Sony STRDG1200 7.1 Channel Audio/ Video Receiver

5 Responses to “Sony STRDG1200 7.1 Channel Audio/ Video Receiver”

• Maine Train, on November 2nd, 2009 at 2:13 pm Said:

  The SONY 920 that I ordered came with a DOA surround field setting, which was an absolute beast to figure out. These SONYs are NOT easy
  
  to set up.

  The 1200 replacing it came today and bingo, works right out of the box. GUI is much better to work with, but I cannot for the life of me figure out why SONY makes their manuals and GUI labels so danged complicated! And if you have older eyes and chubby fingers, have fun trying to
  
  screw their speaker terminals to wire between the too-tight spacing.
  
  Push speaker wire connectors couldn’t have cost that much more to build with.

  UPDATE: After a couple of weeks’ use:

  Why doesn’t SONY let us see the volume settings either with a lighted volume wheel (my 15 yo TEAC has that) or on screen display? Good luck reading their puny little display face from your chair!

  And SONY is too cheap to illuminate their byzantine remote, while our new Samsung LCD has a gorgeous illuminated remote.

  Come on, SONY, this isn’t rocket science, and your cheaper competitors are blowing past you in terms of user friendliness. If you don’t believe me, just try and deal with SONY’s outrageous user manual!
  Rating: 3 / 5

• AV Andy, on November 2nd, 2009 at 4:20 pm Said:

  My decision to purchase the Sony STRDG1200 took some time. Having owned Sony receivers previously, and having my last one fry, I was really open to other more highly regarded brands. The decision ultimately came down to features and Crutchfield’s excellent reviews of the product. The audiophiles reading this, who just wouldn’t have anything but a Denon, Marantz, McIntosh, or Oynko, can stop now. All of these companies make fine equipment, but the user feedback on difficulty of set-up, and my own observations ultimately had me moving back to Sony. To achieve the same level of performance, and I mean sound and video quality, one would have to spend at least twice the “list” price of this receiver for the “Big Boys”. Picture quality from my 5 year old Sony KDF E50A10 is now nothing less than extraordinary, especially given the limitations of the TV. Upscaling from older DVD’s, or HD TV signals, shows the difference. My son has an Oynko TSXR607, playing into a new Mitsubishi flat screen, and the amount of image instability with his set-up compared to mine, convinced me that I’d made an excellent choice.
  
  Sound reproduction through the Klipsch RF 62 System is to say the least, extremely accurate and well defined. No, the sound quality is not better than that I experienced in the demonstration room where I first listened to the Klipsch RF set-up (about [...]10K in McIntosh amplification and another [...]25K in acoustics), however set in a less-than an ideal room, the 3-seating position speaker set-up routine enabled me to create “almost” the same level of sound reproduction.
  
  I’ve located this receiver in an enclosed cabinet, BUT, this time with thermostatically controlled ventilation. One of the few carps I do have, is like that of most reviewers of this and many other 7.1 receivers, no AC outlet(s) on the rear of the receiver. This feature alone would have saved me many hours of work and expense to power a ventilation system.
  
  Set-up was not as simple as some reviewers have written, and yet, possibly I’m more simple than some other reviewers. I would have liked a little more flexibility in the GUI interface, especially, being able to see and hear what my changes were without having to close the GUI every time a change was made. The usual gripe about not being able to assign HDMI inputs more flexibly, yet if you experiment a little, you can get there. Warranty at 2 years, vs the ES series at 5 slowed my purchase for almost a month. The extra [...]ultimately went toward speakers, and this receiver won. The remote, well, Sony should reduce the price of all of their receivers and offer a [...] coupon toward the purchase of a Logitech Harmony One. Overall, I dropped this receiver from a 5 to a 4 for the minor annoyances above, and at the same time rated it’s audio and video performance tops in this class and more than equal to units at twice the price. Finally, thanks Crutchfield for holding this unit at such a great price while I did my homework.
  Rating: 4 / 5

• R. V. Hamilton, on November 2nd, 2009 at 7:08 pm Said:

  Amazon did their part. They delivered what I ordered, and on time.
  
