BASS,CONTROL FOR ALL FUNCION'S.

NO VOLUME INDICATOR AND AC3 RF IMPUT. HOW MUCH FOR SONY? WHY NO VOLUME INDICATOR AND RF AC-3 IMPUT?

IS BEAUTIFUL, IS WEIGHT AND VERY INTELIGENT. I BUY ABOUT TWO WEEKS AND THE NUMBER OF CONTROL'S IS FANTASTIC.THE REMOTE CONTROL IS BEAUTIFUL, BUT WHY 10 SECONDS IN DISPLAY AND NO 20 SECOND'S.MY DVD IS 550D SONY AND MY TV IS WEGA 36"AND I VERY HAPPY BECAUSE IS NOTE 10 FOR THIS RECEIVER.
INDICATE FOR ALL EXPERTS IN SOUND AND HOME THEATHER.

Similar Products Used:

DENON AVR 5700

Great sound, 2 digital coax inputs

Weight, high price

This is a great piece of equipment, which sounds great. So all I'll say here is that I agree with all the positive reviews and won't just repeat it all again. However, I'm not sure that it's worth an extra $500 msrp.

However, there are some things I'd like to add. I didn't find the remote all that hard to use (and I was a sceptic of theis remote before I tried it). It can learn dozens of extra functions from other remote controls which is it's saving grace. Apart from sounding great in DD & DTS 5.1 surround, it really makes prologic programs sound a lot better than I'm used to. The extra digital coax input is a nice extra too.

My machine did have a slight fault in that it had a slight buzz like a flourescant light which was noticable only over the quietest of programming, but enough to be annoying. So I am returning the unit. The only reason that I am not replacing it with it with another 777ES is that I feel that the 333ES will be a better value for money given my requirements. I decided against the 555ES because the remote does not have a learning capability and the extra power over the 333ES us negligable.

If you need the extra features of the 777ES and are willing to pay the extra, I'd recomend it. I found it for $1060 on the internet.

4 Stars for value beause of the high price (at $1060 then I'd give it 5 stars)

Similar Products Used:

Other Sony ES models, Pioneer Elite

Great sound, power, flexibility

Poor manual, quirky remote

Great sounding receiver. Lots of clean power and very transparent, open sound stage. This is a great receiver if you are particular in how your system is setup. You can configure almost any aspect of the system you can think of. Full equilization, adjustable sub crossovers, split audio/video sources, tons of inputs, etc. Everything is tweakable. Looks like a solid, high quality, well built device.

On the downside, the manuals are typical sony poor. Considering all the configuration options here, you are pretty much left to experiment and figure out things on your own. It would be nice to see a much nicer, and about twice as thick, manual from sony. The remote is a complex touch screen device, which requires two hands to operate. Yes, it's a pretty capable unit, but I don't want to go through this much trouble to use a remote. This remote won't be getting much use, mainly due to the complexity. The remote turns off after 10 seconds, which is pretty annoying as well. It would have been better to include a lower cost traditional remote with buttons, and possibly offer the touch screen as an add-on option instead.

Overall, a great receiver. I'm happy with this purchase. The sound is much, much better than my old pro logic receiver. Paid $1070 shipped.

Similar Products Used:

Sony 1011 (about 5 years old)

Clean Power that does not distort over most of the volume range. Excellent design, 2 way remote control, imputs galore, I don't think a box full of bricks would weigh as much as this amp does. It is totally impressively built.

Documentation, Documentation, Documentation, poor users manual, equalizing configuration would have been great if it could have been graphical rather than frequency specific and individually inputted. Time to shut of on the remote, (obviously to save batteries), Documentation (or did I say that too many times) NO cables, especially optical.

