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5 Responses to “Sony STR-DN1000 7.1-Channel Audio Video Receiver”

1. 

   Marquis H. William Jr.
   

   03. Mar, 2010

   Sony STR-DN1000 7.1-Channel Audio Video Receiver (Black)Very disappointed – Bought this to replace a Harmon Kardon 2005 that failed. I expected that this Sony would be OK but not great due to the low price, however, the sound is in a word, simply “Dull”. It is almost as lifeless as using just the TV speakers.
   Rating: 2 / 5
2. 

   Big D
   

   03. Mar, 2010

   I join the many who have said…………”I went with SONY against my better judgement”. I have a main theater system using a Yamaha receiver (which replaced an old Denon). I was running a Samsung HTIB for a small LCD I had in my sun room. Decided to upgrade…..bought at BRAVIA 46″ and BD-360 and was about to buy another Yamaha receiver when I was caught by early reviews on the STR DN1000. BRAVIA link and all the hype about one remote does it all hooked me.

   After a week of fooling with set up on all components I have gotten the blu-ray to work with the receiver but 2+ hours with SONY level 1 and 2 support have left me with. “We conclude our receiver is not compatible with your cable box”. NOT COMPATIBLE?? It’s a Scientific Atlanta (granted not the sharpest tool in the shed) 8300HD and Time Warner has them out there by the zillions. I was told just hook the cable box directly to the TV and use the optical to connect to the receiver. ( I really needed to buy a new receiver to get this SOTA hook up)

   Blu-ray is great………trying to find motivation to calibrate speakers…..and sort out my extra cables……….so much for HDMI.
   Rating: 3 / 5
3. 

   Scott Bruton
   

   03. Mar, 2010

   I just received days ago and I still don’t have everything working the way I want. I was not happy that the receiver will not do HD Upscaleing like Sony said, I even called support over this. When you go to buy this don’t expect it to work because Sony tech. even said it doesn’t work. This receiver was very complicated to set up. The auto setup sounded so bad and so weak my TV sounded better. Once again I called tech. support and manually had to set each individual speaker. Finally it looks nothing like my Bluray player like Sony said. This was the bad!
   
   Once I got everything set up this receiver finally delivered and put out one of the best sounds I’ve heard, Sound quality it beats my Bose home theater and volume NO comparison Bose wasn’t in the ballpark. I now have everything Sony except my JBL surrounds, sub, and 15″ floor speakers. Everything from TV down is in Bravia sync TV is a Sony KDL-46Z4100, Bluray BDP-S350, DVD/VHS combo SLV-D360P this receiver fits right in. I would recommend this product only to someone who knows what their doing.
   Rating: 3 / 5
4. 

   D. Maul
   

   03. Mar, 2010

   My first unit (shipped directly from Sony) I used Credit Card rewards points was damaged and immediately went into protection.
   
   My 2nd unit worked with no problem. The quality over all is poor. No offense here to anyone, but if you are a real basic home theater person who sits with the family and kids and watches tv, or kids DVD’s then this receiver will be OK for you. If you are more on the experienced and knowledgeable Home Theater end of things and want good to great audio/video (which I am and have been messing with Home Theater before it was main stream) you will most likely be disappointed by this “flagship” receiver by Sony.
   
   The sound quality is poor, the set up is a pain (the onscreen GUI is nice, but responsiveness is slow)as the manual is garbage, so it is all trial and error. The EQ is non-existent (only treble and bass, not for individual speakers but for the entire system and all speakers), so no real EQ.
   
   Speaker set up and sound is horrible, as there is no real LFE output but only simulated LFE from the receiver so bass echo’s and is not solid or deep (I use a 450 watt Polk dual 12″ side firing sub which pounds with clarity and volume with my other receivers Denon Onkyo and Pioneer).
   
   Also the lack of manual controls on the unit is a major annoyance. The shiny black face plate does not matter to me. I plan on listening to my receiver not staring at it sit idol.
   
   The highs sound very flat and there is no liveliness to the mid range so the highs and mids sound scratchy and very simulated, not life like sound at all.
   
   The HDMI inputs are not nameable or assignable, so you have to always memorize what HDMI1, HDMI2…etc are, BD, DVD, Satellite, etc…
   
   I am very disappointed by this receiver over all and would recommend against purchasing it. Look at Denon, and Pioneer in the 500 – 550 price range for much better quality and sound. I was always skeptial about Sony receivers but figured I would give this one a try, and my thoughts are pretty much confirmed, that Sony sells inferior receivers with poor quality sound and less than mediocre design.
   
   Rating: 1 / 5
5. 

   Scenario
   

   04. Mar, 2010

   I’m a life-long, loyal Sony customer. I rolled the dice buying less than Sony’s ES line of A/V receivers for the first time, and I wholly regret it. I bought this model mostly for its price (on Amazon), its glossy black chassis that matches my XBR5 and PS3, and because I wanted HDMI switching.

   But this receiver looks better when it’s turned off than when it’s all lit up. The LED display is very cheap looking and poorly laid out, behind that smoked plastic front panel. The chassis is also fairly small and light weight, which doesn’t evoke a sense of quality and substance compared to more serious (and pricey) components.

   The speaker terminals on the back couldn’t be flimsier or more difficult to achieve a good contact. I seriously spent an hour just connecting speaker cables to them because they’re cramped and you need a flashlight and a mirror just to read their labels.

   I bought this model to replace (I thought) a Sony STR555ES that produces flawless, silky-smooth sound through my Polk Audio and Infinity 5.1 speakers. But this unit makes EVERYTHING sound like 128k MP3 files. I’m serious– it makes my $2,000 speakers sound like tinny little computer speakers. Complete MUSH! I also use an Apple AirTunes, which sounded flawless on my old receiver but now it sounds like AM radio over this Bravia.

   I haven’t quite figured out whether this is due to substandard components inside this model, or the fact that I’m using HDMI for all my video components now, including their audio signals. I’m using four matching Sony HDMI 1.3a cables for all my connections. If there’s some limitation to these cables, it’s news to me.

   The manual for this unit reinforces Sony’s ridiculous claim that HDMI will get you the best audio and video quality possible. THAT IS SIMPLY NOT TRUE. For every source I have every tried (Comcast HD box, Sony DVD, Sony PS3), the best video quality is carried by COMPONENT video cables, and the best audio is carried by optical cables. I really don’t understand why HDMI is touted so much when it will downgrade your home theater experience just so you can simplify your cabling and input switching. Over HDMI, all DVD and HD video sources wind up over-pixelated on both of my Sony LCD XBR TVs. But over component cables, the image is much smoother and more lifelike. You just don’t get that chunky screen-door effect using component video. For example, watch an HD program (1080p) where someone is wearing certain textured clothing. With HDMI, you get an extreme moire-pattern effect. Not so with component. So why all the hype over HDMI if it’s inferior?

   The biggest selling point of this receiver for me was Bravia Link. I get so sick and tired of having to program remote controls only to have them be unpredictable. But sadly, Sony continues to ship the most retarded remote controls with their products. Is it too much to ask to put a Play Game button on there? Or one that’s labeled Watch TV? That would save me the grief of having to constantly explain to my girlfriend what buttons do what.

   The microphone-based speaker setup feature did work very well. But it’s all for naught if this receiver can’t produce nearly as good a sound as Sony’s ES line.
   Rating: 2 / 5