Sony STRAZ5000ES Premium ES 11.2 CH 8K A/V Receiver

I replaced my Pioneer SC-LX901 with this because I needed eARC support for my new TV. I did a lot of research before I pulled the trigger on this receiver. There is something magical about Sony’s 360 Spatial Sound Mapping. No other receiver can touch this tech. A good tip though, let the auto set up calibrate the speaker distances and leave it. Except for speaker size, of course, if you have a powered sub, set them to small. This will also set the speaker heights and distances from the screen. I had imaging issues at first with SSM turned on. You have to go back and, with a tape or laser measure, manually set distance from screen, listening position, screen and speaker heights, and speaker distances from the screen. That fixed everything and it sounds amazing! I’m running a 5.1.2 set up with front Dolby enabled speakers and it sounds like a full 7.1.4 system. Can’t recommend highly enough!

Easy to Hook Up, Sounds amazing driving my home theater speakers, best bang for your buck, it does have Bluetooth and WiFi, it also features a setup Microphone which automatically, it has multiple HDMI ports allowing you to hook up whatever device you want, has an amazing remote control where the buttons light up which adds to its Functionality of making it easier to use in the dark also the buttons on the I love the function of the cover plate for the front of the receiver as it gives a clean esthetic when the buttons aren’t being used another function it has is a 5v USB port on the front and an Ethernet port on the back so it’s definitely got all the bells n whistle for a functional system!

So far I am happy with my purchase since it is an improvement from my previous Sony avr as it really packs a punch. The product seems to be solid and takes some getting use to with all the options it has with calibration. One thing to note when doing the auto calibration is that if you are using high channels and no rear surrounds to make sure to plug them in in the surround option port and not the high channel or the calibration will fail. I have since added my rears and had to reposition the speakers in the back of the avr and ran calibration again. After auto calibration make sure to set up your fronts as small or leave as large if no sub woofers. One thing to note is they will make good speakers sound better and the bad speakers sound bad because of how good the avr dac is. With the little time I have using it I can tell that it is about 10% louder the my previous Sony STRDH590 and a vast improvement when it comes to how good the voices come through on all movies. Hope this helps anyone looking to purchase this unit.

As a longstanding Sony ES customer, I'll start off with the things I do not like about the STR-AZ7000ES: 1. No HDR10+ support. 2. No QMS support. 3. No QFT support. With that out of the way, this thing is worth every penny. I have owned a number of ES and non-ES AVR's over the past several decades, and nothing sounds as good as this thing. Setup and calibration is easy. The on-screen UI is easy. The web browser is great as it does everything the on-screen UI does. The iPhone app is simple but equally as effective. The remote control leaves a little to be desired, but it's not a train smash. The STR-AZ7000ES has range and power for days. It just keeps going. It does get a little warm (okay, very warm), so I added the AC Infinity Aircom T10 to keep it nice and cool. I highly recommend this for any AVR owner, as AVR's are notorious for running hot, even when they ship with their own in-built cooling fans. The 360SSM does sound quite innovative and interesting, but I prefer to watch content without it as I have a full 7.2.4 speaker system. If you have fewer speakers, 360SSM can help fill in the missing channels. The upmixing of 2-channel stereo music into Neural X is actually pretty good. I was originally a 2-channel purist for music, but Neural X does a great job of expressing all the high-frequency instrumentation and vocals across a 7.2.4 speaker system, while keeping all the low-end in the subs. As for movies, stop the press. This thing really shines especially in Dolby Atmos that has been properly mixed and engineered in the studio. In summary - do yourself a favour and get it!

