Sounds Great, cheap compared to the competition at this quality level, Cool blue light and it displays channel info when it's decoding multi-channel sources.

Remote

Just so you know where I'm coming from a little info first. This is an upgrade for me from a 4-year-old middle of the line (non-ES) 110 Watt Sony Pro-Logic amp. The major components paired with this are a 35" Toshiba Cinema Series TV, a Toshiba SD-3109 DVD player (the dual disc one), a new Sony 5 disc CA70ES CD player. (My 8+ year old 10 disc ES player died after probably a million hours had been played through it). I also have a full complement of Paradigm Reference Series speakers around the room. I used coax for the DVD and an optical cable for the CD player connections.
Anyway, before I bought this receiver I came to this site and read a bunch of reviews and I thought I would return the favor for the next guy agonizing over what he should buy by giving a little info on the unit. Now on to the comments:
Let’s start with the bad. Quite simply that’s the remote. I'm kind of sad about this because I agonized over the 333 vs the DA555ES model. It wasn't the price difference and extra power of the 555 that gave me such pains, but I ended up deciding which one to buy based on the remote and after playing with both units the 333 remote seemed much more practical. The problem is that it is still kinda lame.
First, it's not a learning remote. You have to move up to the $1500 ES range to get a learning remote - I don't know what's up with this as my previous $299 amp had it! It obviously has an IR receiver in it since it's 2 way, so why doesn't Sony spend the extra cash and have some geek write some microcode for it? But for me with a Toshiba TV and DVD player it kind of sucks. While I can control the TV power and channels with it, I can't change the volume unless the TV is running through the amp as that's the only thing the volume buttons controls. And on the DVD player I can use the arrows to move around the cursor on the menu's but the execute button doesn't seem to match the "Enter" functionality on the DVD remote so it's pretty much useless for that.
One other major complaint about it is that it's SLOW. This is only when you want to switch from input to input or change disc's using the display (not the change disc buttons). This includes picking a function to power it up. Basically anything that you need the display for can take up to 5 seconds at the start.
Now for the cool parts of the remote. With the Sony CD player and the Sony AII cable between them you can get the disc titles on the remote’s display. You also get all the station presets on it (either the numbers or the name if you've programmed it).
I'm still convinced it's better than the 555 remote, for example skipping tracks and scanning on CD's (something I do a lot) is very easy with this remote and the "real" buttons on it.
Ok, now that I've harped on the remote, let's get to the good stuff, the main unit. Quite simply - it kicks ass.
As for sound quality. I have zero complaints. It's very clean and noticeably better than my older 110 Watt amp. The 80 Watt amp supplied plenty of power so don't let that rating worry you. Dire Straights in 2 Ch Stereo sounds awesome, clear and clean. The Matrix in Dolby Digital is likewise awesome, there's one fight scene where you can hear the individual bullets fly by you on the left side of the room as you hear the shells hitting the floor.
As for connections and stuff, there are plenty. SVHS for everything and several digital in's and one out. For more detailed info about the connections on the unit crutchfield.com has plenty of nitty gritty details on it (far better than sony.com).
Some of the little features that you come to enjoy are things like when you are running something through the DVD player to the coax input (and other inputs too I imagine) it can autosense the right decoding format to use, and it even tells you on the display for a couple seconds when switching sources what it's going to decode. eg: [Dolby Digital 3/2] which means it has 3 front channels and 2 rear. Then even better it lights up a cool blue light on the front showing it's a multichannel source. This is great for helping my less technical wife setup the amp with less fuss for getting the right decoding for CD's and DVD's. It is also very helpful if you use your DVD player for CD's (like I did for a while before I bought the 5 disc) or if you have a big changer DVD player.
Likewise there are neat little speaker icons on the display showing what speakers are being used to represent the audio, useful if you miss the [Dolby Digital 3/2] on the display as you can see if it's LF & RF or LF, RF, C, LR, RR, SUB.
It also has neat LED's on the front that have different colors showing what the source supplying the video output and the audio input are. These are useful for mixing audio and video sources to one output.
One other thing is that is has lots of settings to configure the delay and volume from your speakers. Both gain and "distance" so if your room is shaped weird you can configure it to sound better for you.
Over all the remote is the single sore spot, but don’t get me wrong I wouldn’t trade this puppy in for anything. If you can’t decide between the 333 and 555 I recommend the 333 and then you can spend the saved money on another component or cables or something. If you want to check out the remotes head down to your local stereo shop and play with them, that’s what I did. You’ll think “wow” for the 555’s remote at first, but picture yourself surfing channels and doing other things with it and you’ll probably understand why I picked the 333.

