AaronBatiuk
Second Unit
- Joined
- Aug 23, 2002
- Messages
- 333
I have had the 4ES for a few days now and I thought that I would share some of my impressions, as a follow-up to my previous thread comparing the virtues of the 4ES and 5ES receivers. I will not try to go into the gory details of its sound quality, because I haven't had it long enough to make such judgements.
First impressions[*]This is a heavy beast. The boxed weight is 24 kg (53 lbs) and the receiver itself weighs in at about 44 lbs (according to the manual's specs). It is also large (deep). It nearly does not fit into my cabinet. The power transformer could not be a fraction of an inch larger and still fit inside this thing. The power supply capacitors are physically huge, 15000 uF ones. [*]The front panel is of course made of black-anodised aluminum, like most ES components. The buttons have a nice clickly feel to them - they don't press too easily, but are not diffucult to press either; rather, they offer nice tactile feedback. The function and jog dials have nice tactile feedback when turning them as well. The volume dial is like a jog-dial now, in contrast to earlier ES receivers. It rotates (smoothly) through 360 degrees. The benefit of this is that it has "acceleration" like the mouse on your computer. move it slowly, and the volume increases very slowly, 0.5 dB at a time. Move it more quickly and the rate increases. A quick counter-clockwise spin of only 1/4 turn or less will turn the volume down completely. Spin it slowly and it will take several turns to go minimum to maximum or back. You can also adjust the volume by remote in 0.5 dB steps rather than the "step-size" of the motor that turns the volume dial, as on receivers with a motorised volume dial. The remote's volume also accelerates; hold down the up or down button, and it adjusts slowly at first, then gradually increases the pace.[*]The power cord is removable (read: upgradable) and uses a standard connector, like the one that computer power cords use. The back panel also has two switch AC outlets to connect equipment that cannot be turned on/off via remote (like my Sony SCD-CE775 SACD player).[/list]User Experience/Interface:[*]The two-line display is bright and easy to read. It, like the display on all Sony components, is a vaccuum-flourescent display rather than cheap LEDs or LCDs. The result is a very sharp, bright blue-ish white display that has excellent contrast and is very readable. The display can be set to any of several modes to show whatever information you are most interested in.[*]When adjusting the volume, the display shows the setting for a couple seconds, then reverts back to your prefferred setting.[*]Whenever a new source starts playing, the display cycles through several pieces of information, including the type of source (PCM, dts, DD, and number of channels), sampling rate, decoding mode (DPL, DPL-II, dts NEO:6, etc.), DSP Soundfield, etc., then reverts back to your prefferred setting.[*]Spinning the jog dial (or pressing the cursor buttons)will scroll a list of useful information about the current source, including format (PCM, dts, etc.), bitrate, number of channels, discrete/matrix, bit depth, etc. Unlike the 5ES, the firmware version is not shown.[*]The on-screen display is useful. Setting the Equaliser via the on-screen display will be a breakthrough moment for some people, who have a hard time understanding the "frequency" and "width" parameters of Sony's parametric EQ. The resulting EQ curve is shown graphically on the on-screen display, and seeing it change as parameters are changed can be an "AHA!" moment for those accustomed to "graphic" equalisers.[/list]Remote[*]What were they thinking? The remote is unintuitive and requires a lot of clicking and scrolling to perform all but the most common functions. Once you get used to it, it can be nice to not have all those buttons there, but some buttons just should be on a remote, like number buttons. With this remote, you have to pick the numbers from a scrolling list in order to "type" them. E.G.: You want to change to disc 145 of your jukebox CD player. You press ">" to get to the sub menu, scroll to "disc" and press. You press ">" to get to the numbers menu and press for "1", scroll to 4 and press, scroll to 5 and press. You now scroll to enter and press. The CD player changes discs. Sheesh.[*]The LCD is nice and easy to read with the backlight on. With the backlight off, it is nearly impossible to read. The backlight comes on even if you press a button that does not require the display, like Play or ">>". It stays on for several seconds. I wonder what the battery life will be like.[*]No learning. This is contrary to most reseller's claims. It is not a learning remote, and it is not a 2-way remote either. I even cracked it open, and have confirmed that it does not have any IR receiver of any kind in it (I am an Electrical Engineer... I would know). No learning. No 2-way.