I listened to this receiver yesterday and must say it is pretty good. I would not spend $1000 on it, but it is worth the $649 it can be had for with a 5 year warranty.
It has 100 watts X 5 at fullbandwidth NOT 1 KHz !!!
It has DPL,DD, and DTS and DSP modes processed in 32 bit resolution.
It has 20 bit DAC's which sound as good as their current pulse D/A's in their ES CD players.
I am not a big fan of touch screen remotes. If I have one gripe about this receiver, it is the remote. They could have done better.

Anyways, it is a decent all around receiver worthy of 4/5 stars.

AFTER BUYING THE SONY 825, I FOUND I DIDNT LIKE IT. I DECIDED AFTER READING ALL THE REVIEWS TO GET THE SONY 50ES. I HAVE SEEN IT ADVERTIZED UP TO 1000.00. I WAS ABLE TO PURCHASE IT FOR AROUND 700.00. I'VE SEEN IT ADVERTIZED AS HAVING A GUI BUT IT APPEARS THIS ISNT SO,,BUMMER. QUESTIONS;; HOW DO YOU GET THE REMOTE TO WORK ON EVERYTHING?????? I CANT GET IT TO OPERATE MY DSS WHICH IS AN OPTIMA BY RADIO SHACK,,SUPPOSED TO BE THE SAME AS RCA. CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN HOW I CAN PROGRAM THIS.. ALSO IT WILL NOT WORK FOR MY TEAC CASSETTE OR MY PIONEER CD. THEY ARE A FEW YEARS OLD BUT IT SHOULD WORK... ANOTHER PROBLEM CAN I GET IT TO WORK FOR MY GO VIDEO DUEL DECK????? MAYBE I'M MISSING SOMETHING IN THE DIRECTIONS.. PLEASE HELP IF ANYONE CAN. OVERALL I LIKE THE UNIT AND GOT A GOOD DEAL ON IT.. NEXT PROBLEM DOES IT AUTOMATICALLY SWITCH FOR RECORDING FROM ONE SOURCE TO ANOTHER??? HAS ANYONE NOTICED THAT EVEN WHEN YOU CAN OPERATE A PIECE OF EQUIPMENT WHICH ISNT SONY, YOU EITHER DONT GET ALL THE USER REMOTE BUTTONS OR SOME DO NOT WORK LIKE THE PAUSE WHEN TRYING TO USE MY PANASONIC 310 DVD.. MANY QUESTIONS,, HOPE TO GET SOME ANSWERS... HAS ANYONE JUST PURCHASED THE NEW UNIVERSAL SONY REMOTE WHICH LOOKS LIKE THE STOCK ONE BUT IS SUPPOSED TO BE USER FRIENDLY..

Although I don't own the Sony STR-DA50ES yes it is true if you are in the military or know somebody in the military you can get the 50ES for $649 I will ask my father to pick one up for myself.

It has the new remote MK II. It is easyer to read. 3 times brighter!

I like the receiver, but the remote control leaves something to be desired. For $1k, I would consider the Yamaha 995 or the 2095 over this unit, but if you mail order it for $649, it becomes worth it.

AWESOME!!!(shouted in dts of course)

The Sony STR-DA50ES (hereafter the "50!") is my "bridge unit. Have had an NAD 7600 receiver coupled with a Sony TA-ES2000 preamp/surround processor and two Proton 1150 power amps, but the NAD blew an amp during a lighting storm. My "interim" Kenwood-VR209 (highly recommended) got me through my crisis and served as the Digital Intro piece, coupled to my Philips 850 DVD/DTS player-decoder. It has been retired to my "living room." My "50" will still use the Sony-2000 for acoustical remodeling, but will be mated with my Definitive 2004s, Definitive 8BPs (rears), Definitive 15 subwoofer, and Definitive center channel. The sound is as clean as my NAD/Proton driven system, slightly less overage, but the sound approaches subliminality with good CDs, ie Wynton Marsalis' "Baroque Music for Trumpets." It's virtue as a digital decoder is much better for DVDs decoded with the unit, with better/clearer spaciality than the internal decoder onboard the Philips player. My learning curve will hopefully be quick with the remote, which I understand is an improved version, shipping since the CES. My only disappointment is the tuner, which is very good, but not excellent-certainly not compared to my venerable NAD. I'm considering using it for a tuner, blown amp-section be-damnned! All-in all an excellent unit iwth more than enough bell's and whistles, clean power, versatility, and hopefully a rock-solid 5 year warranty that I won't need. I give this unit 5 stars.

