INPAINT 7.2 REVIEW UPGRADE
INPAINT 7.2 REVIEW PRO
INPAINT 7.2 REVIEW BLUETOOTH

The construction uses a reinforced frame and beam chassis, combined with a new digital circuit board and a newly designed heat sink. There's a precision crystal oscillator, audio grade components, class leading pre-amp volume integrated circuits, a glass-epoxy circuit board for the power amplifier and a jitter elimination circuit, along with a localised analogue power supply and a large capacity power transformer. There's a 32-bit digital-to-analogue converter (DAC), three digital signal processors (DSPs), a high quality surface-mounted resistor and quality capacitors.

The DN1080 might be aimed at the budget end of the receiver market and it may be lacking in terms of build quality but Sony have certainly put some thought into the internal construction. There's also DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) HX technology that its designed to upscale lower resolution music.

The DN1080 supports high resolution audio formats such as WAV, AIFF, FLAC and ALAC, as well as DSD native playback via DLNA, HDMI or USB.

INPAINT 7.2 REVIEW PRO

There's also S-Force PRO which can create a virtual surround experience from two-channels, assuming you've bought a surround sound receiver but installing a proper 5-channel setup is problematic. Although you can run a 5.2.2-channel system using the built-in amplification, the Sony also includes processing designed to create phantom back channels and a flexible approach to speaker placement to 'relocate' sound if you can't position the speakers in the ideal location. The STR-DN1080 boasts the kind of feature set that you'd expect to see on a modern AV receiver, with the main one being support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.

INPAINT 7.2 REVIEW UPGRADE

It's worth pointing out that there are no pre-outs, so you can't upgrade the amplification and nor can you expand the system beyond the seven built-in channels. Finally there are binding posts for the seven built-in channels of amplification, allowing you to run 5.1, 7.1 or 5.1.2 speaker configurations. There are also two composite video inputs and a composite video out, a connector for the included FM aerial and in/out sockets of an IR remote. However there's no phono stage so bear that in mind if you have a turntable. There's a coaxial and an optical digital input, three analogue inputs, two analogue outputs and two subwoofer outputs.

INPAINT 7.2 REVIEW BLUETOOTH

There are twin aerials for the built-in WiFi and Bluetooth support, along with an Ethernet port for a wired connection. So there are six HDMI inputs and two HDMI outputs, with main one supporting ARC (Audio Return Channel) and the other one supporting a second display or a different zone. Sony have kept with the simplified approach when it comes to the rear connections, with the emphasis sensibly being on HDMI rather than the various legacy inputs. Our only real area of complaint is the build quality, which is fairly light and the front buttons in particular are very plastic to the touch. In keeping with the minimalist aesthetic, the few front connections are limited to a 6.35mm headphone socket, a 3.5mm connector for the setup microphone and a USB port. Beneath this glossy strip are some some basic controls and under those there is a power button on the left and an input selector and master volume dial on the right. In reality you'll be using the onscreen display most of the time, so the front display is largely redundant anyway. The display is hidden away in the middle of this glossy strip and, whilst not the most informative we've seen, it gets across the main information. The DN1080 goes for a very minimalist approach, with a black brushed metal finish on the front and glossy strip along the top half. We're glad to see that Sony has taken a more simplified approach to the layout of the STR-DN1080's front facia when compared to their earlier AV receivers, which did have a tendency to be rather burdened with unnecessary buttons and controls. So if Sony's STR-DN1080 can deliver a performance that matches its value then we could be looking at a real bargain. Once you throw in Chromecast, Spotify Connect and Apple's AirPlay, the DN1080 starts to look very well specified indeed, and what's surprising is that all these features come in a receiver that will only set you back Р’Р€459.

It supports 4K and High Dynamic Range РІР‚вЂњ specifically HDR10, Hybrid Log-Gamma and Dolby Vision РІР‚вЂњ as well as Hi-Res Audio and DSD native playback. To achieve this the DN1080 has seven channels of built-in amplification and can run up to two subwoofers.

This new surround sound receiver supports both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, with means it can deliver a more immersive experience from these object-based audio formats. That earlier model was excellent, so we were rather pleased when they launched the STR-DN1080 last year at a fraction of the cost. Sony have been fairly quiet on the AV receiver front recently, in fact the last AVR of their's we reviewed was the STR-DA5800ES all the way back in 2013.

Inpaint 7.2 review