Sony A55 receiver (1 Viewer)

[Lisa Menin]

I am in the market for a new DirectTV receiver for my parents' house. It needs to be a Sony so that I don't have to reprogram their Niles Intellicontrol. I have seen some bad reviews on this model on the AVS Forum. Those reports have mentioned audio problems. I am wondering whether anyone here has any feedback, positive or negative?
Thanks in advance,
Lisa

 

[LDfan]

Lisa,
You might want to take a look at the B55. It costs half as much and I don't think it suffers the same problems as the A55.
Jeff

 

[Lisa Menin]

Thanks, Jeff. I am already getting the B55 for their bedroom receiver. The problem is that I have been told that I need a receiver with IR/RF for their main system. As far as I can tell, the A55 is the only Sony which has this. I need to find out whether so many people have experienced problems with the A55 to make it a dealbreaker.
Lisa

 

[LDfan]

Lisa,
For what it's worth I work at Best Buy P/T in the satellite dept. In the 7 months that I've been there I've sold maybe around 70-100 A55 units and very few come back. Mostly due to install problems. Our unit on demo never has displayed any of the problems documented on the AVSForum other than the usual ....acquiring guide from satellite.
Hope this helps,
Jeff

 

[Rob Roth]

Lisa,
All I can tell you is that I was very close to buying two A55's; in large part for their digital outputs for Dolby Digital, etc. People on this forum linked me to the other forums' discussions about the A55. What I read was enough to change my mind; especially since Sony is very difficult to deal with in case there is a problem.
rob

 

[Lisa Menin]

Rob: I am in agreement with you. I just called my parents' installer and instructed him to reconfigure their system to avoid having to use a Sony receiver with IR/RF capabilities. I have read so many negative reviews of the A55 that I don't want to chance installing a bad one in their system. I plan to try to go with 2 B55s instead. (I need to stay with a Sony brand.)
Have you heard anything negative about the B55?
Lisa

 

[Rob Roth]

Lisa,
No, the B55 seems not to have the same bad press. In my case I want two identical sat receivers, each with digital coax output and s-video output. With these features I can use the AV receivers as true system controllers, not having to switch inputs on the TVs, etc. I can also use the (hopefully) better DACs in receivers rather than the suspect DACs in the sat receivers.
I could be all wrong on this reasoning, but it is logic that works in other HT areas. I am currently leaning toward the mitsubishi SRSD 100 and 200. I am told they are rebadged Hughes.
Good luck with the B55. I understand your point about wanting ease of operation: I am going through this process in large part because my SO thinks the current system(s) too confusing.