audiovisual AV receiver
It's been a while since we've had a midrange Sony AV receiver in for review — but that's because the STR-AN1000 is a clear replacement for the STR-DN1080, which enjoyed a five-year reign as one of the most highly regarded receivers at this level. Sony clearly isn't one for annual iterations in this market: it's happy to wait until the standards have shifted enough to require a hardware overhaul. With such updates, this new STR-AN1000 gains significant upgrades over its predecessor, internally at least, and also bears some interesting technology from the Japanese giant.
We say ‘midrange’, but this receiver is currently the highest in a range of three. In the US there are higher models, numbered 3000, 5000 and 7000, and all boasting Sony's ES ‘Elevated Standard’ suffix. But boo, those are currently for 110V markets only, we gather. We must hope Sony elects eventually to create 240V versions for the rest of us to enjoy.
As a range-topping receiver for now, then, the AN1000 is competitively priced at $1699. The new model brings technical standards up to date with HDMI 2.1, so 4K compatibility throughout, and two inputs that handle 4K/120 or 8K/60. There are still seven channels of power on board, so this receiver is able to service a straight seven-channel surround system, or a 5.1 system with two height channels, which is how we assessed it.
You bring your own speakers, of course, but if you want to minimise cable runs you might consider that the STR-AN1000 can connect wirelessly to Sony's optional rear speakers (SA-RS5 and SA-RS3S) and wireless subwoofers (SA-SW5 and SA-SW37). The SA-RS5 wireless rears look very like the speakers in the Sound+Image award-winning HT-A9 surround system from Sony, which performed absolutely magnificently.
Using wireless rears means you're then wasting the power from those rear amplifier channels. While there's no way to simply reassign the unused power to the front speakers, you are able to biamp your front speakers provided they have separate treble and bass terminals. Or you can use the spare outputs for an extra zone of audio. Even if you don't do that, wireless rears will take some strain off the receiver's new lower-distortion power transformer (with its improved copper-wound core and bobbin), so indirectly benefitting the other channels, as well as eliminating the need for the cables to your rears.
Still, we prefer to rely on cables where possible, and we judged the Sony receiver with a 5.1.2 reference speaker system that we know well, and nd properly cabled. How was the experience?
Build & features
When it comes to physical appearance, either
