Sony STR-DN1030

Pros: Blue tooth, wifi, lots of power. And it works!! doesn't overheat and require service calls.

Cons: Audio quality is suspect. Switched from a Denon 2312, that kept overheating. When functional, Denon's audio quality was superior & the Sony didn't sound as nice regardless of EQ settings. Sony only has 2 band EQ, competitors have multi band, same $$

Summary: After comparing a few receivers at home, and after 2 days with the Sony receiver I'm still debating whether I will keep it. Running Definitive tech STS towers, multi band EQ is really critical to compensate for lack of mid range. Hopefully Sony addresses this in a future firmware update. Sony may have allocated more money towards adding bluetooth & wifi, while taking money away from being a great sounding amplifier with more user controls to tailor the EQ. Not the most user friendly, had to read the manual to figure out how to setup. For the money the average listener without musician ears will be very happy.

The difference in audio quality I noted is not EQ settings, the Sony sounds more compressed, less dynamic, the Denon had a bigger more CLEAR transparent sound, less muddled when comparing on same speakers, same songs, same iphone, same cable. I'm thinking of picking up the Pioneer VSX-1122 or the Elite VSX-60 and just comparing on straight up audio quality, which if you think all receivers are the same, they are not. There is more to a receiver than just the bells & whistles, each one has its own unique "sound". I'll gladly pay extra for a wifi dongle, if it means sacrificing even a little audio quality to have wifi included. I will admit it will be hard for someone to notice the audio quality unless you are able to compare it to another receiver, otherwise you may be totally happy with the Sony.

The amp is very powerful, and I can reach a good volume at 15% power, this is great if you have a big room, the downside to this is most people believe an amp will typically sound its best when driven to about 35-45% power, so in my case the extra power is not useful. Be sure you really need all this power, as you may never use it.

One other note, be extremely careful if you have an iphone, and you have both paired with bluetooth and you have airplay hooked up. While on bluetooth you must keep the volume almost maxed out on your iphone, if you switch to airplay, the volume will be the volume of your amp, which if almost maxed out, can be shocking, which is what happened this morning at 9am, my g/f was pretty rattled and I'm sure everyone in my building was awake after the incident, if they were still asleep. Hope this is useful to you.