Sony STR-G1ES A/V receiver Review

Recently we have seen a trend toward integration of audio components and computers, especially in complex products such as audio/video (A/V) receivers and signal-processing accessories whose circuits are heavily digital. In the new Sony STR-G1ES, a remarkable and unusual A/V receiver, the union of home audio component and computer may have been carried to its practical limits.

The STR-G1ES is large and heavy (the manual gives its “mass” as 30 pounds, 14 ounces). Its front panel, mostly covered by a thick, clear plastic faceplate, gives no hint of its true function. The panel’s visible features are limited to a horizontal row of ten buttons, a large volume-control knob, a power button, and a protrusion labeled VisionTouch, about which more later.

So far, the STR-G1ES would appear to be merely a large and handsomely styled power amplifier. But a door along the bottom of its front panel hinges down to reveal several pushbutton switches and jacks that indicate some non-amplifier capabilities. The buttons are marked Speakers On/Off, Preset Tuning (+/-), and Soundfield (On/Off). The jacks include one for a 1/4-inch headphone plug and a group identified as Video 4 (video and audio inputs, including an S-video socket). A glance at the STR-G1ES’s rear apron (well populated with connectors) finally confirms that it must be an A/V receiver. But where are the numerous front-panel controls usually required to operate such a product?

This would be the time to read the instruction manual. Without that often-neglected step, you may not be able to operate the STR-G1ES at all. In the manual you'd find that the key to operating the STR-G1ES is a strange black plastic object, resembling a sliced-off egg, with a single pushbutton. This is the receiver’s Remote Commander, a unique radio-frequency controller powered by two AA cells loaded into the flat end of the egg. A small dipole antenna, which connects via a cable to the rear of the STR-G1ES, carries the Commander’s signals to the control circuits in the receiver. This antenna must be hooked up and properly located (away from metal surfaces, for example) for the receiver to work. Also, to see what you are doing, a TV receiver or monitor with a video input jack must be connected to a monitor output on the rear of the STR-G1ES (both composite and S-video outputs are provided).

The Remote Commander is actually the only control used during normal operation of the STR-G1ES. When the controller, which stands on its flattened end when not in use, is picked up, pressing its button will turn on the receiver and any devices connected to its three switched AC outlets. You don’t have to aim the egg at the receiver, or even at the antenna if you are close enough to it.

You probably won’t be able to turn on your monitor from one of the AC outlets. They are rated for only 120 watts each. Besides, all the outlets are two-prong jacks, while many components now come with three-prong plugs. But if your monitor or other component has an infrared remote control, Sony has provided a way for you to command it. In this case the receiver, not its remote, “learns” the necessary infrared codes.

To program it, you aim the auxiliary component’s remote control at the receiver’s front-panel VisionTouch protuberance and press the appropriate buttons. When activated subsequently by a proper sequence of Remote Commander operations, the receiver sprays the memorized infrared command into the room to be picked up by nearby components. In case they do not pick up the emissions, the receiver also comes with an infrared repeater that plugs into a rear-panel socket and can be located up to 12-3/4 feet away (the length of its cord, which I imagine can be easily augmented by a headphone extension cord).

The STR-G1ES is preprogrammed with the infrared commands for Sony components, and it can also be programmed to emit up to eighty infrared commands for non-Sony equipment. Up to ten commands can be strung together in a “macro” sequence activated by a single push of the Commander button, and two different macros can be stored.

In any case, when you first pick up the Remote Commander and press its button, the monitor screen will display the main menu, from which you can select a series of other menus. Along with the menu, the screen displays a movable cursor, or pointer. Simply moving the Commander with your wrist positions the cursor on any desired portion of the displayed menu. You can activate the function pointed to by pressing the button.

Among the functions provided are input-source selection, volume control, FM or AM tuning (including memorizing as many as thirty presets), digital parametric equalization for the midrange frequencies, and digital bass and treble tone controls. Since this is an A/V receiver, you can also control the Dolby Pro Logic decoder and adjust ten different synthesized sound environments, including such parameters as hall size and wall “hardness,” listener position, reverberation time, reverb level, and so forth. All of these parameters are displayed graphically and numerically on the TV screen during the adjustment process.

The receiver’s inputs include, in addition to the built-in AM and FM tuners, phono, CD, DAT/MD, laserdisc, and four other video sources (two of them playback only, such as the front-panel camcorder input). On the rear panel, all the speaker outputs (two front, one or two center, and two surround) are insulated binding posts that accept wire ends or single or dual banana plugs. If you use two center speakers, be advised that those outputs are connected in series (as in other A/V receivers we’ve seen with this feature), which can cause frequency-response changes due to speaker-to-speaker impedance interactions. It’s usually best to use a single center speaker.

For driving external power amplifiers, the front-channel preamplifier outputs can be separated from the main amplifier inputs by removing a pair of jumpers, and there is a line-level mono output for driving a powered subwoofer or a subwoofer amplifier. A switch on the rear apron inserts a low-cut filter in the signal path to the front speakers to remove the low bass from them when a subwoofer is used (ideally, you should also have a subwoofer crossover to remove the high frequencies from the subwoofer output).

The key amplifier ratings include a power output of 85 watts each into 8 ohms for the three front channels, or 80 watts into 4 ohms. The two surround outputs are rated at 20 watts each. In two-channel mode, the front amplifiers are rated (by the EIA standard) to deliver 80 watts each into 8 ohms from 20 Hz to 20 kHz with no more than 0.04 percent total harmonic distortion (THD). A switch on the rear apron changes the amplifier voltage for safe operation into 4-ohm loads.

For our use and listening tests of the Sony STR-G1ES we teamed it up with a small TV monitor/receiver and a pair of good speakers. We made laboratory measurements of its two-channel operation following our normal procedures.

Our first frequency-response measurements of the front-channel amplifiers (including the preamplifier section) showed an 8-dB peak centered at 80 Hz but were otherwise flat to 20 kHz. The peak was the result of the receiver’s Dynamic Bass Feedback (DBFB) circuit, which is intended to provide “more powerful bass.” DBFB can be switched off from a menu, but the out-of-box default for it seems to be on. With DBFB off, or through the power amplifiers alone, the response was very flat.

The receiver’s power capabilities exceeded its ratings, with 110 watts available at 1 kHz into both 8- and 4-ohm loads. Additional short-term power reserves were minimal, however. The RIAA equalization error was rather high compared to what we’ve been measuring lately, but that matters only if you are going to play LP’s. The FM section’s performance was satisfactory, although (as with virtually all receivers) it fell short of the quality of many separate component tuners.

A period of use in a music-only system left us with a mixed verdict on this remarkable receiver (and “remarkable” is the mildest adjective we can apply to it). Basically, it worked well, and it is certainly impressive in the way it enables you to set a myriad of controls with a single button. On the other hand, some operations that with a conventional receiver normally require only the turn of a knob or a single touch of a button become multi-step procedures with the Sony STR-G1ES, requiring you to re-aim the Commander and press its button repeatedly.

In a fully equipped audio/video system, such a process might be justifiable, and even advantageous compared with using a confusing many-buttoned programmable remote handset. For audio only, however, it was a source of frustration and annoyance. Having to hook up and turn on a TV monitor for the simplest audio operation—such as changing volume with the remote control—is hard to justify.

How much the STR-G1ES appeals to you, therefore, will probably depend on your specific audio or audio/video orientation as well as your level of patience with menu-driven computer interactions. For audio/video systems, the STR-G1ES’s control system is intriguing, and the receiver is not unreasonably priced for what it contains and does. But if you would use it primarily for audio, I could not recommend it, unless you insist on being the first on the block with the latest technology.

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