Who makes a better receiver? Yamaha or Sony?

Onkyo and Denon ... J/K (but not).

I suppose it depends on the unit. Among those two brands ... I would take a Yamaha 10 times out of 10.
Edited by Skrill - 1/17/13 at 1:39pm

Between those my vote goes for Yamaha too....

Me too, Yamaha very much before Sony.

Better in what sense? Sound quality? All amplifiers sound the same, but if you don't accept that, and many don't, the only way to find out which sounds better is to listen yourself. Find a store that will let you audition the particular receivers you're interested in and see how they sound.

If it's build quality then there's only one brand here that has a reputation for more than average number of failures, and it's not Yamaha or Sony. Even that may be undiserved, as the posts on this forum hardly count as an scientific representatoin of what the actual failure rates are.

If it's features and stuff, then all you need to do is compare their respective spec lists. Only you can say what features are better than others.

Sony recievers are craptastic. If you are stuck between Yamaha and Sony...always always go Yamaha. Just my two cents.

There is more to an AVR than the amp that affects the sound.

I replaced a Yamaha A3000 with a Sony 5700ES. If the Yamaha performed better than the Sony I would not have swapped. Which ones have you used to base your decision?

I would like to know why you are making such a blanket statement regarding Sony. I have a Sony receiver (STRDG 820 ) which has never given a lick of trouble. I use sony for all my car audio head units and they have never let me down nor do they seem cheap in any way. I also have a Yamaha RX A1000 which is fantastic and also a Denon 3311ci which is wonderful as well. No matter the make, at some level they are going to sacrifice something to keep the price competitive. It seems sony is a little harder to get a good deal on, they just don't seem to have the exposure the other brands have . I have noticed they like to keep control of their products and the pricing. The ES line is quite nice but a bit pricey from where im standing. Sony has been around a long time and I think their quality is equal to or better than other Asian brands.


A friend of mine had a sony lcd flatscreen that had a problem, and even though it was out of warranty ,they paid to ship it to the nearest repair center which was 1500 miles from where we are. It was not repairable , and they gave him a credit of roughly 80% of purchase price towards a new set. Needless to say , the price of flatpanels had dropped considerably . Sony stands behind their products and that's important.

This Sony is well reviewed http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666409179&XID=O:sony%20str%20da5700es:dg_hav_msnsrch:e&qs=sony%20str%20da5700es&k_id=7528260d-048f-9449-da54-0000238b14aa
But personally I'm a Denon fan. Really like my Denon A100 and Denon 3808CI

What do you mean by quality? Performance? Reliability? Most features for the money? You don't always have a winner in every category.

Sony's ES series is aimed at brands like Yamaha. If it's not ES, I wouldn't consider it if you're looking for above average.