[*]Very limited macros. Not too useful really.[*]I plan to primarily use a touchscreen LCD remote from a V555ES that I bought used. This remote is a 2-way remote, and the 4ES is compatible with Sony's 2-way remote system. Setup parameters, EQ settings, surround adjustments, etc. all show up in real time on the remote's display. Make a change to a setting (even on the receiver's panel or using another remote) and the new setting is displayed on the 2-way remote's screen. Very, very slick! Another wonderful thing is the fact that the remote downloads and stores a list of all of the disc titles stored in my Sony megachanger and 5-disc CD/SACD changer. This is a big bonus for me as I have a fully loaded 400 disc changer, and trying to remember the locations of disc in that thing is impossible. I can choose a CD by name from a list, sorted alphabetically or by disc number. The remote will also download and display track names from discs that have CD-Text on them (relatively few do, BTW, but if you make CD-R's you can easily include CD-Text). Even if no track name is available, the remote tells you which track number is being played. It does the same for MiniDisc players, 5-disc CD changers, and SACD players too. The 2-way remote system received a lot of criticism, which is probably why most of the new ES receivers do not have one. I love it.[*]The 4ES' remote will be used in the 2nd room. It works great for that purpose.[/list]DSP[*]One of the big selling points of Sony receivers (for me) is their absolutely fabulous Digital Cinema Sound DSP modes. I was very dissappointed to see that many of the former DCS modes that I liked are no longer there! The only DCS modes available are the three "Cinema Studio EX" modes: A, B, and C. The "Virtual Multi-Dimension", "Virtual Multi-Rear", "Virtual Enhanced Surround A" (and B), and all "Semi-" modes are no longer available at all. They are gone. I used to use Virtual Multi-Dimension very often. I guess I won't be doing that any longer. The 5ES, does in fact retain all of those older DCS modes.[*]New DSP modes include a new 7-channel version of the Digital Concert Hall modes (A and B). These are somewhat analogous to the Cinema Studio EX modes, except these are used for music.[*]Pro-Logic II (Movie and Music modes) and dts NEO:6 (Cinema and Music modes) are available, but only under "Normal Surround". So, when decoding a 2-channel source into multi-channel using one of these modes, you cannot apply a Cinema Studio EX mode to the resulting multi-channel sound. Big bummer. Cinema Studio EX modes will use regular Pro-Logic to decode all 2-channel sources, and will use multi-channel sources directly. Pro-Logic cannot be de-activated for Cinema Studio EX (as it could be on the STR-V444ES and V555ES of two model-years ago).[*]In my setup, and to my ears, DPL-II music and dts NEO:6 music can do wonderful things. They are the only reason I did not pick up a V444ES a few months ago at a blowout price. (The 444 lacks them).[*]I have not yet had a chance to compare Pro-Logic II Movie and dts:Neo6 Cinema to regular Pro-Logic.[*]Decoding modes. The 4ES supports every multi-channel decoding mode available to date, including Dolby Digital EX, dts-ES (matrix and discrete), dts 96/24, Dolby Pro-Logic II, and dts NEO:6. Very few other receivers of any price currently support dts 96/24.[/list]Connectivity[*]One of the biggest selling points for me is the two multi-channel inputs. This allows me to connect both an SACD player and a DVD-audio player. The vast majority of other receivers out there have only one multi-channel input. The 4ES has one 5.1 channel input and one 7.1 channel input, and both are analog direct (no analog/digital/analog conversion). They can be accessed using a dedicated button on the front panel, or using the remote, or they can be assigned to one of the normal inputs. For example, if your DVD-audio player is connected to the DVD input, assign multi-channel input 1 to DVD. Then when you select DVD, the audio comes from the multi-channel input.[*]Downmixing in the analog domain for multi-channel inputs. If you have the sub set to "no", then the sub input of the multi-channel inputs is mixed (in the analog domain) into the two front speakers before going to the amplifier/pre-amp outputs. The same goes for the centre channel. And if you have the surround-back speakers set to "no", the surround-back L/R inputs (of the 7.1 input) are mixed into the surround L/R channels. This ensures that systems with fewer than 7 speakers plus sub will still reproduce all multi-channel sources correctly[*]Selectable +10 dB boost for the sub channel of multi-channel inputs. This is a very welcomed feature. It seems that not everyone agrees on the proper recording/playback level of the LFE/sub channel of "x.1" sources. So setting up your sub to reproduce DD/dts sources at the right volume may leave a distinctive lack of bass when playing back certain multi-channel sources (such as, but not necessarily: SACD, DVD-Audio, external decoders/processors, etc.). The +10 dB boost will correct for the -10 dB attenuation that some, but not all, multi-channel formats use for their sub channels. I remember an entire thread/rant in this forum about this issue. It is now a non-issue with the 4ES.