I am using polk RT2000 and think the amp is a little over kill for the application but I wanted an amp that would not distort with high volume. The cause of speakers blowing out is many times dirty signal from an amp that is distorting on the back side of the volume range. I don't have to worry about this. I purchased it for the 5.1 dolby inputs and to bring my home theater system current. It has enough features and sound effects options to keep someone busy for months playing with all the effects. I do like the remote control and that fact that I can see the stations I have preset in the tuner on the remote. I have a Sony DVD connected to the unit and finially figured out that I had to use an optical cable to get the blue light to turn on in the amp. Hell I paid 1025 and had to have that blue light on...... Oade Brothers especiall Jim are class people. Don't be afraid to order from them they have a tough return policy but is is stated clearly and in my opinion it is fair. The unit came double boxed. Be extreamly careful picking it up. Even though the polks came with powered sub in the units I picked up a seperate sub for the 5.1 channel and also the cs400 center speaker. the rears are the fx500.
I am still figuring out all the settings to get everything to work together. The s-link technology makes the unit easy for the other gender to operate. The button on the remote that shuts everything down is also nice. If any one has any suggestons on how they hook up this stuff I would appreciate it. I have a sony wega 36" Tube tv. As you may be aware the combinations are endless when you hook this stuff up. Remember if your using the 5.1 dvd. Shut the stuff off on your DVD and let the receiver decode the signal.

I gave a 4/5 because of the Documentation. There is no excuse to spend major dollars designing something like this and then have a poor manual. There should have been a video or a DVD with this unit taking you through the features hookup, options, configuration. Heck I got a video with my STS (New Car) and this amp is much more complicated (and more powerful)..

My recommendation is always to error on the side of quality. You end up paying for it in sooner or later. I like the fact that there is a rs232 port on the back for future firmware/software updates of the amp.

Similar Products Used:

strda-911 sony. A baby compared to this one

Oversized heatsinks and capacitors

manual remote no onscreen display

This receiver is absolutely phenominal it is the best thing I have ever heard I did alot of auditioning and reading the reviews I deceided to buy this and I'am not disappointed I have had this running for over 12 hours straight at 50% volume level and it will not get hot it stays warm to the touch it is a phenominal receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Jvc rx1050vtn

Unbelievable detail, awesome sound quality

none so far

I am using this unit as a preamplifier to provide signal for
3 Parasound Hcca 1500 amps. Before it I had the Denon AVD-2000 for all Dolby material and volume control, and the Millenium DTS decoder. This was an awesome combination, but little did I know what kind of surprise I was in for. The Sony has far more detail, imaging, dynamics, and overall sound quality. The Cinema Studio EX modes are awesome. They make the whole room open up. Highly recommended.

Rest of my system consists of:
2 pair of Acoustic Research AR3's for front and rears
1 AR-2 for center
1 Velodyne FSR-15 and 1 Paradigm PW2200 for LFE
1 Toshiba 5109 DVD player
1 Pioneer cld 606 LD player
1 Dishnetwork system with Dolby Digital out
and for my picture I have a Pioneer SD-641-HD5 HDTV ready monitor.

Thank God for DVD and Digital sound in any format!

Similar Products Used:

Who Knows?

everything is great, im so freaking happy with it

none that i can c

first off thxs to everyone who submitted a review of the product, i was planning on buying the str-da 555es but after reading all the reviews i decided to put out the xtra 300$ for it. $1050@onecall.com
im not really an audio expert as some of the ppl here r but i can honestly say that this receiver ROCKS! when i first hooked it up to my old speakers (little technics (7yrs old)) i said to myself omfg, i was stunned to say the least
i couldnt believe how good they sounded, my wife even thought so and said i should just keep the old speakers
(yea right lol) i finally recieved my ar9 fronts, ar17 rears, ar4c center, and ars300 sub, i didnt understand how important having a good receiver was but now i rock my house at 3 on the volume knob.
as for the REMOTE; all u ppl who said that it sucked and was hard to use well all i can say is ur retarded! the remote rocks, of course i had to stop reading the manual that thing makes u stupid, i figured it out n 2 hrs just playing with it thats all i can say for future buyers of this awesome receiver just play with it and u will learn it
u dont have to know it all to b happy
thxs again everyone

Similar Products Used:

piece of junk kenwood

Solid construction, lots of power, unlimited settings.

Slight, but tolerable, vibration from receiver. Unless you listen to your receivers hums instead of your speakers for music.

