After many years of enjoying my Epson 2150 Home Cinema and my SONY STR-DN1080, I decided to upgrade to a 4K projector. I use my projector as a television, to watch movies, sports, etc., on a daily basis. Upgrading to a 4K projector required me ass well to upgrade my home theatre receiver to 4K. Both of my previous devices were 1080. I upgraded my receiver to a Sony STR-AN1000 7.2 Channel (7 x 165 Watt) Surround Sound Home Theater 8K A/V Receiver and my projector to a LG CineBeam UHD 4K projector. Immediately upon connecting my new 4K devices, I experienced difficulties. The picture was jumpy and intermittent, and I could not seamlessly switch from one input on my new home theater to another. Before the upgrade, I would regularly switch among all of my playback and streaming devices. I started panicking thinking I would have to return all of my new equipment, reconnect my old home theater receiver, and put my old projector back into the ceiling. I decided to call customer support. First, I called LG support. Then I called SONY support.

The SONY tech support figured out that the SONY equipment was working properly, but that the LG projector was not receiving the signals from my various devices. He told me the problem was that I needed also to upgrade my HDMI cable to a high-speed 4k cable. That immediately freaked me out because I have a 100 ft cable embedded in a ceiling that had been finished over the cable. No way I was going to rip apart the ceiling (thousands of dollars) to replace the HDMI cable. But his insight set me in the right direction. I did some online research and came across a solution that worked perfectly. Rather than tearing up my ceiling to install a new, high-speed HDMI 4K cable, I invested $39.00 in a HDMI 2.0 Repeater. This super mini HDMI repeater works by decoding and then re-encoding the HDMI signal to a new standard HDMI signal. It also extends the range of the signal. I was now getting perfect pictures from my Firestick and Fite TV Cube and was able to switch freely between them. I changed some of the display settings in the Fire Stick and Amazon Cube. However, I could not pick up the Xfinity TV signal on my LG 4K receiver. Picking up that signal required one last piece of equipment upgrade. I called Comcast technical support and determined that swapping out my Xfinity 1080 boxes for 4K boxes was an option available to me. Therefore, I returned my Xfinity 1080 cable box and swapped it out for an Xfinity 4K cable TV box. Problem solved. Now, I am receiving a perfect 4K image on the LG from all devices, and I can easily switch from one to the other.

Now, let's talk about the SONY STR-AN1000 features.

SONY STR-AN1000

This is a powerful and well-engineered home theater receiver. For me, the only reason to buy this receiver at this point in time was to upgrade my TV/ home theater watching from 1080 to 4K. My SONY 1080 still works fine. I have to figure out what I am going to do with it. The surround sound is awesome on the new STR-AN1000. It has this new Dolby Speaker Virtualization sound field simulation that totally immerses you in surround sound. You can control the SONY STR-AN1000 with your smartphone using the SONY Music Center App. There are plenty of digital and music streaming options. You have multi-room audio and video options using zone 2 and zone 3 outputs. Six HDMI inputs allow you to connect all of your media playback and streaming devices – Blue Ray player, Fire Stick, Fire TV Cube, ROKU Streaming stick, Cable/satellite TV Box, etc. Like my previous STR-DN1080, I can connect 7 speaker sets, including 2 sub-woofers. You can change the settings or switch from one input source to another easily. The on-screen display lets you make adjustments to your settings while looking at your TV screen. You can connect to the internet wirelessly or via an ethernet port. The only major feature this receiver is lacking is a phono input. I don’t mind that because I have another receiver from which to connect my turntables or record players. The remote control is much smaller than previous SONY home theater receiver remotes, making it more user-friendly and easier to understand. The Audio Return Channel (ARC and eARC) allows you to set your system up without the need for an optical audio cable. In my case, that means I don’t have to run an extra cable into the ceiling for the audio to work because the ARC and eARC transmit the audio signal. This receiver is capable of upscaling your video to both 4K and 8K. However, in my case, I found it necessary to get an Xfinity 4K cable box to watch my Xfinity programming. I am totally, 100 percent pleased with my SONY STR-AN1000 4K/8K home theater receiver. This is the fourth SONY home theater receiver I have owned. I have no complaints. The picture quality passed through from all of my playback devices to my LG 4K projector is stunning. There are so many other features to this receiver; however, those are best explained by an audio/video expert. There are many such reviews available online. But if you are a layperson like I am and you want to know whether this STR-AN1000 home theater is a good investment, my answer, based on a few weeks of viewing and my over a decade of experience with other home theater receivers, is that this is a very good investment. The quality and features you are getting are well worth the purchase price, and I am confident you will be watching a TV or projector hooked up to this home theater system for many years to come. I highly recommend it.

