Sony STR-DE545 5.1 Channels Receiver

Pros: Good price, can use 4ohm speakers, DTS and Dolby Digital.
Cons: Hissing noise that is always present at any volume level.

The first thing I really liked about this receiver is the earth-shaking bass it puts out during crash scenes in movies. I watched a train wreck and my couch was literally shaking as if it happened outside my house. It also has a 4/8 ohm speaker switch,...

Pros: Design, remote, FEATURES!!!, and power
Cons: hiss, hiss, hiss, no phono input, remote hard to read sometimes

You can read my review first, but I ended up taking this back for the STR-DE845 model instead, which is WAYYYYY BETTER!!! No Hiss either!!!

The following is my first review:

Let's get this out first: this receiver is NOT high end....

Pros: Good features, DTS Decoding, good inputs for an inexpensive receiver.
Cons: NASTY HISSSSSSSSS remote only glows for about 10 minutes.

Ok folks, this was my first opinion and boy did it get some crappy reviews so let¡¦s try this again and see if I can¡¦t settle a few people down.

Sony STR-DE545

Features:
This unit has some decent features on it. Dolby Digital...

Pros: Great sound, great price
Cons: none

I purchased this receiver about a month ago, along with a Sony DVP-C660 DVD player and Sony VAE315 speakers. I was blown away... and the house almost was too! I realize that this might not be top notch, but for anyone but audio junkies, this will...

Pros: Fantastic sound, Built in dts decoder
Cons: Remote is a little awkward

I have owned this receiver for 2 weeks now, and I am still in awe over the performance of my new home theater system. I have this receiver paired with a Sony Wega TV, Sony 5-disc DVD changer, and a Sony 6 piece speaker system. This receiver is more...

Pros: Great sound lots of power very nice reciever and it is loaded with features.
Cons: remote hard to read some times but it does glow

my home theatre consists of this reciever a panasonic dvd rv30 dvd player a sega dreamcast and a jvc i art television and bose speakers. And i could not be happier with the reciever it does a hell of a job especially when you put the s video cables it...

Pros: Good price, strong output, all around decent quality for the price.
Cons: Only 2 digital inputs, hiss when no sound, confusing remote.

I picked one of these up at Circuit City. It was an open box (customer return) and I got it with 3 year service for $250 before tax, which was a pretty good deal. The sound quality of this receiver is very good when there is sound going through it. If...

Pros: Looks, Features, DTS, Power Output & Quality off the Sound
Cons: no Phono input , no Digital out

This Sony is a Good Receiver. It has plenty of power (5 x 100 watt din). It also has the option of 2 pair of front loudspeakers, 1 center loudspeaker, 1 pair of surround speakers and a sub out(for active sub) Digital: 3 digital inputs (2 ...

Pros: Price/features
Cons: HISS

The specifications looked good on this Sony str-545 and it
also had a reasonable price.
Plugged it in and got ready to hear an excellent sound through my
DVD - Disappointed!! All I heard was very annoying hiss-sound on
low volume....

Pros: Rich setup menu, dts is awesome. Excellent people having limited budget
Cons: blue L.E.D of multichannel MAY be distracting, a VERY LITTLE hissing (normal)

I must admit that although it's not the best receiver around, for the money that one must pay for it, it is quite a high-quality receiver.

First of all i didn't find any tremendous hiss. I use cheap surround speakers (Sony SA-VE505). I avoided...

Pros: Power, Bass, Outputs, Inputs
Cons: Not a $1000 dollar receiver

For the typical DVD, Home Theater, CD, user this is the ticket. Strong Bass, sharp highs, optical input, a&b speaker outputs. If you want to stay in the lower price ranges here you go. I trust Sony. They are the only electronics products I buy. I put...

Pros: Great sound, lots of features, easy to use, brand name
Cons: None

I recently came out of me cave and purchased a DVD player for our home this past month. I then realized that my current Sony receiver only had 5.1 inputs and did not have a Dolby decoder. I have owned several Sony receivers and have never been...

Pros: Cheap price
Cons: Cheap quality

The flip-up part of the remote broke in less than a year.
After a couple of years the center channel speaker stopped working half of the time. The unit would warm up and start clicking like a relay was loose.

Rear speakers constantly hiss if no audio is coming through them.
Preset audio modes (HALL, ROCK, etc.) are totally useless and sound terrible.

Sometimes the center channel isn't loud enough to clearly hear spoken words - background sounds and music over-power the voices. My old Pioneer system was much better when it came to the mix.

UPDATE 1:
I finally got around to taking the thing apart and sure enough the solder points on the relays looked really bad. I re-soldered the contacts and it works much better now.
If you have this problem - look for 4 blue relays in a row (OSA-SS-212DM3) on the underside of the board - check the contacts and fix them.

UPDATE 2:
I retired this system about a month ago - ever since I fixed the relays I haven't had any other major problems.

All in all this system was about what I expected from a budget 5.1 system.