Sound quality Construction quality Flexibility Power DSP processing power

Remote could be better

I came across this unit when asked by the original owner if I would be interested in purchasing a fancy Sony receiver. I originally was not interested, being satisfied with my Technics SA-DA10. Then, I saw what kind of receiver it was. I knew right off the bat what kind of component this was, so I took no time in getting this magnificent piece of equipment. This component is typical Sony ES. In other words, high quality and heavily built. The heavy weight of the receiver suggests heavy metal construction coupled with a substantial power supply section and substantial heatsink elements for the output stages, and it most certainly shows. Two heatsink rows are used in this receiver in a horizontally opposing configuration to fight resonance, provide a level of isolation between the amp sections and other parts, and to eliminate the reliance of fans to cool the heatsinks. The entire chassis is built on a solid beam and frame design with an anodized aluminum front face. All interconnects and binding posts are substantial, with the RCA connections sporting gold plating. The binding posts are banana plug friendly, which was more than could be said of the Technics I used to have. My old Technics also had binding posts for all speakers, but they were too wide apart to allow banana plugs. Sonically, this receiver is marvelous. More powerful, more authoritative, more effortless, and more musical than my Technics SA-DA10. Very neutral, with perhaps a touch of lushness. Very easy to listen to without sacrificing accuracy. It matches sonically to my Optimus Mach Three speakers much better than my old receiver and the result is fantastic. Listening to Enya, for example, has become almost surreal with a very smooth and effortless quality that wasn't very prominent with the Technics when connected to the same Optimus Mach Three speakers. This may be due to the fact that the Technics employed ICs for the amplifier outputs (even though they were class H+) while the Sony employs discrete transistors for the amplifier outputs or whatever. Regardless, the point is that the Technics did have good amounts of power with substantial bandwidth on its output stages, but it's not as refined as the Sony's outputs are. Even with the Technics' VGCA mode engaged, the Sony still blows it out of the water in terms of sound quality and listenability. Surround performance was also highly respectable. Excellent Dolby Digital, DTS, and Pro Logic processing. Far and away superior to my old Technics. Plus, I am now able to enjoy Dolby EX, DTS ES, and Pro Logic II. While the Technics used standard tone controls, the Sony uses an extremely flexible EQ system, where you can adjust specific frequencies and their amplitudes in decibels in .5 dB ranges for each channel. This level of flexibility will allow you to custom taylor the sound for a uniform sound quality on all speakers as well as to account for the listening room acoustics. No other receiver or preamp costing several times this machine has this level of flexibility! The only exception are other Sony ES models of preamps and receivers. In addition to excellent digital processing, you can also engage the analogue direct mode to bypass all digital processing for sources connected to the receiver through analogue connections. Another fantastic feature which allows you to listen to analogue connected components without any intervention from the DSP sections. The only flaw in an otherwise flawless package is the remote. The remote is needlessly complex to use and the instructions supplied with it don't really do a good job of clarifying how to use it fully. Fortunately, I can still use the basic functions, such as the volume, so it's still usable to a degree. Overall, for $300 this machine was a steal, especially considering that this receiver easily costs more than twice this much used, much less new! Talk about great luck! But, even for $700, this receiver is a bargain. It's a bargain when you consider the quality and flexibility that this receiver offers over the competition. This is an example of another quality ES component from Sony.

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Technics SA-DA10

Clear Sound

Very heavy Problems with overheating Takes hours to set up if you do it right

Problems within 1st month of buying the unit overheated and would cut out until it cooled off. I have owned it less than a year, been in shop 3 times. Two weeks ago it went back into the shop after unit quit completely. Sound wise it's excellent, but when you pay that much you expect quality! Have spent about 3 hours on the phone with customer support(much to be desired there). Finally sounds like Sony might be sending me a new unit at the end of Oct.(Crossing fingers) What a dilemma.

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1992 harman kardon avr25 Never a problem, still own it!

