The King is back! But can it hold its reign on the AV throne?
Anyone reading What Hi-Fi? or trawling online reviews of AV receivers will find the Sony STRDN range receiving praise wherever it goes. It has been taking the best mid-range amplifier award in What Hi-Fi? for the last 3-4 years and they have gone for the prestigious title again this year with the STRDN1060.
The power is a more than generous 165 watts per channel @6 Ohms, capable of powering pretty much anything that you can hook up to it. The STRDN1060 is also well equipped with twin subwoofer outputs to give you the option of running two subwoofers at once for incredible bottom end presence.
It has Wi-Fi built in to allow you to connect up to your home network and stream any music stored on a NAS drive or network compatible device (tablet, phone etc) as well as having the capability to tune in to Internet Radio services from across the globe. The front mounted USB port also plays digital media sources, as well as giving you a better reproduction of the sound lost from compressing the audio via Sony’s own Digital Sound Enhancement Engine.
The STRDN1060 is compatible with a huge range of inputs and devices
Furthermore, the unit comes equipped with Bluetooth and Apple Airplay capabilities so it can literally connect to almost any device imaginable. It is the 3rd generation of Bluetooth known as APT-X so you can now stream high quality audio through this unit if stored on the connected device.
The STRDN1060 provides a whopping 6 HDMI inputs, all of which are HDCP 2.2 and will pass through any true 4K material. It also has a quality upscaler built in to bring any 1080P or lower resolution content up to near 4K quality to enhance and sharpen the quality of any source input.
All in all it’s a very capable amplifier – the sound settings that the DSP (digital sound processor) can handle and decode to are extraordinary; so if you are listening to your favourite opera track then perhaps try the Carnegie Hall reverb setting to bring even more life to the music. The only issue I have, is that with the new Dolby Atmos system becoming the accepted format for the new movies (Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron) you have to ask why Sony didn’t try and cement their name as one of the recognised brands to support this revolutionary advancement in surround sound technology.
The STRDN1060 is still a fantastic piece of equipment that performs well above its suggested price tag, with a variety of features and a quality of sound to keep even the most keen eared audiophile happy. I just can’t help but wonder that if Dolby Atmos takes off as quickly as DTS did, then the STRDN1060 could soon fall short.
Pros: Great sound, easy to use interface, 4K upscaling, impressive connectivity.
Cons: No Atmos capability.
Rating: 9/10
Author – Andrew, Weybridge Store
For more information and to buy the Sony STRDN1060 then click here.
