Sony STR-AZ7000ES AVR Review

[milosz]

48 lb is NOT heavy. You need to hit the gym more often.

 

[somebodyelse]

Lexicon did a very good job... then got bought out by Harman....

Was the buy-out before or after they got caught sticking a much cheaper Oppo player in a pretty case?

 

[beagleman]

Seems like AVR's continue to be the weak link in audio.

Not so sure I agree totally.

Yes I used to be an Anti-AVR guy before, until I purchased 2 Yamaha (used) models from maybe 10 years ago.

Measurements only tell half the story, as I was truly unable to find ANY of their "Serious limitations" over the last few years of usage, even compared to my separate components.
The limitations may be audible to some degree, but not EASILY audible enough that one could simply know from even an extended listening session.

I get its "Cool" to bash on most AVRs and measurement wise many do appear not up to par.

To me the Golden Ticket is when something is audibly bad, AND I can relate why, with a mediocre measurement to back up my subjective thoughts.

Some in here seem to have it the other way around, and leave out the listening part of the equation. BOTH matter in reality.

 

[Oddball]

Obviously the Sony did not do well on the bench and is not a product that one would necessarily want in most circumstances.

I never heard the new ES series but lots of people on various forums like the way they sound. Their room correction is imbecile proof and not very adjustable, but looks like it is (somehow) doing the job. Pretty sure would not do a good job for me, but then this is aimed at different market. They also have 3D correction that apparently works if your speakers are not in the right positions.

I would be interested in some feedback with respect to performance their room correction system. Often think that D&M have made it really complicated to get decent sound out of the box, which is apparently what Sony does well. Not everyone wants to log to forums to get instructions how to make the thing work well.

 

[A Surfer]

48 pounds is not too heavy. I think my NAD M3 was closer to 75 pounds. Think of it as muscal skeletal strength development! Our agrarian forebarers must be rolling in their graves now.

 

[Sono]

[...] that is heavy. So much that I could not bear rotating it to show a picture of the back side. Here is the stock image:

What a pity, as we can’t admire the neat »Made in Malaysia« line printed on the real thing that way

 

[Koeitje]

4K and it can't even do Redbook audio...what a joke.

 

[beagleman]

4K and it can't even do Redbook audio...what a joke.

Can you explain how you came to that conclusion?

 

[aagstn]

The AVR. Jack of all trades, master of none. Still, this seems even worse than most and at a price that is quite high.

 

[kyuu]

Asides from the weird behavior that smells of a firmware issue, the performance of this is actually pretty good. Mid-eighties SINAD out of the speaker terminals is well into "more than good enough" territory, particularly since it seems to be distortion-limited. SNR nearly hits 16-bits at 5W. Plenty of power.

Granted, $4k is way more than one should need to spend for that level of performance, and it's still an ungainly brick with way too many analog inputs and overall design that is definitely stuck in the '90s. But if you don't mind a giant brick of an AVR and prefer Sony's features to Denon/Marantz, it's not a bad option (at least if they fix that bug).

 

[JDS]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Sony STR-AZ7000ES Audio/Video Home Theater Receiver. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $4,199.
View attachment 478234
The unit was easy to navigate through front panel controls (didn't use the remote). Can't say the same about transporting it as weighs a ton! OK, it is $48 pounds but for me, that is heavy. So much that I could not bear rotating it to show a picture of the back side. Here is the stock image:
View attachment 478235

I focused my testing on Front Left and Right channels. Used the pre-out for DAC measurements and speaker terminals for the amplifier. I reset the unit to factory. Firmware revision was 1.44 I think with the latest being a couple minor ones later.

Sony STR-AZ7000ES Measurements
I connected using HDMI and tried to set the output to 2 volt. I say "try" as there seemed to be a ghost in the machine. I would set the output to 2 volt, only to have it drop down. I would turn up the volume, and the cycle would repeat. I power cycled and this got me closer to the first setting but then the cycle started again. I quickly grabbed a snapshot:
View attachment 478236

This ranks the Sony in our poor category:
View attachment 478237

I went to run the frequency response, only to fail at that for the same reason:
View attachment 478238

I ran one more test and then gave up on the DAC testing:
View attachment 478239
There is a glitch visible around 0.7 volt which is likely due to same level shifting.

I tested the amplifier with analog CD input and same problem existed. I switched to HDMI, and strangely and fortunately, it resolved the problem! So here is that dashboard:
View attachment 478241

The amplifier is good for the class:

View attachment 478242

Good and very good is the adjective for the rest of the tests:
View attachment 478243
It was strange to not see higher than 98 dB SNR. Usually that scales a lot more with output power (really voltage).

We are dealing with class AB amp so no load dependency:
View attachment 478244

Intermodulation results are very good:
View attachment 478245

This is a powerful amplifier when driven in stereo:
View attachment 478246

View attachment 478247

View attachment 478248

Yet another very strange response:
View attachment 478249

How could a sine impulse on the right produce so little power? Some kind of amplifier limiter protection setting in? I repeated that test and regardless of volume control setting, it would just show that 3.5 watts.

