Sony STR-DE945: sound to die for, for less than 500 dollars
Written: Feb 21 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Sound: |
 |
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Durability: |
 |
|
|
Pros: Price-to-feature ratio, power, remote control, flexibility, lots of gadgetry, plenty of input/output jacks
Cons: Manual sucks, no CD digital in, no five channel stereo
The Bottom Line: This receiver puts out some good sounds... it isn't quiet my Onkyo, but it is only a secondary receiver anyhow
|
|
|
| wutang2364's Full Review: Sony STR-DE945 5.1 Channels Receiver |
I am not an audiophile but after audtioning similar pioneer, onkyo etc. receivers, I felt the Sony was the best value for the money. My system: Sony de-945, onkyo DV-s501 DVD player. Speakers: Center Infinity CC-2, Front Infinity RS-2, Rear Paradigm Performance Series, Subwoofer MTX PSW101B.
The Sony made my old Pioneer Prologic receiver sound like my Grandma's AM radio! It is truly a world of difference to move up to the Dolby Digital. I am very happy with this receiver's performance. Plenty of POWER and lots of sound fields and gimmicks to play with. Once I got the new receiver hooked up (no small feat for a non-audiophile since the owners manual is virtually useless), I put the receiver to the test by popping Saving Private Ryan into the player and turning up the volume. It really sounded great and I have been pleased ever since with each new movie. Music sounds really great as well and really pushes my speakers with a nice clean sound. My Sennheiser 580's sound even better now that I have this great receiver! It even has a cool "headphone" sound field!
As I have said the owners manual is horrible so be prepared to spend some time setting this unit up if you are new to the game. I have read a lot of reviews on this site that say the remote is hard to set up and use. In a way it is but once you catch on to the method, it becomes a snap. Also, I have read reviews that claim it runs really hot. I have not seen this even after hours of constant use. Maybe I just lucked out? Overall, I feel that if you spend this much on a piece of equipment, you should be willing to put the time into figuring it all out and setting it up right. After all, that is part of the fun and excitement of being an audio enthusiast! If you don't want to spend the time or are not adept at this sort of thing, buy a ready made system like Bose etc. but do not expect the same performance out of the system as you will this unit. I love this Reciever!
I would like to address a number of issues that have been mentioned in other reviews.
1. Hiss. The only time that I have ever heard a hiss from this unit is when it is in Prologic. Even when this hiss is present it is not very pronounced. This seems to be a common problem with Sony Prologic receivers. When in Stereo, DD, or DTS I have only been able to hear a hiss at high volumes with my ear pressed up against a speaker. Now I have found that after I have been testing for the hiss that I also notice a loud ringing. I have been unable to determine which speaker this ringing is coming from and it seems to persist even when I shut the receiver off.
2. The difficulty of the remote. This is not the easiest remote to get use to, but once you do you may find it very useful. This is a two way learning remote, so there is a slight delay before it does what you want it to do. This delay is less than two seconds and I find that it does not bother me. This is a learning remote so you can program it to run virtually all of your remote controlled products.
3. Ability of the remote to download the titles for more than 200 discs from a 300 or 400 Sony disc player. It will download more than 200 titles from a Sony 300 or 400 disc player if you are using the control A1 cord. If it will only download the titles for 200 discs than you either have a 200 disc player or you need to change the setting on your Sony CDP from control A1 II to control A1. This should fix the problem.
4. Heat. My unit does not run hot. I can leave it on all day and it is only warm. If your unit is hot enough to "fry an egg on", as another reviewer put it, than you need to take it back and get a new one. A receiver should never be hot enough to burn you.
5. There is not an optical input for the CD player. This is true, but there is a solution. Simply connect your CDP to another optical connection such as MD/DAT. Now you can rename the option for MD/DAT to CDP. This will also rename it on the remote, so that when you want the select the CDP you select CDP.
To sum it all up. I really like this unit. I even like the remote. I love being able to scan through my 400 CD's and pick which one I want. I find myself listening to a lot more music now. The DD and DTS sound is great. I have watched and re-watched all of my DVD's since purchasing this unit. I think that my neighbors might be getting a little annoyed at the earth shattering sounds coming from my apartment when I am watching movies like "Gladiator", but they will get over it. This is not the best receiver out there, but at this price it is a very good one. If you have less than $500 dollars to spend and you are thinking about buying this, I don't think that you will be dissappointed.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 469
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
wutang2364
|
|
Member: Wouter Reyniers
Location: Bradenton
Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 10 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.