New Sony ES 8K AV Receiver Line STR-AZ7000ES STR-AZ5000ES STR-AZ3000ES STR-AZ1000ES

[GXAlan]

Yes this thing was so heavy and as I said earlier my rack is under the stairs so not the easiest thing to swap receivers. I didn't take REW measurements because there was something clearly off about the room correction. Like I said in Pure Direct was normal sound but not as good as my 4800h to my ears but with room correction enabled (i.e. any other sound field), it sounded so bad that I thought I am losing my hearing capabilities. It sounded muffled which may have to do with the warning I received after calibration.

The ZA5000ES actually had a wider stereo mic than the ZA3100ES which is now used by the current AZ series too. In theory, the wider the mics the better the triangulation. So my experiences with the 2D ZA5000ES may not translate to the current models.

Old mic

Versus current mic

 

[RocShemp]

How tall is the stand that comes with the new mic? Also, does the mic have a threaded insert, so I might place it on a tripod or boom?

 

[mattsrs]

How tall is the stand that comes with the new mic? Also, does the mic have a threaded insert, so I might place it on a tripod or boom?

The stand is around 10 inch tall and the stand (and not the mic) has thread to be connected to a tripod. Surprisingly the mic just sits on the stand and doesn’t click in or mount securely

 

[RocShemp]

The stand is around 10 inch tall and the stand (and not the mic) has thread to be connected to a tripod. Surprisingly the mic just sits on the stand and doesn’t click in or mount securely

That's an odd choice. But I guess it's better than nothing.

 

[Randomdude]

Would love to do it but it’s already packed for return and my rack is under stairs in my basement so not easy to set it up again. I had a Call of Duty tournament last night and was excited to play it with the Sony avr but after that experience, had to switch back to my Denon. Hopefully someone else or a reviewer does an objective measurement of the room correction part

Wow, I have never seen anyone do such a quick test and return on a new AVR. Was there some short time limit before you could no longer return the device or something? If I had just bought a new serious piece of AVR equipment I would at least spend a few days trying to get it sounding right before giving up. Your testing tells the community very little other than you have next to no patience for testing and had a very emotional reaction to the set up and first listen and just decided it had to go. Its a shame you didn't spend a little more time assessing before sending it back, though of course that is your right.

 

[mattsrs]

Wow, I have never seen anyone do such a quick test and return on a new AVR. Was there some short time limit before you could no longer return the device or something? If I had just bought a new serious piece of AVR equipment I would at least spend a few days trying to get it sounding right before giving up. Your testing tells the community very little other than you have next to no patience for testing and had a very emotional reaction to the set up and first listen and just decided it had to go. Its a shame you didn't spend a little more time assessing before sending it back, though of course that is your right.

First of all, let's establish that we don't owe each other anything here. We all do this as a hobby and I thought it would be good to share my experience with the fellow AV enthusiasts here. Most of us have extremely busy life with work, family, etc. and people may have varying amount of time to dedicate to setting up and troubleshooting something that doesn't work as expected so please do not use labels such as "emotional reaction" liberally here. I spent more time on getting this to work right than I did with any of my past receivers and recently I have had RZ50 (and even figuring out Dirac the first time was smoother) and 4800h as I said earlier. After spending about 2-3 hour troubleshooting and trying all the settings, reading manual, running the calibration process 3x, I am not sure what keeping it few more days would have gotten me

 

[GXAlan]

First of all, let's establish that we don't owe each other anything here. We all do this as a hobby and I thought it would be good to share my experience with the fellow AV enthusiasts here.

+1. You are literally dealing with a “random dude”.

I think everyone is frustrated that there was a lot of
hype from the YouTube reviews and then I probably added to the hype since I really enjoyed the 2D sound field processing of the previous generation, having also owned a Trinnov product…

Something is broken with your unit, and what it is, if you have don’t have time/energy to deal with it — completely understandable. It does give everyone a bit more caution before proceeding!