Great sound quality Great set-up options Very powerful Excellent build quality Eleagant design Full featured

None that are really weaknesses

My first 5.1 digital receiver was the Sony STR-DE835 which I enjoyed very much for about 3 years. In April of 2003 I upgraded to Sony's ES line with the STR-DA2ES and what a difference in quality. The sound of the 2ES was so much better that I almost couldn't believe what I was hearing. I loved the 2ES so much that I upgraded to the STR-DA4ES in July of 2003 which this review is about. I want to start off by saying that this receiver is simply awesome. For the money I believe you cant buy a better receiver period! I wondered if the 4ES would sound better than the 2ES due to its beefier build quality and design and the anwser was an astounding yes! The 2-channel analog direct mode is stunning. The sound is rich, powerful and full bodied with great seperation and excellent sonic detail and very revealing; in other words it makes its source material (music-movies) sound realistic. With movies the sound is incredible, dynamic range is awesome from big explosions to very subtle sounds it is all reproduced with breathtaking realism. Some people say that Sony receivers sound a little bright, I disagree. I think their recevivers are simply faithfuly producing their source material. Many people like the so called warm or smooth sound in a receiver which the 4ES is capable of producing, but if you really think about all the natural sounds in our environments, the sounds are neither warm or smooth, instead they are very pronounced, detailed and revealing and the 4ES produces those qualitys very well. I've listened to the Denon 2802, 4802 and the 5803 which are all great receivers but I truly like the sound of the STR-DA4ES better. This is also a very flexible receiver with lots of set-up options. I highly recomend the 4ES.

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Denon,Onkyo,Pioneer

Built like a tank Powerful (Did I mention powerful) Fantastic choice of sounfields and tweakability with the onboard eq. Gorgeous,elegant design

Ummmmmmmmmmmm Nope!

I was agonizing over the decision to upgrade my home theatre hub - Should I purchase separates or replace my receiver? After a great deal of consideration, I chose to purchase the Sony Strda 4 es receiver. I am very pleased with my decision - What a powerhouse! This piece of art has all the processing power a person could ask for in home theatre and it has the muscle to present music in all its glory - jazz, classical, new age, rock and any other music you care to throw its way. It also has an extensive equalizer palate on board - I am very pleased that I have the ability to adjust the sound in each of its channels - talk about selectivity! As another reviewer stated, "if you can't get your speakers to sound great with this receiver, it's time to find a different hobby." Should I have gone with separates? Perhaps - but for my bucks, this was a great buy. I really can't imagine the separates sounding that much better, and certainly not for this price. I may never grace a movie theatre again! Hell, I have one in my living room. If you love movies and music and don't want to take out a second mortgage on your house to transform your living room into a theatre, please give this es receiver a listen. Ummmmmmm, please turn on my Sony- oh and pass me the popcorn please, The show is about to begin!

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I listened to Denon, Onkyo, Yamaha, and Rotel - I liked the Sony.

Very, very clean and natural sound, even at volumes bordering on the painful. The ability to tweak the sound of every channel independantly *exactly* the way you want it. Built like a brick and runs noticably cooler than any other unit I've tried while jumping through the same hoops. Superb warranty.

Remote is NOT learning! No optical IN on front panel.

