I had the Sony 50ES forabout a month and was pleased. The major problem is the remote. It is worthless. I new this going in so I purchased the Pronto remote. The Pronto is excellent and I highly recommend it. Sound was good with the Sony, a little bright with some movies that led me to adjust the highs using the internal equalizer, and there was plenty of power. Most of the sound fields are not needed. I wound up returning the 50ES due to its lack of 6 analog inputs and purchased the Pioneer VSX-26TX. The Pioneer is much better. Sound with movies is excellent and the THX Cinema mode eliminates the brightness exhibited in some sound tracks. Forget the Sony and get the new Pioneer. You'll be much happier and you'll be able to connect an SACD or DVD audio deck if and when they are introduced.

I bought mine 50ES few days ago on sale for $599, it's a great receiver for the money. I already had a few problems.1. Half way on the volume dial one of my PolkAudio 6500 series speakers was blown out, so I upgraded to Bose 15 series.
2. Protector warning indicator on the display.
3. if you run subwoofer kit cable and your speakers directly from the recevier and turn sound field effect off, you lossing subwoofer too.
4. remote control 501 shuts itself off after 10 sec.
5. I find EQ difficult to setup.
I'm waiting for the new remote.

I purchased a Sony STRDA50ES and like it very much. The only thing that was not up to par was the remote. I received to old remote and sent it in to Sony for repair. Received it back within one week and they did fix the problem with the bat. When I sent it in the remote would not work with my sony cd nor my new Toshiba DVD. When I got it back it now works with my cd but not with my DVD. If any one know what the fix is for the DVD let me know. When I play my DVD's from my Toshiba I can hit the pause or stop on my remote and If it hit it at least 25 times it will respond. It will not turn off or on the power. When I countacted Sony I got the run around. Another question is that a person posted that they had fixed their remote in a review posted on june 14, however their review is now missing from the listing. Does anyone out their have a solution or whether its worth my while to resend the remot back to Sony to see it they can fix the Toshiba problem. If I could resolve the DVD problem I could live with the poor screen performance of the remote .. In closing the 50 is the best reveiver ive ever had and at the price I would still buy it.

Wish that it had a few more digital inputs. I have DSS, dish network, and DVD. For the remote problem buy some rechargeable batteries from wal mart, problem solved. Overall I love the receiver!!!

The receiver is first rate. It does all that I want it to with ease. As with all the other reviews, the remote is terrible. I didn't spend over $700 for a receiver to travel to and leave (for two weeks), the remote for repair. I want a new one sent to me. Let's see if they will go for it. I have to tell you that after I read all of these reviews, I should have purchased the Pioneer Elite instead. 6 stars on the unit.....2 on the remote.

I love the receiver. The remote is another issue. If you want a great receiver for under $700 this is it! I love the sound field choices. I took the remote back to Sony here in Atlanta and they are putting an upgrade kit in it. I went through the first set of batteries in 5 days. Its hard to see the display in the light, but I think the general idea with the touch pen is kind of cool. I don't really use the remote that much anyway. I put in a dvd or cd and let it play. I was just doing allot of playing the first week. I listened to the Yamaha, HK, Sherwood Newcastle, and Nak. If you want LOUD buy the Nak, but if you want a receiver that covers everything well, this is it. Plus it goes nice with my Sony DVD and 36" flat screen. So the receiver is a 5 but with the remote problems...I have to bump it down to a 4

I'm very disappointed with the STR-DA50 for the following reasons:
1. The remote is awful. Even AFTER sending the unit back to SONY it still is VERY HARD to read, back lighting goes off too soon, the unit NOW does NOT work with my OTHER SONY products like my VCR's. If you are even slightly off axis the remote is of no use at all. Now I need to send it back a second time!!!!

2. The equalizer is inappropriate and using it on the remote is a nightmare. The roll off is not accurate.

3. There is a LONG delay in DTS mode causing the loss of the beginning of a song with DTS CD's When you switch from one mode to the other in and out of DTS you experience the SAME delay.

4 . At times the unit does not respond when you first turn it on. You must turn it on-and-off a few times or randomly press buttons until the unit decided to give you output.

5. The BASS pre-out to the subwoffer does NOT work and SONY can't tell me why. Switching the unit in the speaker setup (subwoofer -YES/NO) has no effect as also does the LFE settings.