 

[kalexan9]

First of all, let's establish that we don't owe each other anything here. We all do this as a hobby and I thought it would be good to share my experience with the fellow AV enthusiasts here. Most of us have extremely busy life with work, family, etc. and people may have varying amount of time to dedicate to setting up and troubleshooting something that doesn't work as expected so please do not use labels such as "emotional reaction" liberally here. I spent more time on getting this to work right than I did with any of my past receivers and recently I have had RZ50 (and even figuring out Dirac the first time was smoother) and 4800h as I said earlier. After spending about 2-3 hour troubleshooting and trying all the settings, reading manual, running the calibration process 3x, I am not sure what keeping it few more days would have gotten me

I both agree with you, and disagree with you. First, I appreciated your review. A review is a review. True, you don't owe anyone here anything - none of us do. However in the many years of reading literally hundreds of member reviews, I've never seen someone quit as easily and quickly as you did, which is truly your prerogative to do so. But as this is a public forum, anyone also has the right (without harassing or rudeness, of course) to be critical of anything we post which is what @Randomdude did without harassment. Again, thanks for the review, and we all look forward to other reviews of the new Sony ES receivers that offer some more detail and build on what you started.

 

[Deividas]

I will be buying this unit from a local retailer at the end of February. I love Sony's sound. Sony doesn't sound digital or at least in the past they didn't sound digital. I love the looks and most importantly the cooling fans are accessible for clearing.

If ever had Denon or Marantz, please post your impressions of the new calibration suite and if possible a short co.parsion to Audyssey

 

[HooStat]

I've never seen someone quit as easily and quickly as you did

Implying that someone "quit" is completely unfair. The product didn't work as intended. There was nothing left to do. One of the most difficult things to do is to know when something isn't worth it. What is the definition of a fool? Someone who keeps doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome? Not quitting would have been foolish.

 

[ban25]

Implying that someone "quit" is completely unfair. The product didn't work as intended. There was nothing left to do. One of the most difficult things to do is to know when something isn't worth it. What is the definition of a fool? Someone who keeps doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome? Not quitting would have been foolish.

Agreed. And he has a perfectly working X4800H sitting there ready to go, so why invest more time if it isn't working out?

 

[ban25]

Regarding the weight of the Sony units, I am curious how much of that is in the chassis. Some reviewers, and Sony's own marketing materials, have noted the chassis thickness and construction. From their website on the AZ7000ES:

The chassis of the ES model has been fundamentally revised: the overall thickness has been increased for improved rigidity, and the structures of the transformer base and other weight-bearing parts have also been redesigned to improve the instantaneous power and crispness of the sound, when compared to a conventional chassis.

If that chassis is steel, that could account for a considerable chunk of the overall mass of the AVR.

 

[kalexan9]

Implying that someone "quit" is completely unfair. The product didn't work as intended. There was nothing left to do. One of the most difficult things to do is to know when something isn't worth it. What is the definition of a fool? Someone who keeps doing the same thing and hoping for a different outcome? Not quitting would have been foolish.

You are correct. Looking back, my use of the word "quit" does actually imply something lazy or even negative and that is not what I had in mind when I was typing hours earlier, and just an unfortunate use of words on my part. My apologies to @mattsrs if it came across that way. Again, thanks to him for his review and warning to all about the potential setup bug we may encounter.

 

[joeblo]

I got my AZ5000es yesterday and was very excited to try it. That thing is heavy AF and because its the transformer that adds main heft, weight is lopsided so a bit of a hassle to carry. Once turned it on, didn't get anything on the TV screen but the display on the receiver showed please wait... which I think was doing some update ( I had LAN connected) and then turned off itself. After I turned on, I saw the "Game" input showing on the tv but didn't go to setup mode by default so had to click the button on the remote (which is extremely cheap and reminds me of Sony remotes from the 90s).

The "easy setup" process as you may have seen in the reviews is OK but the center channel bug that Andrew Robinson pointed out is still there. Basically at first measurement complains about something for center channel but if you keep clicking "retry" it will go through. Through the setup when asked I enabled all those spatial gimmicks. When setup finished, it showed a warning that measurements completed but noise was high and I may want to try again in a quite environment. What baffles me is that I did this in my basement and turned off AC, fridge and everything so it was as quiet as it gets at night. I ran the whole process again and it showed the same warning so I wonder if there's something wrong with the microphone. I tried the 3rd time and same warning so gave up and proceeded as this is just a warning not an error. Also, I checked to updated the firmware and it said it is up to date.

