Unmitigated power. The remote kicks ass. The equilizer is great.

What weaknesses?

The only bad thing is that there is no way in a dark room to see how high the volume is. At least it is no constantly blasted like onkyo needs to be. I got this hooked up to my Panasonic DVD, mimidisc, sony cd..the list goes on. This receiver would eat the similar priced onkyo for breakfast. It kicks onkyo's ass in every category. More features, better sound, louder. Connected to Velodyne 10 inch and sounds insane. Some reviews biitch about the remote but I think it is great. It is easy to use and it even has a on screen menu. Harmon kardon was so expensive and I would rather listen to a nice 200 dollar boombox. Onkyo sucked it big time. What high current? Never again. Sony's car audio ain't the greatest, but their home audio kicks. Harmon kardon is overrated and it can both lick my beanbag. Onkyo was even worse, so they can lick my sandbar. Thanks for showing me the light Sony.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TXDS575X(weak as a lumpy dumpy, no bass)
Harmon kardon AVR310(defective, weaker)

Sound is superb, I love the Remote it controls everything, its really nice to use just one remote, and the Sony Name

Remote is slow, but it is a two way remote, so I guess that is to be expected since it is two way

I have truly enjoyed this receiver, I got it just before christmas of 2000, the sound quality is great, it has a onboard eq that makes the sound come alive. There is a slight humm in the rear speakers, but I am not sure if its just my speakers, in the reviews that I have read this is common, I am planning on buying a DVD player this weekend I am looking at the Sony DVP-S360. the reviews on this look really promising, so time will tell. All in all I really like this receiver and to me the sound quality and features are perfect.

Side note, I got the receiver from a friend of mine at Best Buy with employee discount.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood Dolby Pro Logic Receiver

sounds great alot of presets tons of hookups cool remote

cant adjust the internal EQ w/remote cant connect external EQ

Its a great sounding receiver thats easy to use

Power, and features galore

none

Great buy, would easily recommed it to anyone looking to upgrade to a lot of power, dts, and many features and inputs. The dolby digital sounds amazing and even with average speakers the receiver makes them sound very good. For the price, the best receiver out there.

Similar Products Used:

lower sony receivers

Power, Tunability (eq)

Doesn't sound as good as some other brands, but at least you get to fiddle with the eq to fix it

I'm really only writing this review to refute Rick Sanders' review. There is really no reason to complain about the power. The 945 has more than enough. It will easily bother your neighbors if you want it to. Since he claims to have paid $390 at Best Buy, I suspect he bought an open-box version. Moral of this story - remember that these reviews are written by ordinary people like you and me, and we sometimes don't know what we're talking about.

Since I'm here, I'll tell you what I think about the 945: It's a good buy if you're upgrading from a pro-logic machine, or a cheaper receiver. If you have a sharp ear you will notice that it doesn't sound quite as good as some others of comparable price, but it does have plenty of power and lots of fancy features (including an equalizer which helps you tune the sound to your taste).

There are alot of complaints about the remote in these reviews. They are mostly true. It is kind of a pain. I can overlook its weaknesses because it is a learning remote. I got tired of having 4 or 5 supposedly-universal remotes lying around. This one's learning capability makes it truly universal. If you want a learning remote, then don't buy a lower model: this is the only DE model that comes with one (I think).

If you have a pro-logic receiver and are wondering if Dolby Digital really is that much better, I think it is. No doubt some people wouldn't be able to tell the difference, but if you took the time to check out these reviews then you are probably the kind of person that would appreciate the difference.

One more thing: If you're trying to get a good price on this receiver, try going to Sears. The one I went to matched competitor’s prices, including internet prices. So I showed then a printout of a web page that had it for $350, and I saved $120. Of course, I spent all that on speakers.

Have fun shopping.

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This is my first Dolby Digital Receiver

Price-to-feature ratio, many customizable parameters for speaker settings and placement, power, remote control is very nice.