[*]Six digital inputs including 2 coax, all assignable to any input source. Any input source (except tuner) can select a digital input. Then the receiver can be set to automatically pick the analog or digital input, or you can force any of the assigned inputs (optical, coax, or analog) to be used. This allows tremendous flexibility which is most welcome.[*]The second room A/V output works brilliantly. It has remote volume control, and the output is high enough to drive an amplifier directly (pre-amp standard of 2 V rather than line-out standard of 150 mV).[*]Full support for Sony S-Link (Control-A1II for audio and Control-S for video) to 'network' components together. This is required for neat features like displaying track and disc titles on a 2-way remote (a 2-way remote is not included, but the 4ES can use one).[/list]Sound Quality[*]As I mentioned, I haven't had it long enough to come to an informed opinion of the sound quality, but I can say that it instantly sounded better than my STR-DB830 that it replaced, even with the 830's claimed "ES quality" amplifier section.[/list]DissapointmentsI've mentioned some of these above, but I'll mention them and others again:[*]Fewer DCS DSP modes than any other Sony receiver. I will miss "Virtual Multi-Dimension".[*]Turning on A+B front speakers turns off all other speakers![*]Remote. No learning. No 2-way capability. Very few buttons (mixed blessing on that one actually), but should have number buttons at the least, otherwise controlling a TV with it is just too awkward.[*]Pro-LogicII or dts NEO:6 can not be used in conjuction with any DSP mode such as Cinema Studio EX. (looking into this, will confirm later).[*]No RDS (Radio Data Service) on the tuner for the North American model. Why not?[*]The EQ Does not have a "mid" band for the surround and surround-back speakers. Otherwise it is great.[*]Does not support downloading of Tuner station names into a 2-way remote, even though stations can be named. Strange.[/list]OverallWouldn't trade it for anything (except a STR-DA7ES ...drool)
First impressions[*]This is a heavy beast. The boxed weight is 24 kg (53 lbs) and the receiver itself weighs in at about 44 lbs (according to the manual's specs). It is also large (deep). It nearly does not fit into my cabinet. The power transformer could not be a fraction of an inch larger and still fit inside this thing. The power supply capacitors are physically huge, 15000 uF ones. [*]The front panel is of course made of black-anodised aluminum, like most ES components. The buttons have a nice clickly feel to them - they don't press too easily, but are not diffucult to press either; rather, they offer nice tactile feedback. The function and jog dials have nice tactile feedback when turning them as well. The volume dial is like a jog-dial now, in contrast to earlier ES receivers. It rotates (smoothly) through 360 degrees. The benefit of this is that it has "acceleration" like the mouse on your computer. move it slowly, and the volume increases very slowly, 0.5 dB at a time. Move it more quickly and the rate increases. A quick counter-clockwise spin of only 1/4 turn or less will turn the volume down completely. Spin it slowly and it will take several turns to go minimum to maximum or back. You can also adjust the volume by remote in 0.5 dB steps rather than the "step-size" of the motor that turns the volume dial, as on receivers with a motorised volume dial. The remote's volume also accelerates; hold down the up or down button, and it adjusts slowly at first, then gradually increases the pace.[*]The power cord is removable (read: upgradable) and uses a standard connector, like the one that computer power cords use. The back panel also has two switch AC outlets to connect equipment that cannot be turned on/off via remote (like my Sony SCD-CE775 SACD player).[/list]User Experience/Interface:[*]The two-line display is bright and easy to read. It, like the display on all Sony components, is a vaccuum-flourescent display rather than cheap LEDs or LCDs. The result is a very sharp, bright blue-ish white display that has excellent contrast and is very readable. The display can be set to any of several modes to show whatever information you are most interested in.