Sony STR-AZ7000ES AVR Review

[smygolf]

Thanks for the testing on this Amir and to the member for sending same. A shame it's a bit of a fail...

Pics;

View attachment 478252

View attachment 478253


JSmith

Are there ny revision changes or such, internals on the pics are not the same

 

[French Meloman]

Another expensive AVR with risky and mediocre performance that brings shame to SONY. Furthermore, I feel that it is complicated to operate and/or adjust by the user, which makes the device all the less recommendable. In any case, thanks to Amir for taking the time to test these bulky (and useless?) machines.

 

[Koeitje]

Can you explain how you came to that conclusion?

It's missing half a dB of dynamic range. Inaudible, but I expect a $4200 piece of kit to be able to reproduce a 45 year old standard flawlessly. Maybe I'm asking too much of an amplifier these days.

 

[JSmith]

Are there ny revision changes or such, internals on the pics are not the same

2nd pic is pre-production, 1st is retail production.


JSmith

 

[smygolf]

2nd pic is pre-production, 1st is retail production.


JSmith

Thank you

 

[beagleman]

I do watch movies and series at home and love them. What I don't love, need or have any use for is 10 speakers around my home with wires and subwoofers just to hear a something sound "from behind my back."
It's a gimmick made to separate people like you from your money

I have 2 AVRs, used in 2 different TV rooms, mostly for everyday TV and on occasion movies, but neither of mine are set up like a theatre.

I use on both, 3.1 set ups with Front, Center, Right speakers and subs.
I mostly love the control of the remote for sound, and access to the fantastic EQ on my one Yamaha, and how good it makes TV sound overall. I do tons of Youtube watching and so on, so not really a big "Home Theatre" person per se.

One set up I listen to a lot of Spotify classical music, and appreciate all the control the better Yamaha gives me over sound set up etc.

My "True" Hi-Fi set up is still set up in basement, but I rarely use it now, due to mostly inconvenience as it only does CD.

 

[beagleman]

It's missing half a dB of dynamic range. Inaudible, but I expect a $4200 piece of kit to be able to reproduce a 45 year old standard flawlessly. Maybe I'm asking too much of an amplifier these days.

Honestly, I think in my 'old" age, I am simply less concerned with things that I USED to be very concerned with.

If it sounds good and is close enough, that is all that matters now. Although I do get "Chasing" numbers, as in my teens and 20s I was VERY concerned with Specs, but just gradually came to care less and less, when I realized audibly many made no real difference.

 

[Redman43]

Stereo is a gimmick to separate people from their money. You get sound just fine out of one speaker, right?

And manufacturers of all useless cr**p out there are overcome with joy from your post. They will enjoy great vacation next year thanks to you. In the meantime you can continue to slave for a wage and spend it on "monster cables"

 

[kyuu]

And manufacturers of all useless cr**p out there are overcome with joy from your post. They will enjoy great vacation next year thanks to you. In the meantime you can continue to slave for a wage and spend it on "monster cables"

I think you are extremely confused.

 

[Oddball]

I think you are extremely confused.

Buying cables around here is not a big thing. We do like the fully functioning cables and then some of us like the looks - but nothing to be confused to expecting a higher performance from such lookie-lookie cables. In my case would not call it audio jewellery, but yeah, like more imposing cables then it would be required.

 

[Dougey_Jones]

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

My nine year old x3700h can hit -100db SINAD if you get the volume just right and disable the front amps and use it as an AVP. Pretty damn impressive to me. My stereo only setup features an Adcom GFP750 which may or may not bench well, and my Apollon amps which benched very well and were reviewed by Amir.

Not sure what the deal is with the AVR hate, Denon at least has held up their end of the bargain, IMO.

 

[Talisman]

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.

I can give the exact opposite advice.
I replaced the entire set of separate components I had with a Denon AVC X3800H. I paid less than €800 new on sale.
Now I have 13 channels, a DAC, 4K video processing, Bluetooth, a streamer, room correction, multi-sub management, a myriad of inputs and sound management options. The lost SNAD points aren't noticeable, but the features gained make a huge difference.
Find a decent AVR and enjoy the music and convenience of having everything in one.

