At a press event in Austin, Texas earlier today, Sony unveiled something we haven't seen for five years: a new batch of home theater A/V receivers (AVRs). There are five new models, ranging from the STR-AN1000 at $899 all the way to the flagship STR-AZ7000ES for $3,299. One is in Sony's standard AVR line and four are from the company's high-end CI-friendly ES (Elevated Standard) line-up.
All of the new receivers support 8K/60 and 4K/120 video sources thanks to HDMI 2.1-compatible inputs. They also include Dolby Atmos and DTS:X surround as well as Sony's own immersive audio format: 360 Reality Audio. In addition, they include Sony's immersive sound enhancement feature: 360 Spatial Sound Mapping.
The ES models are ideal for CI (custom integration) installations as they support all of the major (and some minor) CI home integration platforms. All models are also "Works with Sonos" certified so they'll fit in nicely with a whole home Sonos music system.
This is the first time Sony has included its own immersive surround format (360 Reality Audio) in a home receiver. Previously the technology was only available in their sound bars and headphones. Sony's immersive surround offering is both a competitor to Dolby Atmos and DTS-X and an enhancement to those formats. There are two components to it: 360 Reality Audio is an object-based encoding format for movie and music producers and engineers to create immersive sound mixes; 360 Spatial Sound Mapping enhances two channel, standard surround or immersive sound formats such as Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and 360 Reality Audio to be even more immersive and enveloping.
360 Spatial Sound Mapping uses electronic processing and psychoacoustics to fill in the spaces between speakers with "virtual channels" in order to make the speaker to speaker transitions smoother and the whole surround soundscape more seamless.
While this type of surround sound effect can be virtualized for playback through soundbars or even headphones, it's much more effective coming from multiple physical speakers dedicated to producing sound from all directions. To this end, all of the receivers in Sony's new line-up offer at least seven channels of built-in amplification for a minimum 5.1.2-channel immersive surround implementation. On the top end, the AZ7000ES can power up to 13 separate speakers (plus two subwoofers), supporting a 9.1.4 or 7.1.6 speaker configuration for Dolby Atmos, DTS-X and 360 Reality Audio content.
You can find 360 Reality Audio encoded music on several music streaming services including Amazon Music Unlimited, deezer, nugs.net, and Tidal. I've been testing the Sony STR-AZ1000ES receiver using both the Amazon Music and Tidal apps, connected via the receiver's "Chromecast built-in" feature and both services were able to pass 360 Reality tracks to the receiver. You can also listen to Reality 360 encoded tracks with the Tidal app on a compatible streaming device such as an NVIDIA Shield, Amazon Fire TV 4K stick or Apple TV 4K as the source, connected to the receiver via HDMI.
Enabling the 360 Spatial Sound Mapping requires that you first run through a calibration routine. Unlike the mono microphones used by traditional speaker calibration programs like Audyssey, Sony's "Digital Cinema Auto Calibration IX" uses a stereo microphone to map out speaker levels, locations and room interactions in order to create a 3D map of your listening room.
First you need to provide physical measurements of your room and the distance from the center of your screen to the main listening position. Then you use the stereo microphone to take measurements twice: once facing forward and once facing the side of the room. It then uses these measurements to create virtual speaker channels in addition to the real speakers in the room. Once you've done the calibration, you can use the dedicated "360SSM" button on the remote to enable or disable the 360 Spatial Sound Mapping feature.
The ES receivers also feature RS232 ports and IP control capabilities for compatibility with all of the major CI platforms including Control4, OvrC, Savant, Crestron, ELAN, RTI, Domotz, URC and Vantage. Also, the two highest end units (STR-AZ5000ES and STR-AZ7000ES) offer a complete set of pre-amp outputs - eleven channels (nine channels plus two subwoofer outputs) on the 5000 and fifteen channels on the 7000 (thirteen channels plus two subwoofer outputs). This allows the customer to add dedicated power amps for larger home theater applications.
Sony reps at the event told us that the new models will begin shipping this spring. We've got our hands on a sample of the AZ1000ES. Stay tuned for a complete review in the near future.
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