and we had no sound what so ever. It was under warranty, so we took it to the authorized repair shop in Portland. We had the 910 fixed, too, to sell to our son. They fixed the 910 for $100. It's a good thing, because 3 1/2 months later we still don't have the 915 or a replacement. Sony was unable to repair the original unit, so sent a refurbished 925. Unfortunately, it was damaged in transit. We went to pick it up at the repair shop and one foot was broken and the connectors in back were pushed in and crooked. The repair shop sent it back to Sony after waiting for 2 weeks for the carrier to review the damage. A week ago we got a call from the repair shop. Sony had received the damaged replacement, but didn't look in the box and sent it back to the repair shop as our replacement! They sent the broken one back!!! We expected a call from Sony, as our repair shop guy was so frustrated talking to him and was told the Sony rep would call us. We did not get a call back until we called Sony ourselves. They promised to pick up the broken unit last week and deliver a NEW unit to us this week. We'll wait until Tuesday and then demand our money back to go buy something else. Unbelievable, 3 1/2 months without resolution. And the repair guy said Sony is better than most of the other vendors! Darn good thing we had the 910 or we would have died from audio withdrawals by now. I'll let you know if we become satisfied customers. 4 stars for audio quality minus 3 stars for service equals 1 star.

This was my first "try" at a Dolby Digital receiver. I've been a Sony enthusiast for years, though I've had Tandberg and Pioneer receivers along with Sony since the late 60's (got my first receiver, a Fisher, when in 10th grade with my first job).
The Sony STR-DE915 sounded - well - fine. I expected good performance, knowing that I could never afford one of the audiophile grade units. I was nervous about the price being so low - worried about quality - but have always thought highly of Sony and justified in my mind that somehow it made sense that I had paid more for a receiver in the early Pro-Logic days... that perhaps you just get more for your money in electronics now.

I bought the STR-DE915 January 30, 1999. Setup was pretty easy, and I was used to Sony remotes. I was careful to give the receiver a lot of "top" room with good ventilation. Still - you could hold a marshmallow roast with the set doing nothing. Did I buy class A? Did Sony start using vacuum tubes again????
Naah.


I thought mode switching was a little crude, relays clicking and sound muted, which I hated when watching a favorite show but needing to change setting badly.

About a month ago the motorized volume control started to become noisy. I didn't like that, especially since an 8-year old Pioneer had never done that to me, but thought little more about it. Then while in another room, the Sony was running at extremely low volume (actually it was set at dolby pro-logic, fed by TV, and the program material was mono, so only the center channel was playing). I heard strange noises, strangely muffled but perhaps three times louder than the volume control noise, this was with me in another room on the phone. I said to my audio enthusiast friend on the phone "sounds like the sound of an amplifier dying." I was hoping it was not true but it was. I switched out of Dolby Pro-Logic to listen to some music in 2-channel stereo. Oops - dead, gone. The left and right channels had failed; the rear channels and center front were OK.

Went to the dealer where I bought it, and was treated rather badly. At the first phone call they said "bring it in." When I got there the story changed, "we can't do anything for you, you must take it to Sony itself."

So I took it to a large office-park type of place that is built for long lines (no one was there 'cept me that day) with a few Wegas playing for show... and turned it in for warranty service. The lady at the counter was helpful but told me immediately that they service nothing there except some huge screen TV's, that everything else went to a regional shop in Bristol, PA. I got it back a couple weeks later (they had scared me at first saying many parts were on back-order but somehow it returned rather quickly). (a little postscript on this, if you have a Wega with, well, say, geometric distortion, or whatever, it won't get fixed, they SHIP IT).

I am used to music all the time and figured this receiver was going to be a bomb since it lasted only six months, and bought a different brand. So the "fixed" Sony remains in the factory service box, and I've offered it for sale, and no takers. Must be the rotten reliability factor.

I replaced it with a Yamaha RV1105. Still not audiophile stuff, but all I can suggest is that it doesn't offer a cooktop, and perhaps that's a good thing; it even has a small fan inside should things get hot (Yamaha told me it would probably NEVER run). Sound? I hate to get into taste and preference (still don't know about all that esoteric wire stuff) but the Yamaha sounds sweeter somehow, I can listen to it longer - less listening fatigue - which perhaps is because it's cleaner. The DSP modes seem more refined.

Sony Parts Post Mortem: STR-DE915 6 month failure:

IC UPC2581V (quantity 2)
Transistor OTC114ES (quantity 2)
Transistor UN4111 (quantity 2)
Encapsulated Comp. (???) quantity 5
Case (414532 (quantity 1) - do they mean the outer case? The thing was mint,
perhaps they ruined the old one taking the unit
apart?
Res, Var, (with Moto) (quantity 1) I gather this means the motorized volume...
Foot Assy (quantity 1) - ???????? left and right front channels out ruined the
cabinet and feet? Wow.

My rating, 1. Sony needs to test their equipment before selling it.

I purchased the STR-DE915 in October 1998 as an open box buy from Circuit City. They had the original sales receipt that was only 2 weeks old. I paid $229 for the receiver and also picked up a set of five surround speakers for another $250. For under $500, I have a system that sounds great and packs plenty of power. I had no problems hooking it up to my DSS System, Hi-Fi VCR, 27" stereo tv, or Pioneer DVD player. It took a little while to get the remote programmed, but it works great. I ususally watch with the volume on 3 (out of 10) and it is extremely loud and clear. The only complaint I have is that sometimes when I change the volume, I get a slight hissing sound thru the rear speakers in surround mode. But for the money, I think I got a great piece of equipment.

I bought the SDR-DR915 from a small shop in Idaho about a year ago. It was the only digital reciever they had and the only dealer near by. About three days after I got it home it caught fire in side, not joking it really caught on fire in side and fried the board. So I took it back to the stor they didn't have another so I had to get a new one from sony. They blamed the problem on the fact that I had the soundfields on with both a and b speakers selected bull sh**, excuse my languague. So I got the new one it was a great reciever, good sound quality I liked the remote, couldn't have asked for more. The key word was not even a full year later I was playing music straight off a sony cd player around level 4 out of 10 when the dispalay went out and the sound stoped all execpt for by bass and center channel wich run through pre-outs. Sony will not replace or honor my waranty beacuse I can not find the orginal recipt. My advise to any of you buying the STR-DE915 don't if you want a piece of sh** e-mail me for half the price I will mail you a pile of sh**.