I'm new to the Sony 9000es, so I apologize in advance for my ignorance regarding the upgrade. I just took my remote to the Sony service center in San Jose, CA for the new chip that will hopefully brighten the display and preserve the battery life, and the gentleman I spoke with at the service center knew about the prolems with the remote, and seemed generally well informed, but he claimed to know nothing about any upgrade from Sony for the preamp itself. I watched as he consulted their computer, and came up with nothing about an upgrade. I told him what I had been seeing on this site, and he said that maybe Sony was slow in getting the information to the San Jose service center. If anyone has information about the availability and benefits of the upgrade and would care to share it with me, I'd appreciate it. By the way, I'm a MAC user, so there may not be an upgrade that will work for me, at least for "do it yourself".As far as the 9000 itself, I am extremely happy with the sound, both for home theater and for music. I previously had a TA-E1000ES, and I think that this new unit is significantly better in almost every way, although a person needs to be willing to spend some time with the manual (?) and the unit itself to learn how to get the best out of it. About the only thing it doesn't have that I wish it did have is a set of 6 analog inputs. I guess I'd also be a little happier with a better remote, but the remote is less important to me than the sound I get out of this thing, and the sound is terrific. It seems to me that for build quality, features, sheer high tech wizardry and sound, this preamp-processor deserves a five. I will eagerly await a message from anyone who can enlighten me about the upgrade.

Having trouble with upgrade. After erasing flash memory get error message of no cpu and program stops? ES 9000 still works, but it doesn't have the upgrade.Any thoughts?

Sound quality of the pre-amp is outstanding. Remote SUCKS and Sony should have done more testing before delivering a half-baked product like this.

Hello everyone again
Just wanted to post an update. I hate Sony Customer Service. I got ALOT of slack about sharing the software upgrade with everyone. A friend of mine (store owner) emailed it to me. Being computer savy, the upgrade was easy and quick. I do see Sony's point on consumer ignorance however 2+2=4 Net users usually = computer people. Making the upgrade easy in my mind. Sorry if I got certian people in trouble with Sony but the turn around time was 2 weeks!!! With my 30 some hookups, I don't think so!!! If it wasn't such a great sounding product I would have returned it and told Sony where to stick it.

Remote is in right now for upgrade in Novi MI. They told me 7 to 10 days. It has been 14, suprise!!! It doesn't look good for getting it anytime soon. Another good one Sony.

Dear Sony

We out here in the computer world are not stupid. Most of us buying this product are smart enough to hook up a simple 9pin modem cable and do the upgrade. Give us some credit. By the way. DON'T RELEASE A PRODUCT NOT FULLY TESTED!!!!!!! You guys are worse than the big three.

5 star on sound
0 star on service and product testing

I just noticed that all DVD Dolby Digital 5.1 which used to move at BITRATE=640 kbps is now all fixed at BITRATE=384 kbps. Thisis a serious problem all AC-3 RF based LaserDisc play at 384 kbps and some DVD's are also mastered at 384 kbps like Disney's
Armegedeon, but New Line Lost in Space definetly I remeber playe at 640 kpbs, "no more" since the 1.04A software patch. Lets not
ignore this issue.

jibbers

Well I still like Straight stereo better. But for what this piece does, itdoes it well for not too much coin. I these cry babies talking about some
mega expensive pieces being so much better, need a good swift kick in the
NADS!!! The remote is not the greatest, but look what you get with a AVP
Proceed piece, I have seen better cheap can openers! hahaha :) Most HI-End
pieces you stil have to go out and buy a decent remote for you to use it with
anything else in your system. As for Sonys Tech service they are getting
better, I was told to leave a note in the box on my remote to let them know
what unit I had, so they wouldn't program it wrong. And there new up grade
fixed has worked fine for me so far, but I never had any problems to begin
with. Over and Out.............................. 4 and 1/2 stars, nothing is
perfect except for Hedi Klum ;)

Finally I got my TA-E9000ES. I have now been waiting for 14 weeks, but finally it came. I can't possibly describe it, as it is THE best preamp ever.And the gold finnish isn't exactly ugly.... What a build quality!!

