Sony STR-DH700 7.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black) Review

I bought this to replace an aging Kenwood VR-405 receiver. Wow, what a difference!! This sound better and clearer. This receiver has a pretty easy setup (although I am sure I haven't done some things to make it the best I can), and I love the auto calibration thing. The instructions say that the auto calibration sequence is loud and to be cautious of your neighbors and small children, but its really not that loud. I don't know what the heck its talking about. It's as if they are going crank the crap out of the volume. It's really not that bad. In any case, I guess I would say that if you have an older receiver that you would like to upgrade from, this is a great receiver to choose.

The HDMI ports (3 in, 1 out) on it are active switching ports and is an awesome extra you normally have to pay quite a bit more for. I hooked my PS3 directly to this receiver with only an HDMI cable and it works like a fricken charm!!! Makes setup of it much easier and it makes it sound better. Even though the receiver doesn't have the DTS HD or any of the other HD codecs like that built into it, if you plug a PS3 into it you will get it anyway because the PS3 does the grunt work of decoding the signal off the disc. Like, with "Bolt", it has DTS HD Master Audio on it. The PS3 decoded the audio signal and passed it through to the stereo. I get true HD audio out from it. And believe you me, it sounds FANTASTIC!! You get a much more broad range of audio and it just sounds so great!

Anyway, all in all, I am VERY happy with the purchase so far. I have had it like a month now. It is just a great receiver. If you have any questions about it, and can figure out how, you can ask me and I will try to do my best to answer.

Buy it here now!