tldr; 7.2 receiver with 360 Spatial Sound mapping. HDMI 2.1 ready, straightforward setup. Sony alternative to Denon.
$848.00 on AmazonScores based on sentiment analysis of topic-related comments
Best praise vs top criticism for Sony STR-AN1000
“I know people will shit on me for this but I’ve tried so many integrated amps, spent thousands trying to find the most versitle and best sounding amp. You know what I settled with?! The Sony str-an1000. It sounds fucking awesome and has room correction and so many options. Prior to that I had the Marantz 40n and without room correction my speakers sounded way too thick. Avr’s have come a long way. I also recommend the Wiim amp. Whatever you get, try to find something with room correction built. Btw, I purchased the Sony on Amazon used for like $530, it sells for $950. I’ve been really impressed with my Dali floor speakers and custom build sub.”
“My experience is that the ARC / eARC spec is garbage. In two different Sony TVS controlling the volume to the AVR via the remote is very laggy. A basic volume up /down command is just too much to handle I guess. Additionally I ran into all kinds of problems routing DTS and ATMOS audio from the TV through eARC. To be clear I was using a modern TV, a Sony A80L with a Sony 4k player to a Sony STR-AN1000 AVR. It would revert to 2 channel PCM most of the time. So I finally moved it to the AVR HDMI connection and that solved the audio issues. At first I could no longer control the player with my TV remote, but then one day it just worked. I will also add in this case the player has a seperate HDMI audio out, which I would have utilized if I continued to have issues. I can't understand why eARC is so hard to implement, but it's pretty bad.”
178 Reddit opinions analyzed • Last updated 4/5/2026