Sony STR-DA3700ES or Denon AVR3312CI??

[jsutcliffe]

Can't decide between the two. Anyone have experience with either and can recommend like/dislikes?

Building a new theater room so will be mostly movies, but will have music inside and out for other zones as well.

Thanks for your honest feedback.

 

[j_garcia]

What more do you need to know than Sony? VERY simple decision: forget Sony when it comes to receivers.

 

[GlocksRock]

I would never buy a Sony receiver for HT, this is an easy choice, go with the Denon and don't look back.

 

[jsutcliffe]

Thanks for your input, but do any of you have experience with this receiver? I have heard the Sony but not the Denon. I can say that they both have nearly identical features but being that the Sony I heard sounded good, I was looking for opinions from folks that have heard both.

Does anyone have any direct experience with these receivers?

Thanks.

 

[darien87]

I would also vote against the Sony. I have had both Denon and Sony receivers in the past. The Denon was a great piece of gear. The Sony was a complete pile of crap that broke within a year. Regardless of the feature set and how goood the Sony sounded to you, if you don't want to be buying another receiver in another couple of years, get the Denon.

 

[markw]

It sounds more like you want affirmation, not opinions.

I've had a Denon 2802 for 9 years so far and it's far exceeded my hopes and expectations and it's had no problems whatsoever. ...and it still sounds great. Any Sony owners out there want to weigh in?

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have the Denon 3312 in my living room. I think it sounds as good as any AVR out there.

"Sony STR-DA4600ES’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 122.3 watts and 1 percent distortion at 155.3 watts. Into 4 ohms, the amplifier reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 158.2 watts and 1 percent distortion at 224.2 watts.

Response from the multichannel input to the speaker output measures –0.09 decibels at 10 hertz, –0.03 dB at 20 Hz, –0.04 dB at 20 kilohertz, and –2.66 dB at 50 kHz. THD+N from the CD input to the speaker output was less than 0.007 percent at 1 kHz when driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load. Crosstalk at 1 kHz driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load was –74.01 dB left to right and –72.54 dB right to left. The signal-to-noise ratio with an 8ohm load from 10 Hz to 24 kHz with “A” weighting was –106.93 dBrA."
Sony STR-DA4600ES A/V Receiver HT Labs Measures | Home Theater


"Denon AVR-3312CI’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 122.9 watts and 1 percent distortion at 143.3 watts. Into 4 ohms, the amplifier reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 202.0 watts and 1 percent distortion at 225.5 watts.

There was no multichannel input to measure. THD+N from the CD input to the speaker output was less than 0.005 percent at 1 kHz when driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load. Crosstalk at 1 kHz driving 2.83 volts into an 8-ohm load was –77.40 dB left to right and –77.93 dB right to left. The signal-to-noise ratio with an 8-ohm load from 10 Hz to 24 kHz with “A” weighting was –108.68 dBrA."
Denon AVR-3312CI A/V Receiver HT Labs Measures | Home Theater

The Denon has better measurements, but the Sony isn't bad.

I don't know about the 3700ES, though.

 

[jsutcliffe]

Thanks for all the help guys. Went with the Denon

 

[ichigo]

Sony = Great feature set, terrible amplifier

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

Sony = Great feature set, terrible amplifier

The Sony DA4600ES is rated at 120wpc x 2ch driven. Yet, HTM measured it as 155 wpc x 2ch driven:

"Sony STR-DA4600ES’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 122.3 watts and 1 percent distortion at 155.3 watts."

So how is it terrible?

 

[j_garcia]

The Sony DA4600ES is rated at 120wpc x 2ch driven. Yet, HTM measured it as 155 wpc x 2ch driven:

"Sony STR-DA4600ES’s left channel, from CD input to speaker output with two channels driving 8-ohm loads, reaches 0.1 percent distortion at 122.3 watts and 1 percent distortion at 155.3 watts."

So how is it terrible?

Because SONY The ES line does have decent amps. Always have, but that's about it IMO.

 

[Grador]

Do sony's still get hot enough to fry eggs on? It's been years since I've come across one and the unit I remember could beat an onkyo any day for use in everyday cooking.

 

[PENG]

Do sony's still get hot enough to fry eggs on? It's been years since I've come across one and the unit I remember could beat an onkyo any day for use in everyday cooking.