Just received my Sony ES50 after waiting for 2 weeks. First impression is that I like the appearance and the sound quality very much. Thought I would like the remote because I own a Sony 200 disc but it is a bit awkward to use (I'll get use to it). The major complaint I have so far is that the remote set-up for DSS receivers is weak... two choices, give me a break. I have a Toshiba DSS and so far can't figure out how to get the ES50 remote to work with it. Major pain since I use my DSS everyday. Another complaint is all the freakin' DSP modes available... I think the engineers at Sony have way too much time on their hands to come up with 29 different modes (10 or less would have been suffice). Also, just a plain bass and treble knob would have been my recommendation instead of selecting every single frequency on every single speaker. And last, my receiver tends to run a little on the hot side when played for more that 30 minutes. However, with all this said, I do like all the digital inputs on the back panel and the DTS sounds great. I am stepping down from separates to this Sony and so far I am not disappointed in performance. I know I will probably never find the perfect receiver but the ES50 is as close as it comes right now. Tons of power, plenty of inputs, and a budget price... Best for the money. I paid $800.00 for mine at The Home Theater Store in Dallas. Give it 4 stars because there's always room for improvement.

I tried to post a review of this product before but it never posted. So I will give it one more try. I've had the 50ES for about a week. My previous receiver was a Onkyo 414. The first thing I noticed about the 50ES was the weight and the quality of the construction. I also liked that it had 5 S-video inputs and 5 digital inputs. I listened to the Yamaha 2095 and the Denon 3600 and several other quality receivers. I chose the Sony because it was the cheapest with the most features. In terms of sound quality I felt the Sony and Denon were basically even with the Denon being maybe a hair smoother on some music tracks. I liked the Sony better than the Yamaha which sounded a little dark to me. Now that I've had a chance to use it at home the one thing that I wish Sony would incorporate in the future are basic tone controls. The EQ is nice but kind of a pain to access. So far I've watched several DVD movies and been very impressed with the dynamic range of this unit. What really blew me away was listening to the DTS version of Steely Dan's Gaucho.I was simply blown away by listening to stereo recordings over a 5.1 channel mix. The only sad thing is I can not stand to listen to any of my regular cd's anymore. I've tried to compensate by using the 3d multi-rear option but it still is not the same. In closing I will state that I was afraid when I bought this receiver that I might be making a mistake because you do not hear or see as much info on this receiver as you do on some of the other brands such as Yamaha and Denon. I'm very happy and feel that I've found the receiver that will be the centerpeice of my home theater for many years to come.

I've had this reciever for about three months now and I have done just about everything with it; hooked up my direct Tv through it, vcr, DVD player and Cd. I can't find one complaint about it. So what the remote is bulky and hard to read, it can control every piece of equipment I own and that is a plus. I have a pair of B&w 602 and they crank with this reciever. In fact the 100watts per channel is going to force me to get a pair of 604's and the 602 will soon become my rear speakers. I watched a DTS version of WaterWorld and found it a successful display of sound quality at the sound mode Cinema B. I could go on days and days about this reciever but I'll just waste more time. Go buy one and see for your self. Anyone having battery drainage problems, when you use the remote remember that one touch of any button leaves the remote on. You must turn it off after you use it and that will cut down on the battery drainage!