The transfer function is very unique:
View attachment 478250

Distortion at higher frequencies sets in very early. And noise floor increases at 15 kHz+.

Finally, there is likely an audible pop on power off:
View attachment 478251

Power on also exceeds my 1 mv target.

Conclusions
There are some serious bugs in this Sony. And they are the type that require instrumentation to find so likely poor owners don't know about them. The last Sony ES AVR did well. I don't know how the company has gone backwards and introducing such odd behavior.

The only bright light is the amplifier. Oh wait, it too had that odd peak response.

I can't recommend the Sony STR-AZ7000ES AVR. You will break your back getting it inside your home, and then again back out should you discover what I found.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/

Unlike most of the electronics that Amir tests, AVRs remain a problematic category, with poor performance all too common. So it is good to see more AVR tests, even if the results remain mostly disappointing. Eventually, maybe we can shame these companies into fixing these problems and offering a few reasonably priced receivers that aren't shamed by cheap Chinese DACs and amps.

 

[trevor_bartram]

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!

 

[beagleman]

Unlike most of the electronics that Amir tests, AVRs remain a problematic category, with poor performance all too common. So it is good to see more AVR tests, even if the results remain mostly disappointing. Eventually, maybe we can shame these companies into fixing these problems and offering a few reasonably priced receivers that aren't shamed by cheap Chinese DACs and amps.

Im not defending mediocre measurements, but do you ever ponder WHY most AVRs measure this way?
Some will claim cost savings, which could be part of it?
Or have they determined going better results in no more actual sells, and the 90% of customers would not audibly hear a difference?

Simply saying they measure not so great over and over will not determine the how, what why and where of this.

I have read on other forums, where some believe, the complexity of many components internally interfere with each other, and if separated, they would behave differently, but have no concrete evidence of this.

 

[kyuu]

I have read on other forums, where some believe, the complexity of many components internally interfere with each other, and if separated, they would behave differently, but have no concrete evidence of this.

This is certainly true. There's also the processing for Dolby/DTS and other features which degrade SINAD and over which the AVR manufacturers have no control. Given what these boxes do, getting 80+ SINAD out the speaker terminals probably requires a lot of work on its own. Luckily, unless the noise level is overly high that's more than adequate to ensure it is audibly transparent. For those who plan to use external amplification it might be nice to have a DAC section that performs a little better, sure, but that's a minority and generally the performance of the DAC section only needs to not be a bottleneck for the amp section (and Sony seems to have achieved that here, if only just barely).

The whole rigamarole with AVRs (which aren't clearly broken or perform overly poorly, of course) is one area where I think the Cult of the SINAD does go a little too far here at ASR where every single AVR is declared to be garbage.

 

[respice finem]

I sometimes think (as a non-engineer, just an informed layman), it would be better to have less models issued, but more "ripe" ones.
The "banana principle" seems to rule (it ripes at the customer), it sometimes will, but sometimes not.
In expensive equipment it's hard for me to accept.

 

[Chromatischism]

Voted “not terrible” as the amplifier performance is pretty good while the DAC is a massive fail with these bugs.

The issue did not appear with HDMI so I'm not sure it's as simple as pointing to the DAC.

Seems like AVR's continue to be the weak link in audio.

Imagine paying upwards of $4k for this thing, putting on the weight belt, and shlepping it home from Best Buy, hooking it up and having the vague impression that everything up top seems a little dead and closed in. If you don't know how to run Amir's test, do you just live with this compromised level of performance? Or do you notice that when things hit a peak, everything just shuts down. Maybe that's the best feature of this thing. That peak output at least tells the naive buyer this thing is not performing up to snuff, necessitating he put the weight belt back on and take it to the "service desk" at Best Buy.

At least no one uses these in analog Pure Direct, which is a marketing gimmick.

The average user will likely not have any issues with this AVR.

Now I'm not making excuses—I believe the product should be finished and problem-free as a matter of principle. But again, analog Pure Direct and peak power and not things normal users will ever use, so I would not expect a high rate of dissatisfaction or returns due to this.

With that said, I've been using Denon since the beginning of my audio journey in 2008. I've seen lots of brands and hype on forums over the years. A couple of times I tried something different and got an Onkyo and a NAD before going back to Denon. I'm not seeing a reason to change that anytime soon.

 

[PristineSound]

Good lord, you are on a roll these Amir. This has not been a good day for home theatre manufacturers.

 

[ChrisHeinonen]

When I was reviewing mainstream AVRs for Wirecutter and testing them on the Audio Precision (they were a mile from my house, so easy to borrow one from them), the Sony's always had this frequency response issue so I always refused to recommend them because of that. I never tested the ES models, but it looks like they all have the issue.

 

[SuicideSquid]

Not a great showing overall, and jesus what an ugly receiver. At least hide all those buttons behind a flip-down panel like Denon does.

 

[lc6]

@amirm Thank you so much for going through the pain (literally and figuratively) of reviewing this AVR! I recommend that going forward you use a back brace to support your lower back when dealing with such heavy equipment. There are plenty to choose from on Amazon in the $20-50 range. I use one regularly when lifting and positioning hefty pieces of electronics and tower speakers.