Sony STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 Channel Audio/Video Receiver

by Sony

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 11.6 x 19.6 x 11.6 inches ; 41.8 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 44 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• Shipping Advisory: This item must be shipped separately from other items in your order. Additional shipping charges will not apply.
• ASIN: B001GCUOEI
• Item model number: STRDA5400ES
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #33,759 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)

Product Description

Review from Home Theater Magazine

Review from HomeTheaterMag.com: Integra DTR-9.9

Like the old canine joke punch-line, “Because he can,” electronics designers seem to be adding greater functionality and features to their A/V receivers more because they can rather than because consumers need them, want them, or are likely to use them.

• Read the full review at hometheatermag.com

Product Description

Elevate your home entertainment experience to a new pinnacle with the STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 Home Theatre Receiver. No matter what the source, this receiver integrates the latest audio and video technologies while making operations simple and easy to follow. Utilizing Sony's Xross Media Bar inspired Graphic User Interface with Faroudja DCDi Cinema Technology, the STR-DA5400ES can upscale all video sources to 1080p in an intuitive environment for even the most novice user. It features BRAVIA Theatre Sync for one-touch play of select Sony HDMI components and can easily connect to optional Digital Media Port accessories to expand your listening choices. Video support meets the needs of today's high-definition content, with both 1080/60p and 24p video formats, Deep Color, x.v.Color (xvYCC), and 6 HDMI inputs. The STR-DA5400ES also brings you the best of high-definition audio with support of the latest high-fidelity audio formats, including Dolby® TrueHD and dts® HD Master Audio.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Sound & Excellent Video Upscaling, April 28, 2010

By 

G. Cox "Shanghaied" (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sony STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 Channel Audio/Video Receiver (Electronics)

I am extremely pleased with this receiver, especially the sound balancing capability. It comes with a microphone with a long cord to plug into the front of the receiver. The microphone is placed at the listener's head position. Then it automatically adjusts the sound for each speaker and calculates the distance to each speaker. This is all displayed on the television screen. I am using a temporary set of speakers until I can afford a Klipsch system. I have four brands of speakers in a 7.1 setup. I never realized how good the sound could be from my old collection of speakers. This receiver upscales all video inputs to 1080p according to the literature and I have no reason to doubt it. All the video looks good. I have some old VHS home movies that aren't so good, but that is because the original video quality isn't so great. I really like having six HDMI inputs. I am already using all of them but one.

I haven't begun to explore all the functions on this receiver. The remote control is totally loaded with small buttons -- far too many for me. The one thing that has been disappointing is the FM and AM receiver. I have the antenna wires connected and I can't get any stations to mention. Maybe it needs some special setup, but I think I am doing everything correctly. My tiny $20 Sandisk MP3 player pulls in lots of stations with no antenna at all. I haven't had time to troubleshoot it further as it is a low priority for me. However, this is still disappointing. I'll update this review later to reflect my final opinion.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars SONY STR-DA5400ES, October 29, 2010

By 

xdivison - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sony STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 Channel Audio/Video Receiver (Electronics)

I returned my STR-DA5300ES after a failed repair. Ultimate electronics was nice enough to replace the unit after 60days of going back and forth. It turns out that Sony made serious changes to the amplifier block. I have owned the 5400es for two months now and the difference is immediate. The sound is much richer and harmonic distortion has diminished to almost nothing. The 5300es had more sound field settings but the 5400es has better sound control. The set up calibration mic does a pretty good job and can be tweaked in the sub menus under tools and surround settings. I wish the unit came with at least a 7 band EQ like my ancient Sony 1020AVR. I have been listening to Pandora over my Blue Ray player and the sound is stunning. I own a plasma 1080i TV so I do not get the full up scaling what others see. In all honesty the music reproduction is more important then the video aspect.

HDMI signals do not the pass thru the unit while it is off or at least I have not figured that out. Most people claim that there are tons of features and tweaks, but I have found that any tech savvy person will figure the receivers menus out pretty quick. The unit comes with two remotes, I only use one. The main remote is "OK". I wish Sony would manufacture a downloadable remote control.

My recommendations to Sony. All ES receivers should have hard and streaming capability for firmware and software upgrades. I wish that the user could custom load sound field environments and customize them. Have a three option section for equalization. (1) Bass and Treble (2) 7 band EQ. (3) 24 band EQ, In this day and age the display should be able to have at least three color selections. A option to cut off the unit if no activity after 4 hrs. NAD has come out with Card slots. Sony should do the same. Finally a HD FM tuner should come standard.

Final rating 4 stars.

31 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best Available, but Needs Work, December 3, 2008

By 

Sphynx "The man!" (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Sony STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 Channel Audio/Video Receiver (Electronics)

This receiver has all of the same limitations are the STR-DA4400ES, so check my feedback on that one too. In most situations this receiver is not worth the extra $500.00 over the STR-DA4400ES Sony expects you to pay, but you can get it a lot cheaper then list price too.

I upgraded to this one for the second HDMI output since you can't convert HDMI video inputs into the zone2 component video output. Unfortunately, you can't configure the second HDMI output as zone 2 with this receiver either. Both HDMI outputs are only zone 1 and you can only use one at a time. So, it is not much better. You can just get a cheap HDMI splitter and do the same thing. You can set the HD signal out for zone 1 and zone 2 separately, but not for the two HDMI output since they are both zone 1. My old TV can't do 1080P, so component video and zone2 still seems to work best still. I get no picture with HDMI port unless I go into the receiver configuration and change down to 1080i/720P when I use the old TV, then I have to remember to change it back to 1080P when I switch to the new TV.

This does have an extra DMT input and an RJ45 output for zone 2 video, but that still only converts to component video and not digital video.

This receiver does have more capabilities then anything else available, but it would be nice to zone 2 HDMI output, Deep color up scaling, HDMI down scaling to component and composite video, and full HDMI audio output too. I guess it will take another round of updates to get one that can really do everything and connect anything to anything.

The stereo calibration microphone include with this one is much better then the mono microphone included with the STR-DA4400ES. The zone 2 remote is also much better, but you can control zone 2 with the normal remote on either model, so I never even put the batteries in it.

One more thing it that you can actually setup sound effects and modes per radio preset and each input. So you can run surround for the BD/DVD/TV and use all speaker stereo for the radio and CD player. You can setup talk radio stations to surround and music stations to stereo. By default it keeps whatever it was last set to when you save the presets, so don't go set all the presets until you first switch to stereo mode, or you have to go back and manually reconfigure every preset to what it should be.