Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony STR-DE845 Surround Receiver

I found the 845 reciver to be a very well thought out piece of equipment. It has 100watts X 5 channels, Dolby Digital and DTS processers, and a wealth of connections. All the RCA jacks one could ever need, 4 S-Video inputs, 4 Fiber optic, and a dual sub output for those who like their bass thick and chunky! And to top it off.... this year it includes Sony's Remote Commander, which will control just about everything you own. I would recommend this receiver to anyone looking for Digital surround sound, versitility, and reliabilaty.... that won't break the bank!

Guys...if you're looking for a high-powered receiver to drive your speakers, look no further. I have bought the 845 and am driving the Bose AM15 home theatre speaker system with this...it is just wicked! Initially I had some reservations on using Bose speakers with a Non-Bose receiver but after a lot of convincing from the salesperson and Sony I bought this. And I must say that I have absolutely no regrets. In fact, my salesperson also said that this combination would sound much better since the Bose receiver does not have any customization features whatsoever whereas the 845 provides one with an array of features and effects. Also the remote control can control any brand of A/V equipment which makes life much more easier and simpler...I'd recommend you guys to go for it!

I bought this receiver in 2001. It was hooked to an Infinity home theater speaker system, which has five small speaker and subwoofer. I only use <1/3 of the max volume at all the time. Just like many people commented here, it worked great... until last year.

First the center speaker quit and I heard clicking noise from the receiver. Such noise can only come from a relay. So I just switch it to 2-CH mode, since I did not have time to fix it. Then in last week, the receiver finally gave up. It stoped working either right after power-on or after working a several minutes. So I have to take it apart to do something. Here is what I found out. By the way, I am quite an experienced electrical engineer.

The Op-amps in the pre-amp stage were overheated. There are three of these NEC op-amp chips on the main board. They are black big chips mounted vertically. I touched the chips after power-on for 2-3 minutes. They are hot, feels about 55-60 degree C. This is with the cover open, no input signal, no speaker hook-up. Then I noticed some of the leads of the op-amps were de-soldered and the board was black around the chips(open the bottom cover, looking from the back side of the main circuit board). It takes ~160 degree C to soften solder. So the silicon in these chip must be above 180 degree C at that time!

Here is what I think happened. The designer did not give the op-amp chips enough heat sinking. So the chips over-heat. Not hot enough to fail immediately... robust NEC chip design! The solder points got soft when temperature got to ~160 degree C and hardened again when cooled down. After several years of execise, the solder joints became unstable, sometime touch sometimes not. This caused the protection functions to kick in. Then relays started to click on and off, folowed by shut off.

Here is how I fixed it. These op-amp chips have metal slug on back and screw holes for heat sink mounting. SONY did not put in any heat sinks for them. (Come on, it costs <$0.3!) So I resoldered the IC leads. Then I cut three pices of 30mm X 50mm X 0.8mm from a copper sheet, drilled screw holes. Then mounted the copper pieces to the back of the op-amp ICs. Some silicon greese or thermal pad between copper and IC will be very helpful. I used some phase-change material, if you know what it is.

After done that, I hooked up speakers and DVD players and turned it on for about one hour. It was fine. These op-amps are still hot, but should be cooler than before. Someday they may fail just because of running hot for too long. If they fail, I may buy replacement from ebay for $7 each.

Hope you find it helpful. Good luck!

This receiver is just amazing! I went from the 445 to the 845, and I have to confess that I only changed because I bought a full set of five Cerwin Vegas, LS12's front, LS5's center and rear and an LW12 subwoofer, and I wanted a few more watts to get the most from the Cerwins, not entirely necessary really, because the 445 is no slouch in performance and still went very very loud, then I connected the 845, OH MY GOD! this receiver is a beast!! I put on a CD first, a jungle cd from the UK, I cranked it up and nearly had a cardiac arrest, it is breathtakingly powerful.

The controls were set flat "as always for music" using only the two main speakers, the bass treble and midrange blended really well, the low bass notes common in jungle music were deep and low, and kept good pace with the music, the treble sounded rich and clear. An audiophile "if there really is such a thing" would no doubt think the sound was just brute power with no class, besides you cant get a great sounding receiver for just a few hundred dollars right!!! wrong, you can, and this receiver if you are lucky enough to find one, would be a great place to start.

I found mine in mint condition, I have seen the new 875 and appreciate some of the changes sony have made, banana plugs, front panel hookup, great, but the remote, the front panel nahhhh dont like em! the 845 for looks and that awesome remote wins me over easily, and I intend keeping it for a long long time, just wish I could have found the silver version, WOW I really like those but you dont see that many of them around, hope this helped you.

The rating is 1 star less, due to following reasons 1. It may not support or have any extension capabilities for 6.1 ch & DTS ES. Well nobody would have thought about it then. 2. I could not configure the remote properly for all the equipment. The reason may be that I have everything SONY except Bose speakers. Of course I can atleast turn of everything with one button. The rating is 4 starts because 1. Very good Sony Digital Cinema Sound with different music formats 2. I can use this for both VCR & DVD 3. It recognizes, DTS, optical cable inputs automatically 4. It handles Bose home theatre system very well Four of this points do not mean 4 stars. This system is very good. Give a break and let this unit take some rest, by buying RCAs 1-to-2 conversion jacks to connect your DVD/VCR directly to TV.