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

[Eric Natural]

... Best option is probably to continue to enjoy the 3100ES which is performing well ...

Filed under the category of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
If you're getting satisfactory-sounding movies & music with your unit; there's no need to upgrade. My previous Sony(DA2100ES) was a generation or two behind yours and still sounded strong until I felt we needed the Atmos here. For me; the DSP in the new one really opened-up the room even w/just 5.1 channels. I'm nearly a year using the AZ1000 and continue to be impressed.
Best of Luck

 

[Mustang]

Filed under the category of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
If you're getting satisfactory-sounding movies & music with your unit; there's no need to upgrade. My previous Sony(DA2100ES) was a generation or two behind yours and still sounded strong until I felt we needed the Atmos here. For me; the DSP in the new one really opened-up the room even w/just 5.1 channels. I'm nearly a year using the AZ1000 and continue to be impressed.
Best of Luck

Thanks for sharing. Do you feel it's the 360 or the Dolby Surround upmix that is making it more immersive?

 

[Eric Natural]

‘Stang - I think it’s the room correction that’s made the diff.

 

[Mr. Widget]

‘Stang - I think it’s the room correction that’s made the diff.

Probably true.

Running the software a few times you will likely get slightly different results each time and may prefer one result over the others... I am disappointed that it is 100% automated and there is zero ability to make any manual adjustments.

 

[Nak582]

Imagine you are buying an AVR for your elderly parents/in-laws or less technical family that lives far away. They have good enough ears to not want a sound bar, and already have pre-existing speakers that are respectable. What AVR would you buy that just works and performs as reliably as a Sonos soundbar? That’s the Sony.

A lot of home integrators like it, not because the sound is amazing but because you can set it at forget it. I would say it’s reliability is a step up from Marantz, Denon, and Yamaha having owned all of them. I’m perfectly fine running the HTP-1 or tweaking my Trinnov, but my parents are running the Sony I set up for them which is still going strong.

I had the ZA5000ES and moved to a Yamaha Cx-A5100 then a HTP-1 and then a Trinnov. The previous gen Sony did such a great job that I would still stay that the extra $$$$$ is still only a 25% upgrade. I can imagine the AZ5000 and AZ7000 really being spectacular *as long as* your setup isn’t affected by the hiss. Only way to know is to buy it from a place that allows returns/in home trials.

 

[familybezerker]

I'm looking at the Sony STR-AZ5000ES and am interested in the dual center but I want to preserve 4 heights. Does anyone know if dual center is possible with 5.1.4? Is it possible with 7.1.4 and an external 2 channel amp?

What is actually happening with dual center? Is it just outputting the same signal twice with volume balance or is there some more complicated DSP going on in there? How do the two center pre outs work? Do they sent the volume adjusted center output signals even if Height 2 is not used as a dual center?

 

[Andysu]

I'm looking at the Sony STR-AZ5000ES and am interested in the dual center but I want to preserve 4 heights. Does anyone know if dual center is possible with 5.1.4? Is it possible with 7.1.4 and an external 2 channel amp?

What is actually happening with dual center? Is it just outputting the same signal twice with volume balance or is there some more complicated DSP going on in there? How do the two center pre outs work? Do they sent the volume adjusted center output signals even if Height 2 is not used as a dual center?

none avr can do five screen wide , L Lc C Rc R or mono mixes with five screen spread super mono , Lm Lcm Cm Rcm Rm with sub bass extension
or the dream is alive , L C upper C R , but if you ain't using JBL motion picture loudspeakers , the sound in the room will not sound the same as heard in small size auditorium or boothless auditorium

 

[Magnus]

none avr can do five screen wide , L Lc C Rc R or mono mixes with five screen spread super mono , Lm Lcm Cm Rcm Rm with sub bass extension
or the dream is alive , L C upper C R , but if you ain't using JBL motion picture loudspeakers , the sound in the room will not sound the same as heard in small size auditorium or boothless auditorium

WTF are you talking about? He asked about dual center, not center screen.....

Dual Center outputs two center channels (one above and one below) to make the sound seem like it's coming from your screen when you can't use an audible transparent screen. It uses separate delays and EQ, but the same center channel output to make the effect work. Yamaha has had this for over 20 years using a center channel plus two front height (presence) channels (phantom center and raised left/right mains). It sounded fantastic with the Yamaha here on my 2006 model AVR to come from my 92" non-acoustically transparent screen, let alone a separate center height speaker.

 

[dlaloum]

WTF are you talking about? He asked about dual center, not center screen.....

