Sony ES STR-AZ5000ES Review | The most immersive receiver yet!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 25 มิ.ย. 2024
- The AV receiver is a central component in a home theater or audio system, providing essential features and high-quality performance for audio and video processing. In this video, I unbox, setup, and review the Sony ES STR-AZ5000ES 11 channel AV receiver. Overall, this receiver is a stellar performer with class leading Dolby Atmos processing and spatial audio.
Sony ES STR-AZ5000ES
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KabelDirekt - 6ft RCA/phono cable
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Speaker Cables:
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Subwoofer Cable:
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Center Speaker Wall Mount:
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Speaker Brackets:
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Equipment list:
Speakers (Some models shown are updated equivalents)
1. Definitive Technology BP-8080ST Front/Main (2)
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2. Definitive Technology CS9080 (Replaced the CS8040HD) Center (1)
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3. Definitive Technology SR-9080 Surrounds (4)
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4. Definitive Technology StudioMonitor 55 Front Wide (2)
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5. Definitive Technology SR-9080 Rear Surrounds (2)
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6. Definitive Technology DI 5.5LCR In-ceiling height (6)
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7. SVS PB-3000 Subwoofers (2)
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8. SVS SB-2000 Subwoofers (2)
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Processor
Anthem AVM 70 8K
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Amplifiers
Emotiva XPA Gen3 7 Channel
• Emotiva XPA-7 Gen3 7 C...
Emotiva XPA Gen3 10 Channel
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Screen
Elite Screens ER165WH2 (New Theater)
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Elite Screens ER120WH1 (Old Theater)
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Projector
Epson 6050UB
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Acoustic Panels
GIK Acoustics
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Seats
Seatcraft Sienna
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Carpet
Modern Contours Phenix Bespoke Collection MC115 in Color Noble 989
Theater Seat Risers (Old theater)
SoundRight 7" Black Home Theater Riser Platform (4Seating Website)
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AC Infinity Controller 1, Thermal Trigger (For Xbox Series Consoles)
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GoldenEar Technology Triton 2 Front/Main
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction
02:28 Front and back panels
09:26 Setup
15:57 Calibration
19:15 Aesthetics
20:43 Review
25:38 We have a problem!?
28:51 Final thoughts - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
The best thing about a Sony AVR is the sound of its two channel stereo. I actually preferred the stereo sound of my previous £400 Sony STR dn1080 budget AVR over the mid price £2,000 Denon 6500 AVR. Punchy, agile, and more dynamic, the sound of Sony will always have a place in my heart ❤
I have both the Sony STR-AZ5000ES and Marantz SR8015, and they are both very good for music. The Marantz does have a warmer, sweeter sound. It also has a phono input which the Sony lacks. I really ❤ the 8015.
@@rafacqoh man you could be my savior. Doubt has been racking my brain for the last 4 months cuz I can't decide which one to buy sr8015 or az5000es. It's going to be my life's very first AVR. I already bought full front stage with Focal Aria, cuz in a review the guy told they have the wider soundstage amongst Kef, Polk, Monitor Audio etc. So my doubt is if it would be just too much "wideness" if I match them with the AZ5000ES.
-I'm afraid of xbox marantz bug.
-I bought a Sony Blu ray player (800M2)
I have delegated my Sony STR-AZ5000ES to 2 channel music listening and the Marantz is now my home theater king. I have the same Sony UBP-800m2.
@@rafacq do it really sound very different? In terms of sound stage? Spaciousness
I’ve got a STR-ZA2100ES and I love it. I went from an older Denon 4802 and I have a 7.1 setup. I haven’t added the Atmos speakers yet. I don’t care what it look like either. It’s the performance that counts.
Imo whatever Sony is doing w/ DSP in their new ES AVR line is working wonders in terms of immersion. Denon/Marrantz's Audessey and Dirac are objectively amazing, but Sony has something going for them that the rest dont have and its a high level experience w just one click, so much less tinkering.
It’s an incredibly easy to set up and the results are pretty impressive.
I agree 100%, let me tell you my experience....I had a Denon avrs750h and I was happy with my 5.1.2 set up and audyssey room correction, then I bought Sony str-an1000 and after calibration without changing speakers wow! My speakers literally came alive....they sounded amazing .. That spatial mapping is something else .... I really felt INSIDE the movies...even my wife noticed a difference
Then a month ago I bought an Onkyo tx rz50 for a really good price, now I have a 5.1.4. I ran Dirac live and it is a Pain to calibrate 17 positions. Dirac is very sensitive.., lots of error messages, output noise too low...ambient noise too loud.... clipping....it took me a few days to complete it. And when I played a movie in Atmos the sound was.....ok. there's a lack in the bass department, the sound is very very clear specially in the center channel and The separation of every channel is very precise...and..... that's it. I wasn't blown away. ... Sony on the other hand ...the immersion is amazing.... The phantom speakers are there lol... I have compared them and Sony wins in the sirround department. And swhen it comes to "being immerse"... Sony takes you there.
