A fancy pretty GUI in a receiver as a top selling point is majorly overrated. As long as it is simple, intuitive, and user friendly, who really cares about colors and fancy graphics and text? And once your settings are done you never really use the GUI anyways. Another thing. Does anybody who has a serious HT set up want their wife tweaking around with the receiver settings on the receiver GUI?....Not me! lol...The first poster was right on the money. Sony used to make some decent AV gear. But now anything below the ES line is subpar. And if you buy ES it is simply overpriced compared to features and build quality of other brands in it's class. And that is the reality...
I like how you contradict yourself there. First you call these receivers "junk" and then you say "anything below the ES line is subpar," which in other words mean these are not junk.
Cost is a different story. Overpriced? Probably. But any savvy shopper will not pay $2000 for the 5500. You can probably pick one up (brand new) under $1500 on eBay from an authorized dealer.
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A fancy pretty GUI in a receiver as a top selling point is majorly overrated. As long as it is simple, intuitive, and user friendly, who really cares about colors and fancy graphics and text? And once your settings are done you never really use the GUI anyways. Another thing. Does anybody who has a serious HT set up want their wife tweaking around with the receiver settings on the receiver GUI?....Not me! lol...The first poster was right on the money. Sony used to make some decent AV gear. But now anything below the ES line is subpar. And if you buy ES it is simply overpriced compared to features and build quality of other brands in it's class. And that is the reality...
I like how you contradict yourself there. First you call these receivers "junk" and then you say "anything below the ES line is subpar," which in other words mean these are not junk.
Cost is a different story. Overpriced? Probably. But any savvy shopper will not pay $2000 for the 5500. You can probably pick one up (brand new) under $1500 on eBay from an authorized dealer.