Customer Reviews

Sony STR-DA5500ES - AV network receiver - 7.1 channel [Electronics]

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

 

 

This is a very good Receiver
When it comes right down to it, audio quality is the most important feature of a surround sound receiver.

The STR-DA5500ES does not disappoint. Quality is far above what I would expect from a receiver at this price point.


This receiver had the clarity to make bookshelf speakers sound amazing, and enough power to rock some free-standing towers. The fun thing was to adjust the EQ on the fly with the set-up manager on my laptop. During movies I felt immersed in all the sound. I was impressed with the improvement in surround modes over past Sony models
Some of reviews here are some what negative all can say is read the manual and set it up properly
And at price of $849.its steal,it will soon be replaced.with the STR-DA5600ES with 3D pass through and 10 more watts at $2000.00 is worth it.
I have bin into Audio & Video for very long time, Like in days of just HI FI one speaker
Macintosh tube Amps and 33 and third LP Recordings "Vineal"and so-on.
Now it is Home Theater with up to 10 speakers.
The STR-DA5500ES is very good Receiver I like mine and works well with my system.
Panasonic TC-P58V10
Polk L/si speakers 7 ea and a REL sub,
Sony BDP-S5000ES Blu-ray

Have a nice day.

I have had this receiver for several weeks now and it has been light years ahead of what it replaced. Lots of inputs and assignable, flexible. For example you can actually assign video inputs to things like the MD in and gain another video source :) The gui is awesome aswell, everything is namable, assignable, and customizable. Now for the limitations that I have ran into. First off you cannot re-arrange the sources in the GUI just Rename. So if you have a lot of input sources it can mean scrolling through tons of other sources to get to your most common used one (since of course they put all the HDMI sources at the bottom of the GUI list...) Secondly having 2 hdmi outputs might seem like a great feature but I have found that it is basically a useless feature... You only have the options to use a or b or both. FOR EXAMPLE: You cannot assign 1 source to A and another source to B and use the receiver to drive say your theater and watch something else on another TV in another room using your equipment in the theater. Seems to me for the money this receiver should be able to matrix the sources and outputs. One of the selling points of this receiver is that it can be multi-room but that is misleading as you are only able to do different things in different rooms if its audio only in the second room... Also I have just a general bone to pick with Sony, I purchase and have purchased their products for many years with great results, however their decision to REMOVE the ES lineup from general consumer purchasing is a very bad idea in my option and kind of a slap in the face of consumers who want feature rich options and shop their name brand. This will drive the "do it yourselfers" to other competing brand names that can give them the features they are looking for without having to do through a specialized dealer and all the hassle. News flash Sony, not all of us can afford to have a custom theater setup installed in our house and pay all the overhead in doing so, when we could/would have just purchased your equipment and done it ourselves. Shame on you, thats just bad business.... Whats next your TV lineup? Since us normal people don't need their Higher Quality and features in our normal houses... give me a break. This, for obvious reasons, will be my last Sony receiver as the "common people" line just doesn't give me the features I am looking for.

Pros: Incredible sound performance, amazing video processing

Cons: assigning imputs such as BD or SAT to hdmi allows for video imput but not audio.

Summary: I have researched Sony's es line for the last three years. I've taken the opportunity to do side by side comparisons with Sony and equal Yamaha, Denon and Marantz. There were pros and cons with each manufacture. I like Sony's products and have had nothing but exceptional service from their customer support. I have been playing with the settings of the Sony str-da5500es for the last month. I found the owners manual to be very easy to read and follow. Set up was a snap and I got rid of more than a dozen cables and switched everythng to hdmi with one hdmi output to the TV. The apm (auto phase matching) is incredible and takes the guess work out of settings for my speakers. I hooked up a vcr with composite just to see if it really would make a difference..........it did. Old vhs tapes that the kids still watch looked like dvd at 1080p. The music sound brought new life and seperation to my cd collection. I'm having fun with the shoutcast and can now listen to stations, I grew up with in other states, without having to use my computer. I now use one remote to control everything; TV, BD, SAT, Receiver, XBox. I'm not sold on all the 3D hype and did concider the newer str-da5600es but I already have an internet hub setup and I have seen this receiver allow 3D pass thru in the Vanns show room even though it's not in the specs. The bottom line for me was ease of use, ability to customize as I see fit and a company that takes care of me as a consumer. The Sony str-da5500es fits nicely into these aspects for me. I would recommend this for anyone looking for an exceptional theater experience in their home. I haven't used the second or third zones yet. I have set up the second zone in expectation of the need for another high def connection after Christmas. If I come across any other user pros or cons I will update.

I have purchased numerous Sony ES series receivers over the past years, but Sony has continued to cut back on their build quality over the years, and their receivers are now JUNK. My Sony 5500ES receiver completely failed after just 10 months of use! Even when it did work, the sound quality and performance was sub-par compared to other receivers at this price point. Buyers beware, don't be deceived by the Sony name (Sony makes great TVs, but not receivers) or the nice exterior of the receiver, inside the receiver is very poor quality and you will be disappointed.

I am very pleased with the STR-DA5500ES. I have always loved Sony's products especially the ES line. This one won't disappoint.

I purchased this high end receiver with high expectations. Although it is sleek looking it has very poor sound quality and very limited audio adjustments. It seems to be cheeply made and poorly engineered. It is adequate as a video hub, however, very poor as a home theater receiver. Their is no onboard graphic equalizer to tweek your speekers. It simply has base and treble adjustment. I was so disappointed that I sent it back and purchased a Denon 4310 receiver. Talk about night and day !. The Denon is everything I hoped for. Very high quality, very clean crisp sound and it has a nine band graphic equlizer. I feel like I am at the Hollywood Bowl when I listen to it !!.
If I were Sony, I would get out of the receiver manufacturing business and buy receivers from Denon and put the Sony logo on them !. They would then be ahead of the game !!. Sorry if I offended anyone, however, I'm simply giving my honest opinion.