Hello everyone!!!
I just got the STR-DA555-ES for about 2 weeks. Over all, the set is really good. Sound quality is very high comparing to my previous Onkyo. Anyway, I have this problem that I hope you can help me to firgure out. Firstly, I like to tell you how I set up my whole system:

TV: Sony 250XBR
DVD: DVP-C600D ( 5-disc )
Receiver: STR-DA555ES
Connection: Digital Coaxial ( between DVD player & the Receiver )
Speakers: Jamo serie 68 ( Front Left, Front right, Rear Left, Rear right )
Center piece: Status
Sub-Woofer: Jamo SW600E

Here is my problem: Sub-woofer doesn't activated during Digital Dolby/PCM mode

In my DVD player, I select Digital Dolby/D-PCM in set up menu.
I selected Genre Cinema and the input selection is Digital Coaxial from the Receiver.

I played movie the Jackal which recorded in Digital Dolby. However, the result which being displayed in front panel as follow:

Dolby, L,C,R,LS,RS, LFE ---. I don't see "S.Woofer" message displayed as I expected since I have a sub-woofer. I don't want L.F.E ( low frequency effect ) routes to the regular speakers. How can the Receiver is activated the sub-woofer in this mode?. I read the manual several times, but couldn't get rid of "L.F.E" message in favor of "S.Woofer" message. Did I set up incorrectly or I got a defect unit?.

However, when I change to D-PCM in DVD set up menu the Receiver's front pannel displayed: Pro-Logic, L,C,R and S, "S.Woofer", no "L.F.E" message this time. Hmmmmm...interesting.

Would you please let me know how to set up so that the Sub-woofer can be activated in Digital Dolby/D-PCM mode?. I am greatly appriciated your help.

As I said earlier, sound quality is very good...I want to give 4 1/2, but I can't...so have to give a 5.

I'm sorry to say that I'm dissapointed in this unit. Caveat is I've only had it for one week. I bought after looking at reviews of the 50ES and watching some of the posts here, and listening a bit in stores. I bought on line for $640.
Sound is ok. User interface is really poor especially for non Sony units. The remote looks cool but sucks. Can't see it in almost any light, and control of units is poor. Have yet to figure out how to make a stereo TV broadcast work in a synthetic surround sound on 5 speakers. At worst it won't do it, at best the user IF and manual are not good enough to figure out.

This will most likely be the last Sony I buy.

I got this receiver about 2 weeks back. It is my first receiver and first I was thinking of getting JVC 1028 ( don't laugh, I am not an audiophile ), but after some research (mostly on this site) I bought this one about the same cost. I am really happy I did that. It sound so clean and I have not gone above 30% volume (I am in an apartment and I do care about nieghbours). I have 5 M&K s-80 satellites and Advent/Sunfile 15" sub (cheap but terrific). I felt top of receiver was hot and put one RadioShack 4" fan on it (I keep it in glass door center). I like everything about this unit. Remote is cool and complex. Only problem I am not able to control my JVC501 DVD player with this (it controls my Panasonic VCR and GE TV). If I am missing some thing (because of which I am not able to control DVD player) please let me know.
sanjay

I love the performance of this receiver. I previously had a Sony D-965, which I enjoyed, but the 555ES performs so much better. For one, it appears the 555ES runs *cooler* than my previous unit; the entertainment center enclosure around the unit doesn't get as hot. The bass from the 555ES is outstanding. I have never used bass boost because I have the sub. With the D-965, I ran the sub level at about 50-60%. At that level, the 555ES blows you out of the room. For CD music I've turned the level down to 25 - 30%, but return it up to around 50% when I'm playing DVD's. Evidently, the bass channel is much more efficient on the 555ES. My only "frustration" is getting a handle on setting the equalizer. A recent Home Theater newsgroup poster characterized the equalizer as a "parametric" system. I've printed off some info I found on the Net on using/setting parametric equalizers and hope to have this one frustration resolved. Otherwise, I'm very happy.

Out of a sense of frustration, and after reading Albert's review of the Sony ES 555 (see below), I felt compelled to add my "2 cents" to the reviews of this receiver.
After several months of researching various receivers, I finally chose to purchase the Sony ES 555 (I've had it for about a month now). There is no question that the sound is fantastic, both for music and for home theatre. The remote, however, simply SUCKS! The illumination is poor, and the back light stays lit for what seems like a micro-second. I found set-up of the remote to be complex and cumbersome (please note that the unit comes with a separate approximately 25 page manual just for operating the remote). I have recently decided to ditch the remote and use my $20.00 sony universal remote to operate my system. In retospect, I probably should have gone with the Denon 3300..... Anyway, because the sound is excellent (and that is what really counts, right?), I'll give it three stars. If the remote wasn't so poor, it would rate a five.

