Okay, first of all I am not an expert so take my review with a grain of sand. I am simply a guy who likes good sounding stereo and home theatre. This reciever has been excellent for me in my apartment and townhome. If you are looking for a good reciever that won't empty your wallet, this one is great. I have a Sony DVD, Sony TV, Sony Satellite Reciever, Sony VCR, and Sony 220 CD player hooked to this thing and it sounds excellent. I have it hooked to my Bose AM 10 speakers and Yamaha subwoofer and I can't turn it up past 2 on the volume dial without the police knocking on my apartment door because the neighbor downstairs is tired of putting the pictures back on the wall. The sound clarity has never waivered and the sound seperation sounds good although I don't have some kinda gizmo to tell me if I am right. One thing I wish it had is S-Video hookups in the back, that would be icing on the cake. But overall I would have to say this reciever is a five for its price range and features. If you are interested in buying one I can tell you everything I know about it, just email me.

SOUNDS GOOD FOR MY LISTENING TASTES, HELPS KEEP MY HOUSE WARM.

BUILD QUALITY IS TERRIBLE, I HAVE HAD THE RIGHT CHANNEL AMP REPLACED 2 TIMES, THE POWER BUTTON HAS FALLEN INTO THE UNIT TWICE AND I FIXED, (POOR DESIGN ).

WHEN I FIRST BROUGHT THIS UNIT HOME I WAS REALLY HAPPY ABOUT GETTING MY FIRST DOLBY DIG. AND DTS RECEIVER. 4 MOS. LATER WHEN I HAD TO HAVE IT REPAIRED BECAUSE OF A BAD AMP, I STARTED HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS. I GOOD LESSON I LEARNED IS, THANK GOD FOR EXTENDED WARRANTYS. THE SOUND IS GOOD BUT THE EQ SET-UP REQUIRES 18 YRS OF COLLEGE.

Similar Products Used:

PIONEER, ONKYO

SOUNDS GOOD FOR MY LISTENING TASTES, HELPS KEEP MY HOUSE WARM.

BUILD QUALITY IS TERRIBLE, I HAVE HAD THE RIGHT CHANNEL AMP REPLACED 2 TIMES, THE POWER BUTTON HAS FALLEN INTO THE UNIT TWICE AND I FIXED, (POOR DESIGN ).

WHEN I FIRST BROUGHT THIS UNIT HOME I WAS REALLY HAPPY ABOUT GETTING MY FIRST DOLBY DIG. AND DTS RECEIVER. 4 MOS. LATER WHEN I HAD TO HAVE IT REPAIRED BECAUSE OF A BAD AMP, I STARTED HAVING SECOND THOUGHTS. I GOOD LESSON I LEARNED IS, THANK GOD FOR EXTENDED WARRANTYS. THE SOUND IS GOOD BUT THE EQ SET-UP REQUIRES 18 YRS OF COLLEGE.

Similar Products Used:

PIONEER, ONKYO

Sound Field Options, Full Control Remote, EQ, Power, The Price I Paid

Some sound fields could have been left out.

I must say that I am thoroughly impressed with this Siny product. I haven't put it to the maximum test. I have an old Sont Prologic receiver that is still in perfect working condition. Even though I replaced it with the 925, I was still using the old Sony speakers that came with the Prologic receiver. I was impressed then. Now I have the JBL NSP1 5 Speaker Surround Sound running with my 925. Boy what a diffreence. I will soon be adding the JBL P10 Subwoofer.

I baught this receiver as an open box item from Best Buy and purchased the 4yr extended warranty offered buy them. Lucky I did. I could not waite to get home to plug it in. I plugged it in and NO sound. Took it back and had it repaired. I haven't had a lick of problems from it since. For the price I couldn't have baught a better receiver.

My next up grade will be all monster cables. I want to get the full use of the optical outputs and full range of audio. Each upgrade only improves an already superior product.

Unless you trying to become a serious Audiophile. This is the receiver to have. I can't afford to spend money on something that sounds just as good as my 925. There is a whole lot of people out there that feel the same as I do.

Similar Products Used:

None

Decent power, one of the few that had DTS at the time

sound?

Ah yes, where to begin... The dreaded no sound problem. This reciever has always had it. I've noticed that it is more prominent if the source material is on before the receiver. Turn on the CD/DVD/TV/whatever AFTER the amp is on and the relays have clicked in and the unit is fine, USUALLY.

Come on Sony, this is bad. Other models from you guys suffer from this too. Even the supposed high end does this?!? Who does your engineering?

Secondly, why do I always get hiss out of the surrounds? Other competitors do not have this problem, at least not in most of their products. The A.F.D. sound mode always clips two or three seconds off any audio. I'll admit that I'm lazy and can't be bothered to change the surround modes. On a similar note, why so many DSP modes from these companies? How many people actually use more than a couple? Last I checked I'm just running the AFD for all my sources. Most sound rather silly, or just plain terrible.

