Sony STR-DA5200ES - AV receiver - 7.1 channel
See it at Amazon.com for $549.12Average Customer Rating
(3.0 out of 5)
Amazon Customer Reviews
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(5 out of 5)Best AVR I have owned and Installed.
This thing is sweet. The DCDI interlacer works well at all inputs and puts it out at 1080p.. The GUI programing is really easy to figure out and use.. From my days a installer of Denon this is Sooo much easier to use..
Even someone without a clue as to how to connect and program there system could figure this AVR out. Only complaint is its only 120W per channel.. However it is a beefy 120 watts.. Also can produce Picture in Picture for TV sets that do not come equiped..
(5 out of 5)Powerful Clean Sound And Amazing Audio Features
The STR-DA5200ES is the replacement model for the 2005's STR-DA5000ES. And Indeed it is. There are a few minuses here and there, but the DA5200 has definately replaced the DA5000, for good.
Let's begin with the most important improvement of the 5200 over the 5000. Audio.
Although the DA5200 only offers a modest 120W RMS of audio power per channel (as opposed to 5000's 170W RMS per channel), it is obvious especially at higher volume setting that this receiver produces really clean sound. I'm not sure at this point whether the S-Master digital amplifiers have been removed completely from the ES series, but if you pop in a dvd and crank the volume up to about -10db, the difference is like night and day. Gone is the annoying hissing white noise that plagues every ES amplifiers at volume levels beyond -20db.
Also, the engineers at Sony have finally agreed to let their high-end consumer enjoy their proprietary Digital Cinema Audio Calibration (I believe that's what they call it), used to be only available in their DAV systems. The earlier generations of Sony's DCAC is nothing to boast about, using normally a mono microphone and measuring only the distance and levels of the speakers from the listening position. The new DCAC found in the DA52000 would make any home theatre enthusiast drool like mad. The enclosed stereo calibration microphone combined with the built-in software measures not only the distance and level of the speakers, but also the phase, the size and most importantly the frequency characteristics of each speaker. Any home theatre enthusiast knows the importance of using sonically matching speakeres to obtain the "perfect" sound stage, but even speakers from the same manufacturer's line-up tend to differ sonically, especially when they're not off the same size or batch. The center speaker has always been a nightmare for me to match, since my front and surround speakers are identical floor standers. To compensate for the differences in frequency characteristics for each speaker, the 5200 comes loaded with a compensating 6-band parametric electronic equalizer that tailors each of the 7 full range channels separately so they end up sounding the same. There are also 3 preset equalizers that control the bass and treber level for the full range 7 channels of your surround set-up that you can apply over the compensating parametric EQs. The end result in short is sweet, clean and powerful sound.
Also, since this model was released after the release of BlueRay players, its HDMI (3 inputs, which is altogether missing from the DA5000)input supports the input of the basic 7.1 LPCM audio.
And now for the video.
5000 comes with a built-in video converter that up-converts any input source (non-component) into component video. The 5200 went a step further by incorporating the up-conversion feature found in the pricey 7100ES, and more. By incorporating the famous Faroudja DCDi processor, this machine brings every low end video input into the HDMI domain, granted no up-converter can actually generate video lines that do not exist in the source (they only interpolate), but this provides a really convenient video connectivity option for people with TVs with HDMI inputs. The owners of the 5200 can potentially connect any video sources they want to the receiver via component, s-video or composite video and only need to worry about spending money on just one HDMI cable to feed all those video sources into their TV. Neat.
And finally, the look of the new Graphic User Interface of the 5200 is just simply sublime compared to the 5000. Since every feature of the receiver can be controlled via the GUI and the remote commander, you will never have to get up from your seat again to adjust those audio and video settings.. ever.
P.S. If you're a hardcore home theatre enthusiast, you may want to wait for the price drop on the STR-DA5300ES. It has 6 HDMI inputs with the new xvYCC colour support plus decoding support for all the new Dolby and DTS formats (Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby True HD, DTS-HD and DTS-HD Master Audio), support for Bravia Sync to control the functions of your TV and a DMPORT to playback all your IPOD audio files.
For now I'm looking forward to go home each day to enjoy the sound of my beautiful DA5200 which I only paid a discounted sum of USD850 for. The little monster is worth every one of my hard-earned dollar.
(3 out of 5)Good sound, disappointing video
The Sony STR DA5200ES is a big, powerful and versatile receiver with a lot of features. There are plenty of input jacks and an almost-adequate system for mapping them to the various inputs. The on-screen user interface is pretty good and reasonably easy to use. The automatic speaker calibration is very easy to use and seems to work well. The sound is excellent. The "picture-in-picture" (PIP) capability is limited, because it doesn't apply to HDMI inputs. The remote is huge and has a bewildering array of buttons, but I was able to set it up to control most of my system with one or two keystrokes. (If you have several components in your system, you probably should get a programmable remote, like one of the Logitech Harmony models.)
But one principle feature, which is much touted in the advertising hype, turns out to be a huge disappointment: The analog-to-HDMI video up-conversion by Faroudja. First, it won't up-convert digital video on HDMI inputs, only analog signals. Second, supposedly, the receiver can output a very high quality 1080P HDMI up-converted version of an analog video input, for example: the 480i signal from a standard-definition satellite receiver or DVD player. When you try this, you will indeed get a 1080P signal on the HDMI output, but the image is DISTORTED because it is stretched horizontally to fill the 16:9 screen (instead of remaining in the original 4:3 shape). I expected to have some ordinary choices here, like "side bars" vs. filling the screen horizontally by cutting off the top and bottom. Instead, the distorted stretched image apparently is the only possibility. After thoroughly searching the manual and the on-screen settings, I finally tried e-mailing and calling Sony's technical support system. After much time-wasting, they confirmed that there are no settings other than the distorted stretched-out one.
Any 1080p TV can undoubtedly do the necessary up-conversion, probably with several different modes. But the Sony advertising hype seems to be saying that the Faroudja chipset would do a much better job, which isn't true. This means single-cable hookup to a TV via HDMI (another stated advantage) isn't real either. My Oppo DVD player also has the Faroudja chipset and it does do a beautiful job of up-converting, significantly better than my Sharp LCD TV. Meanwhile, the Sony is a JOKE.
If you were thinking of buying this receiver for the Faroudja up-conversion of standard-definition video, you will be disappointed and should probably buy something else.
(2 out of 5)Does not down-convert component video for Zone 2 or PiP
I bought this because I wanted to use it's Zone 2 video, and PiP (picture-in-picture) features. I knew going in that the Zone 2 Video output was composite only, and that the receiver turns off HDMI output when you use PiP, but that was OK for my purposes.
Unfortunately, the unit does *not* down-convert component video input sources, for Zone 2 or PiP output. In other words, if for example you have a DVD player hooked up using component cables, you can't view it in Zone 2. The only thing you can view in Zone 2 (or PiP) is something that comes from a composite source.
The manual says any analog video source can be output to Zone 2. Sony's web site says "Component and S-video sources can be down converted to lower resolution outputs, thus customizing video connectivity to home theater requirements from a single source. Also, both receivers can take HD sources from component video and downconvert the signal for use with composite or S-Video ouputs. This is ideal for distributing video through multiple rooms with less wires."
Link: http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&XID=O:str-da5200es:dg_cnetdf&productId=8198552921665089953
This is plain wrong. So don't make the same mistake I did, if you need either of these features.
(1 out of 5)no good.
I couldnt notice any significant upscaling from my s-video input. Audio wouldnt come throught the HDMI cable. Occasionally when you change the input, either the video or audio stops. and you had to switch off and back on again to get both back.