4.0 stars Pros: The unit is a nice addition to any home theater system. I paid $899 for it at Ultimate Electronics. If I had paid the original $2000 price tag I would not be happy. It replaced a Yamaha that was a great unit for its age.
Cons: The ability of allowing the user to set up custom sound fields.
Summary: The Sony is a great unit but could use memory addition to select configurations that I could preset for different sound and movie playbacks. It is a quality unit that is very capable (nice enough that I did not return it). The Sony ES series are great units but if ... Expand full review
Summary: The Sony is a great unit but could use memory addition to select configurations that I could preset for different sound and movie playbacks. It is a quality unit that is very capable (nice enough that I did not return it). The Sony ES series are great units but if you can see what the competition is offering and evaluate them for a week each that would be a wonderful thing. Since I could not do that I may be a little hard on the Sony but remembering ( a memory button) configurations so I could set up my own custom sound fields would be great!
Updated on Jun 14, 2010
After a little more time (and tweaking) with this receiver I have to admit the sound is excellent ( i used to mix sound for live bands)! The up-scaling of video does so well that my old HD television has seen new life with much richer color than it previously had. For the money I think I would be hard pressed to find a better unit.
5.0 stars Pros: GUI Interface. Synergy with other SONY products. 6 HDMI Inputs. Sonic sound that I was not expecting from a SONY receiver even if it was a High End product.
Cons: A lot of reading and tweaking required to get things just right...which you A/V geeks know never happen so we just keep on tweaking. Wish SONY had integrated control over PS3 thru the receiver (even though there is an adaptor from logitech now)
Summary: I was an early adopter into the HDMI connectivity beginning with an Onkyo 604 Receiver. Not knowing how to match receivers and speakers, I fell in love with the KEF 3005's in-store, but could never quite get the hmmph out of the speakers the way I heard them in ... Expand full review
Summary: I was an early adopter into the HDMI connectivity beginning with an Onkyo 604 Receiver. Not knowing how to match receivers and speakers, I fell in love with the KEF 3005's in-store, but could never quite get the hmmph out of the speakers the way I heard them in the store. I was wondering if the subwoofer was even working. I finally decided to give Onkyo the benefit of the doubt because I also have my first HTIB Surround Sound System (an Onkyo system) and it sounds great due to the fact that the manufacturer put the right receiver with the right speakers. Anyhow, I researched and researched and researched...and going against everything inside of me that said do not go with a SONY receiver...I did it. It has brought my KEF 3005 speakers to life and OMG is the sound unreal. Without going much deeper, I've got all the toys running thru it including PS3, Xbox 360, Wii (significantly improved video quality from the 5400ES's video processor. But let me tell you, this thing is the bomb. And there's so much more to it from three zones including multi room video...every possible cable connection you can imagine x 2...and on and on. Bottom Line...is SONY has blown me away with their XBR TV's...I have three of them at home and six of them at my business. But I've always kind of held the perception that they were kind of a middle class citizen in the audio world...hence the reason that I went with several Pioneer Elite Units for several system set ups with 52"+ XBR's in my offices. But after buying this for my home and primary Home Theater...I am a believer. Great job SONY. You're certainly starting to bring the components of the HD world together more perfectly than any of the other brands out there...and obviously you're victory over Toshiba (HD DVD) to make Blu-Ray the sole format for HD moving forward, you've got a leg up on everyone else. Now only if you could make a set of Speakers that were equal to your TV's, PS3's, Receivers, etc... You'd have the competition surrounded.
