Sony STR-AZ7000ES AVR Review

[respice finem]

Just my two cents: What may be acceptable in a 400 $ AVR, is not acceptable in one costing 10 times as much.

 

[lc6]

Now I have 2 Yamahas and both are very musical, and "Sound" quite good to me.

I think there is a bit of a expectation bias with some measurements, and many have not even heard an AVR, to make a qualified judgment on the audibility.

Same here. I have been using Yamaha AVRs for 27 years (tried a Denon for a few weeks, but had to return it, as its signal processing was buggy). An Audioholics bench test of the RX-A6A shows the SINAD at 2 V output is over 95 dB for the main LR channels and the A-weighted SNR 106 to 112 dB (straight and direct modes). It certainly is possible to get 15-20 dB more with separate components, but I doubt the difference would be reliably audible in blind tests.

 

[Wol-shiver]

Amir I have a complaint.

Why did you not update to the latest firmware, even if the release notes are minor?

 

[A Surfer]

Amir I have a complaint.

Why did you not update to the latest firmware, even if the release notes are minor?

Do you really think that would matter? Not a chance.

 

[Kiko1974]

One of the little annoyances that made me revert to stereo.

Same for me. After owning AVR's from 1997 to 2022, I went back to stereo.
Last AVR I owned was a Pioneer SC LX-76, the second top of the line on Pioneer's 2011/12 range (the SC LX-86 was the top of the line).
I used this Pioneer AVR for 10 years and when I had to move again of town because of job, I decided I was going back to stereo.
I got an inexpensive Marantz PM 6007, I was flat broke at the time. What a change It did to my music!
An inexpensive 600 € Watts literally trouncing an 1900 € AVR.
Last year I did some changes to my set up. Old Topping D50 DAC was gone, and in was an SMSL D400 PRO (It features the latest AKM chipset combo), and my ancient but well cared B&W DM601 from 1996 were gone too and in was a pair of KEF's Q550 speakers.
These changes made more of a difference to my stereo set up. They got the inexpensive Marantz PM 6007 sound even better.
I don't miss Home Theater at all, AVR's seems to do too many things, but none of them right when playing music

 

[xanalog]

I have a complaint.

Please wait for the next customer assistant!

 

[amirm]

Amir I have a complaint.

Why did you not update to the latest firmware, even if the release notes are minor?

I am in the midst of a major redo of my lab. The ethernet plug is buried behind cabinet. I tried to get wifi working on it but would not.

 

[Billy Budapest]

But it can't be the entire system because it was shown to work well with HDMI as long as the volume wasn't near max.

What was shown is that analog pure direct is bugged, and HDMI pure direct is bugged (buggered?) as well.

Either way, it sounds like a firmware issue.

 

[dlaloum]

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

It was around that time... but would need to research the timeline... gut feeling says it was during the early post Harman buy out period - when most of their range was still the true Lexicon stuff, but Harman influences were coming in.

But that might be rose coloured specs.... My Lexicon DC1 and MC1 were excellent at the time - and were reviewed and bench tested as being as good as then current SOTA DAC's.... I couldn't afford the upgrade to the subsequent MC12.

 

[Wol-shiver]

Do you really think that would matter? Not a chance.

I think a product should be tested in it's best version, with the most recent updates. It removes questions about the current state, and removes another variable.

Especially if we can be lead to believe that one portion of the system works well and not the other, and Amir calls out power limitations or nannies which can be in software.

I won't trouble shoot a 200 node VxRail stack for an issue resolved in a newer Hypervisor version when the customer tells me he's 12 version #s Behind.

 

[Billy Budapest]

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

The LexiCON occurred post-Harman. They dropped an Oppo BDP-83 into a fancier case, put a blue filter over the display, substituted Lexicon for all references to Oppo in the GUI, and jacked up the price by $3000. There is a little more to the story—evidently, Oppo did work with Lexicon engineers to address issues they found during testing. See here:

Lexicon BD-30 Blu-ray Player (Oppo BDP-83 Clone) Review

We discovered the Lexicon BD-30 is an Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray Player with a $3k premium. We prove this with pictures, measurements and an official response from THX. Lexicon no longer sells this product.

www.audioholics.com

 

[JDS]

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.

Of course this is correct. Several years ago I bought what I only later learned was a truly sub-par AVR (NAD 758) based on features, subjective reviews, and brand reputation -- the way most people do. I wasn't aware of this website then. (And to be fair, the NAD's Dirac Live is such a useful feature that it partially rescues the purchase.)

I know we are too small a tail of the market to have the clout to wag the AVR dog. But we can try, and my next AVR purchase will be much better informed.

