A Good Sony
Written: Jun 27 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great Remote Control
Cons: Poor Slew Rate
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| simplemoney's Full Review: Sony STR-DE135 2 Channels Receiver |
I wanted to buy seperate components (amp, tuner, pre-amp), but with a budget of just under $1,000 I turned my attention toward receivers. I read some great reviews of the Sony STR-DA777ES and decided to test drive it against the Nakamichi AV-10, Denon 3300, Marantz 8000, Onkyo TX-DS777, Pioneer Elite VSX-26TX, and Sony STR-DA777ES, I decided to go on a listening tour and found a high-end audio store that carried all but the Pioneer. I went on a weekday during the day when I knew it would be slow and got the salesman's undivided attention.
I always start of with Telarcs Test CD #2. It contains some very difficult to reproduce sounds. I have heard this CD's first track reproduced flawlessly on a Krell system with KEF speakers that would cost no less than $15,000 - so I know it can be done, the question is how much of it can be done for under $1,000.
The Onkyo failed within one minute, its upper-end during the violin solo was very harsh. Admittedly the Sony was a bit smoother in the highs, but the mid-range was muddied. The Sony literally collapsed during a bass solo, it just couldn't get produce the tight lows in a timely manner (thus the sound "muddies", blurring the notes into each other). I don't know why manufactures stopped printing their slew rates, but this is a prime example of an amplifier that can't 'reset' itself quickly enough to handle the next sound.
In no way do I mean to demean the other reviewers of this product, for many people this might be the right product, giving them all the features they want and adequate sound. Admittedly not alot of people listen to classical music or like to watch "Shine" on DVD. It is chock full of features, some pretty neat surround modes, it has lots of lights and probably the best remote control I've ever seen. If I was buying a receiver based on something other than sound quality the Sony would be in my house right now.
Unfortunately sound comes first and foremost, and features are more of a tie-breaker. I do own a Sony CD player, but only because it has an optical output, that way I can let my receiver decode the signal to analog from digital and not the Sony, which does a horrible job of it.
Needless to say, if you are going to spend more than $900 on a receiver, and you care about sound first, then buy the Nakamichi AV-10. You won't find 1/2 the buttons, but you will get five separate mono-amps to power each channel. And the difference is music to your ears.
Recommended:
No
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