As my Sony DA4ES was 23 years old it was time to upgrade as component video wasn’t solidly supported in TV sets anymore in 2024. It’s all HDMI, that standard won out. This was the ideal choice for me from a connectivity perspective. In the 20+ years of using the DA4ES this AZ3000ES replaces I never once used the pre amp outputs of the 4ES. The built in power amp stage has always been sufficient for my 6.1 setup and so getting this with only amplified speaker outputs for running it as a 5.1.2 is just the right fit. It gives me the option of adding front heights in the cieling (if Atmos becomes more available in normal BD or FullHD streaming) and having a 5.1.4 system. But as is it solves my key problem - switching between 6 HDMI input sources, without the complex cabling and remote control macros that an external HDMI and optical audio extractor requires. So much easier and more reliable to control with a programmable remote control. One annoyance , that is just a change of how to use it I suppose, is the way it displays the audio mode. I’ve gotten used to the blue LED that lights up in the DA4ES when a multichannel decoding is detected and enabled. The AZ3000 does it by illuminating specific tiny lettering in the front display , which is useless when sitting 8 feet away from it. So there isn’t a quick and easy way to spot if its matrix decoding a stereos signal (aka Dolby ProLogic ) or getting discrete 5+ channel decoding of Dolby Digital /Dts/Atmos/etc. The way it’s done now is you can enable some on screen display of the audio decoding in effect and see it on the screen. Just not as instantly visible as a distinct colored LED would be. Because the lighting of the matrixed vs discreet deciding text all looks alike from the couch as a light blue blur in the front panel display a 1/2 inch left or right of each other. It’s a gripe at a high level I know. The one annoying flaw, which may be fixable in a future firmware update is the 360 Surround Sound mapping software mode which creates virtual speakers out of the setup of physical speakers you have. When enabled , that mode does soils much more room filling and enveloping , I like the general sound stage it produces. So it can make my 5.1.2 setup sound like a 7.1.2, however the software signal processing has an issue with producing a hiss from channels without a string discreet signal in the decoded content. So for me the hiss that comes out of the rear surround speaker left that is just 2 feet from my head is distracting when no audio is playing - such as in menus and silent scenes. Turn off the 360SS mode and the surrounds go silent immediately. With 360SS on , the hiss is there. After about 10 seconds of waiting the receiver does mute the surround speaker , but that just shouldn’t need to happen. If there is silence to a channel , that speaker should be silent and it hissing.

Update 2: This product is a nightmare. Loses configuration settings frequently. Totally incompatible with my Sony Bravia 8 TV and Verizon Fios Settop box eARC connection. Avoid this product! Update1: To be specific here, the listing for this receiver states that the Sony Music Center app supports this system. It does not. Sony support confirms it does not. The only way to control the unit’s features is in the room with the unit with its cheap remote. Update: The lack of a supported app for remote operation is a deal killer. This is a multi room multi zone system, but since you can’t control it from zones outside the room with the crummy provided remote, you have to go into the room and turn on the zone you want to operate and turn off the main zone if you need to. My 10 year old Pioneer elite system had a wonderful full featured remote and an equivalent iPhone app so you could control the system from any room in the house. This Sony sucks in this regard. Reducing my rating to one star. Forget Sony TV compatibility and get a different multi zone receiver and a different TV for that matter. You’ll be happier. Original 3 star review: Wanted to upgrade the receive to go with our new Bravia 8 TV. This would replace a 2013 Pioneer Elite SC-72 that was a great mid level receiver but becoming dated on recent 4K video and recent audio standards. The Sony STR-AN1000ES has noticeably poorer sound output over our 8 ohm Polk Audio surround speakers. Control of the audio functions are much, much less feature rich than the 12 year old Pioneer system were in spite of the significantly higher price tag for this lower power Sony unit. The sound is decent and the 360 degree sound field feature helps, but it falls short overall. I would be regretting the decision entirely to switch from Pioneer Elite to Sony except that the compatibility among Sony products adds convenience in day to day operations of the system. Turn on the TV and the receiver comes on. Keeps the complexity of operation simple for the rest of the family. Would I recommend it? If you don’t already have a surround system, just get a sound bar and sub woofer for equivalent sound and convenience. If you already have the speakers, can’t really recommend this for the price. Pros: Compatible with a Sony Bravia 8 TV for seamless operation in your home theatre. (Gets it the 3rd star in this review.) Cons: Terrible remote Doesn’t work with Sony Music Center app as advertised. (System not found. Other Sony systems on the same network are there.) Decent sound, but disappointing at this price point. “Easy setup” was crazy hard to get going and took a couple of hours fiddling with it to get the menu to show up on the Sony Bravia 8 TV which is required for set up. No windows configuration software for a pc like other systems. Sounds under powered at low to mid volumes. Control feature poor for a system at this price.

Amazing build quality, easy to set up, feels very high end. Picture in Picture mode is great. Love the ease of use with it and being able to use my Sony Bravia 9 as a center channel speaker as well. App is easy to use, AVR powers on/off everything with one remote as well. The power cord is replaceable if you prefer to upgrade that as well. While it is more expensive to comparable brands, the overall build quality and ease of use, as well as the room correction are well worth the extra money to me.

Bought a Pioneer receiver but couldn’t get it to pair with my new Samsung OLED. Bought the Sony AN1000 and it worked great but felt I needed more power. I bought the Sony AZ1000 and couldn’t be happier. Spent some serious time with Sony and Samsung help lines and got it all hooked up and running. I had everything connected correctly but was having a problem with the TV Recognizing the receiver. Would not have been able to figure this out without both manufactures support. Both Sony and Samsung were really great. The sound is better on this ES model. If you can spare the extra dollars I would recommend getting the AZ1000. Sony receivers are easy to use once you get everything set up. Sony has a rich sound, better I think, than some of the other Asian brands. Like the 4k and 8k upsampling. Picture is great. I will be set now for many years to come.