Upgrading from 5.1 speakers on CNET's top AV 2014 receiver, the Sony STR-DN840, I was curious to see how far home theater sound had improved since buying my Sony receiver and Energy 5.1 speaker set up back in 2015. I first upgraded by adding 2 more speakers, the ELAC B6.2 Debut speakers as my front main speakers and moved my Energy speakers into a 7.1 height speaker configuration. This improved the sound, but only minimally. This is when I ordered this bad boy AN1000 as I also wanted to take advantage of Sony's S-Center Acoustic Speaker connection with my 77" Sony A80J OLED TV.

The sound was marketedly better - so much so that my usually nonchalant wife noticed the trickles of streams and birds watching an old anime movie, Ponyo, and was impressed! Basically, the upgraded Sony STR-AN1000 coupled with two additional quality speakers enabled a 7.1 systems that leveraged DTS:X Virtual surround sound as well as A.F.D. Movie mode that comes as close to Dolby Atmos without placing speakers in the ceiling directly above your primary seating position. Watch the first battle/landing boat scene in "Saving Private Ryan", and prepare to be immersed with bullets whizzing all around you!

Ignore sound bars and upfiring Atmos speakers that bounce off the ceiling as a quick online search will pull up numerous articles that state 1) Soundbars are inferior to AV systems (I can verify as I demoed a top of line Sony HT-A7000 at home) 2) upfiring Atmos speakers are hit or miss at best 3) Dolby's DTS:X combined with Sony's processor gives you the most immersive sound possible without installing downward firing ceiling Atmos speakers in a 5.1.2 Atmost configuration.

Having my Sony Bravia A80J S-Center synch along with my center speaker made understanding dialogue much more clear, and also enabled me not to have to crank up the overall volume as the STR-AN1000 makes adjusting each individual speaker volume as well as sound profile (equalizer) super easy.

I would also be remiss in not calling out the ability to either auto calibrate using the included microphone or manually calibrate as both are extremely easy to perform. I opted to do the manual calibration using a tape measure for greater precision, but the auto calibrate was quite good.

Get this STR-AN1000 especially when on sale or open box, and not only will you be rewarded - even your wife will comment on how much immersive sound improvement there is on even non Dolby Atmos movies!!

UPDATE: Purchased two Sony SW3 subs, here's an addenddum.

Head to head, the Sony SW5 is superior to the SW3 thanks to the SW5's both active and passive subs which are also larger than the SW3. HOWEVER, especially when purchasing open box, I was able to purchase TWO SW3's for less than either stand alone SW5 or on sale single SW3, and 2 subs definitely not only smooth out the bass, but makes your home stereo/cinema sound omni directional so there's no dead spots. My Sony STR-AN1000 easily synced with both SW3 subs (note - you cannot mix two different subs on the AN1000), and now my bass is smooth/even throughout my living room as I watch Dolby Atmos movies or listen to my favorite music genre on my PS5 Playstation CDs, Pandora, and Sirius XM.

Thus, if you only want one sub and best quality, go for the SW5 or a more reasonably priced wired sub. However, if you can get two subs, two SW3 are a no brainer especially when buying two heavily discounted open box speakers that can be readily tucked away.

INSTALLATION AND CALIBRATION

My previous Denon AVR which was older than 10 years did feature multi-channel sound separation but unfortunately may have had a capacitor fail because one of rear sound channels was no longer working and the AVR would go into a power-down/safe mode with flashing red power LED after a few minutes of use. Not really inclined to open the unit and attempt a self-repair involving soldering, I opted to upgrade the AVR to a newer Dolby Atmos-capable receiver, the Sony STR AN1000.