Not the ones I have had before. I am not sure why people in NA tend to despise them yet they seem reasonably respected overseas. I would not hesitate to own one of the ES models if Sony would give up on their proprietary stuff such as their DSP, EQ etc., and go with 3rd party ones such as Audyssey XT32.

 

[Thumperama]

Not the ones I have had before. I am not sure why people in NA tend to despise them yet they seem reasonably respected overseas. I would not hesitate to own one of the ES models if Sony would give up on their proprietary stuff such as their DSP, EQ etc., and go with 3rd party ones such as Audyssey XT32.

I too have always thought it odd that folks are quick to deride Sony ES receivers. I understand when talking about their speakers (except for the SS-M3's, 7's and 9's). I have owned several of their ES line receivers and with only one exception, have been extremely satisfied. I have owned Onkyo, Denon, and Marantz and have not found any of them to be vastly superior to Sony or each other.

I am sure you will be happy with the Denon you purchased. I ordered the STR-DA3700ES to replace my STR-DA5300ES receiver that gave up after several uneventful years due to a lightning strike. Based on the few reviews I've read on the 3700, I am looking forward to receiving it.

 

[Hornet77]

Denon Receiver

Can't decide between the two. Anyone have experience with either and can recommend like/dislikes?

Building a new theater room so will be mostly movies, but will have music inside and out for other zones as well.

Thanks for your honest feedback.

When looking to compare these two receivers, one must look at the reliability they have. Denon has been doing receivers for over 100 years, alot of the technologies that are used now came from Denon for the most part. The audyssey microphone where those mics are used in all high end McIntosh was the first calibartion microphone to come out in the market. They were first to introduce THX receivers to past the best out settings and were first to introduce Dolby and DTS to there receivers so they have alot of firsts in the industry. I find they are very sturdy and handle alot of current for most home theater speakers and especially when you go into there top end units they can handle a stable 4 ohm load if you are using high current speakers for music puproses. I use to sell Sony receivers and there reliability werent the greatest, though I'm going to dis the company, they could obviously make better units but its most outsourced when it comes to there components so. I've had a pleasure for the last year of selling them where I work and I very rarely have issues with them but when it comes to servicing there are places within the GTA they fixes them so. If you have other questions, let me know.

 

[re5513]

Strda3700es

The STR-DA3700ES receiver comes with a 3 year parts AND labor warranty. On top of that there appears to also be a special 90 day program where they will swap out an unsatisfactory unit and replace it with a new one should you have a problem.

I think there have been some great Sony receivers over the years. The hard part is knowing which one is going to be the good one. The 3700ES has a lot of features related to usability and programming. When you think about where the receiver concept got started, it sure seems like we've come a long long way from the days of those two channel Pioneers and Sansui's.

For the DA3700ES, I believe it sounds superb. I'm not concerned about it having twitchy hardware. It has a great warranty.

I am worried about its software. Out of the box I went ahead an upgraded the firmware on my unit to version 966 per the startup instructions. I must say that getting all of the pertinent networking applications enabled and running was a bit tedious. Even so, I have my doubts that a person lacking significant technical aptitude or experience would find this receiver to be at all easy to get fully operational. On the other hand, it does a lot more than play the radio. I think is one issue is that different applications (Pandora, Netflix, etc) have different ways that you must enter your account information or otherwise enable the application. To even see the available applications you first have to download them over the internet. There is just a lot of steps. Experience with networked appliances helps.

Once enabled, some applications do not boot up reliably (Pandora). Some (Slacker) do not run reliably. Some seem to work OK once setup (Netflix).

I expect that the software will become smoother over time. As Sony is a content provider of sorts, it is in their interest to make sure it does. As is, it certainly is acceptable even with the occasional glitches.

The DA3700ES is less of a receiver and more of a computer system albeit diskless. It runs on a Unix operating system, has advanced graphics, needs a monitor to run, is networked, and has significant non-volitile storage. Like I said, these units have come a long way since 1978 .

My next project with this one is to tie it to a DNLA server (preferably a movie box of some kind - not a PC). I like the promise of DNLA and would be curious to know what successes folks here have had with it.

Cheers,
re5513

 

[re5513]

The STR-DA3700ES receiver comes with a 3 year parts AND labor warranty.

Strike that. The three year P&L warranty was for Canada. The US warranty is full parts and labor for FIVE YEARS! Cough cough.