1/27/2012

Sony STR-DA6400ES 120 Watt 7.1 multi-room A/V receiver with internet connectivity (Black) Review

Sony STR-DA6400ES 120 Watt 7.1 multi-room A/V receiver with internet connectivity (Black)
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(More customer reviews)
I'm posting this review because I have seen no information on this product. I only have about two days experience with it, and I'm not an audiophile, so your mileage may vary: as such this review will mainly discuss the functionality of the receiver, not the quality. I will update as more information becomes available.
Connected this receiver to a Sony XBR6 52" LCD, model KDL52XBR6, Sony Blu ray player BDP-350, and a Dish Network Vip-722, with a Sony SA-W3000 12" subwoofer and 5 Polk Audio TC-80i speakers tucked neatly behind the drywall, 10' up, aimed towards the couch, in an 8000+ cubic-foot tiled living room (20' x 20' x 20'). I expected a lot of echoing, which I got, and like I said I'm not an audiophile, so I'd best stick to functionality and features, not quality.
One of my functionality concerns was the DLNA feature. The product manual found online mentions nothing about this feature, but the product in fact contains a second manual outlining the features. Prior to connecting the receiver I had installed TVersity on a Windows XP box. The television (which I believe had a DLNA sticker on the box, but no DLNA certificate on DLNA.org) failed to connect with TVersity (claiming TVersity was not a DLNA compliant server - and TVersity claims vice versa, though neither is certified). The 6300 receiver in fact has a DLNA certificate on DLNA.org and happily connected to TVersity. Hmmmm!
So the auto-calibration is totally cool - it happily picked out the distance of all of my speakers, and set the attenuation, and massive-echoing aside, this system totally powered the 8000 cubic foot volume (plus adjacent kitchen, dining room, etc) to my novice ears.
The dish-network receiver connected ok, though I noticed a video/audio mismatch (I think can be corrected via. 6300 setting) and the Blu-ray player connected ok, again an audio/video timing issue, and also a volume problem that was corrected with a setting on the blu-ray player (pass through HDMI audio).
Shoutcast radio stations came through flawlessly, though the UI throughout is painfully slow (what processor is in this beast?)
I noticed the Bravia-Link (aka HDMI-CEC aka AV-link) doing its magic, e.g. the TV turns on when you push the GUI button on the receiver, or if you take the TV remote and point at TV and do volume up it forwards the command to the receiver. Or if you play a Blu-Ray disc it powers up the TV and sets receiver to right channel. I had seen some early reviews saying the Dish Network VIP-722 would interfere with this, but apparently they have fixed it.
Big disappointment is that if the mp3 CD is put in the Blu-Ray player BDP-350 it doesn't work, even though it works on my motorcycle stereo, on my car, on my sister's car, on my colleagues [...] Emerson. Come on Sony, if I spend over [...]
on your top-of-the-line stuff, the CD written by ITunes should work! But that's a gripe on the Blu-Ray player, not the item I'm reviewing! Through DLNA and TVersity, audio files played fine (and they will also play through a USB memory device on TV by the way).
I haven't spent much time with TVersity, will report back and update this as I do.

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