I received my sony 333ES about a day ago and man was I impressed. I hunted for a receiver for about a month now, my kenwood 1080 VR was getting old so I decided to to sell it. So far I had the pioneer VSX 608, the yahama 795dts and the kenwood 309 VR and I was displeased with the sound from all of them compared to my kenwood. So I picked up a sony es 333 and for 80 watts this thing rocks!!!! My kenwwod was 120 X 3 in the front and my sony beat it out. The sounds are crisp, clean and very clear the two power supplies are noticed when highs are reached. The setup was easy, I know alot of people were saying it was tedious but if you have some experience with recievers you'll have no problem. The remote is cool the only thing I didn't like is that you have to open the flip part to use the numbers for your cable box, and then flip it shut to control the volume but no biggie. The sony does run hot so keep it open for air but with the 5 warrenty I not worried. The only receiver that compares for the price is the yahama 795 which is a awesome product but I noticed that the bass wasn't noticed as much compared to my kenwood and compare it to the sony and you can forget about it the sony destroys it. So if your looking for a good quality receiver for the price ($500-$600) I got mine for $550, get the sony 333es I would buy it over and over and over again. I give it 5 stars!!!!

After a short 5 days, it arrived. I got my 333ES from SoundCity.Com for $549 shipped to my door, which in my book, I made out like a bandit. I had no problems dealing with StereoCity, and the package came well padded with the receiver box unopened (I was a little worried about ordering from a company I found online.)
After a short inspection came time to set it up, and retire my old Sony STR-D2090. All connections on the back seemed well-organized and high quality. The RCA jacks seemed to feel a bit more robust than my non-ES receiver did, though the speaker connections seemed a bit more cramped. I didn't find them to distracting from the overall picture, besides, using "Banana" style plugs would solve the frustration of screwing the wires into the little connectors anyway.

(Note: I used a normal RCA cable to connect the Digital Coaxial from my DVD to the 333ES. I think another reviewer mentioned this and it sure beats spending $40 for the “Special” coaxial from Sony. I have not had any audio issues and it sounds wonderful. Since it's a digital signal, I figured it will work, or it wouldn't, and it does! :)

Fast forward a bit, and were all plugged up and ready to give it power. Power on. What a wonderful thing to hit power on a new device. :) First impression: Overwhelmed! This thing has at least a good 2-hour setup time/learning curve. Not that this is a bad thing, there is just so much to it! I would recommend you follow along with the manual until you get the hang of the interface and where everything is. (I didn’t take my own advice, and after 15-20 minutes of punching buttons with a confused look on my face, I finally sat down and opened to page 1.) The amount of tweaking to the speaker dynamics is unreal. You can set your Bass, Mid, & Treble on the Fronts, Center, & Rears separately! You can also set the frequency on each as well. On top of that, each of the 29 different sound fields has their own EQ. Another feature I found really handy was a balance on the rear speakers. I am sure most of us don’t have our rears set to equally distances, so one is always louder than the other. This was great for fixing just that. All this, and I am only scratching the surface here.

Once I had everything tweaked the way I like it, I threw in a good DVD to see if this “Dolby Digital” stuff is all that it is cracked up to be. Man…Amazing! You could never understand how much Pro-Logic sucks until you hear a true 5.1 signal and Pro-Logic back to back. I have my DVD analog outs run into the CD in, so I can play a scene in 5.1 and then switch to CD, and play it in Pro-Logic. You get amazing separation with AC-3 (And the little blue light that comes on the front when it gets a 5.1 signal is pretty cool too!). Which brings me to Sony’s “Virtual” Sound Fields. What Sony has accomplished is a DSP that can take 5 speakers and make them sound like 10! It is quite impressive. With the right DVD, I found myself hearing sounds coming from locations that no speaker existed. Trickery, yes, but it’s damn cool!

The remote that comes with the 333ES, on initial inspection, appears quit simplistic. You have a few useful buttons on the front (FFW, REW, Play, VOL, Channel+-, Etc). Then you flip the panel back, sort of like a Motorola Flip phone, and you have a whole slew of useful buttons. All of my stuff is Sony, so everything worked 100% out of the box(VRC, Tape, DVD, Etc.). But don’t worry, it has an onboard database of systems to accommodate virtually any device you own. Setup of a non-Sony device is easy. Choose your device type, and you just scroll through the list on the little LCD until you find your device’s maker and voila! Done. The remote has 2-way communication with the receiver as well, so you can download all of your tuner station names/presets or CD catalogs and move between them from the list on the remote. I also own a Sony RM-AV2000 universal LCD remote, and I found the remote that came with the ES to do everything I needed, through a much simpler interface. The RM-AV2000 took the back seat on this ride.

