Open detailed sound, flexible setup.

Remote is slow to respond.

This receiver sounds more open than the DB840 I returned to get this one. I do miss being able to turn off the display completely as the DB840 allows, it does have the extra optical input for the CD I missed.
The sound from this receiver to my ears is wonderful. I have an older pair of Celestion SL12si's and they reveal great detail that has always been there but seldom heard. There is no 'hiss' to speak of, nor has my unit suffered from any problems.
The remote is slow to respond when coming out of standby. It first has to communicate with the receiver before any function works. Haven't tried one-way communication yet, so it might work as quickly as 'normal' remotes do. It is easily configured to work the various components the way I need them to respond. It does most things yet I still keep the other remotes handy for more detailed functions for each individual component in my system.
For the features included & sound this receiver is the best buy in the ES class. The V444 offers 10 watts more on paper, yet don't we need to double the power to hear the difference?
I rate this receiver 5 because it fits my needs. No more no less.

Similar Products Used:

STR-DB840

Quality built-On Screen Display is great-remote is user friendly as well as the entire unit

none

Great quality sound. This unit is worth buying. If your looking for an great sounding, easy to use, and stylish receiver this is the unit for you.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DVD player, Klipsh Speakers

Adjustments are endless

Owners Manaul is practically useless.

This is my first A/V receiver.
I have a sony bookshelf system that was perfect if you ask my wife. She thought that had too much bass!

I have this system hooked up to my Cambridge Soundworks New Ensemble III HT speakers.

I was initially worried about the passive sub but after making a few adjustments and setting an EQ for more bass I am very satisfied.

I have had the unit power circuit come on a couple of times which was great because I actually had the circuit overloaded.

I looked extensively at the Yamaha X995 and the Dennon 3300.
Both sounded nice but as my friend who sells high-end equipment says, "You like that 70's feeling with all the lights"

I am a warranty type of person so I was glad to save the $100 that would have been necessary with the other units.

Overall the unit has performed solidly, it actually scares the older generations and the younger.

I only see two problems. Nothing with the receiver itself.

1. The remote is functional but why do I have to open a door to input a channel numerically?

2. The manual is horrible. They never tell you how to do advanced setups. The advanced stuff is why I bought the high end.
I actually want a good description of all the buttons to decide what they do, why they are included and how to use them.
Then I can decide if they are not useful at all.

For now I will surf the net and talk with the wonderful people out there that will provide info like the nice man that showed me how to hook up my computer to my unit to play MP3.

My friend just bought a low line Sony. He is having all the problems I had insetting up the unit.
He is calling me tonight so I can walk him through it.
I am sure it is the assignments you need to make with the input button. (How are you supposed to know you need to press it twice?)


The unit is awesome if you are willing to put some effort into figuring it out.

3 stars for the horrible manual. (Spend a buck SONY)

Similar Products Used:

First A/V Receiver

Ahh The ES circuitry is awesome! Of all the studying I have done over the years no one does better than Sony ES series for the price range ($1,500.00 and under) I like the nice sleek design with the blunt of the controls covered with a door. 110 Watts of power with only 0.05% THD! All in All Great Performance!! ***

Very vage Operating Instructions, The remote instruction book has more in it than does the receivers manual.

I am a vivid Sony user, I've used Sony products for over 18 years, my last Receiver was a Sony ES Pro-Logic amp. The V333ES is by far the best sounding amp I've ever owned and the hardest to understand operations of it. I own a Alarm co. I install home/business alarms and have no problems with their setup and there is a lot more to an alarm than most Receivers, but I can't seem to understand the workings of this amp, I'm sure one day it will all Click. I was looking on the net for a in-depth instructions when I came across this review page. All in All though this amp ROCKS! Great sound quality good price and very good separation of the 5.1 system! I would buy this amp again in a heartbeat or maybe even move up to the V444ES just to get the extra 10 watts (120 Watts) of power plus a couple more features.

Similar Products Used:

Sony ES for years.

Well-built good looking receiver

Video output did not work

I tried this receiver after a bad experience with the strv444es (see review under that model).

I had everything plugged in and could hear sounds from all sources (tv, dvd, vcr) but had NO PICTURE. I called the Tech support at Cruthfield and walked through all connections even eliminating all but 1 source and still NO PICTURE.

I returned the receiver and BTW, Cruthchfield is a great place to deal with, tremendous customer service.