Serge, The 9000s is a killer combo, I don't think that the 50ES is even close.
The E9000 can also take a 24/96 signal without downconverting, the 50ES
downconverts.

Yesterday I upgraded the E9000 to the 1.04A version.
No more delays!
It was really easy to upgrade it.
As far as the remote goes, I think it's superb.
The backlightning is bright enough, but I don't know for how long the batteries will last. Maybe I got the "improved" version? Please, can anyone email me for the #number (or similar) so that I can check if I have the improved one?
Also, if anyone knows exactly what differs the 1.04A version from the "first" one, also mail me.

It deserves 6 stars if I could give it that!

-Martin

Upgradeability

Sony upgrade remote

Firstly a note of appreciation to D.Jay.
I use a Sony DVP S9000, TAE 9000 and TAN 9000 conversion with a JAMO series Two HT Speaker kit combination. The first upgrade to V1.18 software showed a slight improvement in the overall sound quality but the ultimate change was the V2.01 upgrade. The original remote was awesome with the the LCD feature, but along came the upgrade with the small plastic remote replacement. Sony obviously realised when they designed the original LCD remote, that under normal circumstances one would not be able to view the main unit display to view setting changes made from the remote, as the seating arrangement in a conventional home theatre room would not allow for a clear view of the main unit. This was somehow overlooked in the upgrade kit. Under advice I purchased a Philips Pronto universal LCD remote to overcome this constraint.Besides resolving the previous issue, this remote also has other amazing capabilities, although not cheap. The JAMO speaker kit is certainly a clean sounding unit, with the 15in. sub-woofer really excellent value.

One word bests describe this pre-amp...awesome..for me the ta-e9000es is the pre-amp of the gods...opened this bad boy up and cant believe all the electronics...large transformer, this thing has the size and build quality of a good size receiver. Some have complain of no on-screen display..imho its great to be able to make speakers settings or whatever WHILE youre watching a movie and to have the tweak take place real-time..I also have an adcom gtp740 (which is now in the shop) and its got the on-screen display deal and frankly its a pain because you cant adjust things on the fly like the sony.
The sound? Well my adcom sounded to my ears very good, after a few days the sony sounded, to my memory, was just as good or perhaps a little bit better then the adcom. I'll have to wait for it's return from adcom repair to compare.
I am more then please with the sony, it is much more then I had expected especially considering it's price.

Any one know about the firmware ungrade in San Jose area that can do
upgrade quick. This is a one minute job, but will take a week in Sony Service Center(my remote). I do have firmware and know how to do myself, but warranty will not cover.

Is any one real compare this unit to B&K AVR 202 or ref 20 in sound
quality?

First of all I love this preamp. However, I have a bitch about support.... Sony's tech support is like calling a typical no knowledge mass-consumer product company (oops I guess that is what they are...). After I installed my 9000 I had several basic questions...the "box-boy" they hired had to place me on hold for reach question while he translated to some back-room techie. It was only after I talked him into placing his "techie" on the phone that I received slightly better responses. In addition, Sony's turn around time to software upgrade my preamp (I just bought mine) was two weeks!!! Anyway, these dopes need to provide this update on their Web site (why bother having an easy way to upgrade if you do not provide the upgrade)?!?!?!
In any case, I downloaded the 1.04a update from a kind soul who posted it on their Web page.

BTW-the pre/amp is awesome, full of features and clean sonic detail...I really like this piece. Their tech support on the other hand is a piece of crap.

This leads me to wonder if Sony really makes this pre/pro or did they OEM it from a quality HI-FI manufacturer (Lexicon, EAD...). I only hope they ripped it off through some OEM arrangement and slapped a SONY label on it.

I have mine matched with NHT 2.5i (front and rear), NHT AC-1 (center), ATI 1505, AudioQuest Crystal (speakers) and Harmonic Technologies (kick-ass interconnects&coax). Both two channel and HT sounds incredible!!!

Five stars for the pre...zero stars for the K-Mart tech support program.

SONY WAKE-UP!