I will sell both and buy the az5000es.
Awesome vid. Thanks for your honesty. Buying it now after my sr8015 crapped out. 👌
Glad it helped!
Sir excellent review thankyou
Thank you!
Amazing Man i liked o love Home Theater
I bought a Sony STR-790 it can do 7.2 or 5.2.2 I currently have it running 5.1.2 due to the layout of my room but I will say this I’ve never been happier, in all my life of being into home theater this has to be my favorite setup how ever I would like to end up buying the speakers for this receiver the only thing I’m not gonna change is the subwoofer as it’s already low enough for me especially playing video games on ps5 or hoping over to a streaming platform that supports atmos.
Dude, at best buy they had the sony 1000 especially i believe, it's basically this reciever but the lowest one or whatever and it was open box for like 400 bucks !!!! You should check that out maybe! I was so tempted to get that but I wanted pre outs and it's 7.2 as well I believe. I ended getting onkyo rz 50 for 1200 and it's my second reciever I've ever owned and I really really like it but I hear the sony is better with surround sound so that's what I really wanted but like I said I really like what I have
In the 90s Sony came out with Sound Retrieval System (SRS) on it's KV-XBR televisions...I used to turn it on and run it through Pro-Logic of my receiver...and man it was completely immersive.
I had a 90s kenwood stereo reciever with SRS.
I felt it was mostly a gimmick. I felt all it did was add echo. pretty cheesy. Just like all the "sound fields" in my newer Yamaha AVR. I never use them either. Its just different echo level. Lame.
You're way ahead of my setup lol
I was surprised you emphasised value. Over a year ago I got a new denon 3800 11 channel for 1700. It went on sale at Christmas for $1200 I think.
I picked up the 1000 Es 2 months ago just to do a little Atmos and 4k/8k for my Family room area(avm 70 in my theater room). I feel like it’s done a pretty good job, I just want it to show in what mode I’m listening to a movie or show. I haven’t used a blu ray /4k player yet to see what it can do.
Can't believe we still aren't seeing USB-C on receivers yet considering it can carry digital music and video from portable devices, hopefully one day soon. 😊 Edit. One sub out is not acceptable at the price these days
I agree about the sub pre outs for sure.
I think it looks nice n clean at front 👍
Thank you for sharing the experience. Any updates on the last issues?
Still working great. No more issues
I've had my Sony AZ 5000es for over 6 months.
It has insane channel separation and dimensional sound!
I chose it over the Anthem due to the review from Ripewave audio.
Had you thought of giving it a test drive in your theater room?
Great review you did!
I will rarely try out things in the theater but never say never I guess.
@@Upscaled_Reviews 😁👍
I have a STR-DH770 from 2017 it was $300 when I bought it and it has been pretty much trouble free over the years. Only issues has been occasional HDMI connectivity issues and Bluetooth pairing. The Bluetooth pairing is very crappy. Sometimes it will connect within seconds and other times it won’t work at all requiring you to unplug the receiver from the wall. Very annoying so I don’t normally use the Bluetooth anymore. Overall it’s been a great receiver and would like to get another Sony but Sony seems a bit short on the typical features like pre-outs on receivers. The competition has a full set of pre-outs and Dirac for $1,600. Planning on upgrading and leaning more towards a Denon or Onkyo.
Wonderful review , but do you mind telling me what kind of Tv stand or media console you have the receiver sitting on? It’s wonderful
This is it. I love the amount of ventilation it has but receivers or anything wider than 15-16 inches don’t fit inside. www.castlery.com/us/products/august-tv-stand
@@Upscaled_Reviews incredible thank you
The cabinet is way too expensive. Besides, one of the most important factors when choosing a TV/AVR cabinet is being able to dismantle and reassemble the cabinet, all while keeping the components in place! I can't stress enough how important this will become for one, especially if one is looking to add or upgrade in the future! I tried to pass you a link to a fabulous TV/AVR cabinet, which btw cost less than £180 and it also has an extremely low profile, which is important if one wishes to have their TV imperfect Line of Sight. But either TH-cam or this channel wouldn't accept it. If interested, look me up.
If you crank up the volume after running room calibration and enabling the 360 Spatial Audio mapping you will hear serious hiss/hum out of the speakers. I had to return this particular model after experiencing this big time. Side note, you won't hear it at first especially at low volumes but it's very present at louder volumes. Hopefully they fix this issue as the sound was fantastic. I had the older ES5000 model for years and this never happened. Not sure if I just had a lemon or if this is a common occurrence across this new ES line. I’m currently using Anthem with no issue.