 

[AndreaT]

Steer clear of AVRs. There must be a reason they cannot put together a DAC, a preamp section and an amplifier without messing up, but I wonder why. Is it because new gen do not listen to high quality sources, so even a failed design does have a market? Yes, this Sony sounds better than the iPhone or the BT boombox playing MP3s. Hardly a good investment though, considering that for the same $ I could set up an SMSL PL200, an Hypex Nilai 500 and a decent set of stereo speakers with some money to buy CDs. It is time for a willing company to review the whole blueprints for AVRs and come out with something worthwhile. Thank you Amir for showing beyond doubt why you shouldn’t trust brand names anymore.

 

[GXAlan]

The older flagship was the ZA (not the AZ) which hit 86 dB SINAD on my brief testing.

G

'Are Yamaha products more musical than Sony products? (Quick Measurements)'

Oct 14, 2022

Quick and simple comparison, where I'm just looking at two measurements from the pre-outs of two classic products in pure-direct modes

1) Sony STR-ZA5000ES
- Similar digital front end as the STR-Z1100ES tested here but with beefier amplifier section
- 90 dB ASR DAC SINAD on APx555

2) Yamaha CX-A5100
- Only Yamaha Dolby Atmos product without a major defect (compared to CX-A5200 and RX-A6A).
- 90 dB/95 dB Audioholics SINAD with XLR out on APx585


HDMI input of each respective processor/AVR
1 kHz test tone

1000 tone multitone

At least...

• GXAlan
• Replies: 10
• Forum: Home Theater AVR and Processor Review

• 

I will still say that it’s HDMI CEC is bullet proof reliable and I honestly enjoyed the sound. I set my parents up with it, and have not needed to provide any tech support.

I wonder if there is processing that cannot be turned off.

@amirm, was the AZ7000 running pure direct?

STR-AZ7000ES/STR-AZ5000ES/STR-AZ3000ES | Help Guide | Enjoying high-fidelity sound (Pure Direct)

 

[Redman43]

Thank you Amir for the measurements
Never been a fan of "home theater" thing nor understood it honestly but from what I can gather from my friends that are into that these kind of results are not that bad considering state of the AVR game. It just IS THIS BAD across the board more or less. But then again considering how many bad STEREO amps are out there making a great 5 or 10 channel amp together with processing requirements is likely much harder than many of us think. At least for SANE money that is

 

[JSmith]

these kind of results are not that bad

Ay?

JSmith

 

[respice finem]

>4000 $ for this is hardly "sane" money either...

 

[PJR918BMW]

Amir I have a complaint.

Why did you not update to the latest firmware, even if the release notes are minor?

Time . I would guess. Plus if the details say it's only minor alterations than that is all it should be - and irrelevant. If not that's Sony's problem...

 

[beagleman]

Thank you Amir for the measurements
Never been a fan of "home theater" thing nor understood it honestly but from what I can gather from my friends that are into that these kind of results are not that bad considering state of the AVR game. It just IS THIS BAD across the board more or less. But then again considering how many bad STEREO amps are out there making a great 5 or 10 channel amp together with processing requirements is likely much harder than many of us think. At least for SANE money that is

Your comment seems mostly for dramatic effect.

You do not "Understand home theater"?
Do you never watch TV or movies at home??

"This BAD", I question this comment as I highly doubt Without reading the results first you could even tell a difference in real listening.

Sadly I think your entire comment is indicative of the disconnect from measurements to "reality" I see at times in this forum.
Myself and several others DO OWN AVRs and do not have any audible issues using them, and most of us also have very high quality 2 channel stuff, so we are not living in an AVR world Vacuum.

 

[Oddball]

Steer clear of AVRs. There must be a reason they cannot put together a DAC, a preamp section and an amplifier without messing up, but I wonder why. Is it because new gen do not listen to high quality sources, so even a failed design does have a market? Yes, this Sony sounds better than the iPhone or the BT boombox playing MP3s. Hardly a good investment though, considering that for the same $ I could set up an SMSL PL200, an Hypex Nilai 500 and a decent set of stereo speakers with some money to buy CDs. It is time for a willing company to review the whole blueprints for AVRs and come out with something worthwhile. Thank you Amir for showing beyond doubt why you shouldn’t trust brand names anymore.

Not all AVRs are made the same. In this price range look up Marantz C30 or Denon 6800H that perform well. As noted, lower SINAD is generally acceptable for AVRs as you do have multiple channels and focus is not the same as for 2 channel audio, plus most soundtracks are not really that great to start with. Not excuse and AVRs should still be judged on merits of their performance.

I sometimes feel compelled to responsibly turn off my 11 amps and not pollute the environment as my TV can actually do a solid job reproducing lots of soundtracks.

Not sure how can you actually steer away from AVRs if you want to listen to multi-channel content? If you meant going for AVPs that pack less in the box, that is not really how it works. You could not tell AV-10 from C30 even if you tried really hard.