Customer Reviews

Sony STR-DE595 - AV receiver - 5.1 channel

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I recently received this Sony receiver and am very pleased with it. The hook up was quick and easy and the owners manual is well-written. I wanted something specifically with Optical sound inputs and this unit has not one, but two of them, along with a digital coaxial input port. The first thing I did upon hooking up this receiver was to play a DVD which I had just recently played on my non-optical receiver that I am replacing.
Let me tell you...I started hearing sounds from this DVD that I never heard before!! I just stood in the middle of the room laughing at the amazing sound that was now coming from my speakers! I now know what true 5.1 surround sound is supposed to sound like. The channel separation was amazing and the multiple output modes (movie, music, concert hall, etc.) were fun to play with. I am able to tell this receiver exactly how far away from the speakers I am sitting and even tell it if the rear channel speakers are sitting high or low. This receiver has a large variety of customizable features that are simple enough for a novice like me to understand and program. The price is great, the features are great and I am completely pleased and cannot imagine upgrading again for a long, long time.

I am an audio professional, but not overly obsessed w/ my home audio. This is a very good system for the price. One must adjust the settings in setup. Leaving the settings all at the default will result in flat low audio for music. Once you adjust the levels to each speaker & set the distance of each, your music will sound very good & your movies even better. A search online shows it's common for ppl to neglect to adjust the setup & complain ab audio from sony receivers like this one. I've had the system for three years & have had no problems. I had to call customer support once to use another sony remote & they were extremely helpful w/ that. There are other systems on par w/ this one & better, but this one is very good for the price.

This receiver i bought last year, so far I have had no problems and I enjoy all the features that it has. I actually have some old AIWA Speakers hooked up to this system, and a Sony Subwoofer which realy gives this system some power, I have tested it with all the great movies ( Lord of the rings, Star Wars, Matrix etc ) and it kicks butt!! My digital cable box which receives Dolby Digital signal also sounds great. Music from either CD or Digital cable sounds good, especially when I have the Dolby Pro-Logic II on music setting.

I paid $150.00 for this and was worth every penny!

UPDATED 2/20/2009**

I've has this receiver for around 5 yrs now and I still love it..I have all Sony Speakers for my Home theater and I love it...in fact the Digital Cinema Setting makes the room sound even better...like your in the center of the action.

I had this receiver for about 2 years before it died.

Movies sounded fine with this however the clarity of sound was poor (characteristic of SONY). I didn't know how good my JBL speakers could sound until I bought a new receiver to replace this one (only 2yrs old!!!!)

My biggest complaint with this thing was that it completely died after ~2yrs of using it ~1hr per day!

Do yourself a favor and purchase a Pioneer or Yamaha receiver that will not only sound better but they should last for 10+ years!!

I have owned the STR-DE595 for 5 years and can say it was and is a great value. I got my unit lightly used and have been using it pretty much every days since. I use it for both TV and music listening. I am hard of hearing and tend to listen to my music much louder then some people comfortable listening too. I use it in 5.1 mode with Polk Audio Monitor Series II speakers and a Sony sub. Sound quality is very good. Feature wise the unit is a bit dated. Only feature I really miss is HDMI which wasn't very common when I bought the unit. I have it hooked up via TOSLINK to my Sony Bravia TV which passes through all the audio (surround and otherwise) from my HDMI sources (cable box, PS3, and PC) cleanly to the receiver making HDMI not a necessity. I have considered replacing it with a more modern receiver with HDMI and 7.1 but that's not gonna happen till I burn this one out or a crazy sale comes along.

I've had this thing in constant user for near a decade. It's now the weak link in my system and due for replacement, but it's still working hard and sounding the same as it did when I bought it. Not much more I could have expected out of it for the price I paid for it, maybe $200, years ago.

Just bought this unit yesterday. The shop only test with DVD movie and I forgot to test for CD audio.

The bass and treble really does not get out, and the music really feels flat, no low and high output. Can only set the tone (bass and treble) to 6db max. Disappointing.

Not recommended to play music.

I got this receiver 2 days ago because of its exciting price and SONY brand.But I was totally disappointed with its performance, especially when it plays music. And its clamed 100w output power is also suspecting, it even has difficulty to support my 91db sensitivity 8 ohm bookshelf speakers. The sound quality of movie is still acceptable.
Don't buy if you also want a relative good music output.
Pros: Price, Style
Cons: Sound quality, Power, Speaker plug

I got this receiver 2 days ago because of its exciting price and SONY brand.But I was totally disappointed with its performance, especially when it plays music. And its clamed 100w output power is also suspecting, it even has difficulty to support my 91db sensitivity 8 ohm bookshelf speakers. The sound quality of movie is still acceptable.
Don't buy if you also want a relative good music output.
Pros: Price, Style
Cons: Sound quality, Power, Speaker plug