Now was time to see if this receiver is any good. Started with playing Spotify directly on the receiver (I know its not audiophile approved way of listening to music but good enough for the first try). The sound was terrible, muffled like a cheap headphone. I played with different sound modes but didn't help. Only in Pure Direct mode it sounded normal but even then, details and tonality was nowhere near my Denon 4800h. I then watched some movie scenes and Call of Duty. The 360SSM feature (which you can NOT enable in Dolby sound mode) makes the sound fuller in the room but it sounds too fake. It is hard to describe in words but the sound loses fidelity when you enable that mode. After this disappointing experience switched back to my 4800h and when you compare them back to back, there's massive difference in audio quality. I didn't bother doing REW on the Sony because it sounded so terrible but I am pretty sure the room correction is way inferior to Audyssey.

Overall, not impressed at all and going to pack today and return it. As someone mentioned above, it looks like they moved a lot of soundbar tech to this and they have not invested in proper room correction. The errors it gave throughout the setup and the noise error at the end added to the mediocre experience. Like I said even in Pure Direct mode (which should not be impacted by any warnings in room correction), it didn't sound as good as my Denon to me. Overall build quality (despite the heft), doesn't seem very solid on the exterior. Its all plastic. So yea thats my experience with this unit and hope Sony's return process is not painful.

So I received my AZ3000es yesterday as well and I completely agree with you. I had all kinds of issues. I currently have a new Yamaha RX-A6A that I have 2 more days to return if I want. After setting up the AZ3000es, had the same "black screen" issue where unit turns on but it just shows a black screen saying game. No auto set up like other receivers. So I press home and scroll thorough the settings just to see what's there before running auto calibration. First problem I saw was that "ZONE 2 is enabled and powered on out of the box". That made no sense to me at all. Turned that off and started watching tv. Sound was horrible. Sounded badly muffled and like the bass was completely maxed out. Then I did auto calibration. Went through with no errors. Completed the process and selected engineering type and saved. Started watching tv again. Still sounded really bad. Went in to settings to see what auto cal did and there's nothing there. So i redid calibration, same thing nothing there. I factory reset unit, powered off and redid. Same thing. Auto cal says it's saved and unit is calibrated but when you go into settings or try to use some features, it says you need to run auto cal. Now i call Sony. After an hour on the phone with the tech, he says I'm not sure what's going on it's definitely not correct. So he sends me to the higher support that handles just ES receivers. I tell him what's going on and he says wait, you have a new AZ ES receiver? Are you a dealer? I say no, I'm a regular customer. I told him i pre ordered on Sony website and received today. He says, that he's shocked i had it and that Sony tech support and dealers don't even have them yet and that they aren't being released yet for 2 more weeks. So he ran the the set up and some other things, did confirm that the unit is indeed not working properly. He did say again, that I shouldn't have the unit yet because they have not been released yet and as of right now there is no tech support for them yet and the Sony techs have not evaluated the units for real world issues yet. So unfortunately I will be returning the unit because there's clearly massive software and possible hardware issues with no time frame for a fix. If I hold on to the unit and wait for a fix, I'd miss the return window. Sony tech said they aren't being shipped to dealers until at least March 15th. You're not looking at a software update for at least a month. I really a shame because on paper it looks great and I have always like Sony products. The AZ3000es looks great, good build quality, fantastic warranty but clearly not ready to be released yet. Way to many issues right now. There were more issues I found that I didn't state here but I'm not going to write a book here. My unit was all steel frame. You said it was all plastic on the outside? Anyway, I'm returning and going back to the Yamaha RX-A6A.

 

[techsamurai]

