Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

Sony has seriously upped its AV receiver (AVR) game for 2023. With the introduction of its STR-AN1000 and four new ES-series models, Sony has added support for Sonos and compatibility with the same wireless speakers and subwoofers that are used to augment Sony’s HT-A Series soundbars. These are also the first Sony AVRs to support 8K. The new models start at $900 for the STR-AN1000 and go as high as $3,300 for the flagship STR-AZ7000ES. They’ll be available later this spring. 90 L HDMI Cable

These AVRs are absolutely packed with features, which we’ll get into in a moment, but they’ve also received several new hardware changes that aren’t going to be immediately apparent just by reading the specs. The STR-AN1000 gets a new chassis and subchassis, a new large capacitor transformer, a new digital circuit board, new power supply capacitors, a new preamp integrated circuit that Sony says it developed exclusively for these AVRs, and finally, a new 32-bit digital-to-analog converter (DAC). The ES Series go further, with all of those new elements, plus an updated heat sink, new high-power capacitors, and lead-free solder.

The addition of the Works With Sonos capability comes as something of a surprise. It lets you connect a Sonos Port, which can then automatically power on the AVR and switch to the appropriate input simply by using the Sonos app instead of having to manually perform these tasks using the AVR’s remote. We’ve seen AVRs from companies like Pioneer and Onkyo offer Works With Sonos, but that’s because these brands don’t have their own multiroom wireless audio solution. Sony, on the other hand, does multiroom wireless — it’s powered by the company’s Music Center app. Curiously, the Music Center app actually works with the 2023 receivers, letting you control source selection, volume, playback, and other functions.

It’s also fascinating to see Sony infuse its AVRs with DNA from its line of home theater soundbars. The company introduced its 360 Spatial Sound Mapping feature on the HT-A7000, HT-A9, and HT-A5000 speakers. It uses microphones to create a 3D map of the room, which lets it fine-tune the placement of phantom speakers when presenting 3D audio like Dolby Atmos. The 2023 AVRs get this feature thanks to Sony’s new Digital Cinema Calibration IX — a mic-based calibration system that can measure the correct distance, angle, sound pressure, and frequency response of each speaker.

And speaking of speakers, you now have the choice of going wireless for your subwoofer(s) and your surround speakers, giving you the best of both wired and wireless worlds. The 2023 AVRs are compatible with Sony’s SA-SW3 and SA-SW5 wireless subs and SA-RS3S and SA-RS5 wireless surrounds. You can use up to two of the wireless subs, but they have to be the same model — no mixing/matching. When using the surrounds, the SA-RS3S will take over two of your AVR’s rear channels, while the SA-RS5 will take over two rear channels and two of the height channels, so you won’t be able to run these speakers over and above a full complement of wired speakers.

Finally, Sony is grabbing yet another trick from its soundbar lineup: the new AVRs support three varieties of enhanced center channel audio.

As with past models, all of the AVRs support hi-res audio via wired and Wi-Fi sources, as well as wireless hi-res audio via Sony’s LDAC Bluetooth codec. DSD is supported and you can use Sony’s DSEE Ultimate to upscale any lossy audio sources you might want to play, like Spotify.

On the video side of the equation, all of the 2023 AVR models feature full HDMI 2.1 compatibilit,y including variable refresh rate (VRR), 4K at 120Hz, 8K at 60Hz, auto low-latency mode (ALLM), and HDMI-eARC. Over and above that, you get Dolby Vision, HDR10, HLG, and IMAX Enhanced compatibility. That’s right: for some reason, Sony continues to avoid HDR10+ on all of its AV gear, whether it’s an AVR or a Sony TV.

The ES Series models are intended to be more powerful than the AN1000, but they also have several features that make them more attractive to professional installers and their customers. All of the settings can be backed up onto a USB drive using the USB port, and a dedicated ping button on the front of the units lets an installer instantly confirm the AVR’s IP address. These systems also have a full stack of specialized ports like IR repeaters, RS232, 12-volt triggers, and a full set of pre-outs (AZ5000/AZ7000).

Sony has also added support for a variety of home automation platforms, including Control4, OvrC, Savant, Crestron, Elan, RTI, Domotz, URC, and Vantage. If you want to rack-mount these models, Sony sells compatible “ears” so you can bolt them in.

Here’s a model-by-model breakdown of Sony’s 2023 AVR lineup.

Every feature from the STR-AN1000, plus:

Every feature from the STR-AZ1000ES, plus:

Every feature from the STR-AZ3000ES, plus:

Every feature from the STR-AZ5000ES, plus:

The OnePlus Buds Pro 2 Bluetooth earbuds are among a half-dozen gadgets OnePlus launched at its Cloud 11 event. These earbuds intend to elevate your sound experience with a rich and highly customizable audio profile, Google's Fast Pair support, high-fidelity (Hi-Fi) audio through the LDAC and LHDC Bluetooth audio codecs, Dolby Audio, and noise cancellation.

While these features have essentially been carried over -- and slightly improved -- over the first generation of the OnePlus Buds Pro launched last year, the Buds Pro 2 are equipped with spatial audio capabilities that help create a realistic and experiential 3D audio space around you. Along with spatial audio, the earbuds also support head tracking to simulate an ambiance that changes as you move your head around.

I don’t know if we can pinpoint a moment at which 4K content became normalized -- it sort of snuck up on us -- but today 4K and 4K HDR content is not hard to come by. Netflix, Amazon, Disney +, HBO Max – they all have it, and plenty of it. So we’re starting to get used to it. We’re hungry for 4K and we expect it on our plate. This has a lot of folks wondering: Why is it so hard to get sports in 4K?

Three years ago, I was fortunate enough to fly down to Florida to go behind the scenes with Fox Sports as it delivered the first-ever 4K HDR Super Bowl broadcast. Not only did I get to watch the Fox team do its live daytime broadcasts from South Beach, but I also got to go to roam around Hard Rock Stadium, where I had totally unfettered access to the stadium and all the cameras in it – as well as a massive broadcast compound. I got to go in every production truck, I saw every step of the production, from the cameras to the outbound feeds, and I got every question I asked answered by some of the top video production pros in the business. I learned so much while I was there.

Apple's wireless platform for audio and video streaming -- AirPlay -- is one of the best ways to play music from an Apple device to a wireless speaker. When at home, on a Wi-Fi network, it outperforms Bluetooth thanks to its wider bandwidth. The conventional wisdom has always been that AirPlay sets a hard limit on audio quality: iPhones and other Apple devices can only transmit lossless CD-quality audio, at 16-bit/44.1kHz, to an AirPlay-enabled speaker, leaving the technology incapable of supporting the higher-res streams now being offered by Apple Music and others.  But it seems that AirPlay can actually do 24-bit audio. Sort of.

The new second-gen HomePod, which Apple released in January, can stream lossless 24-bit/48kHz audio directly from Apple Music, using its own Wi-Fi connection to the internet. This isn't news: Apple added 24-bit lossless playback (via Apple's ALAC codec) to the first-gen HomePod and HomePod mini in 2021, along with Dolby Atmos support.

Female Usb To Male Usb C Upgrade your lifestyleDigital Trends helps readers keep tabs on the fast-paced world of tech with all the latest news, fun product reviews, insightful editorials, and one-of-a-kind sneak peeks.