 

[EWL5]

I can give the exact opposite advice.
I replaced the entire set of separate components I had with a Denon AVC X3800H. I paid less than €800 new on sale.
Now I have 13 channels, a DAC, 4K video processing, Bluetooth, a streamer, room correction, multi-sub management, a myriad of inputs and sound management options. The lost SNAD points aren't noticeable, but the features gained make a huge difference.
Find a decent AVR and enjoy the music and convenience of having everything in one.

Yeah, the 3800 isn't a secret anymore for "best bang for your buck"!

The fact that it performs with these $4k bozos is just icing on the cake! I'm waiting for a review on that new AMP-8 as that could move my 3800 to prepro duties!

 

[beagleman]

I can give the exact opposite advice.
I replaced the entire set of separate components I had with a Denon AVC X3800H. I paid less than €800 new on sale.
Now I have 13 channels, a DAC, 4K video processing, Bluetooth, a streamer, room correction, multi-sub management, a myriad of inputs and sound management options. The lost SNAD points aren't noticeable, but the features gained make a huge difference.
Find a decent AVR and enjoy the music and convenience of having everything in one.

I have said this before, and still holds true.

The convenience, features, remote, and just overall "ability" of my AVR experiences, never leave me wanting for more, feature or sound wise.

Sure, I of course realize separates can measure better in some metrics, But, I am able to tailor my AVRs to often create a slightly better real world usage sound in my room, compared to my separates.

The parametric multi-channel eq, and even multi band parametric EQ for the sub channel, and crossover frequencies for all channels, just add a ton of flexibility

I think I can enjoy sound better on my AVRs due to the flexibility of the sound adjustments, although my separates may be technically "Better" they lack the ability to do anything to make it integrate to my room, or music sources, and give I guess VERY neutral sound, but nothing else.

 

[SKBubba]

I'm very happy (knock on wood) with my Denon AVR-X3600H that I bought new in sealed box for about $800 after the 3700 came out. At the time, it was one of only two remaining in stock that I could find anywhere on the internet.

 

[Palladium]

And, interestingly, even the "big name" manufacturers don't seem to be able to do better.
Maybe until a less big name company comes and does better...

This probably get outsold by like 1000:1 by their own ANC headphones so I can totally imagine phoning it in.

 

[Koeitje]

Honestly, I think in my 'old" age, I am simply less concerned with things that I USED to be very concerned with.

If it sounds good and is close enough, that is all that matters now. Although I do get "Chasing" numbers, as in my teens and 20s I was VERY concerned with Specs, but just gradually came to care less and less, when I realized audibly many made no real difference.

If it wasn't $4200 I'd agree with you.

 

[jmdesignz2]

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.
------------
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/

Wow. Thats sad

What’s the best tested AVR so far that’s under $1k?

 

[aagstn]

My nine year old x3700h can hit -100db SINAD if you get the volume just right and disable the front amps and use it as an AVP. Pretty damn impressive to me. My stereo only setup features an Adcom GFP750 which may or may not bench well, and my Apollon amps which benched very well and were reviewed by Amir.

Not sure what the deal is with the AVR hate, Denon at least has held up their end of the bargain, IMO.

I have an AVR and enjoy it. I think it was the performance of the last two reviewed at very high prices that confused me. You would think when you get to the 4 and 5 thousand dollar level noise and distortion would be a non factor. Especially when more affordable units from Denon and Yamaha have achieved it for years.

 

[GXAlan]

Missed that! Looks like it hits 92 dB at 1V, so maybe the internal amps are decent gain?

The AZ7000’s can be found from factory refurbished for $2500 which seems like a different consideration. It’s not clear if it’s 100% Sony refurb, but the shipping address you buy it from is exactly the same shipping address that you ship your Sony ES gear to when it’s under warranty.

I wish we saw better performance, for sure. That said, the Sony ES receivers seem to be truly bulletproof in terms of reliability and HDMI CEC. It’s probably my go-to for a receiver that I am setting up for someone else.