5 year warranty; Connectivity to other Sony components; Eye appeal; Solid performer at a great price ($700).

Too many soundfields with little added value; Other manufacturers offer a slightly better mix of options, but not at this price point.

I compared this unit against the Pioneer Elite VSX-24TX & VSX-26TX models, and the Denon AVR-3300 & AVR-5600. While each manufacturer offers both comparable and individual features, the only unit that set itself apart was the Denon-AR-5600. However, while the unit's performance was on a higher level, the corresponding price was on a few higher levels. For a sub-$1000 unit, the Sony STR-DA555ES provides a great deal of listening enjoyment without leaving one to beg for your next night's meal. This unit replaced a Sony receiver that I purchased in college and ran for 10+ years without one problem. As a result, and due to my lack of interest in Pioneer products, the Sony product was an easy buy and sounds great with my Advent fronts and B&W surrounds. Now, let's hope for that DVD player from Santa to truly unleash some listening and viewing enjoyment

Good looks, lots of power, great sound, works well with other Sony products, good price

Remote could be better, seems to run very HOT

I ordered the unit through mail-order and got a great price. Once I had it set up I could not believe my ears when watching DVD's. Awesome! The same goes for CD's. Unfortunately after about three weeks it developed a power problem (or lack thereof...) and I had to return it to the vendor. Now I'm waiting to get a replacement unit back. I guess that is the downside of mail-order...

Overall, a great receiver for the price but I can only give it three stars because of the power problem I experienced. I specifically ordered from Sony's ES line to avoid such problems. Hopefully mine was a rare exception.

Good all around sound, lots of inputs, can be fully controlled from chair with the remote. MANY sound field selections. LCD Remote

LCD Remote while cool and having many nice features isn't what it could've been.

I've had this thing for about a little over a month and have been very satisfied with it. The sound on DVD movies is wonderful - I can very clearly hear my rears kick in on Fifth Element and other DVD titles. It has performed very well during this time and I have had very little regrets for spending the money on it. The CD audio out of my Mirage FRX-7’s is very crisp and clean – it doesn’t seem too “bright” or anything else objectionable. Though I confess not to be an audiophile of any caliber – just someone who wanted a high quality round-robin home theater system. I wanted great sound and didn’t care on whether or not I could hear a band member going for a quick scratch in the middle of a song or something...

The remote for this thing is both a strength and a weakness. The two-way communication feature between the receiver and remote is very handy when you are tweaking the unit or changing the sound fields. The backlight-not-staying-on-long-enough issue can be gotten around by allowing the pointer to reside on a dead space (i.e. no buttons) on the touch panel - that will prevent the backlight from turning off.

As neat and nice as the remote is - it really sucks it isn't programmable! I had hoped that this single remote would allow me to stuff all the other remotes on my coffee table in a drawer but alas they still are being used to this day. Having all Sony gear the disappointment was made a bit more intense since I at LEAST expected this thing to have more extensive controls over my other components like my XBR250 TV and CA7ES CD Changer. If only the remote was programmable it would make all the difference!

Overall I am very satisfied with the unit and would recommend it to anyone - but I would still tell them outright not to be too techno-dazzled by the remote.

Excellent 5.1 sound, plenty of inputs/outputs. Lots of settings and handy independent audio / video selection feature.

Remote, remote and remote.

The unit sounds great, especially with my sony DVD player and Dolby Digital or DTS sound. No problems with the unit itself, although the Remote control has caused me some problems.

Other than the backlight issues commonly discussed here, I found a couple bugs with the S-Link A2 control and the remote control-

1. using S-Link A2 on the receiver with S-Link A1 on a sony CD player will disable SOME functionality on the remote such as downloading song names.

2. using S-Link A2 on the receiver with S-Link basic on a DVD player will disable 2-way communication.

Other than that, the unit is the best receiver I've ever owned (although I'm not an audiophile). Works great with my all-sony home theatre system and my mp3-full home computer. I don't use the sound fields much, but the arena field is great for hockey games.

Please email me if anyone has a workaround for the s-link issue.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DE825

clear and powerful sound, tons of features, great price.

Remote control gone off too fast, I fail to teach my 6 year-old kid to use even he can do most of the computer stuff.

