{"id":154820,"date":"2023-02-05T12:50:13","date_gmt":"2023-02-05T12:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techweekmag.com\/?p=154820"},"modified":"2023-02-05T12:50:13","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T12:50:13","slug":"sony-make-a-comback-to-producing-av-receivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/hi-fi\/sony-make-a-comback-to-producing-av-receivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Sony make a comback to producing AV receivers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>After a five-year hiatus,\u00a0<b>Sony<\/b>\u00a0is resuming the development and production of state-of-the-art cinema AV receivers that support the latest video and audio formats.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/68_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The last Sony AV receiver (model STR-DH790) was released in 2018, and the latest update to the premium ES (Elevated Standard) line happened even earlier.\u00a0And in recent years, it seems that Sony has changed priorities, and the topic of multi-channel sound in home theater has left its sphere of interest.\u00a0But as it turned out, that impression was false &#8211; after a five-year hiatus, Sony\u00a0<i>at a press conference in Austin, Texas<\/i>\u00a0, introduced a whole line of multi-channel cinema receivers for the 2023 model year.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/69_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In the younger series of receivers, the only model STR-AN1000 is presented, and in the top ES line &#8211; as many as four!\u00a0All new items are equipped with HDMI 2.1 ports and support video switching up to 8K \/ 60 Hz and 4K \/ 120 Hz.\u00a0As for surround sound, Sony&#8217;s 2023 receivers have support for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and, most interestingly, decoding of their own 360 Reality Audio immersive surround sound format.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/70_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sony&#8217;s 2023 AV receiver series includes the following models:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Sony STR-AN1000<\/b>\u00a0(\u00a0<i>$899.99<\/i>\u00a0) &#8211; 7.2 channels, 165 watts per channel<\/li>\n<li><b>Sony STR-AZ1000ES<\/b>\u00a0(\u00a0<i>$1,099.99<\/i>\u00a0) &#8211; 7.2 channels, 100W per channel<\/li>\n<li><b>Sony STR-AZ3000ES<\/b>\u00a0(\u00a0<i>$1,699.99<\/i>\u00a0) &#8211; 7.2 channels, 120 watts per channel<\/li>\n<li><b>Sony STR-AZ5000ES<\/b>\u00a0(\u00a0<i>$2,099.99<\/i>\u00a0) &#8211; 9.2 channels, 130 watts per channel<\/li>\n<li><b>Sony STR-AZ7000ES<\/b>\u00a0(\u00a0<i>$3,299.99<\/i>\u00a0) &#8211; 13.2 channels, 150W per channel<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div id=\"g1-fluid-wrapper-counter-1\" class=\"g1-fluid-wrapper \" style=\"width:662px;\" data-g1-fluid-width=\"662\" data-g1-fluid-height=\"372\">\n<div class=\"g1-fluid-wrapper-inner\" style=\"padding-bottom:56.19335347432%;\">\n\t       <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Sony | Premium ES 8K A\/V Receivers \u2013 Lineup Overview\" width=\"662\" height=\"372\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/A1Eer6fWpf0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n\t       <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The Sony STR-AZ7000ES Cinema Receiver can handle up to thirteen speakers and supports 360 Spatial Sound Mapping for a truly immersive surround sound experience, even in large auditoriums.\u00a0Supports 9.2.4 or 7.2.6 surround system configurations for Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and 360 Reality Audio 3D content.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/71_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sony&#8217;s immersive 360 \u200b\u200bReality Audio surround sound solution is both a competitor and an enhancement to Dolby Atmos.\u00a0At the same time, 360 Reality Audio is focused not only on movie soundtracks, but also on recording and playing music.\u00a0Today, you can find 360 Reality Audio encoded music on popular streaming services like Amazon Music Unlimited, deezer, nugs.net, and Tidal.\u00a0You can also listen to Reality 360 encoded tracks on TIDAL using an Amazon Fire TV 4K or Apple TV 4K set-top box as a source connected to the receiver via HDMI.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/72_techweek.jpg\" alt=\"Image\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Sony&#8217;s two high-end receivers (STR-AZ5000ES and STR-AZ7000ES) offer full-fledged multi-channel analog output &#8211; eleven channels on the STR-AZ5000ES and fifteen channels on the STR-AZ7000ES.\u00a0This allows these receivers to be used to build more complex surround sound systems by simply adding the required number of power amplifiers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a five-year hiatus,\u00a0Sony\u00a0is resuming the development and production of state-of-the-art cinema AV receivers that support the latest video and audio formats. The last Sony AV receiver (model STR-DH790) was released in 2018, and the latest update to the premium ES (Elevated Standard) line happened even earlier.\u00a0And in recent years, it seems that Sony has [&hellip;] <a class=\"g1-link g1-link-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/hi-fi\/sony-make-a-comback-to-producing-av-receivers\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10404,"featured_media":154827,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[642],"tags":[779],"class_list":["post-154820","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hi-fi","tag-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154820","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10404"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154820"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154820\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hifiratings.com\/tech\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}