Excellent AC-3 and music playback sound quality through Polk RT-25i's with 10" Polk sub.

Broken front speaker selector switch out of the box.
Unit occasionally produces no sound after powering up.

As for my experience with the particular V333 I own:

Sounds great when it wants to work - as someone in a previous post stated, sometimes this unit won't produce sound after powering on, even though the display indicates that the unit has turned on. This happens about three - five times a week. I've checked pretty much everything - quality of cables is good, speaker impedance setting (happens in both 4 & 8 ohm settings anyway), plugged unit into another power outlet circuit etc... the problem persists even after a trip to a Sony service tech, where they replaced the front A/B speaker switch (a separate problem, now evidently not related to this 'powering-on' problem).

The unit will produce sound after doing one of two things:

1. Turning it off/on about 10 times.
2. Unplugging the power cord (I then hear a relay click inside the unit) and plugging it back in, then turning on.

Considering only six people have posted on this new unit, and already two of them have a similar problem, I don't think it's unreasonable to suspect that Sony has a bug on their hands for the first revision of this product. Hopefully enough of us will complain, and they'll come up with a solution that their techs can implement on units already purchased and will stop the bug from occurring in future production units. I'm actually hoping to exchange my unit for another at my dealer - I'll let you know how this goes.

Other than this frustrating glitch... a great sounding box. I dump a 1000 high-quality encoded MP3's into the playlist of Winamp running on a PC with an optical cable out running into the V333 spdif input, and let my ears melt as tunes soothe my brain for an entire evening. It presented DVD's such as 'Fight Club' & 'Backdraft' with enough dynamics to rip your head off in some flashy scenes.

As for the remote, I like it. The learning & macro capability is quite useful, and myself (and others) prefer the LCD menu with single scroll button method for selecting system modes (DVD, TV etc) and soundfields. I'm tired of remotes that present what seems to be a thousand buttons, and then you have to hunt around for one button that has some obscure abreviated title. I also find FM station display on the remote useful in the mornings when I'm not wearing eyeglasses, and can't see the station names on the V333 itself. I have found the remote a little slow in responding at times as others have (it's infrared bidirectional), but I've gotten used to it after awhile. I believe you can turn this bidirectional feature off, which I suppose would speed things up.

I really enjoyed being able to rename the inputs on the display, my CD input is now labelled 'Computer', as I use this input for the spdif cable coming from a computer that's in another room.

Value: 4 stars, assuming you get a working unit at a decent price below list (like I did).

Overall: 3 stars, I'll increase this if Sony responds favorably to fixing the 'power on' problem.

If anyone else has experienced the problems I've described, please let me know.

Cheers,

Torben.

Clean Sound, Solid Built, Reasonably Priced

No Illuminated Volume Dial, Hissing, Buggy Remote,No bass boost

First of all,I need to get a few negative things off my chest about Sony's products. It seems that the quality
that Sony has come to be known by has slipped. Having been a devout Sony lover for 20 years I am quite disappointed in the quality of the "ES" lines. They each seem to have their own quirky problems. Problems that Sony can't seem to confirm or deny.("We recommend you return it or have
it serviced") I don't want to hear that! Tell me if that model has a defect or is it something that can be fixed.
Lately I have had to spend hours tearing down a receiver and replacing it just to find that the problem exists in the new one. We all know what is involved here, yet Sony
seems uninterested in my frustrations. How does Sony eventually get rid of these bugs if they are not documenting them when they are reported? One last thing about their customer service... Although they have always been courteous, their knowledge of their own products is lame. Not once did they ever tell me something that I already didn't know. As a matter of fact I had to set them
straight a couple of times on how their own products worked. All in all, those people seem to be in place for customer service rather than Tech Support. Sony needs to be careful here because they may lose me as a customer forever.
As for the V333ES, If you find one that does what you want it to do without problems... Go for it! You will not be disappointed in its clean sound. A sound that can be tweaked in a staggering amount of ways. You won't be disappointed in how it drives your NHT Super One's or Two's.
You will not be disappointed with its inputs or outputs.
The hissing I have referred to exists at a fairly low level and doen't seem to effect the listening experince.
(Sony customer service told me all recievers make hiss noise...Another example of the BS you encounter when you call Sony).
The remote turns on my Sony TV when I activate my DVD player which may sound correct but I listen to alot of DTS CD's which don't require my TV. Easy enough to shut off but annoying.
The circuitry emits low level noise when changing cd's.
Again,something I can live with.
I have not experienced any protect mode problems or power shut downs.
Sony decided not to illuminate the volume dial which makes it impossible to see at night in a typical Home Theatre situation.
Although there is no bass boost however you are able to control it with its impressive equalizer section.

System:
Receivers:Sony V333ES,DB940
Speakers: (4) NHT SuperOne's-Front,NHT SuperOne-Center,(2)SuperTwo's & (2) SuperOne's-Rear, Velodyne CT80-Sub
DVD:Sony DVP-670D (optical out to V333ES,coaxial out to DB940)
I am running two separate hometheatre systems simultaneously which allow super clean sound without pushing anything hard. It also allows me to fill in the soundfield fully.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DE945,Sony DB940,Sony DA555ES

A good quality receiver.

Haven't had any yet......

This receiver is overall a good receiver. This receiver doesn't run hot at all for me and sounds very good in the headphone mode. My speakers aren't very good right now but the receiver still lights them up. Soon enough I'll buy some nice Definitve Tech speakers and then after that a new receiver (not that I am complaining about this one) but it can only be so good. In the price range (about 550) this receiver kicks all other's. I recommend it if you don't want to spend the extra money now!

Similar Products Used:

Onkoyo's, Yamaha's