By this time, it was getting late, and since I live in an apartment I started looking for ways to enjoy my system without disturbing my friends above. To my delight, enter Sony’s “Dynamic Range” compressor. Something I have yet seen a reviewer comment on. This takes the sound dynamics and compresses them or expands them to maintain a constant, equal volume. You have multiple settings; from None, to various levels (.1 through .9), Standard (If you are watching an AC-3 encoded movie, this is the range determined by the sound engineers, and is decoded from the disk.), and MAX. This, along with the “Night Theater” Sound Field, allowed me to continue to enjoy my new toy into the wee hours of the morning. As a plus, it works on all other devices too. So you can use it when you watch VCR movies, Listen to CDs, or watch TV. Very nice touch Sony!

Overall I didn’t find one thing that really bothered me. Setup was a little tedious but it pays off in sound quality and customization. The system does run pretty hot, but then again so did my STR-D2090, so no worries. For Under $550 bucks, there is really nothing to complain about. The system is "Top Notch"!

The Sony STR-DA333ES Gets 5 Stars for sure!

I talked my local dealer down to $540 on this one, so I couldn't resist giving it a try. I previously had a Pioneer#608, which I returned. Comparatively speaking, the Sony has much better dynamics, imaging, and bass presence than the Pioneer. I never though I would be saying such things about recievers...I used to think that they were all the same. I'm sure there are better sounding recievers out there, but to me the small increment in sound quality hardly offsets the huge increase in price. The 333ES is not without its own demerits, however. The two-way remote is very slow when you just want to switch radio stations or soundfields. Like everyone else has said, it runs real hot, which is never desirable in electronic equipment, but alas, the 5 year warranty puts my fears to rest.

After reading the reviews from this site we purchased the 333ES from One Call. The receiver arrived in two days and worked great out of the box. A few days to figure out the controls and found the receiver lived up to the reviews from this site. It's hooked up to the Boston Acoustics System 9000 speakers and DVDs are now something to be experienced. This combination replaces an old Sony surround sound receiver and Boston Sub Sat speakers and now we are in audio heaven. This site saved us over $200 versus purchasing the receiver from a local audio retailer. Thanks.

I have a difficult choice of which receiver to get. I've looked around on the net and have noticed good reviews for the STR-DA333ES and STR-DE925. The DE925 has more power, but I rarely go over more than 1/3 volume of my current sony reciever. Does the 333ES just sound better? Also, where is a good place to buy one on the net?
Thanks ahead of time.

Quick follow up on my comments posted yesterday on the STR-DA333ES :
I bought a 4" Cooling Fan from Radio Shack for about $18 and placed it on top of the receiver's cabinet ventilation vents. The fans runs on 120 VAC and moves 65 cubic feet of air per minute. Fan runs very quietly.

With the fan running the receivers cabinet is only a little warm (normal)- this is a big improvement.

Hope this helps anyone else who is looking to run cooler ! I felt it important to provide some forced cooling given my enclosed installation in wooden buit in cabinets.

I recently purchased the 333ES and have been thoroughly impressed. I am replacing my Denon, you really do not appreciate high quality equipment until you have something to compare it to in the same room. I did a comparison between several units in the sopund room at a local "Good Guys", they had the 333es listed for $799 but would make me a "deal" at $750, I bought it from SoundCity for $545. This unit had a lower power rating than my Denon but the sound was clean throughout the entire power range,which is something I have never experienced before. The remote is a pain in the ass though, waiting for it to download info from the unit gets boring. But for the money it is the best unit I have seen.

I have had the 333ES for about 2 weeks now. In general I consider it to be a very good receiver. Most of the receiver’s details have been summarized in other reviews so I will just give my impressions, and the goods and bads. The review is a little long, but I hope informative.
My set-up consists of:
Sony STR-DA333ES
Teac Tape Deck
Sony 27" TV (fairly recent model)
Echostar 4700 DSS
Sony CDP-835 5 disc CD player (about 6 years old, one of the first with optical digital outputs)
Sony DVP530S
Sony VCR (about 6 years old)
Paradigm Mini-Monitors, CC-350, PS-1000 sub
Bose 201 v.2 for the surrounds (actually not too bad)

Lets start with the remote. It operates all of my equipment except the Echostar 4700. Not too surprising considering must of the equipment is Sony. I do find it annoying that Sony chose not to support the Echostar gear, which basically screws anyone who went with Dish Network instead of Direct TV (which Sony is heavily involved with…..coincidence????). The remote does take some getting used to. As stated in other reviews, it is a little slow. The LCD is backlit, but not the buttons. I’m not a big fan of the flip up door. Every time I open it I get an overwhelming urge to hail then Enterprise to beam me up. The remote is also a little too smart for its own good. For example, if you choose the TV/SAT function from the remote, it turns on the TV if it is not on, and then switches the TV/Video mode of the TV to the TV’s receiver, which is great, but the monitor output from the 333 goes into the Video 1 of the TV. In general, the remote is ok, but not great. For the record, you can turn on the receiver with the remote by selecting a function. For example, if you select DVD, the remote will turn on the receiver, the DVD player, and the TV, and set the TV for video input. If you press the AV standby button, the remote turns off all your stuff.

