Sony STR-DN1040 First impression

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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As said before, my Pioneer VSX-2021 has died. This is particularly sad because it is a beast of an amp. Pic here compare to the Sony.

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After a little research I really wanted a replacement before Christmas as I have a week and a half off work. I could wait for the January sales but I am willing to take convenience over any potential savings (which won't be much as the amp only got released in May/June) and it is only £450.

7.2, 8 HDMI outs, 2 HDMI in, Wifi, Bluetooth, Airplay, DLNA, 2 optical in, 4K Pass through, 3D, FM/AM Tuner, 165W Per Channel on paper.

8 HDMI inputs is great (7 at the back 1 at the front), although nobody really need all 8 but I have 5 plugged in at the moment so that leaves 2 spare which is saved for PS4 and or Xbox One.

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So replacing the Pioneer with an amp that has an RRP that is 50% less would be a downgrade you think. In some respect this is true, and on that regard, I was going to get the Onyko 828 or the Pioneer LX57 but deep down only THX certification on the Onyko that i really want and the Pioneer is £1k at the moment and with what happened to the 2021, I think I will try something else this time round. The real left field choice would be a Marantz SR7007 but i couldn't find any in stock.

Step up the Sony DN1040. Someone I know bought one recently and he brought it to my attention, a little reading online to find it won What HiFi amp of the year and basically every review online is favourable, from highly recommended to award winning and at £450 it is also cheaper than the Onyko and the Pioneer.

First impression

LCD is smaller than the Pioneer, a lot smaller, it display about half the info the Pioneer had so at first I am confused what is connected and what isn't. The LCD doesn't display which speakers the amp is using for example. I got used to that with the Pioneer, it is a reassurance I know all 5.1 are being used.

But that is a minor point, once set up, calibrated (which is about 1 min work opposed to about 20 in the Pioneer), the amp is ready to go. Thankfully the onscreen (TV screen) menu is a lot better than the Pioneer. It looks like a PS3 menu, colourful, easy to navigate, it makes the Pioneer feel old and MS-DOS like.

Playing a movie, the sound field is vast and spacious (as commented also by my brother in law), good accuracy of placement of sounds, very detailed as I put on Breaking Down Part 2 on the background yesterday and heard something in the room, first I thought my iPad across the room made a sound but it turns out it was the soundtrack. This amp reveals layers of detail with great accuracy.

Music is also good, and from my 24 hours with the amp, everything sound as good as the Pioneer. The soundstage is detailed and all the placements can be picked out easily.

Airplay works as it should like a charm.

The amp also has built in WiFi so it makes connected up to your network easier if you don't have a router nearby. (note, when first connect the amp asked for an update which took about 20 mins)

Pro - Great sound, really great sound, mass of connectivity, easy of set up, great menu

Con - Small LCD, cluttered remote, no Spotify

Overall, I am really happy with this amp, and I think I would need to spend more than £1k to get something that sounds significantly and noticeably better.
 
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Thanks for this.

I'm currently looking at this and the Yamaha 675. There is £50 difference between the two.

The differences seem to be that the Yamaha has fewer HDMI ports (5 in 1 out) and the Sony has built in wireless but I'll be placing this next to a switch anyway. Apart from that and a few differences in the numbers of optical and composite, they are pretty similar.

The Sony probably looks like the better option but I've also noticed the lack of information on the screen, and I've seen a lot of reported HDMI problems.

Hmm decisions
 
7 of the HDMI are in the back, 1 in the front.

So in the back I have 5 plugged in, 2 free (I am thinking XBox One and PS4? :D).

So I need as many HDMI as I can get. I have 3 year warranty on the Sony so I am not concerned with any problems that it may arise, the Sony Centre being 1 mile from my house.
 
To begin with I'm looking to connect Sky+ HD, PS3, Wii and a wired connection to my network, but like you I have my eye on next gen consoles.

I'll be using it for a 5.1 system in my living room with a Panasonic plasma.

Main uses will be blue ray movies, Sky Movies / F1 and streaming from my media server in that order.

I know the screen won't say 5.1, but will it say the current source and Dolby/DTS codec?

Do you have any experience of the android app or are you an apple man?
 
Nazbit said:
To begin with I'm looking to connect Sky+ HD, PS3, Wii and a wired connection to my network, but like you I have my eye on next gen consoles.

I'll be using it for a 5.1 system in my living room with a Panasonic plasma.

Main uses will be blue ray movies, Sky Movies / F1 and streaming from my media server in that order.

I know the screen won't say 5.1, but will it say the current source and Dolby/DTS codec?

Do you have any experience of the android app or are you an apple man?
Click to expand...


Sky+ - Check
PS3 - Check, well, I have a Xbox 360
Wii - Check I have one but not connected though since I don't play it anymore.
5.1 system - Check, it has enough speakers output for 7.2
Panasonic Plasma - Check, I have one too

What happen with the screen is this.

There is a button call DISPLAY on the front of the unit, press it and it will cycle through it. At the moment I am watching a film on the Roku, it is saying Roku right now. So if I press DISPLAY it will go between

Roku -> Video 3 (the input the HDMI is plugged into) -> AFD Auto (this is Sony way of naming surround sound soundfield) -> Volume -> DTS [3.2.1].