In response to Garrett, I think you had a bad deal to begin with and the problem is customer service from your dealer but not the product itself. Next time, buy from Good Guys and make sure you get extended warranty (I did for additional 2 more years on top of Sony's 5 year for a measly $40). You're making a major investment and it's best to protect it.
I bought an open box with the remote's face cracked. At first this was ok, but as time goes by it annoys me. I called my dealer and show my receipt. Right there and then they found a replacement (from V555ES) and gave it to me no questions asked. I thought I'm getting away with it, because it's an upgraded remote. But to my dismay, my remote got confused because some of the features are not present (i.e. 6.1 speakers and video settings). I called Good Guys again and with no questions asked ordered me a new one. Talk about service. That gave me more confidence on my purchase (I turn up the volume and tweak some more)knowing that if I break it, they'll replace it - no questions asked. Thank God for Good Guy's extended warranties.
About the receiver, my cousin-in-law and I just love this machine. We use it for CD, MD, LD (Karaoke), DVD...it's just great! We heard things we never heard before. Sometimes you contemplate on your speakers as the problem why you don't hear enough mid/treble/bass. But it's not the speaker, it's the receiver...good thing we did not spend extra on speakers (my cousin have Polk Audio and I Bose). Base became solid with the xover...I love it so much I bought another sub "JBLPB12". Now I can feel all the shaking and vibrations from all the DVDs I watch and music I listen to. This has been really an eye opener and a great investment. I know I'll use this receiver for a long time, with the confidence of knowing that when it breaks I can exchange/repair it - no questions asked. There are really GOOD GUYS out there.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STRDA830, STRDA50ES

Power,Power,Power
Built like a tank

Can be hard to use at first because of EQ.
To heavy, this thing is a monster.

This is best receiver there is and that's all. You can try the rest is this price range but I can tell you this is the one you will come back to. Try the others, YOU'LL learn, Sony Es is where it's at. I had the 555es and let me tell you that they are not the same and anyone that say's they are is crazy. But once again try other receivers and find out for yourself. If you want to save yourself all the trouble to testing and listening then buy this one and save spending more time using it. Right when I Hooked this thing up I knew it wasn't the 555es. All I can say is spend the extra money and you will be glad you did. This will blow you away. The thing is 54 pounds! How can it be bad. I would never back Sony but this time I will stand behind them 100 percent. If you are in the market and want the best there is for the price then get it, don't think, just spend the money and get it. You won't be sorry.
Just one dislike I have. This thing has so much power it will blow the speaker right out of the box. Don't believe me just try and turn this thing up. Power, Power, power. Make you have high quality speakers or save some money and get some. It will never run out of steam just your speakers will.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 995,sony 555es,Onkyo

Clean power, very configurable, sound fields, excellent build quality.

no on-screen display, not a lit volume knob and a horrible manual.

I have had this unit for about six months now and am very happy with it. The over all sound quality of this receiver is amazing, delivering very clean power that never gets sloppy even at very high power. I shopped around for quite a while looking at Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha, Marantz and others. I could not find anything in its price range that I was more impressed with. I am able to listen to music for hours and not get tired or assaulted by the sound. Sony has given us an amazing amount of control to tune this receiver, from variable crossover control to down to the foot speaker placement for all speakers. Some of the features on this unit do take some getting used to though. An example is the equalizer, it is not graphic and is hard to work with. It uses terms like “mid range slope” and then assigns it a frequency such as 1khz. But once I got the hang of it I found that I have far more control than with a graphic equalizer though I do use paper to map it out.
Now for the down side of this product. I agree with everyone that the remote is cumbersome. It doesn’t have enough control of the remote characteristics itself. Also, because it is a two way remote, if you use another remote like I do (see below) then it is a real bother. The manual is a real joke but this is standard for all Sony products. I was also really surprised that it does not have an on-screen display for the remote control. The only other pet peeve is that the volume knob is not lit somehow, it is almost impossible to see when the room is dark. These are all very small things and could not possibly overshadow the benefits of this excellent receiver.

My setup:

Sony STR-DA777es
Sony CX300 cd changer
Sony KV-36FS10 Wega 36” direct view TV
JVC SU3500 VCR
JVC 501BK DVD player (junk)
Kenwood tape deck
Monster HTS 3500 power conditioner
Dish Network (not HDTV or Optical digital)
Philips Pronto
Sony Playstation
Cabling is all Monster and AudioQuest.

Speakers:
Paradigm Monitor 9’s (front)
Paradigm Mini-monitors (surround)
Paradigm PS1000 (sub)
Paradigm LCR350 (center)

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-3300 and 5700. Yamaha DSP1, Pioneer Elite. Marantz.