Installing the AN1000 into my existing home theater set up was relatively easy, if you don’t account for crawling and stretching out on the living room wood floor and reconnecting existing speaker wire and subwoofer connections. Once the speakers were all connected, I used the calibration microphone and stand that comes with the AN1000 to establish the relative sound fields for each of the speakers. The graphical user interface from the Sony receiver to my Sony 4k TV was quite helpful in double-checking the accuracy of the calibration settings, which were slightly off in a few cases – particularly the distance of the subwoofers to the TV which for some reason added about 12 feet when they were only about 2 feet from the TV. When calibrating the unit, it is important to have a measuring device to verify the distance and height of all of your speakers, the height of your TV screen and the height of your ceiling. My home theater set up is in my living room and adjacent dining room that together have a 19-ft cathedral ceiling, so the acoustics can be quite pleasing.

The other disconcerting thing about the graphical interface for the speaker setup was that it doesn’t give the user and option for smaller (bookshelf-sized) rear surrounds and only displays large speakers if your left and right surrounds are large. My front and side surrounds are large Sony tower speakers and given how my dining room is set up it doesn’t make sense to add additional tower speakers.

CONNECTING AN APPLE TV 4K – Lack of the Dolby Vision Support

I initially connected my AppleTV 4k set top box directly to the Sony AN1000 using an 8k-rated HDMI cable only to discover that the receiver would not pass through a Dolby Vision signal to the AppleTV 4k which display 4k SDR only. When I went online to see if this was a unique issue or whether other users had encountered this, I discovered that unfortunately this is a known issue that as far as I could tell that neither Sony nor Apple have yet to resolve. So, I was forced to reconnect the Apple TV 4k directly to the Sony TV once again. Sony claims to support Dolby Vision through the AN1000 but this is simply not the case unless there is a solution or work-around that they have published as of this writing that I have missed.

DISPLAYING THE SOUND FIELD BEING USED

The Sony AN1000 does have a nifty 360 Spatial Sound setting which comes in handy when watching older films whether they are streamed or from a Blu-ray player. That said whatever the current sound field being used is displayed on the front display panel of the receiver but is so small as to be unreadable especially considering that the user may be sitting some 10 feet away from the receiver and TV screen and not inclined to keep getting out of their chair to kneel down and get within a few inches of the receiver’s front display to see what the settings are.

Attempting to verify the sound field by using the included Sony remote for the receiver is not much help since it hardly ever displays the information. Using the Sony TV’s remote isn’t much better since the option in the audio setting it displays is “Dolby Audio” not “Dolby Atmos” or “Dolby Digital Plus” or other sound fields/codecs like “DTS”.

OVERALL PERFORMANCE - SOUND CLARITY AND SURROUND EFFECTS

Despite some of the aforementioned annoying user interface issues, the surround sound effects of the AN1000 when in Dolby Atmos or using the Sony 360 Spatial Sound setting is quite impressive and to my ear sounds much crisper than my previous Denon multi-channel AVR. Initially my subwoofers were putting out probably a bit too much thundering low frequency bass; so, I actually had to reset the levels on them down a bit. This was quite noticeable when playing the 4k UHD Dolby Atmos stream of Blade Runner, for example and some other action films with explosions and other pyrotechnics.

When playing the tornado scene from The Wizard of Oz, you really do get the sense that wind is whipping around you from every corner of the room. Other films that have been adept at incorporating Dolby Atmos will sometimes startle the viewer with offscreen sound effects that was made by another character that soon makes an appearance. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies are very good examples of this.

I also tested the AN1000 with different genres (classical, opera, jazz, rock) of music on Amazon Music and was quite pleased with the crisp, clear sound of instruments and vocals.

FINAL WORD

To say that the AN1000 has horsepower and can create a dynamic and immersive theater sound experience in an averaged-sized living room is an understatement. This is a feature-rich and powerful home theater receiver and for most living room/family room/bonus room situations, the Sony STR AN1000 will be more than suitable for what you will need to create an entertaining surround sound environment.

I was very happy with my previous AVR, but when it failed I took the opportunity to get up to date and after some research I settled on this. I am so happy I did.

