Home > Consumer Reviews > Panasonic SA-HE100K Home Theater Receiver

This was my first purchase when putting together my home theater system, based on Consumer Reports' recommendation. I still can't believe what a value I got for the money spent.

Does the job of decoding every type of DTS signal (even DTS-ES Discrete) and Dolby signals up to Dolby Digital 5.1 (however no Dolby Digital EX). One of the few receivers in any price range that is rated to power 4 Ohm speakers (albeit front only), and puts out more power than many [other]models. And of course the sound is great.

This is the core of my system consisting of a 30" HDTV and 6.1 speaker setup. I will say that I am now limited on my digital inputs, having my PS2, DVD player, and laptop all giving it digital (via Toslink optical) audio; if I ever get digital cable the PS2 will have to go to RCA stereo output.

Gives all the options you need for speaker setup, including filter for small speakers (100-200 Hz), individual speaker distance, and attenuation (+/- 10db).

Frills missed: radio station labeling, sleep timer, 7.1 channel out, not as many "environment" sound fields (only 6) as some, and no on-screen display. I consider these inconsequential though... the only thing I can really pick on is the "universal" remote is garbage for controlling anything else. Fortunately my TV has a good universal for controlling the receiver, otherwise I'd have to buy one.

There is a help function if there is a problem, I have never had to use it and can't speak to its effectiveness. It does require some time to setup, but no more than any other receiver should. The inputs and outputs are all clearly labeled on the back, and there is a composite video and RCA stereo connection in front for ease of use with a camcorder or video game system.

We bought this receiver to update our Sony analog pro-logic receiver that was still performing well (within its capability) after nine hard years in our theatre system.

The Panasonic SA-HE100 performance is excellent, as expected. The digital features result in improved realism especially in DVD mode.

There are, however, some features absent from this unit and included on the Sony, that I miss.

1.) There is no sleep timer.
2.) There is limited relative volume adjustment (+/- 10db)between front speakers and the other speakers in the theatre system. This prevents use of my TV's speakers for the center channel without an additional attenuator. (Sony had+/- 30db)
3.) No provision for title of radio stations.
4.) Not possible to operate in "surround" mode with speaker "A" (theatre speakers), when speaker "B" (speakers throughout home)is operating. (Sony didn't care.) "Stereo" is the only sound field available for theatre, "A" speakers, when 'B" speakers are in use.
5.) "Operating Instructions" contains all the necessary information to install and operate the receiver in the most complex system. Interpretation is another matter. A good deal of study is required to properly utilize the capabilities of this receiver. The Sony manual was far superior.
6.) The capability of the remote control is limited.
7.) No provision for connecting my second tape player.