[*]When adjusting the volume, the display shows the setting for a couple seconds, then reverts back to your prefferred setting.[*]Whenever a new source starts playing, the display cycles through several pieces of information, including the type of source (PCM, dts, DD, and number of channels), sampling rate, decoding mode (DPL, DPL-II, dts NEO:6, etc.), DSP Soundfield, etc., then reverts back to your prefferred setting.[*]Spinning the jog dial (or pressing the cursor buttons)will scroll a list of useful information about the current source, including format (PCM, dts, etc.), bitrate, number of channels, discrete/matrix, bit depth, etc. Unlike the 5ES, the firmware version is not shown.[*]The on-screen display is useful. Setting the Equaliser via the on-screen display will be a breakthrough moment for some people, who have a hard time understanding the "frequency" and "width" parameters of Sony's parametric EQ. The resulting EQ curve is shown graphically on the on-screen display, and seeing it change as parameters are changed can be an "AHA!" moment for those accustomed to "graphic" equalisers.[/list]Remote[*]What were they thinking? The remote is unintuitive and requires a lot of clicking and scrolling to perform all but the most common functions. Once you get used to it, it can be nice to not have all those buttons there, but some buttons just should be on a remote, like number buttons. With this remote, you have to pick the numbers from a scrolling list in order to "type" them. E.G.: You want to change to disc 145 of your jukebox CD player. You press ">" to get to the sub menu, scroll to "disc" and press. You press ">" to get to the numbers menu and press for "1", scroll to 4 and press, scroll to 5 and press. You now scroll to enter and press. The CD player changes discs. Sheesh.[*]The LCD is nice and easy to read with the backlight on. With the backlight off, it is nearly impossible to read. The backlight comes on even if you press a button that does not require the display, like Play or ">>". It stays on for several seconds. I wonder what the battery life will be like.[*]No learning. This is contrary to most reseller's claims. It is not a learning remote, and it is not a 2-way remote either. I even cracked it open, and have confirmed that it does not have any IR receiver of any kind in it (I am an Electrical Engineer... I would know). No learning. No 2-way.[*]Very limited macros. Not too useful really.[*]I plan to primarily use a touchscreen LCD remote from a V555ES that I bought used. This remote is a 2-way remote, and the 4ES is compatible with Sony's 2-way remote system. Setup parameters, EQ settings, surround adjustments, etc. all show up in real time on the remote's display. Make a change to a setting (even on the receiver's panel or using another remote) and the new setting is displayed on the 2-way remote's screen. Very, very slick! Another wonderful thing is the fact that the remote downloads and stores a list of all of the disc titles stored in my Sony megachanger and 5-disc CD/SACD changer. This is a big bonus for me as I have a fully loaded 400 disc changer, and trying to remember the locations of disc in that thing is impossible. I can choose a CD by name from a list, sorted alphabetically or by disc number. The remote will also download and display track names from discs that have CD-Text on them (relatively few do, BTW, but if you make CD-R's you can easily include CD-Text). Even if no track name is available, the remote tells you which track number is being played. It does the same for MiniDisc players, 5-disc CD changers, and SACD players too. The 2-way remote system received a lot of criticism, which is probably why most of the new ES receivers do not have one. I love it.[*]The 4ES' remote will be used in the 2nd room. It works great for that purpose.[/list]DSP[*]One of the big selling points of Sony receivers (for me) is their absolutely fabulous Digital Cinema Sound DSP modes. I was very dissappointed to see that many of the former DCS modes that I liked are no longer there! The only DCS modes available are the three "Cinema Studio EX" modes: A, B, and C. The "Virtual Multi-Dimension", "Virtual Multi-Rear", "Virtual Enhanced Surround A" (and B), and all "Semi-" modes are no longer available at all. They are gone. I used to use Virtual Multi-Dimension very often. I guess I won't be doing that any longer. The 5ES, does in fact retain all of those older DCS modes.[*]New DSP modes include a new 7-channel version of the Digital Concert Hall modes (A and B). These are somewhat analogous to the Cinema Studio EX modes, except these are used for music.