Sony STR-DG520 5.1 Audio Video Receiver - Black Top Quality

The other reviews of this product, were VERY helpful in letting me make an informed decision! It has 2 HDMI inputs, but as others have said, the receiver does not process the audio from the HDMI signal. There are 2 digital audio inputs. One optical, and one using a single RCA plug. I have the HDMI from my high def cable box plugged into the port for "DVD", and my HDMI upconverting DVD player is plugged into the "BD" blue-ray disk port. The digital audio ports are associated with those HDMI ports. I would have preferred only using one cable per device, but this is what I found at this price point. I was not willing to pay an extra $200 to have the receiver process sound over HDMI.

The sound balance was somewhat challenging to configure, for my hodgepodge of speakers. The front left/right are some big towers that were all the rage when I was in college. I can't bear (yet) to part with the speaker war beasts, from my dorm daze. (...or is that supposed to be days?) The center channel is a shielded Boston Acoustic bar that was actually intended for this purpose. The rear channels are some little off brand things, that I bought to go in a car, many years ago. The speaker set-up actually lets you specify (within certain parameters) what kind/size speakers you have in different positions. The intention seems to be, that if you have a center channel speaker without a big woofer, but your side channels do have a big woofer, you can send the bass to the sides. I'm using 5 speakers, without the +1. I get lots more bass from my side channel towers than my neighbors are likely to enjoy. At least this way the speakers are on stands, and not pointed at the floor like most sub-woofers. So far no complaints from the neighbors, and the sound is awesome.

I would have liked the receiver to allow me to choose which device names and cable combinations went together. My solution was to buy a Sony universal remote. When I press the button on remote to change to the "DVD" signal, it switches to the audio/video for my DVD player (even though the receiver says it's in "BD" mode, since that's the ports I had to use). When I press the "TV" button on my remote, the receiver goes into "DVD" mode, which is where my cable box is attached. Unless you are using digital audio from a DVD player and a blue-ray player (and why would you have both if your BD player can upconvert regular DVDs) you'll need to do some similar mis-labeling. It only has two digital audio inputs, but I'm amazed how much better the sound is, over my 15 year old Sony surround receiver.

I'm satisfied at the price point. The sound is great, and after a bit of fussing, it works how I want it to.Get more detail about Sony STR-DG520 5.1 Audio Video Receiver - Black.