Features, price

Remote, overloads

Just thought I would post an update to the "Protector" overload problems that was having. To recap, during DD5.1 movies (DBS or DVD), I have had the unit go into "Protector" mode where the amp basically shuts down. After it did it the first time, I had a pro come in to measure the impedance of my speakers at the receiver. All were fine (8-10 ohms), but it turned out that the center channel was a little low because I discovered I had hooked up my RPTV speakers in parallel instead of series. Well, I made the change and I still got a "Protector" shutdown. Oh well. If anybody's got any advice, e-mail me at scragin@webtv.net.

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Pioneer VSX-9500R

ES 5 year warranty, Pure Clean power, preouts all channels

Poor Controls, Horrible 2 way remote, digital inputs are not assignable

Well I have always been impressed with the Sony ES line. I have had the same SONY ES 5 disc CD changer for 7 years. Although this time they let me down. In the first week I had this unit I 2 way remote became more and more unbearable to use.
A friend of mine got the 555 on a recommendation from me and the Touchscreen remote is even worse. He took his back for a Yamaha 2205.

To SONY'S credit the amplifier section of these ES models is incredible. The 80x5 of clean power blew away the previous Kenwood 1080VR I was trying to replace. Dolby Digital and DTS decoding was great. Although I thought that the SUB output were constantly putting out too high a signal. I did not care for the control over selections of DSP modes. There were 5 digital inputs of which only really only let you use 2 for video. 1 coax and optical shared for DVD??? An AV receiver should have a digital input for almost all video sources or let you assign them.

I am shipping mine back to Crutchfield and have replaced it with the ONKYO TX-DS777(B)

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replaced with Onkyo TX-DS777(B)

Still great all-around reciever.
Dynamic range compensation is incredible.
Highly adjustable and customizable.
Clear, strong signal. Full sounding.

Remote is sometimes slow, but is effective.
Receiver is sometimes a little bright sounding, but usually within tolerance.

I've had this box for 4 months now. (time flys by) and I still love it. I've had over 350 emails from people asking where I bought it. I'm changing my email address, so please send any further emails to: jw_bolton@yahoo.com.

I'm switching to a new ISP so I will post the new receiver picture once I get that website up and running.

Email me in the meantime for that pic.

-Wes Bolton

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Other high end Sony receivers.

Digital decoding, flexible setup, sound quality

poor remote manual

I decided to upgrade to 5.1 sound, and found a used DA333 for $400 shipped. Tough choice btwn that and $600 for a new V333, but hey, I'm cheap. I bought my pro-logic Sherwood receiver 5 yrs ago mainly since it has pre-amp outs, so I could hook up my Hafler amps (driving M&K S80 speakers). Sounded fine in Stereo but would not reliably decode pro-logic.

The new DA333 decodes everything superbly; stereo, p-logic, DD, etc. Love the way it displays the sound mode in use. I still need to upgrade my speakers (building subs, will buy M&K S-85 and S-85C, then move the S-80s to the rear.) So the systems not perfect yet, but I am already very happy.

I wanted to comment on the video bus. As mentioned in an earlier review, the S-video and composite video busses (both in and out) are not connected. I solved the issue by using an rca-to-svideo cable (from svideotorca.com) for my VCR so now everything is on the s-video bus. Surprised me, but it works great.

After adding the DA333 and a DVD, it will be a month or two until I can afford the 3-set of M&K S85's but I'm going out to the shed right now to finish the subwoofers. Can't wait to get the system complete and have a good listen.

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cheap sherwood receiver

sound .. bass ...

remote

I have used this receiver for over a month. This unit is loud .. I don't listen to the volume past 5 .. I can not imagine it not being loud enough for someones home. You would have to be very hard of hearing to complain. The Bass response is much better then my older Sony receiver. The DTS soes a take about 2 seconds to kick in, the S Video inputs and switching is great. I am using it with a the Sony 550 DVD, Satelite, JVC Super VHS and am very happy with this. Nothing comes close for this money ..

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Other Sony, Pioneer receiver

The Sony STR-DA333ES is one of the great audio bargains of the 90's! I am using this unit as an inexpensive pre-amp for my home theater system and it does everything very well.

The remote is terrable and the manual is the pits.

This unit gives you a great deal of bang for your buck! It processer sound great! DTS and Dolby Digital and Dolby Prologic are great! It is a quiet that sparkles a bit in the high end. Nice tuner too. The remote is a stinker and I still hate to use it. Overall it is a great machine.

