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Sony announced its new TA-DA3200ES A/V 7.1 channel receiver, offering 120 watts per channel at 8 ohms with an HDMI interface for 1080p video, will reach the US market in November. Nice clean lines too.

This new generation of 1080p HDMI equipped receivers supporting high-definition audio and video are the coming trend, as you can see in our recent interviews at CEDIA UK, which make these new models a little bit more “anti-obsolescence-proof” as they will upconvert your DVDs until you decide to buy that new Blu-ray or HD-DVD player (and are really ready to replace your film-thèque …). Where did I hear someone say that having the broadest catalogue of “content” is the true key to success…

What’s particularly good about the new Sony is it does HDMI upconversion on all inputs, with lots of ports, and with a reasonable price tag. This means you can also upconvert VCR’s, camcorders in addition to your DVDs, and even have connections (and cash for more films…) to spare !

Although nothing will ever replace installation and calibration by a professional, for those who want to do-it-themselves an auto-calibration microphone is included to make it easier to set up your speakers.

With an announced price tag of 865 $ US, this is really competitive. We only hope local taxes in Europe will not push it up too far.

Editor’s note : Our Japanese is good but not perfect… so to set the story right, we asked the specialists and received official confirmation from Sony that there are 840 watts in total split over the 7 channels, 120W per channel, 20Hz to 20kHz with a THD of 0.09%. The mention of 480W in a spec sheet in Japanese that was circulated on the web, represents, in fact, the power consumption, not the power output. In addition, we have been informed that the HDMI connection will be HDMI v1.2a, not v1.2 or v1.3.