Sony STR-DH800 7.1-Channel Audio Video Receiver (Black)

Beautiful sound, beautiful performance, the change is so dramatic it is unbelievable. The most irritating thing is the speaker wire hook ups.
Essentially screw post type, but a new improved twenty-first century design
to help you learn new cuss words. Seriously, I love this amp and would
highly recommend it to anyone.

I am one of those who's entire system is Sony. The only exception is with a Cerwin Vega powered sub, and the front speakers which are mid-90 Pioneer.

This seems like the sweet spot in the Sony line up, the perfect combination of great price and surprising performance. It has been 11 years since buying my first Sony receiver after college. It was an AV receiver and had 5.1 surround, dolby and a number of other theater and sound related features. It sounded good, but tonight after I finally got around to connecting all my speakers, I was stunned when I inserted a blu-ray into my PS3. I just wasn't expecting such incredible surround clarity, and blending. It blew me away, my jaw dropped and it stayed that way. AND I still have yet to use any HDMI connections, even now all my connections are RCA jacks and I have yet to use the little microphone that adjusts all the speakers specifically for my room and set up.

I guess some have had some difficulty with initial set up, but if you have had component systems before, this shouldn't be too hard to figure out. I won't have a chance to work with HDMI until I get an LCD flatscreen, and I'm still waiting for those to improve, be easier to calibrate, cost less, and use less energy. I just think they still need those improvements.

One more thing. I ordered this on Amazon through the seller WholesaleAV. They were not only the best price, but they were also very fast, and are highly rated.

I set up my new receiver yesterday, and it took over an hour, given Sony's propensity for screw-in type speaker connections. The first surprise was not being able to control the PS3 and my Satellite DVR with the remote's control buttons. I had to use their HDMI locations, i.e. HDMI 4 for the Satellite and HDMI 3 for the PS3. Keep in mind that the BEST sound is reproduced through the HDMI 3 location, so ignore the picture in the manual that has you putting your BD at HDMI 1. If you read the manual fine print you will see that they tell you to use HDMI 3 connection for the best sound reproduction.

It is a given that Sony's product manuals are written by persons from other planets so you just have to stumble through when it comes to issues such as the PS3 BD Player putting out EVERYTHING in Linear PCM, including THX, DTS HD and etc. I did everything I could think of to change that. I confirmed the HDMI control was set to ON in both the 800 and the PS3, I confirmed that the AUTOMATIC sound control was set in the PS3 and still no DTS-HD being produced on TAKEN, a movie with that attribute.

So, I called SONY. The first person I spoke with was clueless, and had little mastery of the English language. He said I should turn off my receiver for an hour and do the setup all over again. Foolishly I did that. Nothing changed. The PS3 Blu Ray component was still putting out Linear PCM exclusively.

I called Sony again and spoke to Manuel, who was anything but clueless. He told me to go into my PS3 Video settings and click on BD/DVD AUDIO OUTPUT. Lo and behold it was set to Linear PCM. I clicked on the only other option, BITSTREAM, and clicked OK. I then put TAKEN (my test BRDVD) into the player and voila everything worked. The encoded DTS-HD was now being sent to my receiver and reproducing amazing sound, and when I say amazing I mean every syllable. I presently have a 5.1 system setup but tomorrow I am going to configure for 7.1.

So, I will figure out how to control my systems using the proprietary (BD-SAT) buttons on the remote, but for right now, everything is working fine, thanks to Manuel from Sony support.

In conclusion I recommend this product not necessarily for its ease of use but for its ability to reproduce amazing sound at a reasonable price once you get it setup. The fifth star was deducted because of the poorly written manual and the first Sony [clueless] technician.

This is a great Product. Easy to install and easy to set. Auto calibration feature is great.
Screen display is no the best . but a lot of info on it.

This is a great receiver i would recommend it to anyone especially for the price. The only thing the would make it even better is to have an on screen display. Other than that great sound and love not having to enter all info so the speakers are set up right. Just plug in the mic and it does it for you awesome!!!!