They say that if you are a "movie" type person then buy brand X and if you are primarly a "music" type person then buy brand Z instead. Shouldn't several hundred dollars worth of AV receiver be able to do both?! Fact is that pretty much ALL the receivers I tried, including my old $100 Sherwood, do 5.1 surround quite well, provided you have the speakers! THX is a nice bell and whistle but rarely the best listening enviroment (IMHO). So what I needed was a receiver that would adequately supply my movie 5.1 decoding needs while meeting some of my more "music " specific requirements at the same time. These include NEO6, which can really do neat things with old 2 channel CDs, plenty of multichannel inputs (for future SACD upgrade), very crisp and pure sound in 2 channel stereo, and the ability to perform using 4 Ohm speakers at higher volumes for extended periods of time. The Sony DA4ES fulfilled these requirements better than any of the "similar products used" that I have listed below. Gear used: Fronts: 400w 4 Ohm Cerwin Vega DX-9 Rears: 200w 8 Ohm Cerwin Vega LS-10 Being able to match these speakers with the generic junk I currently have for center and subwoofer is a real plus. As others have said, the DA4ES (the DA2ES also has these adjustments) is the ultimate in tweakdom! Not only can you set seperate levels for *each* speaker but also bass frequency cutoff levels and you even get a three band parametric EQ... for EACH speaker! If you can't get this receiver to make your speakers sound good then it's time to give up and find another interest. Sound is simply incredible, even at the higher volumes that seemed to seperate it from the rest I tried. Not as bright as the Yamahas and not as cluttered sounding as the Onkyo. Easily comparable to the Denon and HK, surpassing them both, watt for watt, at higher volumes (ALL of the aforementioned recievers performed well at lower volumes). Tested with some of everything, from full orchestral to bluegrass to the heavy metal slambangs of the likes of Rammstein and Ministry, this receiver simply takes the gold for 2 channel enjoyment. Subtle woodwinds, acoustic strings, the warmest brass, all sound natural and alive. Of course the remote is relatively lacking and for a receiver that has adjustments for just about everything I was suprised to find it missing some deluxe details found in upper end Onkyo, for instance, such as variable "mute" level and on screen display of volume and other essential variables as they are made on the fly. While the Sony has plenty of optical ins I was somewhat suprised to see it lacking one on the front panel as well. 7.1/6.1 expandibility, 2 room capability, stylish (gold plated connectors everywhere), high build quality with massive caps, heatsinks and powersupply and STILL runs cooler than anything else I tried.

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Onkyo SR800, 797, Yamaha 5560, Sherwood 6090R, also extensively demoed Denon, Kenwood and HK

- Excellent controls allow you to tweak sound quality beyond what is available in any other non-Sony ES receiver at five times the price! - Beautiful industrial design.

- It is impossible to overstate the poor design of the remote. It is actually a step down in functionality from the one included with the DA2ES. Although various sites will tell you it is programmable (i.e., it can remember macros) it cannot learn new commands. Only the remote prevents a 5-star rating. - Set up is a bit non-intuitive and definitely required more work than most of the competition. Most folks will need the manual.

The Sony STR-DA4ES receiver has a number of strengths but, after many hours of auditions, I want to focus on the feature set that really differentiates this receiver (and its big brother, the DA7ES) from its competition: Sony builds a highly flexible EQ system into this unit. Now before all the purists out there dismiss my admiration for "tone controls" as ignorant and misguided :-D understand that what makes Sony's system so attractive is the subtlety with which it can be used. The bass and treble of the front L&R, center, and both sets of surrounds can all be independently adjusted in .5db increments. You even have quasi-parametric control over the midrange across the three front channels! Why is all of this control better than simple bass and treble knobs? Well, if you've never given any thought to speaker placement in your room or the timbre match across your front channels it may not be. But if you pay attention to this kind of stuff, you can use the EQ to acheive subtle compensations for a room that maybe too dead, or a center channel that isn't quite a perfect match with the L & R fronts. And after you get your system set up, you don't have to mess with it again. (Sony actually gives you 5 memories in which you can store different settings although I only use one of them.) Finally, there is one more EQ function that I find very useful. The DA4ES allows you adjust the bass and treble boost separately for each surround mode. This is a different adjustment than what I've been discussing up to now and it is very useful if, like me, you like a natural presentation for music but exaggerated bass for movies. You can tailor each surround mode to your preference. Control flexibility aside, the sound of this unit is excellent, comparing favorably to the Meridian 561 pre/pro in my main system in all respects except for the ambience synthesis music modes. The Sony is brighter than competing units from Denon and Integra but not unnaturally so. I prefer the sound of the Sony. In conclusion, this ES Series receiver is a beautiful component which allows a high degree of control over the quality of the sound. Tweaks will appreciate the extra control. Those on a budget will find it an excellent value.

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Competing Denon, Yamaha, and Integra receivers were extensively auditioned. Also compares favorably to Meridian 561.

