Following an exclusive, and extensive, product briefing from Sony, we can now lavish you with more information on Sony’s 2008 range of receivers and hopefully sort out any model confusion in the process.
There are five models in the new line-up, and in a nutshell the UK will be receiving:
- STR-DG520 -360 USD – available end of July
- STR-DG820 – 600 USD – available end of July
- STR-DA2400ES – 1.000 USD – available August
- STR-DA3400ES – 1400 USD – available August
- STR-DA5400ES – 3.000 USD – available August
Sony STR-DG820 is a 7.1 channel receiver boasting 100w per channel. It’s armed with four HDMI inputs and one output. It also supports all HD audio formats, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio. And, after our briefing, we can also reveal:
All the new receivers have been built from scratch with brand new components – even the solder used in the circuitboards has been changed.
Extra effort has been made to reduce the effects of internal vibrations on the new chassis.
The STR-DG820 features 1080p/24fps passthrough, upconversion to HDMI but no video upscaling. The receiver also supports Deep Colour and x.v.Colour technology.
The remote control is similar in look and feel to that of the W series LCD TVs.
An on-screen display is provided, but there’s no display output to your TV or projector.
The entry-level STR-DG520 has very basic specification (not surprising, given its highly-affordable price) and some of the main differences between it and the STR-DG820 are:
- No A+B speaker selection
- No AV input on the front
- Two HDMI inputs as opposed to four on the STR-DG820
- No HD audio decoding or LPCM via HDMI
- No Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, DTS 96/24 decoding, just standard Dolby Digital and DTS
- No Deep Colour x.vColour compatibility
We’re just waiting for the specification of the ES models to come through, but as soon as we have them to hand we’ll get the information posted on the website.