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Pioneer VSX9500X

Power, Inputs, # of options

The remote could be a bit better

Ok, I have had this reciever for almost 5 months. It was my first big purchase for my home entertainment system, I'm only 17. I have LOTS of sources in my room and needed a reciever that could handle all of them, and I use every one of the S-video inputs (and I'm even using component video cables for my DVD!) I'm driving Polk RT 800 fronts, CS 400 center, and LS/FX surrounds; This reciever drives them with NO problem. Mine doesn't get all that hot, it does get a tad warm on the amp side, but thats expected.

I was also looking at buying a Pioneer Elite reciever, but the flexibility of the sony really attacted me. I have a few other sony components, I love the disc naming feature on the remote! I don't see why guys are crying soo much about the remote, I find it acceptable; it was VERY EASY to figure out, and if you press the "push enter" button first the display comes up much faster. For the price, I don't think anything beats it! Plus it has an excellent 5 year warranty.

Mark

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JVC w/ DD

I owned this receiver now for 2 weeks and I love it! it simply offers the most for its price for the mid/high end home theatre systems (8K-10K). Inputs/outputs connectors are sufficient and cant imagine needing more, and include both optical and coax. All the little extras are there as well ie. independent speaker db and freq. control, very clear and detailed control panel that keeps you very well informed of everything that is happening. Despite having put this receiver to the test by exploring its limitations (not yet found) I have not experienced the overheating problems that others mention here. I have my receiver on a audio rack where to shelf above it leaves only about 1 inch clearance; yet, the receiver is always cool to the touch. Power rating, although low at 80WX5, is more than enough thanks to its high current circuitry and THD is very low at a rated .05%. The people at Sony could have given the remote a little more thought but once mastered it will operate all your devices efficiently, more so than other remotes found with receivers in this price range ie. Denon, Onkyo and Yamaha... I also love the Subwoofer controls for the LFE and Volume via the receiver - it keeps me from continuosly crawling behind my Velodyne Subwoofer to tweak/adjust the controls when changing sound sources. Alright! Alright! I'll stop bragging but not before I make one final comment - Having the ability to edit the EQ and sound field settings plus the ability to taylor the sound of each speaker independently is great and more so when the settings are automatically memorized once edited so you could change sound fields and when you return your preferences will still be there for "that" particular choice - and if you make a mistake that even you cant figure out, resetting it all to factory settings is as easy as pressing two buttons. All in all I think this receiver is perfect for the level of components I have - to obtain better sound practically doubling the price will likely be necessary. My system:Mistubishi 50" rear projection
Front Speakers - Infinity's RS5's
Center Channel - Infinity CC3
Rear Sorround - Infinity RS3's on 31" wood technology stands
Subwoofer - Velodyne VX1210II
DVD - Sony's DSV550S AC3/DTS
HI-FI VCR - Sony's slv798 with flying erase head
CD - Sony's 5 disc changer
EQ - Sony 7 band EQ/Spectrum analyzer - have it for the looks but not needed.
Monster cable used for speakers connections and AR interconnects for audio/video

In my opinion, in the $8,000 to $10,000 price range for a home theatre system there may be FEW other choices but none that will BY FAR outperform this receiver - I GIVE IT 7 STARS (if I could)...

I ordered This Unit From JandR Music World, From Willie For $545.00 Plus 21.80 For UPS Shipping. They Shipped It Out Same Day and I got it On Time As Promised. I hooked up the Unit and I Am very happy. The Unit is Easy to configure and Easy to work. The Flip Phone remote is Ok and it does what It is said to do. I was able to control my Sony VCR, Pioneer D701 Laser Disk, Pioneer DVD-606d And Ge Television. I dont think it will work on my CD or Tape as they are not standard componets, Pioneer Six + 1 Tape Deck, 18 Disk Changer. The Unit sounds Great, No Problems, Lots of Fun Modes To play with, lot of settings. I watched Peacemaker DTS and it was Fantastic, Much Better than AC-3, So Much More Sound Than Even Starship Troopers AC-3. AC-3 Sounded Great As Well but the DTS Was A Winner. Lots of Inputs, Lots Of Outputs, Pre's, Optical Out, Dual Sub Out. I would like a remote with LCD that is bigger with all the buttons exposed as opposed to the flip. The Arrow Keys for DVD are under the flip but play and such are above. Too Bad its not a Cordless 900MHZ Phone To, HEHEHE.

For This Money You CAN NOT FIND A BETTER UNIT UNLESS IT HAS ITS SN# SCRATCHED OFF.

Five Year Warrenty