Lots of power, lots of options, Great clean sound no hiss, or other noises better than anything in its price range and most of higher models in the big 4

Damb remote this thing is usless, not learning SONY WHAT WERE YOU THINKING

This is a great reciever at a good price considering what you get. Never thought i would have bought a sony but the 4es gave me a kick in the groin lots of stuff to do on this baby great power.A great reciever for home theater or just music. make sure before you spend your cash you give this sony a listen

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listened to Yamaha couple of denons, Marantz and higher end JVC pioneer, and teac(way too expensive)

pure, refined, awesome power connectivity 5 year warranty sounds phenominal especially movies/multichannel sacd/dvd-audio totally adjustable/customizable reasonable price when bought online, even for $1000 msrp I'd take it 2 multichannel analog in

remote could be better though its only a pain for me to change tv channels: fine for all other functions so far, controls my dvd player (JVC) like it was designed for it no 192/24 dacs

I have been very impressed with the Sony STR-DA4es. I wanted a high power, high quality HT reciever without paying a fortune. The 4es is a big, solidly constructed unit. There is obvuiously workmanship and attention to detail put in to this unit. The chassis construction and substantial front face give it a classy look. The rear panel has tons of connectivity options. For video, it features component video pass though and composite to s-video upconvert. For audio it has 2 digital coax in 4 optical in and 1 optical out. Also has an endless array of analog ins, including 2 multichannel in for dvd-audio and sacd. The amplifier section seems to be endlessly powerful and clean. It delivers 110w x 7 but I am only using 5 channels due to limited space. The pro logic 2 decoding for stereo music sources is a really sweet feature does a nice job and rarely stumbles and makes the song sound bad as my last reciever tended to do. Sony's Digital cimema modes are also pretty good in my opinion, though I usually just leave it on auto decoding for DD or DTS soundtracks. With 3-32 bit processors it seems to have ample power. The only thing I noticed about this reciever is it dosent have 192/24 dacs, which a lot of lower priced recievers do...I find that odd but perhaps Sony just has a better way, as its flagship DA7es does not either. This reciever lets you mold the sound to your preferences, room and speakers with superb and easy to use crossovers and equalizers for all channels. The low pass crossovers in particular are precise with 10hz steps from 40-140hz. There are too many other features to list on this unit. All in all it sounded fantastic out of the box, and with some fine tuning sounds even more awesome. I would buy this product again if I could do it all over again

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Auditioned H/K 525, Yamaha htr-5590, Yamaha rxv-2300, denon 2803, kenwood 6070, str-da2es (which convinced me to get the 4 because I like the 2)

Very versatile receiver. More than adaquate for most HT applications. Best sounding receiver under $1500.

Nearly worthless remote. Why on earth supply a non-learning remote with a home theater receiver. Hello Sony, now I've gotta keep either my TV remote (a learning Sony) or my cable box remote on the table too. More buttons, or a PDA-style touch screen would have been nice.

I replaced a 10 year old Yamaha RX-V870 with the '4, and man, what a difference. It's amazing how far technology has come in the last 10 years. The 870 was one of the highest rated receivers back in it's day, but the '4 just puts it to shame. I'm hearing detail in familiar pieces of music that I didn't know was there. The clarity and precision of sound is flat-out stunning. Someone else had mentioned how quiet it is, and that's amazing too. No humming, no switching noise...nothing but clean, powerful sound.

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The usual suspects.

Power amplifier. Sound&Vision just reviewed it and measured power in stereo mode to be 209 Watts/channel into 4 Ohms with very low distortion. Sony's Digital Cinema Sound DSP modes. Very Flexible Equaliser and Crossover adjustments for all channels. Most adjustments are in 0.5 dB steps rather than 1.0 dB like many other receivers. Remote controls most but not all other brands of equipment. You don't have to look up codes to program it to work with, day, a Toshiba DVD player. Just pick "Toshiba" from the DVD player list. Very nice. Six digital inputs (2 coax, 4 toslink), assignable to other sources. Lots of flexibility here. One digital output for MD or DAT recorders as well.

