Sony STR-DN1030

With the yamaha being POTY & The clear class leader,shouldn't the str1030 lose a star?..the way the vsx922 went from 4 to 3 stars. or is the sony just as good as the yamaha? Also shouldn't the denon 2113 drop from 4 to 3stars being £50.00 more... its an confusing scoring system,not the quality of the receivers & their individual merits,just the giving and taking of stars at random.

I have a similar question to Bogleg and ojr101. I am searching for an av receiver and I will be using it mostly for stereo music. I have listened to the Q Acoustics 2020i and 2050i (with a Pioneer receiver) and found the later to be much better in pure stereo (no sub was playing).

So my questions are:

1 - Will the 2050i be a good match for the STR-DN1030?

2 - Considering that stereo music is a priority to me, will I be better with:

a) 2020i in the front plus the sub, center and 2010i in the back

OR 

b) 2050i in the front plus the center and 2010i in the back (without the sub)

Thanks

Slightly similar enquiry to Bogleg's here... I'm about to buy a Sony 46hx853 TV and am seriously interested in the new STR-DN1030 AV amp to go with it. But the amp will spend just as much time powering stereo music as it will TV and video, so the choice of stereo speakers is playing on my mind. And they need to be wall mounters to keep the wife onside!

I'm considering the Q Acoustics 2020is, but I recently heard the Dali Zensor 1s (through a completely unrelated amp) and thought they sounded fantastic. Both these speaker pairs could form the basis of a surround sound system too I'm thinking. But would they work okay with the new Sony amp? The amp review said to be careful with speaker pairing and avoid anything that sounded too 'bright'?! Any further thoughts here would be much appreciated. (I'm a bit bemused by the term 'bright'.)

Having said that, I always like a punchy, toe-tapping speaker that doesn't hold back. Probably not the purist approach I know... but hey...

All thoughts much appreciated! Thanks.

The review in the mag says it need careful matching with speakers. Keeping in mind the budget price, what would be recommended?

how does whf rate last years award winner pioneers vsx lx55 in basic multi ch/2 ch direct against this sony? i.e would the lx55 still be worth an end of line pitch @ £600.00 stg or is the sony better value @ approx. £475.00? im am not asking which is better class,or better sounding, thats obvious,just which machine is the better bargain at the minute,in WHFs opinion.  thanks.

Maybe Andy Clough can help, Does the str-dn1030 allow you to assign an optical or coaxial input to a hdmi input while the receivers hdmi control is turned ON ? would be nice to know in all reviews of av receivers in the magazine, knowing would help installations, also note to Driftingphil the Sony hx853 picture quality is the best yet from sony, no backlight bleed makes all the difference.

I'm in the market for such a receiver and it sounds very promising except it does not have a DAB tuner. Settng the debate of analogue and digital radio aside and the fact that a proposed switchover is forever being put back, it will probably happen in the next few years and then the FM section of this unit will be obsolete. Maybe manufacturers omit this feature with a view to encouraging us to upgrade sooner rather than later but I for one usually buy a bit better than I can really afford with the intention of using a product for many years.

Cheap shot driftingphil. There's no bribe. Sony suffered a loss of form over the last couple of years, particularly on TVs, and we were more than happy to mark them down accordingly. This year, they've got their act together and the products have improved considerably.

TVs are rarely set up in store to perform at their best, so we would never test them in that situation. That's why we have dedicated test rooms to conduct proper A/B comparisons with rival makes.

Strange how whf are giving all Sony products this year 5 stars, tv's, blu ray player and now av amps. what's the bribe This year (skiing trip maybe like panasonics one a few years back hey!)? I've had a look at the Sony tv series Hx853 in richer sound, myself and the staff couldn't see a 5 star product or picture and thought it was rather poor compared to the the mid range Samsung sat next to it.