Sony STR-DB1080

W

willj

Guest
Hi all,

I think Ive finally decided on the amp to purchase (moving up from a videologic dts system to seperates). Looking about, I think the sony db1080 looks to be the one to go for (was thinking of the denon 3802 and the yammy rxv800.

Anyone with the sony care to provide an opinion. If alls well, I'll probably order it within the next couple of days.

Next question is... what speakers to run ??? The way I see it, the Mission 77 package looks a steal (RicherSounds=£399). Anyone with these speakers care to provide an opinion.

Any other ideas for a speaker package around the £4-500 mark.

cheers
will
 
I've just set mine up , replacing a 940. So far so good. Predictable Sony sound. Unit is well made, nice and heavy.

One thing I have noticed is that the audio DACS in it seem superior to the 940. I used to have to listen to CD via analogue cables but this one sounds as good if not better (not had time to decide yet) with the coax. Bodes well for DD/DTS material anyway.

I'm going to have a play with DPL2 on a few vids in a mo. Must have bacon sarny first though.

S
 
Could you report on what DPL II is like with the Simpsons on the BEEB or Sky One tonight?!! ;) :D
 
I got the mission 77 set from RS at £379 in rosewood.

Initially worried as out of the box they didnt sound as good as my old kenwood bellwired midi speakers.

But now they are run in I am more than happy with them. I use them with a marantz 5200 and they are wired with cabletalk excel3. With music the 773es are great. For movies even though they are floor standers they are low-bass light and I had to get a sub woofer for those essential movie thumps! I use them in a room 3.5x4m with the 77ds at the side of viewing position. Unforetunately I didnt demo them against anything as they had only just halved in price and the price seemed to good to dismiss when the 77DS and 77C were considered best buys and the 773es were still holding ther own a couple of years ago at full price.

I also think they look the business (for that price) and they even got spouse approval
 
could you explain what you mean by 'predictable Sony sound'? At the mo I am considering the 1080, the Pioneer 811, Yammy 630 and the Marantz 5200 (although I'd probably wait for the new 5300).
 
Listening to a CD through my 1070 now and recalling the reviews, I'm guessing the words sharp, bright and forward will probably describe the 1080 too.

Has it been reviewed yet by any mags?

I notice What Hifi next month are doing a supertest of receivers from £400 so I expect it may appear then.

I heard the DAVS550 in Powerhouse yesterday playing Independence Day and though the bass was lovely and crisp, this too sounded harsh. The speakers were fairly close together though.
 
My 1080 should have arrived (or attempted delivery ) today.
I'm stuck at work and am just itching to run out the door
and get home ASAP!

I'll set it up tonight and post a mini-review tomorrow/Friday.
Although my speaker set-up is not very good (2 Wharfedale
7.1s, 2 Gale Gold Monitor Mk2, 1 Wharfedale Valdus Centre
and an Aiwa(!) Powered Sub)

Got an Eltax Rear-Centre on order from Richersounds, so
will have to wait to find out what DTS-ES / DD-EX is like.

It's replacing my Sony 925 (which I love to bits). The problem
is that my 925 is black and the 1080 Silver looks the muts nutz
which of course means that I have had to replace my Sony
MD deck with the new Silver 980 'Net' MD deck - which complements my new MZ-N1 Net MD walkman (replaced the Blue MZ-E75)

And no the missus does NOT know how much all this is costing -
it was bad enough when the Panny AE100 arrived last week

God bless the Internet!
 
Pompeysteve,

We'd appreciate some feedback on the MDS-JB980 here

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=44875&goto=newpost

Mainly with the use of the OpenMG software and the lack of the Control A1 II interface which would have allowed the 1080 to auto-switch mode and input upon detecting your MD (930/940?)output. Also would have powered down when MD sleep timer runs out.

Also the 980 is a fair bit lighter than the older 940 deck!

The Control A1 II link might even be absent on the 1080 receiver too?

When/if you're unpacking tonight could you have a look for it and mention this in your review.

On my 1070 it is a 3.5mm looking socket near the FM antenna and the Monitor out. On the new STR-VA555ES it is beside the Front L/R binding posts. It's clearly labelled though as CTRL A1 II.