For the price ($1000 list, about $650-$700 mail order), it's a great deal for home theater. The sound is definitely an improvement over non-ES Sony devices, is competitive with other brands, and will satisify most enthusiasts. Forget cinema effects -- stick with plain old Dolby Digital, Prologic or DTS.
The sound is a little thin in the midrange, but could just be because of the amps. My next upgrade will probably be using the preamp outs to drive a larger and more powerful amplifier.

While it bear the Sony name (which makes some audio enthusiasts cringe), it really does sound very good. It's no Meridian, it's no Krell, and it will never compete with separates (in my opinion anyway), but it's a perfect ENTRY LEVEL midfi receiver. The availability of pre-amp outs is nice because it will let you step up to a nicer amp without dropping a significant amount of money for a high end preamp at the same time.

Oh, and forget the remote. Don't even bother installing the batteries. Get a nice Marantz RC-2000 Mk2, or if you have the money get the Pronto. On the Sony remote, you can barely read the display, it turns off after 10 seconds, and is the unfriendliest design I've ever seen. They must have been doing drugs when the design team sat together and built the remote.

Partial system list:
Sony DVP-S7700 (using S Video and Digital Coax)
Sony STR-DA555ES
Energy eXL:26 front
Energy eXL:15 rear
Energy eXL:C center
Panasonic TV (27" from 1994)
Philips Pronto remote

I give it 4 stars... the lost star goes to a poor remote, and the bad cinema effects. If you ditched both, you'd probably have a less expensive unit and it would be even more of a value.

OK, Just set up my new STR-DA555ES. Very Nice! Picked it up on-line at inetshopping.com for $630 delivered. After a month or so of research, visiting every electronics store in my area and reading many reviews on this site and others, I figured I would be better off shelling out a few hundred more bucks for a decent receiver. After all your receiver is the heartbeat of your home audio system. I was originally considering Sony's STR-DE935. Probably the best receiver out there for that price range but I didn't want to risk getting a "Lemon" as many people have indicated on this site.
Anyway here is my set-up..........
Sony STR-DA555ES Receiver
Sony DVP-C650D DVD (Just got this too...$489 w/Tax & delivery)
***Optical Connection to Receiver
***S-Video to TV
Sony 27XBR??? TV
Sony hi-fi Stereo VCR
Bose Acoustimass AM 10 Speakers (Don't laugh...I like Bose)

Coming from a 6-year-old Dolby Pro-Logic Kenwood receiver environment, this new setup with the STR-DA555ES sounds incredible. Just watched Godzilla & parts of Titanic, I never knew my Bose could sound so good!

Now for the infamous remote. I like it! I admit the backlighting does time out pretty quickly but you can simply hit the light button again to relight the display. As far as contrast goes, I was concerned about my display. I thought I had a poor contrast problem until I noticed the contrast adjustment control located on the outside right lower corner of the unit. I guess this remote could be a little complicated. I guess I will have to read the instruction manual for it (25 pages) twice.

Having an all Sony environment helps as far as controlling the whole system with the STR-DA555ES's remote but I still keep my DVD player's remote near by while playing DVD's.

My only gripe (for now) is that I can not control my cable box with the STR-DA555ES's remote or my DVD player's remote. Which means I need to keep my TV remote handy if I want to channel surf...SHEET! :(

For this remote inconvenience I will give a ranking of 4. Nobody is perfect!

Take care and good luck...FW

Heard this reciever at a local dealer and it sounds AWESOME, but They're charging way too much. What's the lowest price people have found? Please email me.
Thanks,
Chris

Good, solid built receiver

Digital switchover is an absolute travesty

I just received my Sony 5000ES receiver,
and I have a real mixed bag of opinions on this unit
after using it for about a day.

My prior receiver was a Denon 3200, which I was
very happy with (minus DTS). So, you'll find
me comparing both receivers in this review.

There is one feature on this receiver that is
so horribly annoying, that if I had known about
it beforehand, I would never have bought this unit.
I will touch on that in a moment.

