Sony STR-DG820 7.1 Channel Receiver (Black)

Got this little baby the day after I got my 40" Samsung series 6 telly.

My local sony centre won't have them until the middle of august.

Easy to set up. the room callibration mic works a treat. I've had my old Denon for 10 years so the quality and sheer oomph that the hdmi and digital media port provides is just stunning.

I was able to bi wire my mains by using the little clip in connections too.

Stuck on "Serenity" upscaled to 1080i. The scene at the start when the ship is entering a planets atmosphere made me feel like I was being pressed into the sofa by a rabid rotweiller.

A fantastic entry level amp with singing crisp treble and tight punchy bass.

Why pay more.

Without warning and with great pleasure comes the Sony STR DG-820 and I can confirm in these batches now they are the FIXED version and the SKY HD Box input when set to 'Auto' it will switch between the HDMI for normal and when Dolby Digital broadcast signal picked up (Sky Movies for example) it will switch to the Digital COAX or 'OPT' as it will show on the reciever display and works fine and I have tested this 100% on my NEW receiver which arrived on Monday. Everyone now has stocks appearing and we can now start to sing the praises and put the SKY HD issues behind us !!

.....Is because there is a problem with sky hd audio. Sky hd audio signals sent through hdmi are only stereo, whereas it is 5.1 with the digital optical connector. The problem is that this receiver cannot use the 2 connectors at the same time. Sony are working on a fix but it is not ready yet. Don't you wish play would have told you that?

Re previous two reviewers questions, i received amp on 20/10/2008 and includes updated firmware for Sky.

In the past few years I have tried/owned many brand receivers some at £1000 mark; but, I am amazed that Sony can produce a Home Cinema Receiver with this level of sound quality at this price. The clarity, seperation and low frequency grunt is astonishing. As with most Auto Calibration systems do check the subwoofer level, following directions from the manual my setting was far too low (which may account for a certain review panel to state explosions lacked some impact). Setting my PDR10 sub at 11 oclock mark for vol & xover & running Auto calibtation again, lo and behold the bass was back (setting went from -7.5 to +7. Setting the receiver volume around 42, slapping on a DVD - Gunshots and explosions were now tickling my back through my 5.1 system - To top all of this the receiver is not even run in yet! One last tip - always use top quality speaker cable and interconnects etc there is a huge improvement in sound!