After 2 bad experiences with Sony, I have decided to try the Marantz SR8000 - so far so good.

Similar Products Used:

strv444es, Marantz SR8000

Clean, Crisp, powerfull sound. Built like a tank. Plenty of inputs, easy to set up and easy to use. Rocks the house....

Runs a little hot.

This Sony is built solid. It supplies plenty of power and clean crisp sound. It does run a little hot. The remote is just OK and slow. There are plenty of digital inputs, and the set up was real easy.

Similar Products Used:

JVC 888

Beefy power supply with large capacitors. Draws 410 watts out of the wall @120vac. Solid construction (weighs 35 lbs.). Extruded aluminum heat sinks. Oversized MOSFET power transistors. Clean sound reproduction with 0.05% THD @ 8 ohms impedance both in stereo as well as surround. Gold plated connectors. Solid volume control, though not lighted, displays like professional sound equipment with a range of infinity to 0 decibels (db) attenuation of the signal that’s fed to the amplifier. Unparalleled (in its class) sound equalization (EQ) allowing the front, center, rear, and sub channels frequencies to be modified by the DSP. With EQ you can set the bass, midrange, and treble crossover frequencies, & bias +/- 10db (you can even select the midrange frequency width) for each major speaker set. Plus you can create 5 EQ programs to your liking for various kinds of music or movies. The advantage of EQ is that it allows you to “correct” for less than ideal speakers and room acoustics (this is a real value for us enthusiasts who can’t afford all the high-end audiophile equipment and acoustically tuned venues. Dual 32 bit digital signal processors (DSP’s) for 31 sound fields allowing you to choose how you want to hear your music or movies with simulations of famous sound studios, acoustic venues, halls, and virtual speakers including virtual matrix 6.1. You can also set it to do dynamic compression so movie soundtracks that jump from extremely quiet to extremely loud parts don’t give you a heart attack (nice feature). This box has a total of 10 inputs with 4 for video (both composite & S) including 1 video input on the front side. Of course this thing does Dolby Digital and DTS (in 5.1). It has four (TOS-link) digital inputs and one coaxial (RCA) digital input. It comes with a full set of 5.1 inputs and pre-amp outputs. It has on screen display. Last but not least, it can generate pink noise test signals on each independent channel for balancing the levels of each speaker (convenient). This unit comes with a 5-year warranty.

It has only one coaxial digital-input. The remote control is a little clunky because the controls are divided in two sets where you have to flip up a panel to access the second set of controls. Also, you can’t adjust every little feature with the remote (though you can adjust the major features), but the remote is not as bad as some of the other reviews I read make it out to be. It’s still functional and overall, it’s not that big a deal.

I am thoroughly pleased with this product. I originally wanted only to spend $400 but I quickly learned that you can’t get much for that price point. Receivers are not like computers where performance gets better and price declines. I have found that the fundamental electronics that are made to cleanly handle power amplification are costly. I am convinced that the Sony STR-V333ES is the best value of the units I looked at. This product is best suited to the serious enthusiast. This unit’s unparalleled equalization and sound field features make it perfect for those who like to tweak and tune. If you want a plain-vanilla simple A/V receiver, buy something else like an Onkyo. This unit also gives off a lot of heat requiring ample ventilation; I recommend 4 inches of clearance from the top of the unit to anything above it (this is the price you pay for having a powerful amplifier). The unit retails for $800, but I researched the Internet and found more competitive pricing in the sub $600 price range. Onecall.com met the competitive pricing of another web site and Onecall is a Sony authorized web dealer which ensures the 5 year warranty is valid. They shipped it double boxed via 2nd day air. The total door-to-door price came to $595.

Similar Products Used:

This is my first entry into 5.1 home theater. This is my second mid to upper quality class receiver. This replaced my traditional stereo receiver. I also have experience working with multi-channel professional sound mixers for live performance and am accustom to using calibrated sound level meters for level balancing and EQ. When I started researching A/V receivers, I looked at Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon, Marantz, & Pioneer Elite. My minimum criteria were Dolby Digital, DTS, and digital inputs. These were a must have in order to be considered. My selection criteria were price, sound quality, power, and equalization. Onkyo would have been my next choice if I didn’t care about the equalization feature of the Sony. I liked the Pioneer Elite units because of the THX stamp of approval, but the construction was inferior to the Sony at the same price point.

