The Canadian site has more info. www.sony.ca.

Crutchfield.com had some great info too. (Thanks for the canadian tip Mike!). Not too many differences between the two receivers. More S-video jacks on the DB940, better amps, gold plated jacks.

Guess it's down to availability and whether or not I can justify the extra $100. At least I don't have a significant other to justify it to.:)

Anyone know of any good on-line retailers that might carry the DB series for shipment to the US. I don't have any local dealers that carry them. Found a couple on Yahoo, plus Crutchfield that carry the DB-940, but I'd like a few more for comparison. Crutchfield's way too expensive, and I'm not sure of the service/reputation of some of the Yahoo offerings.

Thanks
Eric

Quote from Eric: "Not too many differences between the two receivers. More S-video jacks on the DB940, better amps, gold plated jacks."

Those may be the differences in the specs as listed. The difference in sound is another thing. There is a BIG differnece. And better power supply. And build. And like you say, better warranty. The $100 is well worth spending.

Greg :-)

Eric, go with the DB! I switched from the DE835 to the DB930 and it was well worth it. I got mine at a great price from www.onecall.com

Well, looks like I'm gonna go with the DE945. I would prefer the DB940, but that damn thing's hard to find, plus it's a little more than I want to spend. I'm also looking into buying a set of Energy Take 5's with their 10" sub, so I'm kind of forced to pinch a few pennies. Oh well, it'll last me until HDTV and 7.1 channel audio are more widespread. By then I should be on better financial footing and should be able to get into the ES line.

Thanks for all the replies everyone. They were a lot of help.

Try speedandsound.com $400 delivered for the DE945!

Eric
You would be better off with a Yamaha receiver, it has a way better amp.

I have the Sony 945 receiver and the Yamaha 992 receiver and prefer the Yamaha receiver but I recently purchased the new Sony rm-av2100 remote control and it didn't control the Yamaha receiver at all!

Get the Sony 2100 remote. I went from 4 remotes down to 1 remote...is that heaven or what!

Steven: Are you referring to two different remotes? You mention the Sony rm-av2100 and how it "didn't control the Yamaha receiver", yet you recommend the Sony 2100 remote. Is the Sony 945 replacing the Yamaha 992? Your comments interest me as I just set-up a Yamaha HTR-5250 and just ordered online a Sony rm-av2100. My TV,DVD is Sony.

I have sony 954 and find it to be a very good receiver.

My only gripe is it does not have component video in/outputs like the yamaha 5280 and does not also me to connect my toshiba 6200 and a hd receiver to my kp53hs10 which has only one hd input.

my ht [Link: intlds.com]

i have the UK version db930 reciever and have found it to be exceelent over the past 9 months or so, much beeter than either the yamaha DSPA2 or the Pioneer VSAe03 which i owned previously. there isn;t much difference in the DB940 apart from new cosmetics, 10w more power/channel and a larger LCD screen on the remote. Highly recommended though!!

Well, I still haven't gotten around to buying my new toy. I've got another question though. I'm planning on using my new receiver to do all my video switching for me. This means I'll have my DVD player and digital cable run in to it via S-video. My Playstation and VCR will be run to it via RCA cables. My question is this. Do either of these receivers have the comb filter allowing them to route all video signals out to my TV via S-video, or will the VCR and Playstation have to be routed to one of my TV's other video inputs via RCA cables? In that case, I'm still going to have to use my TV for video switching between my S-video sources and RCA sources.

It will switch for you. Yes, you can view all sources through the monitor output to your TV via S-video. No need to use your TV other than as a monitor. You can't plug in both S-video AND RCA for the same device, say a cable box and switch between the two.

Most receivers I am familiar with (except for a newer Kenwood model) do not have the filters to convert from composite(RCA) to S-Video and vice-versa. Therefore if you're sending an S-video signal to the receiver it will output in S-Video to your TV. Now the question whether you'll have to do video switching with your TV depends on the TV set itself. If your set will allow you to watch either composite (RCA connectors) or S-video signals on the same input then you'll be fine since the receiver will do all the necessary switching and you can leave your TV video inputs alone. However many TV's (including most Sony models) can only receive one of the two signals composite or S-video in a given video input. If you connect both kinds of cables to the same input on your TV set, the TV will default to S-Video and ignore the composite signal.

Hope that helps.

Parce

Thanks Parce. Very helpful info. Unfortunately I have a Sony TV, so it looks like I'll have to use two different inputs on it and use the TV's video switching. Oh well. Not a big deal I guess. I'll just program macros into the remote to switch to the correct video signal on the TV