Digital Cinema Sound has far fewer modes than any previous Sony receiver. The Virtual multi-dimension and Virutal Multi-rear modes are gone, along with several others. No mid band in the EQ for the surround L/R and surround-back L/R speakers. No mid band in the surround-mode EQs either. The older STR-V444ES and 555ES had them. Cannot turn off Pro-Logic decoding for 2-channel sources when using Cinema Studio EX A/B/C modes. Cannot use DPL-II or dts NEO:6 instead of Pro-Logic either. REMOTE Ugh. way too few buttons, which makes it look simple, until you try to do advanced things. Heck, even changing to a specific TV channel, CD track, or disc number is too complicated, because of the lack of number buttons! Only the display is backlit; the buttons are glow-in-the-dark. The remote's display is bright and easy to read when the backlight is on, and impossible to read otherwise. The backlight comes on even if you push a button that does not require the display, like Play or Track+. Ugh. remote does NOT learn, contrary to many dealer's claims. lower build quality than earlier ES receivers like the 5ES. E.g. fewer high-grade capacitors.

Excellent receiver. This is one of the most versatile and feature-equipped 7 channel receivers on the market. Sony's Digital Cinema Sound DSP modes are almost unbelieveable. I don't mind at all that Sony does not ever seek THX certification/conformity. Sony is not a company that conforms; they are a company that innovates. This receiver supports all of the currently available multi-channels formats on the market, and the latest decoding modes for two-channel sources as well: Dolby Digital Dolby Digital Extended Surround (EX) dts dts ES, both Matrix and Discrete 6.1 dts 96/24 Dolby Pro-Logic Dolby Pro-Logic II Movie and Music modes dts NEO:6 Cinema and Music modes. In addition to the DPL-II and dts NEO:6 modes for listening to music, Sony also has created two Digital Concert Hall modes which use all speakers to provide a very involving multi-channel presentation of 2-channel or multi-channel (such as dts) music sources. This receiver features some of the most advanced Bass management available in any receiver at any price. Each of the four sets of speakers (Front L/R, Centre, Surround L/R, and Surround-back L/R) have an independant crossover, with 17 frequencies to choose from between 40 Hz and 200 Hz. Many receivers from other makers, even high end ones, often allow a choice of one, two, or up to five frequencies, and often this choice is global... not independant for each speaker pair. The sub also has it's own crossover with the same frequency choices, and you can also low-pass the LFE channel as well, again with the same choice of 17 frequencies. The 4ES' EQ is very flexible. The EQs for the Front and the Centre speakers each have 3 bands (bass, mid, treble), with adjustable frequency and level, and adjustable width ("Q") for the mid band. The surround and surround-rear speakers have only the bass and treble bands. EQ settings can be stored in 5 presets, and the EQ can be disabled as well. Each surround mode also has it's own EQ, with bass and treble bands, so that you can tweak the sound on a per-soundfield basis. Other features include: - 2-way remote capability (included remote is 1-way) - 2nd zone Audio/Video output with independant source selection - ability to turn off digital and/or video circuits when not in use, e.g. when listening to SACD. - TWO Multi-channel inputs, one is 7.1 channels, other is 5.1 channels. - Very powerful and clean amplifier This is a very "quiet" receiver. I have said this before, but never quite meant it like this. Even at very high listening levels, there is no background noise. None. When the input goes silent, the room goes silent, without the faintest whisper of background noise. The Amplifier section is great. This is a real step up from my "QS" series STR-DB830, which was purported to have "ES Quality" amplifiers. I would describe the sound as detailed and vivid without being harsh or overly bright. Very easy to listen to for an extended period of time. This amps have power to spare; much more headroom than my DB830 despite the negligible difference in specs (110 vs 100 watts). Overall: Amazing for it's price. Could be slightly better, but at a fraction of the price of some other receivers out there, this Sony really delivers.

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Sony STR-DB830 Sony STR-DA5ES Sony STR-V444ES