So I received my AZ3000es yesterday as well and I completely agree with you. I had all kinds of issues. I currently have a new Yamaha RX-A6A that I have 2 more days to return if I want. After setting up the AZ3000es, had the same "black screen" issue where unit turns on but it just shows a black screen saying game. No auto set up like other receivers. So I press home and scroll thorough the settings just to see what's there before running auto calibration. First problem I saw was that "ZONE 2 is enabled and powered on out of the box". That made no sense to me at all. Turned that off and started watching tv. Sound was horrible. Sounded badly muffled and like the bass was completely maxed out. Then I did auto calibration. Went through with no errors. Completed the process and selected engineering type and saved. Started watching tv again. Still sounded really bad. Went in to settings to see what auto cal did and there's nothing there. So i redid calibration, same thing nothing there. I factory reset unit, powered off and redid. Same thing. Auto cal says it's saved and unit is calibrated but when you go into settings or try to use some features, it says you need to run auto cal. Now i call Sony. After an hour on the phone with the tech, he says I'm not sure what's going on it's definitely not correct. So he sends me to the higher support that handles just ES receivers. I tell him what's going on and he says wait, you have a new AZ ES receiver? Are you a dealer? I say no, I'm a regular customer. I told him i pre ordered on Sony website and received today. He says, that he's shocked i had it and that Sony tech support and dealers don't even have them yet and that they aren't being released yet for 2 more weeks. So he ran the the set up and some other things, did confirm that the unit is indeed not working properly. He did say again, that I shouldn't have the unit yet because they have not been released yet and as of right now there is no tech support for them yet and the Sony techs have not evaluated the units for real world issues yet. So unfortunately I will be returning the unit because there's clearly massive software and possible hardware issues with no time frame for a fix. If I hold on to the unit and wait for a fix, I'd miss the return window. Sony tech said they aren't being shipped to dealers until at least March 15th. You're not looking at a software update for at least a month. I really a shame because on paper it looks great and I have always like Sony products. The AZ3000es looks great, good build quality, fantastic warranty but clearly not ready to be released yet. Way to many issues right now. There were more issues I found that I didn't state here but I'm not going to write a book here. My unit was all steel frame. You said it was all plastic on the outside? Anyway, I'm returning and going back to the Yamaha RX-A6A.

wow, this review vindicated mattsrs 100% - this is very dramatic

When you say that the Sony tech support ran the set up and confirmed that the unit is not working properly, was that on your unit or did he an extra unit there?

 

[kalexan9]

So I received my AZ3000es yesterday as well and I completely agree with you. I had all kinds of issues. I currently have a new Yamaha RX-A6A that I have 2 more days to return if I want. After setting up the AZ3000es, had the same "black screen" issue where unit turns on but it just shows a black screen saying game. No auto set up like other receivers. So I press home and scroll thorough the settings just to see what's there before running auto calibration. First problem I saw was that "ZONE 2 is enabled and powered on out of the box". That made no sense to me at all. Turned that off and started watching tv. Sound was horrible. Sounded badly muffled and like the bass was completely maxed out. Then I did auto calibration. Went through with no errors. Completed the process and selected engineering type and saved. Started watching tv again. Still sounded really bad. Went in to settings to see what auto cal did and there's nothing there. So i redid calibration, same thing nothing there. I factory reset unit, powered off and redid. Same thing. Auto cal says it's saved and unit is calibrated but when you go into settings or try to use some features, it says you need to run auto cal. Now i call Sony. After an hour on the phone with the tech, he says I'm not sure what's going on it's definitely not correct. So he sends me to the higher support that handles just ES receivers. I tell him what's going on and he says wait, you have a new AZ ES receiver? Are you a dealer? I say no, I'm a regular customer. I told him i pre ordered on Sony website and received today. He says, that he's shocked i had it and that Sony tech support and dealers don't even have them yet and that they aren't being released yet for 2 more weeks. So he ran the the set up and some other things, did confirm that the unit is indeed not working properly. He did say again, that I shouldn't have the unit yet because they have not been released yet and as of right now there is no tech support for them yet and the Sony techs have not evaluated the units for real world issues yet. So unfortunately I will be returning the unit because there's clearly massive software and possible hardware issues with no time frame for a fix. If I hold on to the unit and wait for a fix, I'd miss the return window. Sony tech said they aren't being shipped to dealers until at least March 15th. You're not looking at a software update for at least a month. I really a shame because on paper it looks great and I have always like Sony products. The AZ3000es looks great, good build quality, fantastic warranty but clearly not ready to be released yet. Way to many issues right now. There were more issues I found that I didn't state here but I'm not going to write a book here. My unit was all steel frame. You said it was all plastic on the outside? Anyway, I'm returning and going back to the Yamaha RX-A6A.

Thanks for confirming @mattsrs evaluation. I wonder if this is an issue with the 3000/5000ES since the 7000ES has been reviewed online to be a top notch product.

