The ES legacy represents the best of what Sony is about, and we are excited to welcome back their ES
line of home theater receivers. Hi, my name is Matt, I'm a Car A/V editor here at Crutchfield, but a
long-time movie fanatic, and I'm here today to talk about Sony ES home theater receivers. Now the first
impression you get of these new ES receivers is that they are beasts. And I mean that in a
great way; the build quality is outstanding. When you pick it up it's very heavy, and that lets you
know that they're using really high-end components inside the chassis. The design itself is sleek and
stylish. With its easy-to-read LCD and its array of buttons on the front panel, the aesthetics
really are gorgeous. And finally, it just looks substantial. It's an eye-catcher of a receiver, and
the kind of equipment that you're probably going to want to show off. And this line of receiver is
packed with features. So here's a rundown of my top 10 favorites. To start off, the fact that it
has both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X sound decoding is just fantastic. Dolby Atmos in particular provides
a great, immersive listening experience when you're watching movies, and both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X
provide virtual options if you don't have height speakers in your system. The next feature I'm
excited about is called 360 Spatial Sound Mapping. It's a virtual effect that gives you a really neat
immersive sound field when you're listening to music. I was also impressed by how easy the auto
calibration process was to use, and what a great job it did adapting the sound to the exact room
that I was listening in. The next feature I love is its 32-bit digital-to-analog converter, or DAC.
This does a lot of the magic when you're watching movies or listening to music. Its very high
sampling rate allows it to reproduce good depth and nuance and dynamics in your music or your
movie soundtracks, and it'll even do some upscaling so that your lower-resolution files sound great.
The next in the long list of features that I love about these receivers is the fact that they're
compatible with Sony's wireless surround sound speakers and subwoofers. These are great for anyone
who wants to create a good surround sound system at home, but doesn't want to have to run wires all
over the place. I want to take a look next at the networking options these receivers offer.
They provide great music streaming options and compatibility with other gear.
For example, these receivers work with Chromecast to stream audio, Spotify Connect for direct control
over your Spotify app, and Apple AirPlay 2 so you can stream music directly from your phone.
You can get some control over the receivers with Google assistant or Siri, and these receivers also
work with the Sonos Port so that when you tap a single button on the Sonos app, the receiver will
turn on and automatically change to the correct input. And fans of the Roon music organization
software will be really happy to know that these receivers are compatible with it, also. On the video
side of things, these receivers are ready for the future. They'll allow pass-through of both 4K and
8K video signals, and they even dedicate four HDMI inputs to work with 8K signals. Gamers will also
like these receivers because of their low-latency mode, which helps make sure that what you see on
the video and what you hear in your headphones match up perfectly. These receivers also feature
IMAX Enhanced technology for compatibility with movies and shows designated as IMAX Enhanced.
And lastly, I like that these receivers work with Sony's music-centered app. It's always good
to have a few extra control options. Now let's talk channels and power. Here we have the
STR-AZ5000ES, which will drive 11 speakers plus two subwoofers, and is rated at 120 watts into 8 ohms.
With all this in mind, how do these receivers perform? Well, I got my hands on this receiver
and I can tell you it's spectacular. First of all, music sounds absolutely amazing.
Hi-res files sound great, you get lots of range, lots of dynamics, deep bass extension, good clarity
and excellent detail. It's a really engaging experience. But I was surprised at how good
lower-resolution music sounds. I tried out Spotify using Apple AirPlay and I was really shocked at
how good it all sounded, and this is in large part due to Sony's DSEE upscaling technology.
Movie soundtracks sound amazing, too. I tried out a couple of Dolby Atmos movies and was absolutely
blown away by how much the height speakers added to the whole immersive effect. The video
performance of this receiver was fantastic, too. I connected a Sony 4K Blu-ray player to one of the
HDMI inputs, threw on Rogue One, and was pretty much blown away by how good the picture looked.
So in the end, Sony ES receivers provide engaging, immersive A/V experiences, and they're ready for
whatever the industry is going to throw at them next. So if you need a hand designing
the perfect home theater system, give us a call or chat with us online. Thank you for watching.