Well you hear the noise with the movie paused or a silent part of a movie but I don't hear it at normal listening. Also, setting such as engineer make it worse and a couple other settings or having speaker line levels way too high. Of course the noise should not be detectable unless your ear is at it.
It is called DSP resampling dumb dumb.
That’s kinda strange. My $300 Sony DH770 from 7 years ago doesn’t even do that. Hopefully that gets resolved.
@@dperr338 yawn. We are talking about the most advanced sound regeneration tech in the industry. Let's see what happens when they start doing this at 24 bit / 192 kHz all channels.
@@chebrubin That shouldn’t matter. A lot of people haven’t reported this issue and he didn’t notice it at first at lower volumes. I don’t see what you are getting at. The base amplifiers and receiver in general don’t change much generation to generation. They added software that’s an evolutionary upgrade from their last calibration software. Software they’ve introduced in other products a few years ago. A $2,000+ receiver shouldn’t have this issue at all considering a $300 one from the same company that’s well past its warranty doesn’t have this problem at all.
P truly find that hard to believe I bought one of these and I compared it to the pioneer LX 505 and the 805 in the pioneer 505 and the 805 still beat it out big time
Whats in the box????? where is this theater?
Any updates on the repaired AZ5000? Is it still running ok today? Thanks in advance
Still works great/
Dirac Live with Multi (4 separate) Subs option is AMAZING ... Will never use another receiver/processor without that sub option ... THAT GOOD :)
Total mistake they did not a processor only variant of the 7000ES with XLR. Would have been perfect for the installer market.
I agree.
These AVRs are a bit confusing how they are positioned in the market. Sony markets them for the installer market any review publication says something along those lines but they don’t have the more advanced features used for dedicated systems.
So is this 360 audio only a Sony thing? Is it different than Dolby Atmos? Is there content that uses 360 audio specifically? Are other companies behind on 360 spatial audio or do they have it as well?
As far as I know, its just a Sony thing. I’m not familiar with any other manufacturers that use it.
There's a few content in 360 spatial audio promoted by Sony, is like a Spotify/Deezer music service you can see it working on RIPEWAVE review of AZ7000 (around 4th or 5th video)
Can you connect two subwoofers to the two subwoofer jacks on the receiver, I'm confused to why it's two if they're not independent 🤔
They're just getting the same signal. It's pretty much the same thing as having one connector on a y cable.
Yes
You need a Mini DSP.
No need to get or use two subs for the same signal right ?
@@ImportLenz you need a mini dsp to equalize and apply delay. 1 output from Sony into the Mini DSP. 2 x outputs from the Mini DSP into the subwoofers.
I expected the sony to be included in the great hall
so happy it is MADE IN MALAYSIA and NOT in china !
I have the older 1100ES and I've been waiting for the new models for several years and now we got them - however, I am still shocked at there being no change cosmetically (after all these years you would think a new body would have come out). I mean these guys have to be the BMW's of audio video. I can also lie to people coming to my place and tell them it's a new model...:) In any event, I have loved what they did with all the changes especially 360 spatial sound mapping. Question for the reviewer - did you have this longer than let's say 30 days..? If not, why didn't Crutchfield just refund you the money.?
I did call crutchfield and I was past the return window.
what is the brand of the cabinet and where can it be purchased?thanks already
Here it is. www.castlery.com/us/pla/august-tv-stand?region_id=901234&ccid=16398686600&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACwCFcTnJ0tyLtNEulze6E_aZLTMZ&gclid=CjwKCAiAt5euBhB9EiwAdkXWO18ab6AymoGuIraZX4m6q99opU_2zMjeKH5VBQu8m2Vn9LFlE3fLfRoCofsQAvD_BwE
Thank you very much 👍@@Upscaled_Reviews
BDI, another cabinet maker, also has beautiful furniture, extremely well built.
Do you like it better than your AVM 70 8k?
Hard to say. I like the about the same.
I feel like there is more I can do with my 70 to separate how much better it is than the Sony.
So did you get lucky and do not have the annoying hiss when 360SSM is on and listening at 0db reference volume? My unit does and it is really infuriating. I’ve replaced the 5000 with a Marantz SR8015 (great liquidation prices). Definitely a better AVR.
I’ve only listened that loud a handful of times and I never heard anything. Can’t go wrong with marantz.
It’s a common problem. I had tried both the 3000 and the 5000 and had hiss with both. Ended up returning it which is a bummer because there’s a lot to like with the sound. I do wish it eq’d the subwoofer which I’m surprised isn’t mentioned.
Ealan Osborn gave very crucial tips for setting it up. He found that in order to enjoy 360 surround sound you should first use 360 mapping calibration instead of only relying on cinema IX calibration
We see 8k and 4k split. Are they all 8k and able to do 4k as well.? maybe labeled like that to tell what they support?