6. A lack of ON SCREEN Commands is bothersome and the inability to use RCA, Composite and or Component loops with VIDEO is difficult if your VCR has RCA plugs, your TV is component and your cable box is coax,

7. FM reception is below Avg. AM is not usable.

8. Sound quality is POOR. With Canton CT-1000's in the front and Paradigm monitors in the rear with a Canton center the sound harsh and brassy with MOVIES. The amp lacks real punch and is NOT by ANY means a HIGH END unit. The sound stage drifts a GREAT deal even when using top material such as the DTS Dances with Wolves, And the Diane Krell DTS Music CD's. This same speaker setup worked VERY well and sounded 100% better with off the shelf CARVER equipment. In stereo mode there is no resolution, transients are SLOW, the music does not sound FULL. Even after adjusting the internal EQ the unit never performed better than a $250 or $350 JVC or RCA 5.1 unit. This has MANY features, but the SOUND and build quality is VERY poor. With the EQ - sound field and bass boost unit off you should be getting a direct (pure sound) and you do not, with coax or analog coming from a SONY CD player or even the wonderful PANASONIC A-310. The MUSIC lacks real definition with the SONY unit, but sounded wonderful on the CARVER and the YAMAHA DSP.

9. SONY is not responsive in customer service. Hooking up and un hooking all this equipment is a PAIN in the A….. Why SONY would put out such a piece of S… is beyond me. DO NOT BUY THIS UNIT!
Unless you don't care or don't know any better you WILL NOT be happy. To those of you who don't know ant better, PLEASE listen to and use a product if you can BEFORE you use it!! I'm stuck with thing NOW! AND I'm shopping around, PARASOUND or YAMAHA might be the way to go if you MUST have a RECEIVER.

Comments welcomed and answered. Sorry about the spelling

I bought mine in June, I don't understand the problem you have with the remote control. The battery pack is still the original, yes the display isn't an Active TFT but in the dark you can see it. The sound is very good, and with the RDS included in the EUROPEAN MODEL you have the name of the radio directly on the remote absolutly perfect.

Brought the Sony about a month ago for $680.00 from a local hi-fi dealer. I think it is a great receiver for the price that i paid. My remote works just fine, I think I got a "new" one. It has plenty of power to drive my speakers to very high output levels. It also is very well built, and good looking, plenty of in/outs. The sound is very good, not bright good deep bass, and clean mids. A great product at a great price. I love it.
My system;
Paradigm monitor 7's
Paragigm cc350
sony DVP-S3000
Cambridge powered sub and slave sub
optimus LX-5 rear
sony XA20ES cd player
adcom GDA 700 d/a converter HDCD
all kinds of speaker cable and interconnect.

I'm a European guy and I bought the 50ES 2 weeks ago.Last week the batteries got empty .... But thats what I expected after
all the stories about the remote. So I brought it back to the shop and got
immediately another. Although I'm almost sure the batterie problem is not solved yet, I give the shop a chance. The display is only good readable if the backlight is on otherwise it's as dark as night. In fact it's no wonder that the batteries last only for 2 weeks, it's because of the backlight function.

Although the remote sucks, the 50ES is great ! It has plenty of DSP modes and
an excellent sound. At this moment I'm using it for analogue Prologic that comes
from my Grundig VCR. It sounds great. The "test noise" is a handy thing to setup
all the speakers so that they give the same sound pressure level at the listener's position. Even the distance of all the speakers to the listener's position is adjustable.
It's a pity that the turn-over frequency of the sub pre out is not adjustable. I'm using a seperate filter for this purpose, it sounds's better when using large front speakers. In this way the sub gives only the "window shacking low frequency booms" (ie. Lost world).
Another minor thing is that when i'm playing very soft, the volume leveller is out of balance; the potentiometer has a bad "parallel run". (But how often do you play soft) Maybe it can be a problem with loudspeakers which have a high sensitivity, let's say 93dB/W/m.
On the other hand it can play loud, I mean real loud; 5 x 128 Watts RMS !!
The tuner is also very good.
Well what can I say, overall the 50ES is just great value for money and don't be afraid of the remote. Most of the features are also controlable on the front panel.