I had a sony db830 for a while. Honestly speaking, that was a great receiver. It had almost everything 555es has and delivered great sound in both movie and music. However, I aimed for the finest products that sony made and ordered for this 555es set. When it came in by UPS (BTW every UPS guys are running at this time of the year, after the door bell I just saw the truck drove away), I could'nt wait to open the box and set it up. It was quit easy to me since I had a sony db830. When I played my CD, the sound was amazing. I played vocal (Celine Dion), Jazz, and symphony from my old CD player, they all sounded great. So did the Hi-Fi vedio (Nutty Professor) and TV.

However, I encountered two problems in the first day. 1) When I play my Jazz CD, only one spearker sounded at begining. I had to restart and both spearker sounded. This was at A.D.F. mode. The problem happened twice. Sound test for speakers worked fine. 2) while I played my CD, the receiver shutted down in a sudden, leaved only light indicator on master volumne on but nothing else. The remote did not work ether on that monent. I had to turn it off and back on manually to make it work again.

I like the receiver and decided to get it even I read some reviews about the remote and other problem on it. Hope the problem will dissappear by themself. I also like to see more comments on other problem about it.

Similar Products Used:

sony str db830

Display, rear wiring panel. AFD works well. Lots of digital (mostly optical) inputs.

The remote "could" be a huge strength, but in reality is a pretty big weakness. Mainly lack of programmability (ie: learing) and battery life is pretty poor, but better than the 50Es

The selling point has clearly got to be the superior sound with both movies, music, and believe it or not, console games. I was impressed at how well the AFD (auto-format decode) works. I also liked the blue LED display, gold rca connectors, multiplicity of digital inputs, and the corresponding S-Video connectors for each signal. The room setup is great and includes speaker distance, height, size, etc. You can pretty much customize the soundfield how you want. Although I seem to be "maxing" the rear speaker levels just to get equal sound levels (Yes, I'm using a sound meter and test patterns).

The down side has got to be the remote. I think StONY should just use the Microsoft, or some other brand of remote, and allow more functionality. The main beef I have is that it doesn't "learn" from other remotes. I honestly don't care what song is playing on the CD player.. I can figure it out easy enough. And I think the "sony will work with all things sony" line is crap too. My friend, whose advice I took in purchasing this, has the sony dvd, cd, etc. And he has problems getting the components working together the way they're supposed to.

The other downside is the reliability issue. I've had my receiver for less than 3 months and (from what it sounds like) already has blown the amp circuit. I'm not sure the automatic fan is working, and oddly enough, my friend said that his 50ES fan worked OPPOSITE (on when cool, off when hot). I read another user's comment about his unit going bad as well too.. unfortunately we ALL bought "ES" specifically because we didn't want to deal with this type of problem. And for whatever reason, the units have gone bad. In hindsight, I was debating between the ONKYO 777 and this unit, and if I were to have the option now--I'd go with the Onkyo. I had an Onkyo previously and NEVER had any problems with it. And while I like the sound of the 555ES, I definitely DON'T like having to take the ES out for service and waiting for a month for it to get repaired.

I believe the 4 star rating is probably the most appropriate. If I hadn't had the Amp/PowerSupply problem I'd give it 4.5 or 4.75. After that, the remote is the main thing holding this unit back.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo 777, Harman Karden

constuction, sound quality, features

remote-bulky
DSP-too many options

I originally purchased a DA-50ES from the military exchange. An interesting note is that it was an international version which came with a 120/240 voltage switch on the back. Well I too had the remote problem but I did not have the hassles some other people had in getting it repaired or replaced. I called Sony US toll free customer service and they made arrangements to exchange it for the new 555Es as soon as it was available. The called me up a few weeks later to tell me the 555Es was in stock and sent FEDEX overnite to pick up the 50ES and drop off the new 555ES. Talk about outstanding customer service! The remote on the new 555ES has been working with the original batteries for over five months now and I still have not had to replace them. The only negative about the new remote is the backlight turns off after only 15 seconds of inactivity on the remote. Overall this receiver is worth every penny.

Similar Products Used:

DA50ES

Good DD and DTS. Great Value

Remote;

I purchased this unit for the value of it. I got it for
less than $550 brand new. I considered Denon and Yamaha
but their prices are about double.