Now onto the unit. Build quality is very good. Very solid chassis, aluminum front panel. The door on the front may be a little flimsy, but not too bad. Knobs and buttons have a solid feel. The speaker binding posts are a bit light. As stated in another review, due to their design, they wont accept spade connectors, which may bother (downright offend) some. They do however accept twisted bare heavy gauge (#12) wire quite well, and would work great with the Monster bent pin connectors. Obviously they also accept banana plugs. While the RCA plugs are not gold they are sturdy. Yep, the unit does run hot. Be sure to leave it room to breath. You definitely do not want to stack another component on top of this one.

How does it sound? Pretty darn good. The 80 watt x 5 amp section may leave some ‘power listeners’ yearning for a little more, but it drives my Paradigms very clearly, and with plenty of clean volume to spare (the Paradigms are not very demanding). I am quite impressed with the amp section. The sound is quite full and rich. It is not too bright, which was a concern, because the titanium dome tweeters in the Paradigms can be a little harsh. Bass management is handled quite well. The low frequency mix out to the sub is very well done as well as LFE output for movie soundtracks. The unit sounds great for music and Home theater. I had a chance to listen to the Eagle’s Hell Freezes Over concert in DTS, and was thoroughly impressed with the sound quality. Channel separation is very good with Dolby Digital encoded soundtracks, and the soundstage is quite convincing in both breadth and depth (this is somewhat speaker dependent however). Dolby Pro-Logic decoding sounds about as good as Pro-Logic can.

General stuff. I use digital interconnects (coax for DVD, optical from my CD player), and do all of the D/A conversion in the 333. You cannot record digital signals onto VCR or Cassette Tape, so you have to make the analog interconnects as well if you want to record. While the digital inputs can not be permanently re-assigned to any function, they can be temporarily re-assigned using the mode button (a trick I use to get around the TV/SAT remote problem by using video 2 instead, but still watch the occasional Dolby Digital movie on Dish Network by re-assigning the digital TV/SAT audio to the Video 2 video). S-Video and normal component video are not on the same bus, which makes controlling video components more complicated than it should be. If your TV has 2 video inputs it shouldn’t be a problem. Some of the soundfields are interesting, but in general I don’t use them very much. Speaker set up options are comprehensive. You can control subwoofer gain with the 333 which is handy to turn the sub down for music and up for movies without having to fiddle with the sub’s gain knob.

Finally I would have to say that for the price you would be hard pressed to find a receiver that offers the same features and sounds this good. The unit is not perfect, but all of the problems are minor (knit pics). I have not been disappointed. 4 stars if you compare it to stuff under about $2000. 5 stars when compared to stuff in its own price range.

Just got this unit from one call. Sound quality is good. But the remote suckes. I cannot turn on this unit from remote. Am I the only one experiencing this? Also most of the connection terminals on the back of this unit suck: not gold plated. What a waste for me to buy all those fancy gold plated interconnectors. You know it's useless to have high end gold plated connector will the terminal is plain nickle plated. Also the speaker binding post won't take Spade. Sony should have done better. May be that's the reason why you can buy this for cheap from net. I can only give it 3 stars.

I think this Sony ES line in a 3 speaker sound quality but the pricing makes it a 2 overall for the price (I agree somewhat with a previous reviewer about people paying for name brands). But I do disagree with a previous poster about HK having all their problems solved and with so many bad AVRs still on the market (I seriously doubt they recalled them all, not cost effective) since people within the last two months still post problems with currently acquired HK products (45 & 65). I think the Sony is a little bright, but the HK sounds a little too rolled off (and they also have a cinema Re-Q?). The Sony seems to me the better buy between the two but personally I would put my money in a Denon, Yamaha, or Onkyo in the similar price range as I think you will get more AVR for the money. I will give this AVR a 4 to offset the 1 given by the individual who did not use a progressive scale to reflect quality and price (after all an 1 is given to something that is defective like a bad HK AVR and the customer service follow-up given to those who were loyal to them as reported on this site; giving people a shielded cable instead of telling people to send it for repair...). My personal opinion is a 3 but justice must be done.