Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver

Hot on the heels of the Sony RDR-HXD860S DVD recorder which we featured yesterday comes another home cinema product that has been making a few waves recently, the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver which was launched in the Autumn of 2006 as part of Sony's new ES line up of receivers.

Boasting a healthy 7 x 50 watt per channel into 8 ohms, the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver has all features and High Definition proof functions you will need if you are thinking about setting up or upgrading a home cinema system. Retailing for under £400 and available in a choice of black or silver, the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver has been packed full of the latest must have features such as full 1080p HDMI switching for the two HDMI inputs. Not content with just that, the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver will also upscale any composite, s-video, rgb you feed it and ouput it progressively via the component video* which is a major plus point and something the competion need to take note about. Given the price of a decent video scaler costs in the region of £200, the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver will not only save you money but negate the need for an extra box as well.

Build quality of the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver is also very good too. I have seen too many home receivers suffer from cost cutting with build quality being very much an afterthought - fortunately with the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver this is not the case. With 50 watts per channel being pumped out by the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver power is something that it is short of and unlike so many other home receivers i have auditioned, sound quality is very full bodied and reassuring.

Audio support on the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver is also very good with virtually all the Dolby and DTS formats including DTS Neo and Dobly ES being catered for. However if you wanting support for the up and coming Dolby TruHD and DTS HD, then I am afraid the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver does not support them. However what we do like and what we know will appeal to a lot of other people is just how easy the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver is to set up. Sony have very kindly incorporated something they call DCAC (Digitial Cinema Auto Calibration). Basically they have included a sophisticated microphone with the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver that allows you to position all your loudspeakers in the correct position and then calibrate the volume of each from a central position using the microphone which is plugged into the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver. This really does take all the hassle out of the set up and means you can be up and running out of the box in no time at all.

All in all the Sony STR-DA1200ES Receiver is one of the best home receveivers we've come across and at under £400 is a bit of a bargain. Available now

*Corrected

This entry was posted on Wednesday January 10th, 2007 at 2:47 PM and is filed under Home Cinema. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.

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