Customer Reviews

Sony STR-DA3400ES 7.1 Channel AV Receiver

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

 

 

It's nice to be able to switch up to 4 HDMI components and have only one HDMI cable going to your TV carrying the audio and video signals. The auto calibration is pretty accurate and very simple to perform. I purchased a $275 sound pressure meter to check this. I have to say that my audio settings were set wrong for years by my ear with my old receiver and then an auto calibration option saves the day. I now hear the rear speakers and all other speakers at a comfortable listening level that is much more balanced instead of being drowned out by the center speaker or sub woofer. The auto cal sets speaker size, distance, and levels within 1 minute. The GUI interface which shows on-screen menus on your TV screen of all settings and the capablilities is really worth it. You can set your radio presets and many other things here. It's nice not laying in front of the receiver setting the configurations up like I used to. You get 2 remotes. The small one is nice for the wife that has just the basic buttons on it. The bigger one is nice but long. The only con that I've found is that there is HDMI 1 through 4 buttons available on the remote. You have to remember which HDMI input the satellite is on, which one the blu-ray is on and so forth. You can program the "SAT" and "BD" buttons on the remote so you don't have to remember which HDMI input controls which equipment. The hangup is that if you are using only HDMI cabling you will not receive the audio with the selection of the SAT and BD buttons because of an engineering flaw in the setup which was verified by Sony support line. So basically you need to use the HDMI 1-4 buttons to select the audio and video instead of using the SAT and BD buttons that are on the remote. Nice sound produced from this model compared to my old Sony 985 model. So much progress has been made with these receivers. Happy customer.

When my previous Sony AVR box developed a burn out on several speaker outputs (probably because I shorted them out when trying to screw speaker wires into the terminal pads), I shopped for a new one.

After years of being a Sony Fanatic, I have come to the opinion that the Sony of my youth is not the Sony of today. HOWEVER, with regards this new unit, it would be unfair for me to be so libelous. This unit has been very satisfying, with only a few blemishes. So here are some scattershot comments

* The volume control timing is not very good. When you press the control, it starts way too slow, then accelerates way too fast. So you end up single-clicking the volume to its desired point, which takes forever due to the high precision of the control.

* The volume control is really more of an attenuation control. Useful range is -45dB to -9dB. I shudder to think how loud it would be if I took the volume above zero.

* It doesn't magically correct poor audio sources (most movies) where the center channel voice is practically unintelligible, and wildy variable from one movie or tv station to another. Not the box's fault, but the high quality of the rest of the sound just makes it more obvious.

* It has plenty of HDMI connectors (my first AVR to do so) and that is really great. It up converts any signal input to HDMI, which is super nice. It does not, of course, down-convert HDMI to anything else, which would be sweet, but I accept that.

* HDMI has the issue (not the box's fault, but it probably COULD do something about it) to force your display into full 16:9 mode, so you can no longer correct 4:3 sources and are forced to watch them in 'everyone looks fat' mode. So I still have to switch my monitor in and out of HDMI mode to watch different sources, so I still have four remote controls in active play.

* When hooking up speakers, I highly recommend banana plugs instead of trying to screw the wires in directly. In fact I recommend one particular variety of banana plug (Dayton BASS-GRB Banana Plug Pair Set-Screw Type). Those are just brilliantly designed. You need a small screwdriver, but other than that it is perfection of design. Whoever designed that banana plug has clear thought about it a lot. I cannot praise them highly enough.

* Getting back to the DVR, the graphical menu system is very PlayStation3 ish, and probably overkill, but nice to look at. Except the way I hae things set up I can only see it when the monitor is in HDMI mode, which most of the time it is not (because most of the time I am watching satellite TV which in my case is not yet HDMI and is fundamentally 4:3 in nature). So instead I have to use the on-front-panel feedback, which uses different names than the graphic interface, and I can't read it from a distance anyway. Not a huge deal since I don't live in the AVR menu. (I live in the DirecTiVo menu!)

I think those are my only warnings. Aside from that the box is attractive, sounds terrific, and has a beautifully laid out back panel with all the connectors I need, and while the volume control is ergonomically messed up, the actual precision of the volume attainable is fantastic. It might have been nice if it had some sort of per-source prescaler you could set though. (i.e. DVD needs to *always* be 20dB louder than satellite, so it would be nice if it could remember that)

This is an excellent system. The audio and video are both as good as anything I can hear/see. It has amazing flexibility and connectivity. I am able to do a few "technically challenging" tasks with it (using 2 audio zones, with video of DVD photos on a TV in one room, audio from a different source - cable TV music - and 2 HD TV's in different rooms running simultaneously). I realize that some to the features I want are not the everyone else's criteria. The only downsides are:
1. I am a technical person but NOT an audio or video expert, so it has been a big learning curve for me to comprehend all the AUDIO/VIDEO jargon. For an AV novice like me, it has been time consuming to understand what this system does.
2. As much as I love the system, except for a few easy functions (like turning on the FM Tuner), the remote control requires multiple button sequences, and is sometimes challenging (esp. for my wife). There are 2 macro buttons, but I think I will buy a more programmable remote.

Even with those mild negatives, I am very impressed by the system and would strongly recommend it.

Excellent Receiver, if you're thinking on which receiver to buy Onkyo or Sony. Go with this one. I mean everything is better than the Onkyo. The Onkyo receiver is nothing compare to this one. A friend of mine has the Onkyo 606, and man I telling you my Sony is a lot much better than the Onkyo. Each bit of it. I love it. I'm happy with my receiver.