Excellent DD5.1 and Excellent DTS. If you haven't tried
DTS you are in for a surprise. You will hear greater
details on the surround channel.

The main complaints are the remote and the noise when
nothing is playing. I guess signals are not as clean as
my old Yamaha ProLogic.

I would recommend it if you can get a good price.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

Excellent Sound and Build Quality, Natural Dynamics, Excellent Remote. (Using in a home theater system only, not much for music)

For $1,000 suggested retail, not many. Could be a bit more detailed at times but would not want this at the expense of what is currently a very natural and full sound. Not necessarily the receiver for the head banger

I previously submitted a review about a year ago and recently visited this site to check out current comments on this receiver.

I am very suprized at some of the negative reviews that I have seen. I have to question whether or not some of the people who have paid $400 for this receiver have not been sold "B" stock or a refurbished unit. My receiver has never faltered in the year and a half that I have owned it. I also find these negative reviews suprizing because I have helped approx 8 friends and co-workers choose and set up systems and 4 of these are using this same receiver and have had nothing but great things to say about it and no one has reported a single problem. The other 4 people I have helped are using Denon receivers (same price range, not the big Denons)and they have worked out very well also. This brings up any interesting issue. It has been my experience that the Sony ES line is more neutral and a bit more natural sounding then Denon and seems to work best with a neutral to warm sounding speaker (I use all Boston Acoustics which is an ideal match) . The Denon receivers I have used are a bit warmer and have fuller bass than Sony ES but again are not quite as neutral and seem to work better with brighter or thinner sounding speakers (Excellent match with the Energy Take 5 System). The one thing that the Sonys don't do is exaggerate or hype detail and dynamics so that even a pin drop sounds like an explosion. This will not be to everyone's taste. The jist of all this is is that both brands are excellent and others are as well (including Marantz) but the speakers that they are matched with can be the most critical factor. Its all about finding what works well together, not necessarily throwing a system together with what is supposed to be the best in each category. This is often a sure fire way to be disappointed with the end result. If this receiver does not work well in a particular system, so be it> That does not mean it is junk.

The last issue I wanted to address is the remote. People, this is a $1,000 dollar receiver not $10,000 high end seperates. This remote is excellent and is very easy to use for most people. ( Try using some of the Yamaha or Marantz remotes - even the vaunted RC 5000 "remote of the gods" without having to study the manual for weeks on end )I have heard of reliability issues with 50 ES models but Sony has addressed these. In my opinion you could not ask for a better remote at this price point. (Unless you expect voice activation)Furthermore, once you have started a movie all you should need it for is the volume control. If you have a Sony DVD player use the volume button on that remote to save battery life on the touchscreen. I still have the original batteries in mine and have had it for a year and a half. My wife and I watch a 2-3 movies a week so it gets alot of use. Just remember it is just a remote, not a PC.

This receiver has been an excellent performer for me and the many friends I have that also own the same model and I would highly recommend it to those looking for an easy to use natural sounding receiver. If it is not your cup of tea or is not a good match with the rest of your system, try Denon or Marantz. IF you want to spend the big bucks B&K is excellent as well.

Jeff

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR 3200, Forte amp and preamp used in music system. Compared to Marantz (Excellent) Yamaha (Bright and dynamics are exagerated - have not heard latest models yet - hear their amps are a big improvement ! Denon - thought their AVR 3200 was very good but Denon needs to be matched with a brighter sounding speaker for best results

Quality sound, power, features,

remote, complicated

The sony 555ES is replacing my trusted Yamaha amp, and the first thing I noticed when I heard the Sony is how powerful detailed the bass of this unit is. I heard base tunes on my CD's that I had never heard before....very surprising! Lots of extra's on this unit, for example you can adjust the amp per frequency range!! Tuner is good and easy to use.
I'm happy with the Sony, especially considering the price I paid of 580 bucks! For the money, it's an absolute bargain.
On the downside:
Complicated to use: You will need the manual to figure this one out, my suggestion is to read the manual several times over!
The remote is not pracitcal: I don't use it, unless I'm adjusting sound fields from my listening position. It just takes too many "taps" to perform a certain operation.

Because of the poor remote I will give the unit 4 stars.

Because of the remote I will give the Sony 4 stars.

Similar Products Used:

yamaha receivers