SonySTRAZ3000ES Premium ES 9.2 CH 8K A/V Receiver

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.

The software does not really work well and I could not get it to map my room using my new front ceiling speakers. I had to do the mapping without those and manually add them in to even get the spatial audio working. I also hate how the screen pops up each time I turn on the TV, I just want it to auto go back to the last source. The spatial audio does sound great through, which is the reason I got this to begin with. Not sure it's worth it though, unless they eventually make it more user friendly.

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!

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 remoteDoesn’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.

Yeah dude just get it. Give it a month or so to break in and she'll be all set. She fires every single flugklin speaker precisely. Do it.