The positive reviews were not lying. This AVR sounds down right amazing considering the price point. Love the Chromecast feature as well as the Spotify integration.

However, it's the movie audio that really shines. After the very short calibration, their 360 spatial sound mapping when switched on really makes such a huge difference. Most of us will not be able to make a dedicated theater room, so this do the corrections for speaker placement is next level. Not to mention their virtual speaker placement technology. I don't know how it's done, but when I 1st used it, this thing had me amazed at sound placement from areas where the sound should be coming from, but I know I had no speaker there.

Even the short calibration was impressive. At the end of the process it knows not only where you are in relation to listening position, but it also knows exactly where each and every speaker is relative to each other in the room including their height. Remarkable. OCD me verified the measurements which you can displayed, with a laser measuring tool.

Now my biggest issue is that I now feel the need to go through all my movie collection to hear the difference.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I can see the stars and hear everything — this gazebo is now my favorite hangout spot! 😂

We set this outdoor gazebo up in the backyard and instantly it became the place to be. Whether we’re grilling, chilling, or hosting friends, this thing gives major outdoor-living vibes — like a backyard living room but without the weird couches. It’s spacious, sturdy, and feels like we basically just added a new room to the house… outdoors.

The weather protection and shade are awesome — it keeps the sun off without making it feel like a cave, and when the breeze kicks in under the roof it’s chef’s-kiss perfect for summer evenings. We’ve got lights and music tucked under here, the whole patio feels like it finally has personality, and I swear we spend more time out here than in the living room now.

If you want a backyard setup that says “party, relaxation, and maybe a nap later,” this gazebo delivers. Big enough for company, easy to decorate, and it makes every outdoor moment feel way more intentional — like you meant to create an oasis out there.

TERRIBLE Home Theater AVR. I bought this based on the many very high level reviews and recommendations available on multiple sites. What a mistake. This unit is very difficult to use, and that is made even worse by Sony's BS proprietary insistence to not let their remotes work with any other brands of equipment except their own!

After setup, I find there is no default input selection after startup of the AVR, not even the commonly seen default to the last used input. What this means is that EVERY TIME I want to use any audio or video unit with this AVR, I must first use the AVR remote to select the input, THEN put it down and find a different remote to use for whatever unit I want to watch. What a PAIN in the rear!

The next totally unacceptable issue is that every time an input is changed, there are about 5 odd low-frequency thumps from the speakers - this has NEVER happened before with other AVRs and the same equipment, so this problem is very specif to this horrible amplifier.

Other irritants are that the AVR display shows many almost meaningless things that are of no particular value, but they have removed ALL indications of what speakers are currently active for whatever input is being received. In addition to that, this AVR does not properly decode some input types that it is supposed to support (based on using format-specific test files).

Another issue is that the input setting on my smart TV for this AVR does not stay Active while the TV is using a different input, despite the fact that the amplifier is always on, and the TV audio output IS constantly using the AVR for the speakers. This is somewhat related to the first problem I noted - since the TV does not think that the AVR is turned on, I cannot use the TV to select that input; I have to GO BACK to the nasty Sony remote just long enough to change inputs AGAIN, then put down that remote and switch to another. Again, I repeat that this behavior has NOT occurred with other AVRs tested in this Home Theater, only this one, and it makes life miserable. Even when I turn on a different connected device that uses HDMI Control to turn on the AVR, this brain-dead unit will NOT switch to that input after it powers on - I still have to manually make that switch with the Sony remote!

Another issue is the inability to use a normal coax or balanced FM antenna input on this receiver - they give you a little single wire antenna that uses a strange miniature plug that is totally worthless in my area - cannot pick up a single station! And there is no way to connect my outdoor antenna like I have been able to do with every other receiver!!!!!

I’ve had the older version of this receiver for about four years, and it’s still working great! I’m thinking of passing it on to my brother, but I’ve upgraded my gaming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, so I wanted to get a better experience with 120 Hz gaming. I’m so happy with it—the video quality is absolutely stellar, and the built-in surround sound calibration is perfect. I’m really happy with my purchase. I got the refurbished model at a great price, and everything is in the original boxes, so far so good. I highly recommend it, whether you buy it new or refurbished—it’s worth every penny. I’m hoping to keep this one for another 4 to 5 years before they upgrade the technology.