I want to share my one month experience with this receiver. I got it for 380$ in Romania (yes the taxes are huge in Europe). First of all, the European version is slightly different. There are no component video connectors on the back, just svideo and composite. There is no subwoofer button (the sub can be configured via remote though); instead it is used for the help function. And the help button is used for RDS (Radio Data System). Maybe RDS is a European only facility.
The good news is that the SA-HE100 is for sure Dolby Digital EX compatible. It is mentioned in many places on the web, in the manual and I also found it on the Panasonic website. This is what I found on the web: "Please be advised that Panasonic SA-HE100 also has Dolby Digital EX. Up until February 2002 the only way a company could advertise Dolby Digital EX was if the receiver was THX certified. After that time the condition was lifted and now manufactures can promote this feature without THX certification. Unfortunately lifting the THX certification requirement so late in the production development of the SA-HE100 did not allow Panasonic the necessary time to change the programming code for the microprocessor, the silk screening of the unit, the manuals or the box.
To turn on DD EX with older 5.1 films simply depress the "Enhanced Surround" button. Newer films with Dolby Digital EX logo include a "flag" that will automatically turn on the DD EX decoder in the SA-HE200 Receiver.
With the SA-HE100 this "flag" is not detected. As mentioned above, simply manually select the "Enhanced Surround" button to activate 6.1 decoding. Also please be advised that with all DD EX sound tracks, the surround back channel is in Analog. Dolby simply uses a Dolby Pro Logic chip to create the surround back information from the discrete surround channels from the 5.1 recording. The manual suggests using Enhanced Surround too for Dolby EX. And this is what I found on the Panasonic main website (resellers corner): "Built-in Dolby Digital and DTS-ES decoders with Matrix 6.1 and NEO 6.1 Enhanced Surround for a 6.1 ch. surround sound reproduction (Dolby Digital EX playable).
As I had a Technics amplifier before, I was pleased with the way the receiver sounded. Although the S/N ratio is lower, this is not a problem as there is no audible noise even at high volume. I am using a pair of Technics loudspeakers for the front channels, the SB-M500. These are excellent speakers but I noticed that the bass was not very powerful at low and normal volume. So I purchased a Panasonic SB-TP10 surround system, composed of five 40W satellites and one 100W active subwoofer. For 260$ these speakers are quite decent and the low frequency problem was immediately solved! To my surprise the LFE channel works with stereo too and gives punch to the low volume auditions. Of course the subwoofer can be adjusted or even completely shut down via remote. One neat thing is that the volume of the sub is memorized differently on each surround mode. Now concerning the various processing modes, don't imagine that stereo recordings will sound better with Prologic II or NEO:6 because they don't. Thankfully the stereo mode is gorgeous. This is really a good hi-fi amplifier with a great sound and a good power reserve. And it is DVD Audio compatible! There were some concerns about the heat generated by the amp and the fact that the players piled upon it could be affected. This is not a problem, I have the tape deck and DVD over the receiver and even at sustained high volume its surface temperature never went over 40C (104F). The receiver is great for movies too, giving a new dimension to the experience. Be advised that you will need an extra speaker for the central rear channel. If you already have large hi-fi speakers for R and L you can use one of the satellites for RC (rear center). I haven't found any DTS ES or Dolby EX DVD's, but the RC can be used even with normal 5.1 sound and it works pretty well. The tuner part is quite complete, with auto tuning and station name display. There are also PTY (program type) and RT (radio text) functions. There is a sleep timer and a wake function. As mentioned before the manual is a joke, but I had fun discovering the numerous and sometimes undocumented features. It's like they had this super versatile product and they were afraid people would be frightened by the possibilities and so they hid them! The remote is ok, working with my other Panasonic products, and though some of the features are not accessible through it (treble, balance, etc.) they are not important. I never had any trouble in 10 years with any Panasonic/Technics product and I believe they are built better than other similar brands at the same time offering many more features. It is 200$ cheaper than the Sony equivalent (STR-DB1080)!
What I don't like: lack of a second Tape or Aux input, no analog/digital input selection via remote and no enhanced surround/NEO:6 switching through the same remote. These are just some small nags that don't affect the great value of this receiver. I am pleased and will look for Panasonic products in the future too!

Last Christmas when I was looking to get more serious on my Home Theater I decided to go for a 6.1 system with all the bells and whistles. Basically I was looking for a Yamaha receiver but when I get to the store the saleman recommends me the Panasonic SA-HE100 (silver) it was $ 100 cheaper than the Yamaha and offers more SVideo and deck connections so I decided to give it a try, I'm using a JBL SCS-135 speaker system and I added a NS-C103 center speaker to create the 6.1 effect. It works great!!! You can control the subwoofer with a LFE and create different surround effects. Although it does not have a lot of seetings for TV programming the enhanced system covers most of it and you wont notice the difference with other more expensive receivers. Also features three digital connections for dvd, cd and a tv and dvd 6channel too!. The instructions are clearly enough for setup but the enhanced configuration is a little vage, you need some trial and error before you get it set correctly. the digital input automatically recognizes any digital connection on your system.
I recommend it for entry level and intermidiate users.

I just wanted to quickly say that I had the same problem with the on/off button on the remote. After unplugging the unit and plugging it back in, I went through each remote setting and hit the power button...nothing happened with TV, VCR, DVD, and Audio....however, when I hit the "Tuner/Band" setting, the on/off function began to work from the remote. I don't know why it does that, but at least it now works (I did this a few times to verify that it was the Tuner/Band button that seemed to fix things).....so, hopefully the other reviewer with the problem will read this and maybe fix their remote.
In regard to the receiver, the sound is great...like others stated, it would be nice if it had more SFC settings ("stadium" sound setting for example)....also, you cannot switch from digital to analog using the remote....besides that, it's great for the price and is able to go as loud as I have needed....I actually bought this one because my old one would always have an overload...no more overloads with the SA-HE100 so far. After buying this, I upgraded my speaker system and I am a very happy man. Now I need to save for that new 51" TV....LOL.