We got the lg c1 120hz. Online world said to use 8k connection to receiver full bandwidth.
Why would they still offer 4k when 8 k connection does full bandwidth and backwards capable.
The c1 came out years ago. 8k tv's exist.
The 8K ports are fully backwards compatible so you can do 4K on them as well.
@@Upscaled_Reviews
That one has 4k labeled.
Those 2 ports labeled 4k?
Are they 8k connectors as well?
@@Upscaled_Reviews they said online that full bandwith for the c1 is 8k connection for 120hz.
Are they full of it?
I just go the local electronic store.
I think the scratches and dent deal had a lot to do with it. my opinion
It was a very small scratch but I can see your point.
Can the amps be disabled so it can be ran in pre amp mode? I am looking for a new processor for my theater and I don't want to pay $3500 for a processor.
Was double checking but it does not appear to have a pre amp mode but you can still use it as one.
@@Upscaled_Reviews got it. Thank you for all you do and the excellent content you provide.
I try my best. Thank you!
@@Upscaled_Reviews just wanted to let you know that.
did you ever figure out if there is a way to disable amps?
You should've putted on your man pants and go tell them to hold their vacuuming for a few minutes lol
No Phono!?!? That's a shame.
Sadly that Sony does not support Auro-3D which is the most immersive format available.
The content in auro 3d is very limited. Dolby Atmos won the format war this generation.
@@Upscaled_Reviews What format war? No need for a winner. True, native Auro-3D is very limited, but upscaling using Auromatic is very immersive and useful everywhere. The Auro-3D speaker layout is more livingroom-friendly and better scalable than Atmos. I have some native Auro-3D music discs and the Auro-3D recording wins over Atmos (mostly artificial) music mixes if you care about natural and detailed immersive sound. SACD fans and audiophiles will love native Auro-3D. For us, is just great being able to choose between different sound formats and different speaker layouts. Atmos is no silver bullet. Sure, we need Auro-3D content.
@@geraldhilderink5686 Having more choices is always better. I guess it all boils down to what you value most when making your decisions. Can't argue with that.
@@Upscaled_ReviewsYes, I agree.
Ive been following reviews on this receiver since it came out. It's full of bugs, pops hiss and what happen to you. Sony released a half cooked receiver and hopefully firmware updates will take care of it all. Good luck.
Only issue I had was the one presented in the video.
Yes but you had the ultimate fix with sony going in and taking care of things. I would say you are in a great place. @@Upscaled_Reviews
I've experienced non of the mentioned issues.
You got jokes 😂
The most immersive receiver 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
if you use legacy components this isn't the unit for you. Sony abandoned older tech & won't mix analogue inputs into the HDMI output signal any more :(
my guess, you had a power surge
It's possible. First time for me.
was it in a surge protector, does that even matter?
My 5000 did exactly the same thing. United repaired it, but my unit does have the annoying hiss when 360SSM is on. I decided to replace the Sony with a Marantz SR8015. Love it.
a dead in the box receiver needs to be swapped for a new one in 3 days, not 3 weeks--- i will not even consider a sony now
It died several months later. It’s working great now.
And yet that useless little circle in the front on the Marantz beautiful. Talk about ugly...
Sony AV receivers are just weak. Could only choose Denon and Maranrz among Japanese brands.
😅🤣 dude, you can't say the Sony is weak then talk about D&M....that's an oxymoron😂 at least say anthem or Storm.
Facts
That might be the ugliest front to a receiver I’ve seen in the last 10 years and the onscreen menu compared to Marantz is terrible. Also, zero room treatment and poorly positioned speakers but yeah sure, peak Atmos.
Looks are subjective. I can’t treat every room with a home theater in my house. My main theater is properly treated.
Who hurt you?
That man said the room isn't finished and you bring your ass to his video hating, sit your hating ass down somewhere!
If you go back a couple videos he pulled all his panels in preparation to paint the room.
Also: have you ever seen a Sony ES Receiver? The button vomit is ‘tradition’. Sony includes a cover that hides all that stuff and you can just use the on screen display. But, again, if it DIDN’T have all the buttons the Sony faithful would lose their minds. It’s like how all the Porsche snobs insist on 5 binnacles even though everything can be displayed on the center screen.
I care about performance, not how pretty it is. It’s in a rack.
It does not have a phono input with ground , that is a deal breaker for me.. i still like old school inputs just like front panel buttons
its an avr not a 2ch audiophile setup, it makes sense they took old garbage off.
@djfirestormx not a 2ch setup? ..lol
I agree with you, thus another reason I replaced my Sony STR-AZ5000ES with a Marantz SR8015.