Dual Center outputs two center channels (one above and one below) to make the sound seem like it's coming from your screen when you can't use an audible transparent screen. It uses separate delays and EQ, but the same center channel output to make the effect work. Yamaha has had this for over 20 years using a center channel plus two front height (presence) channels (phantom center and raised left/right mains). It sounded fantastic with the Yamaha here on my 2006 model AVR to come from my 92" non-acoustically transparent screen, let alone a separate center height speaker.

A feature that really should spread and become standard as screens are getting larger!

 

[Omar]

I'm looking at the Sony STR-AZ5000ES and am interested in the dual center but I want to preserve 4 heights. Does anyone know if dual center is possible with 5.1.4? Is it possible with 7.1.4 and an external 2 channel amp?

What is actually happening with dual center? Is it just outputting the same signal twice with volume balance or is there some more complicated DSP going on in there? How do the two center pre outs work? Do they sent the volume adjusted center output signals even if Height 2 is not used as a dual center?

Dual center is not possible with my 5.1.4 setup with the 7000 ES and bi amped mains, I am also running a Zone 2 pair of speakers.

I would venture dual center is possible on a 5000 ES with a 5.1.4 setup.

I cannot speak to adding external amps to expand beyond 11 or 13 channels.

 

[BrilloAD]

I’m interested in upgrading my old Sony 1080 to one of the new Sony units. I only need 5.1.2. Does the 1000 ES have the ability to drive 4ohm like the 3000 and up or is the power unit the same as the STR-AN1000 regular receiver?

I’m trying to decide if I need the 3000 to handle harder to drive speakers. Prepouts are not an issue.

 

[KING DRANZER]

Has STR-AZ5000ES or STR-AZ7000ES been reviewed by Amirm yet. If not I am surprised as it been 2Yrs now. Or is a review in the pipeline and to be out soon.

 

[kyuu]

Review can't happen unless someone sends one to Amir.

 

[KING DRANZER]

Review can't happen unless someone sends one to Amir.

Ah in all this time I am surprised that no one sent it to Amir yet.

 

[Tenet]

I recently bought the AZ7000ES for my first home theater system. Overall, I'm enjoying it so far. One weakness, though, is the lack of a robust EQ system. What would people recommend for adding an EQ? Something simple comes to mind, like a Wiim. I'm just beginning to research miniDSPs, so I'm not sure if they're significantly better. Is anyone using either of these with their AZ7000ES?

 

[antcollinet]

I recently bought the AZ7000ES for my first home theater system. Overall, I'm enjoying it so far. One weakness, though, is the lack of a robust EQ system. What would people recommend for adding an EQ? Something simple comes to mind, like a Wiim. I'm just beginning to research miniDSPs, so I'm not sure if they're significantly better. Is anyone using either of these with their AZ7000ES?

For home theater - you can't do any external EQ unless you are using pre-outs to EQ to external amps. Because it has to be applied after surround decoding which is done inside the AVR.

For stereo you could do it in something like a Mini DSP, and then just send the stereo signal to the AVR for amplification.

 

[Tenet]

For home theater - you can't do any external EQ unless you are using pre-outs to EQ to external amps. Because it has to be applied after surround decoding which is done inside the AVR.

For stereo you could do it in something like a Mini DSP, and then just send the stereo signal to the AVR for amplification.

Oh, I see. TIL -- appreciate it.

 

[kyuu]

Theoretically you could do it with something like the MiniDSP Flex HT. Feed all your sources to the TV, have it output linear PCM via HDMI eARC to the Flex, apply Dirac or manual EQ, and the feed the channels in to the AVR via analog for amplification. That's expensive and pretty suboptimal compared to just getting an AVR with a decent room correction system built in, though.

 

[antcollinet]

Theoretically you could do it with something like the MiniDSP Flex HT. Feed all your sources to the TV, have it output linear PCM via HDMI eARC to the Flex, apply Dirac or manual EQ, and the feed the channels in to the AVR via analog for amplification. That's expensive and pretty suboptimal compared to just getting an AVR with a decent room correction system built in, though.

The AVR (like most modern AVRs) doesn't have multichannel analogue in.

Plus even if it did, there could be no object based sound (eg Atmos) that way.

 

[Mr. Widget]

I recently bought the AZ7000ES for my first home theater system. Overall, I'm enjoying it so far. One weakness, though, is the lack of a robust EQ system. What would people recommend for adding an EQ? Something simple comes to mind, like a Wiim. I'm just beginning to research miniDSPs, so I'm not sure if they're significantly better. Is anyone using either of these with their AZ7000ES?

The current line of Sony AVRs are quite nice, but their lack of user accessible DSP makes them unnecessarily limited in my opinion. That said, I guess most users don't find that a show stopper. Personally I have found it beneficial to use the internal DSP of every AVR or surround processor I have ever used.