Sony STRDG820 7.1 Audio Video Receiver - Black Review

I have had the DG820 installed in a HT setup for a month now. This setup includes a Samsung 630 52" LCD HDTV, a Sony S350 BluRay player, a Verizon FiOS SB, and a 5.1 Orb Audio speaker arrangement.

I had a unique requirement in that I needed a reciever to set on a shelf that is only 15" deep ....so the reciever depth had to be 12" or less to allow for the connectors & cable bends on the back. Sony's recievers have always been shallow, while others (Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon) are all 14" - 15" deep. I settled for the 820 because it was the cheapest in the DG family to decode all the HD audio codecs up to and including Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD MA (the S350 can't decode the later).

Setting up the reciever was a bit of a chore ...... a GUI interface like the 920 has would have been nice, but since its only done once its not worth the extra money IMO. I see no change in the 1080p video PQ as opposed to when I was initially running with HDMI cables directly from the S350 and SB to the TV. And the addition of the Orb speakers driven by the 850 have drastically improved the sound quality. The receiver seems to have plenty of power to drive the Orbs. Sound quality over the dynamic range, treble to bass, is excellent to my ears.

Buy it here now!