  The receiver does an excellent job of switching the HDMI inputs, and the audio decoders are excellent. With one exception, every feature works well. The one exception is the speaker switching. It is not possible to turn off the “B” speakers without turning off the “A” speakers. The “A” ONLY setting leaves the “B” speakers on. A minor inconvenience for me, and may be unique to my unit, but may be important to others.
  
  **** UPDATE **** 2/24/2009
  
  I finally pulled out the receiver, and checked the wiring, and the prolem was mine. After correcting the wiring, the speaker switching works fine.
  
  All of the codecs have been checked, and they all work well for every surround mode.
  
  I would change the rating to 5 stars if I could.
  Rating: 4 / 5

• Redman1953, on November 2nd, 2009 at 8:10 pm Said:

  You really couldn’t ask for more, especially at this price. This receiver is beautifully designed inside and out and loaded with all the latest features. It has a terrific onscreen menu and it’s very easy to set up and use. The sounds is glorious! I love it!
  Rating: 5 / 5

• Luis Mederos, on November 2nd, 2009 at 9:59 pm Said:

  Note: if you are an audio snob, stop reading.

  I had been looking for an A/V receiver for a while, and had started with the Onkyo SR-607, which is rated as a great value but has been reported to have less than satisfying video upscaling performance.

  I purchased this unit as a compromise to the hefty, blocky-looking, more expensive ($200 more), and very well rated Onkyo SR-706, on which I had zeroed in after reading about the SR-607 video concerns. My logic was that since I had a 30day return window, I could return the Sony if it was not acceptable.

  This Sony was on sale for $300 less than usual price, and had the Faroudja Cinema chip (capable of 1080p upscaling, and same as the SR-706). It also has a very appealing front panel design, and works well with a Sony LCD. It also is smaller but not by much over the Onkyo.

  In terms of specifications, this Sony is very similar to the Onkyo SR-706. In terms of audio reputation, audiophiles will likely say the Onkyo is superior. My take on this: probably in the technical guts of the receiver, Onkyo is more robust, but frankly in terms of sound and video performance, the Sony is excellent. Although I am not what you would call an audiophile, I am an engineer and have always been very picky about the products I purchase. Unless you are an audiophile, and in that case you would be looking at very high end units anyway, you should not have any complaints about the sound and capabitilites of this unit.

  Pros:
  
  1. The video upscaling works surprisingly well. Upscaling not only upconverts, i.e., changes from composite (1 RCA video + 2 audio) or component (3, red, blue, green video + 2 audio) inputs to an HDMI output, but also upscales the image from a lower resolution to a higher resolution (although it will *not* be perfect, it does help the image unless you have a very noisy and poor image to begin with). I recommend you do some research online to understand how the Faroudja upscaling works. Also, make sure your video input is progressive not interlaced if you can — it will make a world of difference.
  
  2. The sound is pristine. And plenty of it — my wife is always asking me to turn the volume down and it is far into the lower end of the scale according to the volume control. I have played a large variety of music styles (latin, salsa, vocals, gregorian chant, jazz, etc.) and have been very pleased.
  
  3. Has many, many choices for surround sound processing — almost too many but it does include the popular ones. Although it is not THX certified, you probably wouldn’t be looking at this price range for THX…
  
  4. For a 100W receiver, it does not get as hot as I would expect.
  
  5. The unit styling is more refined than most other units I looked at.

  Cons:
  
  1. can’t change the name of the audio/video components on the display of the unit, although you can change them in the graphical user interface (control interface) that you see through the TV. So although I watch a TiVo DVR through the Sony, the unit display will show “SAT” as I have it connected to that input, yet I was able to rename it “TiVo” on the TV GUI for the A/V. This is a frustrating and unexplainable failure in the Sony design.
  
  2. It is a little confusing how to connect the audio inputs if you are using component inputs for a video source.
  
  3. I wish they would have added an audio input jack so I could connect a non-iPod MP3 player directly, rather than needing a splitter jack from Radio Shack that uses a full audio input in the rear.
  
  4. No Zone 2 volume control.

  If you are looking for a great A/V receiver and are not one of those people who will be switching to another unit in 6 months when the next surround sound decoding protocol is rolled out, this is a great choice if you can get it at the reduced price ($599 from $899). If so, get it and spend the difference from a higher priced unit towards good speakers if yours are not.

  Rating: 5 / 5

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