Question about quality of Sony receivers... (1 Viewer)

[Winston T. Boogie]

I've owned two Sony receivers. Both broke down and were sent in for repair. The first continued to malfunction until I finally got rid of it. I bought the second receiver on a recommendation from a friend who had one and it broke down within a year. It actually followed the same set of symptoms the first one had.

Now I don't think I want to purchase another Sony product. I have a DVD player that has performed well from Sony but I think it may be best to avoid them.

Any thoughts?

 

[MikeC_]

Reggie,

I have never owned a sony receiver but my friend had one since ~1993 and never had problems with it; It still works today. He also had a Sony cd changer, however, that product did give him problems...

 

[MikeC_]

Reggie,

I have never owned a sony receiver but my friend had one since ~1993 and never had problems with it; It still works today. He also had a Sony cd changer, however, that product did give him problems...

 

[Paul S]

I have had far too many failures with Sony equipment, from both receivers and DVD players. They seem to fail shortly after the one year guarantee period elapses. Personally, I would not buy another Sony product. Just my opinion.

 

[Paul S]

I have had far too many failures with Sony equipment, from both receivers and DVD players. They seem to fail shortly after the one year guarantee period elapses. Personally, I would not buy another Sony product. Just my opinion.

 

[JackS]

There is no reason to believe that a simular priced receiver of any brand will be any better than any other. Perhaps receivers with the better designed heat sink would be an indication of possible longivity. As for parts, the're outsoursed to countries like China, Malasia and sold literally by the pound to all mass market producers. If your spending less than $500 on one of these receivers, the main feature might be the warranty. With your bad experience with Sony, I'd try something else just in the hopes that it might be better but, understand underneath that hood lurks the same or simular part that has aleady given you so many problems. If money is short, why not consider a used mid-level Denon, Onkyo, Elite or ES. Not only are these older receivers better, they look better, they sound better and are apt to last longer than anything lesser bought new. Consider

 

[JackS]

There is no reason to believe that a simular priced receiver of any brand will be any better than any other. Perhaps receivers with the better designed heat sink would be an indication of possible longivity. As for parts, the're outsoursed to countries like China, Malasia and sold literally by the pound to all mass market producers. If your spending less than $500 on one of these receivers, the main feature might be the warranty. With your bad experience with Sony, I'd try something else just in the hopes that it might be better but, understand underneath that hood lurks the same or simular part that has aleady given you so many problems. If money is short, why not consider a used mid-level Denon, Onkyo, Elite or ES. Not only are these older receivers better, they look better, they sound better and are apt to last longer than anything lesser bought new. Consider

 

[Johnny_M]

well, personally i will likely never buy a sony product again. i have never had one completely break down but the quality of their products seem very bad compared its rivals. i have a sony wega tv which is only a couple years old and starting to die, the picture quality has progressivly gotten worse over the last few months. i had a sony receiver, low end price around $300, it looked very cool but the sound lacked mid and low ends, so I sold it for a kenwood of the same price it blows it away. i also own a sony dvd player, out of 4 dvd players I own its the only one that pauses during layer switching.

personally i think with sony you are paying for the name tag.


Johnny

 

[Johnny_M]

well, personally i will likely never buy a sony product again. i have never had one completely break down but the quality of their products seem very bad compared its rivals. i have a sony wega tv which is only a couple years old and starting to die, the picture quality has progressivly gotten worse over the last few months. i had a sony receiver, low end price around $300, it looked very cool but the sound lacked mid and low ends, so I sold it for a kenwood of the same price it blows it away. i also own a sony dvd player, out of 4 dvd players I own its the only one that pauses during layer switching.

personally i think with sony you are paying for the name tag.


Johnny

 

[Shane Martin]

I've owned an ES receiver for the past 4 years w/o an issue. That thing is a tank and bulletproof reliability. Their low end stuff(the DE line) however is something I wouldn't touch.

If you can't afford their ES stuff then yes avoid them. If you can afford it, their ES stuff is quite good though I'm not a huge fan of their Digital drive amps.

 

[Shane Martin]

I've owned an ES receiver for the past 4 years w/o an issue. That thing is a tank and bulletproof reliability. Their low end stuff(the DE line) however is something I wouldn't touch.

If you can't afford their ES stuff then yes avoid them. If you can afford it, their ES stuff is quite good though I'm not a huge fan of their Digital drive amps.

 

[Steven_Jobe]

As for Sony TV's, I think they are outstanding products.

As for Sony DVD players, outstanding as well.

But as for Recievers, I would only recommend the ES line. Their low/mid-end consumer recievers, in my opinion, sound horrible. As for their durability, who knows......

 

[Steven_Jobe]

As for Sony TV's, I think they are outstanding products.

As for Sony DVD players, outstanding as well.

But as for Recievers, I would only recommend the ES line. Their low/mid-end consumer recievers, in my opinion, sound horrible. As for their durability, who knows......

 

[LCSeminole]

My 13 year old Sony ES CD player is still kicking without a hitch and my 8 year old Sony VCR is still working fine. Maybe its the luck the draw.

 

[LCSeminole]

My 13 year old Sony ES CD player is still kicking without a hitch and my 8 year old Sony VCR is still working fine. Maybe its the luck the draw.

 

[Dan Joy]

Sony ES is the way to go! No problems here.

 

[Dan Joy]

Sony ES is the way to go! No problems here.

 

[Shiu]

I just replaced my Sony DA4ES with a Denon 3805 mainly for the Denon's new features. So far I cannot say that the 3805 does better in terms of sound quality but I sure hope it does at least as good as the Sony in terms of reliability. The ES line carries a 3-year warranty. I owned the 4ES for 18 months and it never gave me any problems. I think if you consider the huge number of Sony low end receivers sold every day you can understand why many of them had problems.

 

[Shiu]

I just replaced my Sony DA4ES with a Denon 3805 mainly for the Denon's new features. So far I cannot say that the 3805 does better in terms of sound quality but I sure hope it does at least as good as the Sony in terms of reliability. The ES line carries a 3-year warranty. I owned the 4ES for 18 months and it never gave me any problems. I think if you consider the huge number of Sony low end receivers sold every day you can understand why many of them had problems.

 

[JimMIT]

Sony ES products now carry a limited five year parts and labor warranty.