receiver ponderings... sony es vs. denon

[ryanhendrixphoto]

so we all know denon will always reign supreme in the audiphile loyalty market, but i was recently intrigued at my local sony store by their ES (elevated standard) lineup of receivers. i'm shopping around for a new receiver to upgrade from my denon 1705, and between sony's xbr lineup of televisions and their blu-ray players, i've lead myself to wonder if i would be pleased with an ES model receiver to run my forte II's and klf-c7. sony's 2400ES is the bottom level of the ES lineup, but the wife-friendly Bravia Sync technology and XBR-familiar features seem like they would be a good fit with what i'm already running.

does anyone else have an ES series receiver, or know any pros and cons about these? obviously sony isn't known for receivers, and their retail level units seem more like man garage receivers, but the option of an all sony system seems like everything could run well in sync - with one remote, no less.

sony str-da2400es:

http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921665486568

[Bill H.]

I have found no one here that talks or likes Sony.............

Go with Denon, HK, Onkyo, Emotiva, Outlaw, b &k..................................get the Idea??????????????

[SWL]

Denon rules for movies.......A Denon receiver sucks for music by itself but is "high end" IMO when used as a preamp with seperates.

[Deang]

I agree with that, but think about this: If it sounds good with DVD's and bad with CD's -- why are we blaming the unit? Most CD releases in the genre I listen to aren't recorded very well -- I don't even bother spending money on them anymore. When I brought my Denon 3808 home and hooked up my RB-5's, I was so disappointed with the sound from the first three CD's I played that I contemplated taking it back. As soon as I moved to movies and concerts I thought it sounded great. It was the same "problem" I had with the Jubilees and the Klipschorns -- poor source material was ruthlessly exposed for the crap it was. Though I could make it tolerable by using gear that softened and/or warmed up the presentation -- CD's in general didn't come within a light year of the performance I was getting with most of my DVD's. The 3808CI is one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned. Add the 2500BTCI Blu-ray transport for a killer combo.

[tommyboy]

sony makes great video equipment. TV's, dvd players, blu ray, etc. But, i've never heard anything good about their audio gear. I personally will never buy any sony audio gear............ I'd go with the denon, no question about it..

[Zen Traveler]

Fwiw, I don't listen to CDs, but alot of Multichannel music and my Denons (AVR 4806/3805/3803)/Klipsch HTs don't "suck for music." I also am in agreement that they are phenomenal for movies in my Klipsch Reference and Legend HTs. [Y]

[falcon20x]

I agree with that, but think about this: If it sounds good with DVD's and bad with CD's -- why are we blaming the unit? Most CD releases in the genre I listen to aren't recorded very well --

This is unfortunatly the truth.

I have to keep myself from jumping out of my seat everytime I hear someone talking about there top of line gears and saying how much it sucks when she/he hooks up a IPOD to it.

If you have a yugo and you put a corvette engine in it, does that make it a sport car? Get the point?

[SWL]

I agree with that, but think about this: If it sounds good with DVD's and bad with CD's -- why are we blaming the unit? Most CD releases in the genre I listen to aren't recorded very well -- I don't even bother spending money on them anymore. When I brought my Denon 3808 home and hooked up my RB-5's, I was so disappointed with the sound from the first three CD's I played that I contemplated taking it back. As soon as I moved to movies and concerts I thought it sounded great. It was the same "problem" I had with the Jubilees and the Klipschorns -- poor source material was ruthlessly exposed for the crap it was. Though I could make it tolerable by using gear that softened and/or warmed up the presentation -- CD's in general didn't come within a light year of the performance I was getting with most of my DVD's. The 3808CI is one of the best pieces of gear I've ever owned. Add the 2500BTCI Blu-ray transport for a killer combo.

Yeah, what he said. []

Dean's explanation is much better and much less ignorant than what I blurted out. However, from my experience the Denon 3805 is taken to another level when used as a preamp with power amps.......with movies and concerts as well.

[Youthman]

sony makes great video equipment. TV's, dvd players, blu ray, etc. But, i've never heard anything good about their audio gear. I personally will never buy any sony audio gear............

I have said this many times myself. I had a chance to hear the Sony ES system on a set of RF-82's but frankly, I wasn't impressed at all.

[Hifi jim]

After an exhaustive amount of research before replacing my Pioneer Elite receiver with a newer HDMI model, I concluded no Sony. Every review picked the Sony ES receivers apart. I never listened to a Sony receiver but after extensive reading I felt no need to. I narrowed my selection to Pioneer Elite, Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha. I purchased the Yamaha RX-v1800 last month and I have been extremely happy with the sound, ease of set up and use and it's amazing YPAO room eq system. As was stated earlier in this thread, Sony is not a receiver name that is ever heard on this forum at least not their more recent designs which have really fallen off the mark set by the other manufacturers mentioned.

[Islander]

There are many happy Yamaha users on this forum, myself included. I was getting good sound with my RX-V750, it got better when I used it as a pre-amp with a Yamaha MX-D1 power amp and it's even better now with two of those power amps and bi-amped speakers. It all turns on with one button, thanks to the 12V trigger.

The 750's learning remote also controls the TV, DVD player and VCR, and two of those are not Yamaha.

[tommyboy]

I'm a Pioneer man myself; but I must admit that Yammy is quite popular among the forum members on here. I've never heard yammy with Klipsch, but it's obviously a good combo! [Y]

[DrWho]

All I gotta say is that I would never consider buying a Sony Receiver without first hearing it at home on my speakers. I've heard a few ES receivers that sounded very decent, but change the speakers and it goes back to crap - very tempermental.

I also don't think any ES model is ever going to represent the best quality that audio has to offer - Denon probably doesn't get there either, but it's gonna be leagues ahead of the game.