 

[The Guy who cares]

So I received my AZ3000es yesterday as well and I completely agree with you. I had all kinds of issues. I currently have a new Yamaha RX-A6A that I have 2 more days to return if I want. After setting up the AZ3000es, had the same "black screen" issue where unit turns on but it just shows a black screen saying game. No auto set up like other receivers. So I press home and scroll thorough the settings just to see what's there before running auto calibration. First problem I saw was that "ZONE 2 is enabled and powered on out of the box". That made no sense to me at all. Turned that off and started watching tv. Sound was horrible. Sounded badly muffled and like the bass was completely maxed out. Then I did auto calibration. Went through with no errors. Completed the process and selected engineering type and saved. Started watching tv again. Still sounded really bad. Went in to settings to see what auto cal did and there's nothing there. So i redid calibration, same thing nothing there. I factory reset unit, powered off and redid. Same thing. Auto cal says it's saved and unit is calibrated but when you go into settings or try to use some features, it says you need to run auto cal. Now i call Sony. After an hour on the phone with the tech, he says I'm not sure what's going on it's definitely not correct. So he sends me to the higher support that handles just ES receivers. I tell him what's going on and he says wait, you have a new AZ ES receiver? Are you a dealer? I say no, I'm a regular customer. I told him i pre ordered on Sony website and received today. He says, that he's shocked i had it and that Sony tech support and dealers don't even have them yet and that they aren't being released yet for 2 more weeks. So he ran the the set up and some other things, did confirm that the unit is indeed not working properly. He did say again, that I shouldn't have the unit yet because they have not been released yet and as of right now there is no tech support for them yet and the Sony techs have not evaluated the units for real world issues yet. So unfortunately I will be returning the unit because there's clearly massive software and possible hardware issues with no time frame for a fix. If I hold on to the unit and wait for a fix, I'd miss the return window. Sony tech said they aren't being shipped to dealers until at least March 15th. You're not looking at a software update for at least a month. I really a shame because on paper it looks great and I have always like Sony products. The AZ3000es looks great, good build quality, fantastic warranty but clearly not ready to be released yet. Way to many issues right now. There were more issues I found that I didn't state here but I'm not going to write a book here. My unit was all steel frame. You said it was all plastic on the outside? Anyway, I'm returning and going back to the Yamaha RX-A6A.

Did you allow for a break in period. Some Recievers need up to a week. Leave it turned on 24 hrs for a week. Then try setting it up.

 

[joeblo]

wow, this review vindicated mattsrs 100% - this is very dramatic

When you say that the Sony tech support ran the set up and confirmed that the unit is not working properly, was that on your unit or did he an extra unit there?

Honestly I was shocked at this issues I was having. I love sony products. Maybe it's just my unit and maybe it's not. Even the tech was very surprised. So as far as the tech support, it was on my unit. We did it together twice and did 2 full factory resets. He said unfortunately I can't do it on my end as tech support does not have units available yet for tech support. I actually asked him to verify the latest software version but he couldn't because the support for the new ES recovers are in their system yet. Tech apologized that he could help me and basically told me you'll have to wait and you can give us a call back in a few weeks to see if we can determine if it's just a software issue or a bad unit.

 

[joeblo]

Did you allow for a break in period. Some Recievers need up to a week. Leave it turned on 24 hrs for a week. Then try setting it up.

So I have had this unit on since about 9 am yesterday. Left it on all night. Got up this morning, did a factory reset, unplugged for 30 min and set up again. Having same issues. Unfortunately I don't have a week to play with. I have to return my old receiver by tomorrow.
I have never had any issue even close to what is happening here with any other receiver. I've had sony/denon/Yamaha/onkyo. I don't think I should pay almost $2k to wait and see if it's going to work properly. I understand what you are saying about breaking the unit in but never had to do it before and shouldn't have to now.

 

[GXAlan]

No such thing as burn in for software problems.

If it is not saving your calibration settings, the memory chips could be corrupted. I am expecting a recall.

It might be worth running everything through the web interface if you haven’t given up in frustration. Push the IP button on your AVR and then open a web browser to that IP. You can run the full setup routine even from the web browser.

Maybe there was a bug in the final remote interface that isn’t a problem when going through the web interface.