Sony STR-DA5400 Receiver review?

[admin_exported]

Hi, Could you tell me when you are going to review the Sony STR-DA5400 Receiver? I have only seen one review of it so far in one mag and that was back in sept but I would like another opinion. I have been told by my local Sony Centre that they can order one for me for £1274.99 seems very good to me but and will take a week to get as they do not get them in for display. They are not going to sell many like that!

 Gideon 

 

[Andrew Everard]

We have one on site apparently, and it's being worked on for the April issue, on sale early March. We'll endeavour to get the review online before then, however.

 

[Clare Newsome]

Yes, i'm hoping we'll have the review online in a couple of weeks' time....

 

[Gerrardasnails]

Andrew Everard:We have one on site apparently, and it's being worked on for the April issue, on sale early March. We'll endeavour to get the review online before then, however.

What about the 3400 Andrew? I'd be interested to hear what you think of my receiver.

 

[Andrew Everard]

I'll ask the question of the review team.

 

[Anonymous]

I think I've given up on Sony. Had planned to travel to London today to hear the 3400 with a B&W MT-30 setup in the only place in the country that has these items in the same place (a Sony Centre on Tottenham Court Road). Only to be told they'd have to charge me £50 to set it all up (the MT-30 is apparently set up with the 5400 if you're interested themacboy). The £50 was refundable if I liked the system and bought it all from them, but if I didn't like it, there goes my £50. Crazy way to try to attract business during a recession! Discussing this further with them, it turns out they don't actually have a demo room anyway and they just have the speakers lined up beside the TV, seems like a waste of time to me.

Saved the diesel, stayed at home, did some more research, made a few calls and I'm now planning to demo the Yamaha 863, Pioneer LX51 and probably the Denon 2309 at my friendly local hifi store!

 

[Gerrardasnails]

JGoodricke:
I think I've given up on Sony. Had planned to travel to London today to hear the 3400 with a B&W MT-30 setup in the only place in the country that has these items in the same place (a Sony Centre on Tottenham Court Road). Only to be told they'd have to charge me £50 to set it all up (the MT-30 is apparently set up with the 5400 if you're interested themacboy). The £50 was refundable if I liked the system and bought it all from them, but if I didn't like it, there goes my £50. Crazy way to try to attract business during a recession! Discussing this further with them, it turns out they don't actually have a demo room anyway and they just have the speakers lined up beside the TV, seems like a waste of time to me.

Saved the diesel, stayed at home, did some more research, made a few calls and I'm now planning to demo the Yamaha 863, Pioneer LX51 and probably the Denon 2309 at my friendly local hifi store!

That is pretty ridiculous. I have to say though that I found the 3400es better than the Denon 2809 so I would strike the 2309 off your list.

 

[Andrew Everard]

JGoodricke:Only to be told they'd have to charge me £50 to set it all up

What??? Outrageous!

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

Andrew Everard:

JGoodricke:Only to be told they'd have to charge me £50 to set it all up

What??? Outrageous!

The STRDA5400 is quite something. Quite like the Pioneer in sound - not bright as you may expect with the Sony equipment but solid. Feature wise it is remarkable with 6 in 2 out on the HDMI , a very easy navigation system. When we get our SC-LX81 back in we will set them against each other to see how it really compares.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks, thats just what I did at lunch. All the Sony sales people were apathetic but I kind of expected that. Although the Amp was plugged into the tv, there were no video inputs so I could only browse through the menus. There was no way to judge sound quality properly as it was it was was in the main part of the shop and noisy. Oh well, looking forward to the review ÿ

 

[Andrew Everard]

FYI I was so outraged at the place asking for £50 to set up a system for demonstration that I've emailed Sony's PR people to call attention to this thread. Hopefully they'll pic up on themacboy's experience too.

I'll let you all know what feedback I get.

 

[ElectroMan]

Aren't Sony Centres independent? Even so, I would hope Sony would be concerned.

£50 - and not even a proper demo room! I'd have told them to shove it where the sun does not shine. Mind you, I'm suprised they had B&W kit in there as well ...

 

[Andrew Everard]

I would hope Sony would be concerned that shops bearing the company's name are offering this kind of service, or lack thereof...

 

[Anonymous]

Well I finally took the plunge and bought aÿSTR-DA5400ES. I Had to wait 3 weeks plus the Sony centre took payment in full beforehand as they had to order it in! Anyway, there are a few niggles I thought I would bring to people's attention.ÿI mainly bought it as I have 4 HDMI devices which need switching between, Xbox, Mac Mini, PC, and V+ box. The Mac Mini and PC are connected via DVI-HDMI cables and also need audio re-direction.ÿThe main problem is that while pure HMDI cabled sources would switch fine, the sources with DVI-HDMI cables would not show at all. All were outputting correct 1920x1080p video. I was understandably upset as I could not see a way around this but after reading the manual there was setting to go HDMI direct and bypass the video processing which means losing the GUI blending. Everything now displays ok. I'm not sure why, maybe there is some control code in the HDMI signal which is lost in the DV-HDMI cable although plugging into my Sony Bravia works fine. I've also switched off Sony's Digital Legato Linear audio scaler which upscales audio to 192KHz, surely any extra audio processing is a bad thing?Power consumption seems relatively consistent at 80watts, even at idle. A little high maybe?ÿI'm also wondering if I should connect up my old Arcam A-85 in Power Amp mode for higher quality front channel performance for Music from the Sony's pre-outs. A good idea?

 

[TheHomeCinemaCentre]

It is a common problem with PC based devices and HDMI switching. I do not know for sure on the Sony but it appears it has the same set up as a number of AV amps.

When you navigate away from an HDMI input the amp turns off the HDMI socket and in turn the PC "sees" that the monitor is disconnected and shuts down its own video output. When you navigate back the amp now can not see the PC. We encounter this issue regularly with clients running Media PCs but is seems you have a work around.

Regarding your Arcam it would be a good test to see if the P85 outperformed the amplification internally.

Nick

 

[Anonymous]

Hi, Is there any update on the 5400 review? This is one that I am really waiting for!

ÿ

 

[Clare Newsome]

Definitely in April issue - with subscribers next weekend, in shops week after...

 

[Anonymous]

Great, thanks very much.