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SONY ES RECEIVERS


Joe DiClemente

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Hello

Are the sony ES receivers alot better than the sony DE series receivers. I have all sony. I'm looking to upgrade my STR-DE925. I've read alot of good things about the Denon 3802. How do you think the SONY STR-DA5ES compares to the DENON 3802. I have RF7's RC7 RS7's and a SVS CS-ULTRA, 1000 WATT SAMPSON AMP.

Thanks

Joe

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My opinion is many people in the market for a HT receiver go with very conventional mass market brand names without giving some of the specialty manufactureres a listen.

I eventually bought a demo set of Sherwood Newcastle separates, but made several evaluations. Specs were also looked at closely.

Specs to look for:

All Channels Driven....NOT...One Channel Driven

20 hz to 20,000 hz....NOT....1Khz(1,000hz) signal

The total harmonic distortion or maximum power ratings are a marketing ploy if they are not listed at "all channels driven from 20 hz to 20Khz". You get a "polished" story of the products performance.

Very soundly built products I have auditioned, that may not have all of the bells and whistles, but sound great are as follows:

Outlaw Audio

Rotel

NAD

Arcam

Analog pass through is a great feature to look for in a design if you do serious music listening in addition to HT.

Enjoy the evaluations.

Happy Hunting!

Rick

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Years ago I owned and enjoyed Sony ES receivers. Generally speaking, nowadays I would not recommend Sony receivers at all. There are some nice receivers out there made by Sony, but right now as far as receivers go, I would buy a Denon 3803 and never look back. For the price that receiver is hard to beat. Otherwise, I'd look at spending $5000> for good separates.

Keith

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I have the Denon AVR3802 with my Ref 7 speakers. It is a very nice sounding with many great features, especially for a reciever in its price range. Some people complain about how complex it is to use. The manual can be somewhat confusing, especially if you are not accoustomed to very techinical manuals. In my case, some of the documentation I have to deal with at work makes the Denon user's guide look like a well written novel!6.gif

If you can, it is definitly worth checking out. Caveat - Denon has just come out with the 3803. I don't know what new features are in the 3803 over the 3802, though.

Like alot of things audio - your best bet is to try them out and see which one you like the best yourself.

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----------------

On 10/14/2002 10:37:39 PM boomer9911 wrote:

Sony sucks...period
:)
You are paying for a Cadillac that has Lincoln Continental parts, and maybe old AMC Gremlin drive train status......

wouldn't you rather have a "true" ferrari.....Marantz.....

Sony ES in 88+ was quality...now...HA.....IMO

----------------

Ah, boomer, methinks thou art unduly harsh on Mr. Sony's creations! Then again, the last Sony ES piece I bought was merely an ST-S550ES am/fm tuner, about five years ago (+/- 3yrs). True, even in my experience, some ES products are virtually indistinguishable from the regular line, BUT, there are some very high quality, high value products. Or at least there was when I got the bulk of my system ('91 thru '96). I absolutely swear by my little ES integrated. Even when driving k-horns, it is very satisfactory. No grungy hardness here!

That being said, I will probably leave the Sony camp myself, come next upgrade time. Front runners right now are Marantz or Pioneer Elite.

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Which Sony products did you have that gave you such poor service boomer?

I've owned several Sony ES receivers and some were/are great products, some weren't. Guess it's sorta which way the historical wind blows. Kinda like Marantz.

The most recent receiver(333ES) cost $550 at the local Tweeter. It is a very good receiver for that price and is used with Def Tech speakers. The Denon 38xx is much better for a coupla hundred more $ though.

As always, anything I say is my opinion. 1.gif

Keith

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Joe, the DA5ES is a very nice reciever & is extremely tweakable. It also puts out its rated output. Check out Hometheater Mag's Aug 2002 issue. They do a review of the DA3ES, which is the little brother of the DA5ES, and it tested pretty well. Good Luck!

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You can do better than the Sony. My local high end shop LOVES the current Pioneer Elite line -- for the money. Great components, value for the money. This guy has been aound audio/video in a serious way his whole life. Designing hardware, speakers, installation -- you name it. He also recommends Rotel over Denon and Onkyo.

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there are/were a couple of strda-777ES receivers for sale at this site:http//pub7.ezboard.com/baussiedvdandhtforum

i love this receiver and wouldn't sell it for the full retail price of $1500!!

you can read some info about this receiver and others at this site.

THIS ES receiver is one of the best receivers EVER made by ANYBODY.

avman.

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this receiver along with the tae-9000es pre-amp are the only two sony pieces that have an rs232 port for upgrade :(

i got the download for free from the website i listed earlier (ezboard). it added 6.1 decoding capability, as well as addressing some technical issues of the receiver's performance and options.

avman.

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