Customer Reviews

Sony STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 Channel Audio/Video Receiver

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

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Awesome power and sound the way you wish you could hear it and you can. The Sony STR-DA5400ES ES 7.1 no disappointments with this one if you have the money don't wait till there gone? Oh and Polk audio speaker system good enough enjoy !

I've had this reciever for about two years now and absolutely love it. I got a super incredible deal on a 5300ES Ultimate Electronics floor model and when I called Sony about a Service Bulletin they sent me a brand new 5400ES! I know this thing in and and out and I have yet to have a single problem with it. In my opinion, it is the best AV reciever the the money. The GUI on this model is unreal. I feel that the upgrade from the 5400 is well worth it simply for the fact the the GUI will open on top of what is currently playing. A friend of mine bought the 5400 and is frustrated that is does not do this. I am running some Onkyo 200 series fronts, center, and surrounds (6.1) and two subs, one Klipsch Synergy SUB-10, and a JBL PB-12. The Sony makes them sound incredible. The voices are extremely natural. The upconverted video on standard DVDs is the best I've seen. Some of my favorite features include the Phono input for vinyl and the Multimedia input and audio setting for it. My old vinyl sounds awesome! And I can hook my laptop or Blackberry up and listen to music. In the next few month I plan to use the other Zones to hook up whole home audio including some speakers on the deck outside.
I can't say enough about this AVR and would highly recommend it to anyone looking for the ultimate AV experience.

The Sound Is Good My Old Sony Reciever Has More Audio Power Than This one And The Old One 100 Watts And The New One Is 120 Watts

I have heard many many cd players and this newer Sony 5400 model has out done themselves .Their last player was over $4k
and this player bought for under $1200 is better in everyway including a much more fully sound with no edgyness
whatsoever .I was told they moved their cd player division to maylasia where the quality is still very high as well as the parts quality but labor is 3x cheaper ,if made in Japan this unit would go for over $5k !
A no brainer with nothing even close for the moneys ,also Modwright instruments whom do hiend modifications just spent over 4 months in designing modifications for this sacd player.For $2k in addiition to the cost of the player for a total of just over $3k
you have a player with a seperate power supply and now with Vacuum tubes and many other upgrades will go toe to toe with Any $10k
model out there ! That is a fact for I heard it side by side against a $8k Esoterec 03se unit and not only competes with it but beat it .I sent my player to Modwright to get mine to that level .please keep this in mind for anyone that has a good system to begin with Outstanding in every respects even stock after a lengthly 450 hour breakin time .