Cheers, Alan
 
Originally posted by enajh2
Pompeysteve,

We'd appreciate some feedback on the MDS-JB980 here

http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=44875&goto=newpost


Alas, the MDS-JB980 is not going to arrive today - It's
on order from Unbeatable and they are awaiting stock.
Should be another 1 or 2 weeks (famous last words).

The Control A1 II link might even be absent on the 1080 receiver too?

I had read in another thread that it does have this link.

When/if you're unpacking tonight could you have a look for it and mention this in your review.

Will do chief!

On my 1070 it is a 3.5mm looking socket near the FM antenna and the Monitor out. On the new STR-VA555ES it is beside the Front L/R binding posts. It's clearly labelled though as CTRL A1 II.
 
Originally posted by James45
could you explain what you mean by 'predictable Sony sound'? At the mo I am considering the 1080, the Pioneer 811, Yammy 630 and the Marantz 5200 (although I'd probably wait for the new 5300).

Sony's usually sound bright and alive. Detail is good but there can be a lack of warmth if cheap speakers are used.

I would try it against the Marantz as I would expect some differences. As for the Pioneer, I hear it's cheaply made (not seen one yet so maybe untrue) and the amaha just wasn't musical enough for me.

I liked the 5200 a lot and it was basically down to the fact that a silver amp looks better in my set up that I went for the Sony, otherwise would have gone Marantz. It's a temporary measure anyway, I'm planning on a Tag system next year so I'm not too fussed, just wanted DPL2 and I knew the Sony would be good enough.

S
 
thanks for all the replies so far - sounds like the 1080 could well be the one - be interested to hear of the reports from the guys who have just received theirs.

so is the mission 77 a worthy package for this amp or can you lot think of a better solution. (room is about 20x18, and Ive had enough of satellites) !!

cheers
will
 
I got my 1080 yesterday (must update signature!) - so far, very pleased with it. It does DTS-ES 6.1 DISCRETE! which is nice.

Remote is very fancy, but not Two-Way like the 930 was.

The amp DOES have the Control A1 socket on that back - I wouldn't have been happy if it didn't have.

Only critism so far - the "B" speaker terminals are really cheesy spring clips, so if you are planning to Bi-Wire, be warned the connectors aren't great. The phono sockets are not gold plated either.

I like the way that the 6 channel inputs (there are two of them - one is actually 6.1) can be assigned to any function. Unused digital inputs can also be assigned to other functions. The VCR3 input on the front also has an optical input.

Hope this helps,

Phil
 
Any chance of a picture of the back panel Pob? And the remote for that matter?

The Video 3 opt-in will be handy for PS2 owners and the like. :cool:

With my 1070, I like having my PC connected to one of the multichannel inputs (for gaming) and having optical out from my Creative Live drive connected to the MD optical in - and assigning them both to Video 2. Very neat.

Would you recommend that the advantage of having the Control A1 II with the 940 MD deck outweighs the benefit of having the latest ATRAC format and the built in USB connection to a PC provided with the 980?

I'm sticking with my 1070 if I didn't make this clear!
 
Remote picture here:

http://www.btinternet.com/~pobrown/1080Remote.jpg


Can't get a picture of the back panel, as I spent all afternoon yesterday wiring it into my system - I will dig out the manual and scan in the pictures from there though.

The USB connection of the 980 MD is only a benefit if your HiFi is in the same room. I already have a MZ-N1 NetMD walkman so don't really need the 980. I use the Control A1 to auto switch to MiniDisc when I push play and also transfer the song names from CD to MD via CD Text. I would really miss Control A1.

The ATRAC on my 940 (Type R) already sound fantastic, so I don't think I am missing much. personally for me, the 980 would be a downgrade as I would miss Control A1 and would NOT use the NetMD USB function (PC upstairs, HiFi downstairs).

Cheers

Phil

EDIT: Back pictures from the manual here:

http://www.btinternet.com/~pobrown/1080Back1.jpg

http://www.btinternet.com/~pobrown/1080Back2.jpg


NOTE: The manual is for all countries - I can't remember seeing Componant inputs on the back of mine, but I wan't really looking. If anyone really wants to know if they are there, please ask.
 