[*]Pro-Logic II (Movie and Music modes) and dts NEO:6 (Cinema and Music modes) are available, but only under "Normal Surround". So, when decoding a 2-channel source into multi-channel using one of these modes, you cannot apply a Cinema Studio EX mode to the resulting multi-channel sound. Big bummer. Cinema Studio EX modes will use regular Pro-Logic to decode all 2-channel sources, and will use multi-channel sources directly. Pro-Logic cannot be de-activated for Cinema Studio EX (as it could be on the STR-V444ES and V555ES of two model-years ago).[*]In my setup, and to my ears, DPL-II music and dts NEO:6 music can do wonderful things. They are the only reason I did not pick up a V444ES a few months ago at a blowout price. (The 444 lacks them).[*]I have not yet had a chance to compare Pro-Logic II Movie and dts:Neo6 Cinema to regular Pro-Logic.[*]Decoding modes. The 4ES supports every multi-channel decoding mode available to date, including Dolby Digital EX, dts-ES (matrix and discrete), dts 96/24, Dolby Pro-Logic II, and dts NEO:6. Very few other receivers of any price currently support dts 96/24.[/list]Connectivity[*]One of the biggest selling points for me is the two multi-channel inputs. This allows me to connect both an SACD player and a DVD-audio player. The vast majority of other receivers out there have only one multi-channel input. The 4ES has one 5.1 channel input and one 7.1 channel input, and both are analog direct (no analog/digital/analog conversion). They can be accessed using a dedicated button on the front panel, or using the remote, or they can be assigned to one of the normal inputs. For example, if your DVD-audio player is connected to the DVD input, assign multi-channel input 1 to DVD. Then when you select DVD, the audio comes from the multi-channel input.[*]Downmixing in the analog domain for multi-channel inputs. If you have the sub set to "no", then the sub input of the multi-channel inputs is mixed (in the analog domain) into the two front speakers before going to the amplifier/pre-amp outputs. The same goes for the centre channel. And if you have the surround-back speakers set to "no", the surround-back L/R inputs (of the 7.1 input) are mixed into the surround L/R channels. This ensures that systems with fewer than 7 speakers plus sub will still reproduce all multi-channel sources correctly[*]Selectable +10 dB boost for the sub channel of multi-channel inputs. This is a very welcomed feature. It seems that not everyone agrees on the proper recording/playback level of the LFE/sub channel of "x.1" sources. So setting up your sub to reproduce DD/dts sources at the right volume may leave a distinctive lack of bass when playing back certain multi-channel sources (such as, but not necessarily: SACD, DVD-Audio, external decoders/processors, etc.). The +10 dB boost will correct for the -10 dB attenuation that some, but not all, multi-channel formats use for their sub channels. I remember an entire thread/rant in this forum about this issue. It is now a non-issue with the 4ES.[*]Six digital inputs including 2 coax, all assignable to any input source. Any input source (except tuner) can select a digital input. Then the receiver can be set to automatically pick the analog or digital input, or you can force any of the assigned inputs (optical, coax, or analog) to be used. This allows tremendous flexibility which is most welcome.[*]The second room A/V output works brilliantly. It has remote volume control, and the output is high enough to drive an amplifier directly (pre-amp standard of 2 V rather than line-out standard of 150 mV).[*]Full support for Sony S-Link (Control-A1II for audio and Control-S for video) to 'network' components together. This is required for neat features like displaying track and disc titles on a 2-way remote (a 2-way remote is not included, but the 4ES can use one).[/list]Sound Quality[*]As I mentioned, I haven't had it long enough to come to an informed opinion of the sound quality, but I can say that it instantly sounded better than my STR-DB830 that it replaced, even with the 830's claimed "ES quality" amplifier section.[/list]DissapointmentsI've mentioned some of these above, but I'll mention them and others again:[*]Fewer DCS DSP modes than any other Sony receiver. I will miss "Virtual Multi-Dimension".[*]Turning on A+B front speakers turns off all other speakers![*]Remote. No learning. No 2-way capability. Very few buttons (mixed blessing on that one actually), but should have number buttons at the least, otherwise controlling a TV with it is just too awkward.[*]Pro-LogicII or dts NEO:6 can not be used in conjuction with any DSP mode such as Cinema Studio EX. (looking into this, will confirm later).[*]No RDS (Radio Data Service) on the tuner for the North American model. Why not?[*]The EQ Does not have a "mid" band for the surround and surround-back speakers. Otherwise it is great.[*]Does not support downloading of Tuner station names into a 2-way remote, even though stations can be named. Strange.[/list]OverallWouldn't trade it for anything (except a STR-DA7ES ...drool)