Review updated after TWO returns to the repair center and MANY calls to both Support and the CS Escalation department:

I'M STILL NOT PLEASED WITH THIS PRODUCT. During startup, this receiver bounces back and forth from input source to input source as if I triggered a roulette wheel. Where will it finally stop?

In my case, I most often use Video input. Sometimes during startup, it will momentarily display the Video input as expected, but will then start jumping/fishing around to other inputs types, including those I've never used. Eventually, it may return to the Video input, but it will not display the actual video or audio content. Instead, it just displays a black banner that reads VIDEO. I then have to turn the receiver off and on again hoping that maybe it will work this time.

Neither Sony's escalation Team, nor the repair facility will answer the simple question, "What SHOULD it do when I first turn it on?"

In addition, on at least two occasions, during startup, I saw PLEASEWAIT written across the display for 75 seconds before the device actually started up OR rebooted. (Note: THIS issue appears to be resolved by the repair center replacing a circuit board.)

Another related annoyance is that when video content changes (e.g., from a show to a commercial, back to a commercial on YouTube), each break in the chain displays 5+ seconds of black screen even though you can hear the audio. This doesn't sound like much, but when it does this every time, it gets annoying AND is infinitely longer than my previous 10 y/o receiver.)

About 2-3 times an hour, while viewing consistent content from the same input, the screen will suddenly go black, then the audio drops out, and then it will flash a HDCP 2.3 warning blue screen. Unacceptable!

In short, and IMHO, the audio quality is very good, but basic functionality is SEVERELY clunky. Again, IMHO, this product should have NEVER gone to market.

The combination of poor functionality AND a dismal customer experience forever diminishes Sony's former world-class brand status.

P.S.: Sony's Escalation department told me that they simply DO NOT provide refunds if you've had the product more than 30 days. So make sure that you test ALL functionality as soon as it arrives.

Caveat emptor.

Pros:

room correction was fast and was able to calibrate both my subs, can do two ceiling speakers OR bi-amp fronts, Sounds rude and loud for movies - (almost harsh - but in a good way) reminds me of being at the theatre more than ever. Pair it with some big floor speakers and two subs and you'll never miss paying $30 for two bags of popcorn again!

Cons:

makes single loud clunking sound randomly on start-up. Sounds like rain barrel being dropped on its side or something. No big deal though lol. If your friend asks "what the **** was that noise?" You can look out the window, shake your head and tell them the neighbor is tipping barrels again!

Summary: I've used Marantz and Harman Kardon for decades and this Sony sounds just as good to my ears plus it gets you into current gen of HDMI 2.1 for your new toys (PS5 etc.). I'm not a fan of Onkyo or Dennon, and Pioneer Elite is quite a bit more pricey. I love this thing so far, give it a try!

*Edit*

After a few weeks of use that specific clunking sound seems to have disappeared entirely! I guess that was a part of the break-in process.

Excelente compra, la calidad del sonido es muy nítida, se escucha de maravilla. A los que les gusta escuchar música a un gran nivel, se los recomiendo.

This a fantastic AVR. It totally transformed how my home theater sounds with the Spacial Audio.

Excellent sound and performance, built like a beer-can compared to my older Yamaha AVR- needed to move on in terms of video processing- old AVR was a 1080p model, and the Sony is an 8K receiver. This Sony works perfectly, with excellent sound quality and video processing, just not impressed with the build quality- it's not bad, just really thin sheet steel case, compared to my Yamaha, and when you turn it on from fully off, the case rattles loudly when the large main relay kicks in... which really surprised me... Overall, I'd say it's a very good receiver, with a very quick and simple calibration procedure... construction quality is average at best... :)

Update: My Sony has failed after a month- turned it on and no sound- big main relay doesn't come on anymore... very disappointed to say the least... :(

Love this receiver. Sonically it is the most immersive home theatre receiver I have heard, especially with Dolby Atmos or DTS-X soundtracks. Auto setup microphone does an excellent job on most parameters, but speaker distances did require some tweaking. The 360 degree spatial sound mapping is wonderful. Lots of inputs and customization options. Remote is good but not backlit.