Price Paid:  $475.00 from e-bay

Summary:
I was a winning bidder for this unit on E-Bay. I won it for $350.00 and I had to repair it for another $107.00. I have a Denon 2803 that I was using. I exchanged the receivers after the repairs were complete. I was truely amazed at the difference in sound quality. This receiver just made my old Paradigm speaker system breath new life. My system just seem to open up. What I really love about this receiver is that you can configure the receiver's crossover settings to match any of your speakers. After doing this, I can only descript the sound as pure sonic satisfaction.

Strengths:
Flexibility in configuring the receiver to the speaker system.

Weaknesses:
The remote, Rm-TP504, was a little difficult to use, it took some getting use to.

Similar Products Used:
DENON, Yamaha, Harmon Kardon.

Price Paid:  $425.00 from rutledge audio

Summary:
I have tried many reciever's in the past all the Denons,Pioneer's,Onkyo's,Harman's etc. But anyway i actually purchased this reciever used, thinking i was going make a mistake...boy was i wrong although initially it took some talent to set-up and to make this beast sound proper i thought the harman i had was amazing until i fired up this monster UP. especially on DD and DTS this thing rocks clean sound powerful,crisp and everything in between far cleaner than my harman avr520 the harman was much more harsh in movies and movie but sounded natural to a point but what i dont get is all these negative reviews for this particular reciever and no heat problems at all but i did notice on 8ohm loads heats up like the harman did but my speaker's are all 4 ohm thank god. and thank god for the 5 year ES warranty although i dont think this rig will ever need it i hope been awesome so far not a single problem. Thanks guys and happy listening

Strengths:
more than enough power for my hungry speaker's clean,clean sound,crisp highs awesome for movies and music built like a sherman tank giant heatsinks and very nice look

Weaknesses:
no 6.1 or 7.1 remote takes a nasa engineer to figure out but can live with that.

Similar Products Used:
just about every single reviever i can think of

Price Paid:  $425.00 from david ruttledge

Summary:
This is for andrew from nj man you need to wake up and smell the coffee first off dont ever compare krell which is a high end amps and preamps or even theta obviously you dont the first thing about sound or to properly hook your equipment up the v555es i have bought used is quite possibly the best reciever i have heard next to the big denon you need to check your conn on that thing you call junk people like you give bad names to quality gear that dont know where the on button is {half the time} i have owned sony "PRODUCTS" for more then 20 years and have never had a single problem with any of them how funny i owned close to 30 prducts from them make sure you plug the power cord in first, HISS what HISS man.

Strengths:
awesome power more than enough to spare i am glad i got this thing for 425.00

Weaknesses:
people that dont know sh@# about audio or there proper connections

Similar Products Used:
sony, harmon,jvc,you name it i have tried it.

Price Paid:  $775.00 from david ruttledge

Summary:
First off i would like to say that sony products are really good but this reciever needs to be set up properly and will take some time to get the correct sound that this unit can produce so far no problems with this "MONSTER" the setup options are vast and time consuming but in the long run it will pay off in the end i have owned sony products in the past and have never had a single problem with any of them so i dont understand why people say there is so many problems with sony in general, I also owned Harman Kardon but i sold the same day i bought this reciever now dont get me wrong i like HK but was a little harsh at times at high volume levels but was extremely clean sounding now for the sony V555ES sounded more precise and accurate and the power is amazing the sony plays more true and faithful and has more then enough power to spare and this thing does not overheat at all my HK had more heat issues than this thing at lower levels and i hear things in movies i have never heard with the HK and detail is crisp and very open. Well to round it off all an all this reciever is one of the best i've heard so guys give this thing some time for the setup and it will amaze you, and most of all be patient.

Strengths:
More than enough power to spare,good sounding excellent built quality,

Weaknesses:
no 6.1 or 7.1 but really who needs that

Similar Products Used:
Harman Kardon AVR525,etc,etc,etc.

Price Paid:  $1340.00 from BJORN'S

Summary:
We have had our Sony 555ES for over two years and it is great! Early on we noticed that the unit does heat up a little. We bought a little 6 inch, clip on, fan and arranged it on our entertainment center aimed at the vents on top. Problem solved, the unit is always cool now, no matter how long or how hard we run it. We are running Klipsch bookshelves on set A and Klipsch floor standing on set B. The equalizer bank makes switching speaker sets very easy and convienient. Overall we are very happy. The remote is great!!!!! With our 300 CD Sony Megachanger, All Titles are displayed on the LCD Screen of the remote.

Strengths:
Awesome Sound, Super Cool Remote, Great features

Weaknesses:
NONE!

Similar Products Used:
NONE