Sony STR-AZ7000ES AVR Review

[Descartes]

The Sony ES line used to mean something better in quality!
Still have a Sony SCD-X777ES SACD player and that thing is built like a tank and sounds great

 

[Billy Budapest]

I just finished reading the entire thread, and I only want to post for that rare person who may have found this thread when searching for reviews of the STR7000.

I am clearly biased as I own one so right there most folks here can ignore my subjective view and just post that subjective reviews on the internet are worthless.

Anyways, let me cut to the chase and save folks from reading what is sure to be a lengthy post by summarizing my thoughts.

I currently own an Onkyo TX-NR7000, a Sony STRAZ7000, and an Anthem AV90 running on Outlaw monoblocks. I have found the Sony 360SSM room correction to produce the best Atmos effects and prefer to watch movies with my Sony vs my Anthem. Also, I have never heard any distortion or had the system clip and I have played all my systems at mid 90 dB levels.


I appreciate the fact that this website is called Audio Science Review and as such Amir provides reviews that have measurable data. As such I am of the opinion that most people who participate here hold their equipment to higher standards then the average consumer. To wit I would point to the poll I ran on "Diminishing Returns" both here and on another forum. Here roughly 40% of the folks said one must spend over $5k to get a speaker that in most cases represents the Law of Diminishing Returns and on another forum it was closer to 10%.

As part of my learning process that started here I also paid for a comparison of Ascend Acoustic speakers against KEF Blades 2s. What I learned was that some folks did believe they could hear a difference between $4k speakers and $28k speakers, but no one felt the differences warranted the price difference, and furthermore there was more than one reviewer that expressed this opinion that was forwarded to me:



I bought the Sony because I wanted to try 7.4.6 and there were scant AVRs that had the ability to handle that many speakers. At the time it was on sale for $2999 as well. Also, using Sony's 360 SSM is almost trivial, but getting the room correction setup on the Anthem was, in comparison, a complete bear and not something I would anticipate the average consumer would undertake. With the Sony and the Anthem I could turn the correction off and on. The Sony 360 SSM simply creates more of that bubble of sound. The Anthem makes the helicopters fly over head very convincingly, but when the Cornish pixies are released in the room at Hogwarts Sony's 360 SSM makes them fly around the room and the Anthem puts them overhead. Lastly I would just say that so far I have come to believe that the vast majority of people over 40 can not hear sounds above 16kHz. Yes, I know many on here can, but as I said I do not believe that is the norm. I believe so not only because of the literature I have found online, but also because I have been running informal listening tests at home almost every time friends or family come over, and it is surprising how few folks hear anything above 10kHz. Even my kids young friends often can't here the higher pitched sounds.

So . . . who is the buyer of this and who would vote this as a Golf Partner . . . I would. I wouldn't pay the current list though; instead I would likely buy the 5000.

If the az7000 goes on sale at $2999 again, it would be an instant purchase for me. I’d then sell my za5000, or at least try to. I also have a za810, and the za5000 could take its place. Then I’d probably give the za810 to a relative.

 

[Power Pop 23]

As noted in the link in the thread referenced below,

Sony has sold a 51 percent controlling interest in their home audio business to TCL.

The video business is slowly dying

Over the years more and more brands are selling off or shutting down their video business, from beloved Oppo Digital, to Toshiba, JVC, Sharp, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, so on and so forth. Now Sony. This is a very competitive market. Hisense and TCL now are dominating the market due to consumer...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[aagstn]

I saw this story and it is disappointing to see Sony effectively leaving the space. Yes, they have interest in what TCL will be releasing but the ES quality of old will never be seen again. I also think Sony is being short sighted. They are giving a Chinese company more power and control and who says TCL or another Chinese company won't come after their camera sensor business next. So many of these former Japanese giants sold out to Chinese companies and our options for quality home audio products has diminished greatly.

 

[Power Pop 23]

I saw this story and it is disappointing to see Sony effectively leaving the space. Yes, they have interest in what TCL will be releasing but the ES quality of old will never be seen again. I also think Sony is being short sighted. They are giving a Chinese company more power and control and who says TCL or another Chinese company won't come after their camera sensor business next. So many of these former Japanese giants sold out to Chinese companies and our options for quality home audio products has diminished greatly.

As I noted in a posting to the referenced thread,

Choosing to buy a 51 percent controlling interest does not inspire confidence that TCL intends to invest capital to 'grow' revenue from the Sony brand of TV's and home audio.

I recall a breakout of revenue from Sony from a few years ago that indicated their gaming division and the camera sensor division were the largest contributors to profits at Sony.

I don't know but Sony shareholders may be the happiest of all stake holders by this announcement.

 

[Oddball]

It does not necessarily mean that TCL will have control with 51%. JVs are complicated things and have seen such JVs that were essentially really 50-50 vote, 51-49 economics, or even 60-40 economics. "Minority" can have consent rights over a long list of items that effectively takes it to 50-50 vote. One of the items that is usually part of the deal would be budget that would indicate how much would be allocated to specific product lines, including home audio. Budget would usually require consent of "minority" in case of change.

This is just MOU and they target to draft final docs by March - which might or might not eventually happen. We will need to see details once and if available. Both Chinese and Japanese are not that transparent, so we might not know the full picture even after that.

If there would be dealings between TCL and Sony directly, or each of them with the JV - such as panel sales or technology licensing - that should generally be done on fully commercial basis as they will remain independent entities with different shareholder structure. JV might not own Sony IP, but just license it and will most likely be buying panels from TCL.

This is definitely a new chapter, but does not mean that Sony has completely pulled out from the home entertainment business, at least not yet. It might be the first step though.

 

[Miker 1102]

I guess I'll stick with my two STR-DH520s until the're pulled from cold dead hands. Why two? two separate systems & I didn't want different remotes & setup menus! Both cost $100, one from the Sony outlet, one Ebay used. Cheers!

I used the 790. Honestly, It sounded great and it was like 300 bucks.