ES Quality, Lots of configuration features

Volume control, remote, no 5-channel stereo

I came damn close to buying the Denon 2801 instead of the Sony V333. I actually bought the Sony with the intention of taking it back if I didn't like it to get the Denon. As it turns out, I really like this receiver and I have had 0 problems with it. I have some gripes here and there, but I don't consider those 'problems' or 'defects'.

So far the only glitch I have found is that due to the fixed range of the volume knob, when you adjust the volume a servo turns the knob. For some reason it is really touchy, and it can be difficult to set the volume where you want due to the servo turning too far or not far enough. The Denon does not have a fixed range on the volume knob, so it doesn't have this problem.

Its almost not worth mentioning that the remote sucks. I don't know why Sony continues to include that weak remote with all of their receivers. I already had the Sony RM-VL900 learning remote (awesome.. hands down), so I literally took the receiver's remote out of the box and threw it in a cupboard. I think I learned a few commands from the remote after I was done playing for a few hours, but other than that its just been gathering dust since I set everything up. The Denon remote, of course, is far superior. Its only flaw being the switches you have to use to choose a device as opposed to buttons.

The display is far more informative than the Denon, and the receiver itself is far easier to work with. At least from my point of view. This was one of the major selling points for me. The Denon, however, has A/B surround speaker switching instead of front speaker switching, and it can also be controlled with the remote (the sony is a hard switch .. weak), and it can be assigned to specific decoding. For instance, if you had bipolar and monopolar rears, you could configure the Denon to use the monopoles for 5-channel stereo, and the bipoles for dolby digital, etc. This is an excellent feature and one of the main reasons I almost bought the Denon over the Sony.

The sony also has two subwoofer preouts, instead of the single that Denon offers, a bonus for me because I plan to get a second subwoofer for the back, and I won't have to do any signal splitting. I can just plug it into the second jack. Not a big deal but something I was looking for initially.

There were two main reasons I chose to get the new V series over the old ES line, which were much cheaper since everyone has been clearing them out for the new V ES line:
1. On-Screen programming
2. Double line display
The double line display makes it much easier to program and is, of course, more informative. Previously you could only get this much information from the 777ES receiver, which was obscenely expensive. The on-screen programming I was excited about, but it turns out to be just as easy to program using the LED display, so I never use it anymore. Programming the receiver from the remote is fairly easy, however changing surround modes requires either the crappy remote that comes with it or physically getting up and going to the receiver. This sucks, I know, but I don't change my surround modes that often, so it doesn't bother me. I really don't care for all of the surround modes that Sony offers, I just use standard surround for all of my components.

I haven't tested the video switching. This receiver only does S-Video and RCA switching. I route all of my video directly to my TV, since I have a myriad of connection types.

Day to day use I enjoy using the Sony much more. This was the deciding factor with me, and like I said, I have had no problems. Its a great receiver and it fits in great with all of my other sony equipment. This receiver replaced a aged JVC Pro-Logic receiver, and I re-watched my entire DVD collection in DTS and Dolby Digital, and I was very impressed. All in all, an excellent product for my interests.

My current setup:
Sony KP-53HS10 HDTV (acting center channel)
Sony DVP-S360 DVD Player
Toshiba Generic VCR
Sony STR-V333ES Receiver
Sony B55 DirecTV Satellite
Polk PSW350 Sub
Polk R10 front & rear speakers

Planned upgrades:
Polk CS400i Center Channel
Upgrade PSW350 to PSW450
Add additional PSW450
Replace front speakers with RT800i's
Replace rear speakers with F/X 300i's

Man I love home theater. :)

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR3300

This is not a review. This is a question for CGF. I tried to email you many times but the server always returned an error. So I had to do it this way.

Could you check the manual to see what the power consumption of the new 333ES is? Thanks. You may email it to me, or post it here if it doesn't work.

Looks, sound quality, features, that cool blue light (when DD, DTS comes on).

None so far.

All I can say is this receiver is in a totally different class than the regular Sony's. I work at Circuit City so I play with the best that Onkyo, HK etc. has to offer. Everything else I have is Sony though and I wanted it all to match. Since Circuit City does not carry ES I had to get hooked up by one of my friends at a local high end shop. The overall quality is just as good as say, the Onkyo 676, and it looks way better in my opinion. The Sony blue light looks cool and comes in handy to tell which mode you are in. You will not be dissapointed, but dont pay full retain ($800) for this.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, HK, regular Sony, Kenwood