Out of the box, this is one heavy receiver,
weighing (I believe) about 29 lbs. It is very
solid in construction except for the cheesey plastic
door that covers the front panel.

Hookup was very easy. Everything is labeled well
in the back. There are also plenty of optical
and coaxial inputs for digital components. I was
disappointed that since I have 5 primary video units
(DVD 1, DVD 2, VCR, REPLAYTV, DBS/TV), that I
could not run them all through the receiver via the back
panel. I ran out of inputs. Though this receiver
boasts 5 video inputs, one of the inputs is through
the front of the receiver, which is handy only
if you hook a camcorder to it on occasion. This
may be no big deal to most. I have more video
components than most people have.

Though initial speaker setup was quite easy, none
of it is on-screen via your TV. The DENON was great
as you went through a graphical display on your TV.
The Sony uses cursors and front panel LCD to guide
you through the setup process.

Another problem is that although there is a very
warm blue strip of light that glows when you are
watching a DOLBY DIGITAL or DTS movie, the actual
indicators on the LCD of the receiver indicating the
mode of play is unreadable from a distance. On the
Denon, you saw a distinct RED Dolby Digital logo
pop up on the control panel when the receiver was
playing a Dolby Digital movie.

I popped in my first DTS disc ever, EAGLES: HELL
FREEZES OVER. Playing on my Pioneer 525, I was
suddenly immersed in very active surround sound. The
DTS sounded very impressive. I immediately noticed
that the surround was very distinct and clean.

I then popped in AUSTIN POWERS 2, and was also
pleasantly surprised by an active surround. It is hard
to comapre the DD vs. DTS at this point because we
are talking about two different titles.

I can say that the surround performance on this
unit is quite excellent, and may exceed the surround
sound of my Denon 3200.

Controls are pretty well laid out. One really cool
feature is that when you turn up the volume with your
remote, the actual dial on the Sony receiver turns up
or down. One fault of my Denon was that it got
confusing for as you turned the volume up, the volume
numbers went down. When you reduced the volume, they
went up. I never liked that feature.

Here is the absolute fault with this unit....

There is a distinct delay when the receiver
switches from normal stereo over to Dolby Digital
or DTS.

For example, during the beginning menu screen on
Austin Powers 2 the disc goes into normal
stereo. Select a scene, and the first few seconds
of dialogue are cut as the receiver goes into digital
mode. In some cases, this switchover even accompanies
a crackling sound.

This is highly annoying. My Denon receiver never
had a delay in switching over to a digital source. It
was always imnmediate and seamless.

I am so tempted to return this Sony unit because
of this problem. However, I bought this mail-order
and received it for a "steal" as a Thank You from a
member here. I cannot simply box it up and return it.

This isn't a bad receiver. It is a quality receiver.
I am sitting here now listening to classical music
being piped through my DBS dish. The music sounds
very clean, and a little on the bright side. I am
impressed by the way this unit sounds, especially in
the surround mode.

There just isn't any excuse for sound being
interrupted as this receiver goes from a DVD menu
into a movie. It's annoying and even embarrasing
when you have friends over.

One final note concerns the remote. This unit
comes with a touchscreen remote, which looks to be
pretty impressive, although I have read many complaints
about it in this forum and others I did reaserach on.
Since I own a PRONTO remote, I didn't really
play with the Sony remote extensively. I only used
it to program (LEARN) my PRONTO, which went quite well.
One advantage of the Sony remote is that it is 2-way,
which means whatever displays are showing up on your
receiver panel will show up in the remote as well.

This is a receiver that retails at $999. I would
never, ever buy a non-ES Sony product. They make
crappy receivers in their low-end line. This receiver
is absolute solid construction and has clean active
sound.

However, if I had to do it over again, I would have
bought another Denon. I am used to the warmer sound
it produces, and I certainly would not have expected
a long audio dropout whenever this unit switches to
a digital mode.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 3200

Feautures loades, Sony-compatibility with remote, DSP settings.

Remote backlighting.hmmm thats it!

No regrets with this unit BUT be advised, I had returned the unit once to the store b/c the remote was NOT communicating with receiver constant error beeps. Couldnt explain why, took the remote to the store worked great there. Got another new unit, no questions asked (thank goodness its an authorized Sony dealer!) But I also called Sony cause had the problem again!!! I found out that you DO NOT need to connect the S-Link cables since the remote is preprogrammed for all Sony components. So avoid the cables and save yourself grief! Thought this info might be helpful to all.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 595A