Review of Sony Home Theater Receivers.I like Sony. Many people don't, for many different reasons. Some feel that Sony uses its clout in the market to direct the development of specific tehnologies, while blocking the release or commercialization of others, all to the detriment of the market. Others see their products as sub-optimal. They feel Sony's products and domination of the market destructively lower the overall knowledge and expectations of consumers by consistently providing watered-down models with limited capabilities. The truth is, every business niche has a leader, be it electronics, computers, software or automobiles, and the leader is almost always the target of the majority of criticism. In Sony's case, the products do speak for themselves, regardless of the public scrutiny and expert opinions. An excellent choice. My suggestions below offer hints of their best.
I own a Sony home theater receiver. It's not top of the line, but I wouldn't use half of what a high end model could provide anyways. It was something I could afford, something that I didn't have to spend 6 months searching for, and I enjoy it. A no-brainer I guess you could call it. You make your own call. The following suggestions should help. LOW-End Pick for Sony Home Theater Receivers The Sony STR-DE485 Digital Home Theater A/V Receiver has Dolby Digital and DTS encoding for 5.1 channel home theater sound. The signal can potenitally be modified by DSP (Digital Signal Processing) with 4 different acoustic environments. It provides 80 watts per channel of power as well as an output for a powered subwoofer. It features a 5 function input selector (3 Audio and 2 Video) for versatility with your existing (or future) home theater system and audio components (DVD player, CD, etc.). A basic, respectably powered, sufficient choice for small to mid size rooms, and for those with a limited budget. MID Pick for Sony Home Theater Receivers The Sony STR-DE845 Home Theater A/V receiver with Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES is beyond your expectations. It has dual 32-bit processors for surround decoding (Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, Pro Logic II, DTS 96/24, DTS Neo:6 and DCS modes). Power is a respectable at 110 watts x 6, which is good enough for medium to large living rooms. Connectivity is again excellent including the digital inputs: 4 optical (including 1 front-panel), 1 coaxial, optical digital output, 4 audio (including phono), and 5 A/V (including 1 front-panel and 4 S-video) inputs. Well worth a look. HIGH-End Pick for Sony Home Theater Receivers Take my word for it, the Sony STR-DE995/B Home Theater Receiver with Dolby® Digital, Dolby® Digital EX, dts®, dts ES®, dts:Neo6® is a model that I dare to call future compatible. It certainly surpasses the benchmarks for all current home theater standards. Rated at 110W Per Channel x 7 channels it will adequately perform in mid-large rooms with 7 separate sound dimensions. It has the capability to decode Dolby® Digital, Dolby® Digital EX, dts®, dts ES®, and dts:Neo6® encoding. Connectivity, as with most systems of this class, is excellent. The receiver has 4 optical audio inputs and 1 coaxial audio input, plus 1 optical audio output, 1 subwoofer pre-out, 5 composite video inputs, 2 composite video outputs, 4 S-Video inputs, 1 S-Video output and many others! The power rating of the unit when playing stereo sound (CDs, music) is a respectable 100 Watts Per channel. The functions actually go on too long to list here. This unit is an excellent pick. One of the best.
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