Can someone clear up the benefits of control 2.

With regards the cd text option how many cd actually have this , whenever I check a disc it never shows up,

Thanks
 
Control AII allows synchronisation whilst recording, and sync-ing when using different decks, e.g. playing MD will make the amp switch to MD as input source automatically.

There are few other uses I have heard it used for.. such as CD Text - but it's only the above ones that I will have incredible use for.

I can't say I've ever come across a CD with CD Text.. but then again.. I can't say I touch CDs often enough.

Maybe someone with more experience will care to share some of it.

-TF
 
CD-TEXT is rarely used on CDs bought in the shops, unless it is a CD made by Sony's Record Label.

However, any CD compilation that I make on CDR has CD TEXT which is very handy, especially if I then transfer these to MiniDisc for use in the car. With Control A1, the track names are transferred automatically.

Other benefits of Control A1 -

If you press PLAY on a CD/MiniDisc player with Control A1, the amp changes to the correct input automatically. If you are recording onto MiniDisc and try and change the input, the amp warns you first ("MD Recording" on the display), so that you don't mess up the recording by changing the input to the amp. With the older 930 (and other) amps that had two-way remotes, the track number (and name if available) would be send back to the amp for display on the remotes LCD screen, along with the current state (eg: Playing, Paused etc etc).


Okay, the benefits of Control A1 might not be huge, but I use them, and I would miss them. I am amazed that the new 980 MiniDisc deck does not have the socket (just like some Sony SACD Players!).

Cheers

Phil
 
Pob (Phil),

Can you see any reason why I couldn't use the HARD1000 recorder as a "normal" cd player for recording to Minidisc using one of it's Control A1 II jacks and getting the CD-text read across from my own CD-R's?

Thanks for making the case for A1.

I am thinking of getting the 940 deck while they are still in stock and getting the HARD1000 at a later date (when the price comes down).
 
I don't know much about a HARD1000 as I have never seen or used one. However, if it can behave like a normal CD player, and has a Control A1 socket, there is no reason why it wouldn't transfer the CD-TEXT data to a 930 or 940 MiniDisc deck. (the 930 is essentially the same as a 940, with the Long Play facility - I've had both).

I notice that the HARD1000 does NOT have a digital output, so your recordings to MiniDisc would be in the Analogue Domain - this might also mean that the track seperation markers are not copied across correctly.

Thanks

Phil
 
http://www.avland.co.uk/sony/hard1000/index.htm

It says it can communicate with the CD multichanger so it must send CD text! Surely

Regarding the digital link, I can't believe I overlooked this :rolleyes: Of course you'd want to make a digital connection when recording to minidisc. I was looking at it from the pov that the harddisk would be filled with 132kbps ATRAC files and listening to these through the analogue output I probably wouldn't be losing much in the way of quality without an optical or coax link!

I would still have the USB kit supplied with the HARD1000 though which I think is the same kit as the PCLKMN20 which I would want to get for the 940 deck. I think they are the same in hardware but they each have their own custom versions of the M-crew software!

How is a track separation marker "sent"? Do you mean the minidisc deck looks for a pause within certain limits?
 
When using a digital connection, the track seperation marker is sent with the digital stream, so the tracks are perfect. When using the analogue connection, the MD Recorder looks for a gap of silence of a set length.

However, the control A1 might do something here.... must try it later on to see if it helps with analogue recordings.
 
I've just phoned my local Sony centre.

They have 2 Black models of the 980 (Silver is estimated
at end of September) for £280

I asked if it had the Control A1 jack and he went
and had a look... he said "YES it does"

So has that put the cat amongst the pigeons?

I have the 980 on order from Unbeatable for £213
- reckon it's worth sticking with it?

As this is off topic I'll post also to the relevant group
 
I too am intending on getting a 1080 receiver when I finally upgrade to a home cinema set up.

Can I just ask a really dumb question, and ask what connects the amp to the tv for the on screen display. As I'm used to the dvd scart going to the tv, and the audio out of the dvd going to my amp, I'm not sure which lead this will be....

And yes, I know as soon as someone answers this, it will become blindingly obvious, and I will feel suitably stupid.......

TIA

Iain
 

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