Would like a "sub" button on the front of the unit (there is one on the remote only)

I now have the DE945 connected to a Sony C660 5 disc DVD/CD player. Using a variety of BIC speakers (DV52s for front and rear, CLR32 for center, and 1010 powered sub) for my home theather and audio. Sounds incredible, especially given the price I paid for the entire set-up. The DV52s are mounted on Chicago Audio stands, which are at perfect ear level when seated on the couch. My first DVD was Gladiator! Wow, the opening scene with the DE945 powering my speakers demonstrated that the unit is worth every penny. Turning the throttle up past 10 O'Clock is almost too much for my listening area!

I can't say enough good things about the DE945. First off, my listening room for home theater is less than ideal. The couch is against the back wall, which necessitates placing the rear speakers to the side instead of behind. No problem with the 945, you can set up the receiver on where you have the speakers placed, how big they are, what crossover points you want to use for each speaker, how far away they are located from your main listening area, etc. Very nice.

The DSP settings for different "effects" are also very useful, depending on what type of movie you are watching. There is also a "night theater" setting for viewing movies when others in the house are sleeping or you don't want to disturb them.

The 945 has inputs and outputs for everything, with a lot of connection options (coax, optical, RCA, s-video, etc). And of course it decodes DTS, DD, and Pro Logic.

Some people have commented on the heat of the unit being excessive. I have not experienced any problems, but then again mine has nothing on top of it, and the cabinet is well vented.

The remote controls just about anything, and is a nice quality piece of hardware, just like the receiver. I have not had the chance to fully program it yet, but to give you an idea of its capabilities, the remote has its own user guide, in addition to the one for the receiver! It's probably 15 pages long...wow! Very complete.

I shopped for months, and looked at everything from Denon to Kenwood to Technics to JVC to Yamaha. This unit had as many features or more than its competition, at a price at or below most. I give it two huge thumbs up and would recommend it to anyone shopping for a AV receiver.

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Technics

Very stable

complicated for casual user

Best I have heard for the money. Few casual users will use more than 10% of it's capabilities

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Sony335

Number of inputs and outputs, 2-way remote, price vs. features

Lack of coax digital inputs due, to the price of optic cables

I read these reviews and got sears to match an internet price of $355 using www.mysimon.com. The manual is confusing to me after reading it many times I understood it better. I bought this unit based on these reviews, personal experience with sony products and consumer reports magazine.
I have not had a a/v receiver before so I cannot compare this to another. I have got a sony dvd player 560 and the movies sound great.

Similar Products Used:

none

Price, power, features including s-video options

No volume indicator on display

I looked for several months for a replacement for my Kenwood Prologic receiver. I needed s video inputs for my DVD player and my satellite receiver as well as in/out for 2 VCR's, and was wanting to upgrade to Dolby Digital and DTS. The Sony was one of the only receivers that matched my needs/wants within my price range >500.00. I considered the 845, but the "remote commander" and extra connections won me over. I have experienced the heating problem identified by several other reviewers and cut a large hole in the back of my entertainment center for cooling. It seems to have helped. I have not seen any audio loss because of heat, but I don't run this thing at high volumes, just a lot of hours a day. The delay in the remote commander is a minor inconvenience, as I use my satellite remote to do basic power, volume, mute. The sound is exactly what I was looking for and the adjustments to the sound fields and the speaker setup makes me feel like I am in control of the system, rather than making +/- DB adjustments and hoping it is right. I was disappointed that I can't mix audio/ video inputs to outputs(s-video can't be seen on RCA cable, and digital audio can't be recorded on VCR), but have found out that this is not limited to Sony. Overall, a very pleasing purchase and one that I would make again.

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Kenwood 7070

Price, inputs, remote, ease of use

Remote download (see below), No optical in for CD.

My only real complaint with this thing is the remote shipped with it. I love all the gadgets etc, but the feature that allows you to download "up to 400" CD titles is wrong. Despite the documentation, only 200 titles can be downloaded alphabetically (I have the 300 changer). Sony tech support has yet to prove otherwise.

** Can anyone prove me wrong? (I would love that! E-mail me above.) **

In short, for discs #201-300 you have to use the display on the CD changer... the remote is useless.

Another note, the CD changer has optical out... the DE945 has no CD optical in (or other digital for that matter). Silly omission in my opinion.

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Sony CDP-CX335 (300 changer)