I think 3.2.1 means 3 speakers at the front, 2 at the back and 1 sub.

Press DISPLAY again it will display Roku on the front again.

When you watch a movie, press play on the Bluray for example, it will show the sound stream that the amp is being fed. Therefore....

When you turn it to the Bluray play it will display the Blurau
When you put in a disc and go to Bluray menu it normally display PCM as that means Stereo since most menu's soundtrack is in stereo.
When you press play and see that Studio logos kick in, it will display DTS or Dolby Digital.
Then it goes back to saying Bluray

It cycles through it.

It does actually say DTS or Dolby on the LCD in small letters at all times but it doesn't have the speakers icon like in the Pioneer.

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I have no idea with DCAC means or APM. It says HDMI A on the right because that is the output. The icon on the bottom left means it is connected by wire to the network.
 
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Very helpful Raymond thanks.

Did you customise the input name to Roku? It's not picked that up by itself?

How's the mobile app?
 
I am looking at this amp or similar too.

The problem I have at the moment is my old Pioneer amp is in a cupboard in the kitchen (other side of lounge wall) and does not have any on scren display to show volume, surround settings, etc

Does the Sony show all this on the screen when you make any changes?
 
Nazbit said:
Very helpful Raymond thanks.

Did you customise the input name to Roku? It's not picked that up by itself?

How's the mobile app?
Click to expand...

You have to customise it to say Roku, otherwise it'll just say the input it is assigned to, in this case, Video 3.

I've not tried the phone app, I had that for the pioneer and even though that is considered to be the best on the market for receivers, I rarely rarely used it.

Since I got the harmony remote, I would need a mobile app even less. Not to mention the Harmony app can also control the amp too.

rs1800 said:
I am looking at this amp or similar too.

The problem I have at the moment is my old Pioneer amp is in a cupboard in the kitchen (other side of lounge wall) and does not have any on scren display to show volume, surround settings, etc

Does the Sony show all this on the screen when you make any changes?
Click to expand...

The screen will display the immediate changes you are making, so when you change volume, it changes to say Volume 11 -> 12 -> 13 etc when you press up.

After 2 seconds it'll go back to say Roku. Unless of course you press the DISPLAY button to change it to permenantly display Volume.
 
I might buy this, still have an old Yamaha RX-V667 I bought 3-4 years ago now. The sony will fit in really nice with my Sony TV and PS3/PS4, love matching stuff
 
Front panel is very similar to my 10 year old Sony (without on screen display) just without the big blue DD/DTS indicator strip and the speaker pictorial.

AFD Auto - automatic decoding. Sticks with whatever sound field you pick for 2.0 signals (eg 2 channel only, ProLogic II etc) and automatically changes to DD/DTS when it detects the appropriate signal.

DCAC - Sony acronym for the automatic calibration system that sets speaker size and distance.

APM - Auto Phase Matching of speakers.

Know what you mean about the matching stuff, I ended up getting the QS CD and DVD players when they popped up as secondhand at a very good price. The CD player is built like a battleship.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
The screen will display the immediate changes you are making, so when you change volume, it changes to say Volume 11 -> 12 -> 13 etc when you press up.

After 2 seconds it'll go back to say Roku. Unless of course you press the DISPLAY button to change it to permenantly display Volume.
Click to expand...

Are you talking about amp screen or TV screen?

Because I can never see amp screen I was reffering to tv screen to make sure I can see changes I am making. Can you see all changes on tv?
 
Nice little review. Looks a decent amp for the cash as well. I was hoping to pick up something to replace my Arcam AVR260 in the January sales but didn't see any bargains that even remotely tempted me. Could really do with something that does sound over HDMI but im not prepared to sacrifice in the 2 channel stereo performance of the amp. Something pretty much all AV amps struggle with. Its the sole reason I have kept the Arcam for so long.
 
Thanks very much for the review, it's really helpful to read stuff from a regular poster on here as opposed to other forms which I don't frequent too much but are more dedicated to av.

I currently have a pioneer vsx527 that I am a little underwhelmed with and have been watching this amp for a while. Given all the positive reviews it seems a no brainer though it's nice to see a user review. I would be coupling this with a wharfedale ms100 package. Initially I didn't want to spend too much on the amp but I've decided it's probably more important than the speakers in many regards. I'll be keeping a close eye on the clearance deals :-)
 
Admiral Huddy said:
- No bluetooth. Why do most of these amp have no bluetooth.


Amp is currently £399 at Richer Sounds
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Apparently, the US version has Bluetooth, but EU version doesn't.

Admiral Huddy said:
I really like the look of this amp.. Is there any way of streaming music from an android tablet?
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According to this post, this should work.

Sony STR-DN1040 - Bluetooth (Yes or No) ?

Anyway, I solved the lack of bluetooth issue by buying an app called airtunes for my S3. This runs in the background, and when you start up rhapsody, or whatever player you use, it sends the output via airplay to the receiver. That works pretty well Be aware that although the googleplay store states the app is free, it is in fact a demo, with an in app purchase (I think its about 5 or 6 euro) available in order to enable it properly after you have tested it.

I'm not sure if you need to root your phone for it to work, mine was rooted when I installed.
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