Sony STRAZ3000ES Premium ES 9.2 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!

Stay clear of this product. Not sure if the one I got was a lemon or if it is was bad quality assurance on Sony's side, but mine had the following problems: 4K/120Hz wasn't working only 60Hz (not a settings problem as Sony help desk verified them and everything is working fine with the devices directly plugged to the TV), front speakers were randomly loosing power (becoming barely audible), Samsung HDR10+ usage was blocked by the receiver, wireless subwoofer was connecting but not playing, unable to use my TV as a PC monitor because the receiver would fail to reconnect after the PC wakes up from sleep.