The remote however does not seem to give me any problems. I'm still on the very same set of batteries the unit came with. It seems odd that when I shut off the receiver with the remote, the DVD player dies too ( apparently the same off code is sent no matter the source selected ), but that's a trivial complaint.

The overall sound seems decent enough. It's not the greatest I've heard, but it does have some punch to it. I haven't managed to push the amp to the point of overheating, yet.

What else can I say, it still runs. It was one of the few that had AC3 AND DTS when I bought it. I'm not sure I would repeat the purchase. I will be replacing this one soon. At the moment I'm leaning towards Yamaha, or maybe Denon. But that's in a few months, and AFTER I read some more reviews on those units. I don't feel like getting burned again on Sony.

3 Stars based on overall issues and the fact that there are MUCH better products currently available.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, Sony

Good sound. Love the 5.1.
Easy set-up.

Over-heating.
Fuse frying

Okay, first of all.. I think I got jipped when I bought this receiver. I paid $799 last year in Canadian fun, and quite frankly, I dont think i've got my money's worth yet. I've had to take this unit in for repair after the fuse blew on me the first time. They repaired it at no charge because it was still under warranty. But this wasn't the last time it did this on me, it happened again and this time I went to SONY myself and asked for a new unit. They complied. Overall I love the sound for this unit. I am not a very knowledgable person when it comes to home theatre electronics.. but this system gives great sound. However, this system is still giving me problems as the sound just shuts off in the middle of a movie.. I am thinkign it might be my old speaker wires, since they came with the house I've been using the same speaker wires. I even use bannana plugs to ensure that the wires dont touch. I have this reciever hooked up to sony surround speakers and SCOTT front speakers.. i know.. dont laugh at me... I am looking for some new speakers.. one brand I've been looking at recently are the PSB's .. anyway overall I give this receiver a 3.5 for the problems it caused me.

ps: if anyone has any info on how I can fix the problem I am getting (the sound shutting off in the middle) please feel free to email me at shaji@home.com

Easy speaker set up. Slick remote. Plenty of sound fields and power.

No S-Video. Gets hot fast.

Have had this receiver for 9 months and have had NO problems mentioned in previous reviews (over heating, sound cutting out, auto-format sensing, etc.). I have plenty of ventilation in a large cabinet and this probably helps. Some people hate the remote due to difficulty to use and battery drainage, but I like it a lot. Once you learn it (and it isn't that difficult) you can make about any changes you want from your recliner. I often change the db level of the center channel on movies that have quiet dialogue. You can change front and rears too. Still using the original batteries. The downloading feature from your text CD player is very nice. I mainly use my system for movies. I put together a moderately priced system that sounds extremely good. I have Polk S4 fronts, CS-245 cc, M3-II surrounds for a well blended system. I added an Energy ES-8 sub that works well since voice matching isn't necessary with the sub. I use a Panasonic DVD-A120 with AC-3 and DTS. I didn't think there would be much difference between the two, but after buying Saving Private Ryan w/ DTS, I was amazed. Jeff, another reviewer here, I suggest you buy this movie. There are more and more DTS movies coming out. DTS has to have more demand before they start putting more out and after hearing it, I'm sure it will catch on. The mega DSP's are neat, but I hardly use them. I wanted the Yamaha, but it was $250 more when I bought the Sony. I wanted DTS for the future too. I am pleased with this unit, but bought a 5 year warranty for 50 bucks since I read the reviews loaded with problems. This receiver is a good value for a moderately priced system.

DPL/DD/DTS

DSP's, Low-quality amps, Music

This is definitely a Home Theater receiver, not to be confused with a receiver that can play movies and music equally well. I wish this receiver had more options towards speaker setup such as crossover frecuencies for all 5 channels, etc... Fixed the overheating problem with a computer fan. Now it runs fairly cool. I decided to buy this receiver because it was the only one cheap enough that carried DD and DTS decoding built-in at the time. After a year of usage and new products from Denon, Pioneer Elite, Harman Kardon, etc.. one can really notice how low quality this receiver is, specially since i upgraded my setup from Kenwood speaker's all around to NHT's all around. Even though there is 110w x 5, this receiver puts out a lot coloration in music and the lack of flexibility in speaker setup does not let me get the full potential out of my NHT's. Don't even think about setting any speaker on large because this receiver won't handle it if you raise the volume past 11 o'clock. This is an average receiver for people on tight budgets who are just joining the Digital Sound/Home Theater era.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Elite, Harman Kardon, Kenwood, etc...

Dolby Digital and DTS
Fun and Functional Remote
Good Starter system

Sounds fields are horrible
The "No Sound" problem
Its an old produc

When I bought it two years ago it was great. Now, I get stereo envy with pretty much every reciever I see when I walk in to my local retailer. For the first year and a half it worked flawlessly. Now, its got some problems with no sound when I start it up, which I have seen mentioned by others. It is functional and pretty much everybody who has seen my remote loves it. It preforms fairly well and puts out an average sound for the what you would expext from something in this price range. I would buy it again given what the market looked like back then, but for now I am definately looking forwar to an upgrade.