Sony STR-DH190 Stereo Receiver Reviewed

[Jimster480]

How poor is this... it just died during testing?
I'm a bit confused by the review though; you mentioned it was shutting down around 9 watts? That it would cut the power after a few seconds?

So how much usable power is there from this thing?

 

[amirm]

I'm a bit confused by the review though; you mentioned it was shutting down around 9 watts? That it would cut the power after a few seconds?

That's what it did in those sweeps. It is possible that it would shut down sooner with ultrasonic frequencies.

 

[amirm]

So how much usable power is there from this thing?

As long as you don't persist in the level, it will produce the numbers I showed in the review which is pretty good.

 

[Aprude51]

Agree. In fact...

The minute it failed, it stopped being an amplifier at all!

It was a waste of $150, which is not a good deal. It broke, probably irreparably by Sony standards (and certainly by home user standards) after being pushed to its limit. No protection circuitry for the PS.

I disagree with this assessment. We don’t know how common this failure case is, and Amir’s testing stresses an amplifier much more than the typical buyer of this amp is likely to (1% THD is ~175 watts of output...). There are nearly 300 reviews for this product on Amazon (~85% positive), and within the 25 negative ones, only 2 report long-term use leading the amp to fail. There are a number of reports of DOA units, but Amazon and most other retailers will make you whole in that situation. Also, Brent Butterworth (writing for Wirecutter) tested and recommended this model.

The quality of this product has to be considered in light of it’s low price, which obviously necessitates trade offs. I might be wrong, but I’m not aware of any other amplifiers with this combination of power, performance, and price.

 

[Willem]

Such failures are indeed not unique to budget gear. Alan Shaw of Harbeth accidentally shorted a Hegel amplifier during a show and it self destroyed. Hegel were not particualry helpful when he tried to get it fixed (at his expense).

 

[GrimSurfer]

I disagree with this assessment.

The quality of this product has to be considered in light of it’s low price, which obviously necessitates trade offs. I might be wrong, but I’m not aware of any other amplifiers with this combination of power, performance, and price.

Let's break it down:

Statement 1. The minute it failed, it stopped being an amplifier at all! True or false?

Statement 2. It was a waste of $150, which is not a good deal. It broke, probably irreparably by Sony standards (and certainly by home user standards) after being pushed to its limit. No protection circuitry for the PS.

It broke. This is not debateable.

Do you think Sony will repair it? When you factor in shipping and a human tech's labor rate to troubleshoot, and parts cost, probably not. An item like that would be replaced and the old unit disposed of. So it is effectively irreparable.

Obviously there was no protection circuit for the power supply. That statement is manifestly true, as per the failure.

This leaves us to quibble over how best to use $150 for something that doesn't work.

I think there are better ways to spend $150. Theatre ticket, gas to drive somewhere. Beer.

 

[Willem]

The counter argument would be that it broke down in a situation that is not typical for home audio use. Add a Chromecast Audio using its analogue output and some decent and efficient budget speakers and you have a quite acceptable system for very little. It would still worry me, of course, so the next question is then what to do instead? My suggestion would be to get a Yamaha AS301 for about 100 euro more (in the Netherlands typically 265 euro instead of 165 euro), but including digital inputs and thus saving the expensive of a basic DAC. An even better move would be to spend another 85 euro and get the rather more powerful AS501. With almost 100 real watts per channel and a beefy power supply it will drive even quite inefficient speakers in small to medium size rooms.

 

[GrimSurfer]

The counter argument would be that it broke down in a situation that is not typical for home audio use. Add a Chromecast Audio using its analogue output and some decent and efficient budget speakers and you have a quite acceptable system for very little. It would still worry me, of course, so the next question is then what to do instead? My suggestion would be to get a Yamaha AS301 for about 100 euro more (in the Netherlands typically 265 euro instead of 165 euro), but including digital inputs and thus saving the expensive of a basic DAC. An even better move would be to spend another 85 euro and get the rather more powerful AS501. With almost 100 real watts per channel and a beefy power supply it will drive even quite inefficient speakers in small to medium size rooms.

Nine watts.

I agree with your central theme. Spend more, get more because $150 doesn't seem to cut it in this case.

 

[Willem]

Nine watts for a somewhat extended period of time. At home, we mostly play music rather than test signals. But yes, the Yamaha AS301 is effectively the same price once you factor in the inbuilt DAC that you cannot really do without anymore. And interestingly, that Yamaha is really all you need in a small to medium size room. Spend the rest of your money on a pair of nice Harbeths, and you have exquisite sound.

 

[anmpr1]

Let's break it down:

Statement 1. The minute it failed, it stopped being an amplifier at all! True or false?

Statement 2. It was a waste of $150, which is not a good deal. It broke, probably irreparably by Sony standards (and certainly by home user standards) after being pushed to its limit. No protection circuitry for the PS.

1) It depends on whom you ask, and turns on your qualifier, 'at all'. Aristotle or Aquinas would want to distinguish between act and potency. The amplifier still has the potential to become an actual amplifier, if it can be fixed. From that point of view, it is not an actual, but a potential amplifier. However, it might not be fixable. It might just be a stamped out circuit board that is on a "do not repair list". If so, if that is the case, it no longer possesses even the potential to be an actual amplifier.

2) If Sony sends out a new unit at no cost (shipping or otherwise--which they most likely will not do), it would not necessarily be a waste of dollars. It would certainly be a waste of one's time to go through the motions of finding someone at Sony to help (probably an impossible task), or to have to pay for shipping to get a new one.

On a more serious note, this is one of the problems with what @amirm is doing. Will Sony even honor a warranty for 'misusing' the product on a test bench? The product support page has the answer:

Sony is not responsible for, and this Limited Warranty does not cover, any damage arising from a failure to operate the product within its intended uses...

So I think the practical answers to your questions are 1) true; and 2) yes.

 

[Willem]

But not necessarily for an ordinary home user without a test bench.

 

[Herbert]

The ordinary user will blow this amp by throwing a birthday party or watching "Interstellar".

 

[JJB70]

Nine watts for a somewhat extended period of time. At home, we mostly play music rather than test signals. But yes, the Yamaha AS301 is effectively the same price once you factor in the inbuilt DAC that you cannot really do without anymore. And interestingly, that Yamaha is really all you need in a small to medium size room. Spend the rest of your money on a pair of nice Harbeths, and you have exquisite sound.

This. Get a decent amplifier like an affordable Yamaha and good speakers, or a pair of active speakers. I suspect that the on-board amplifiers of most active speakers would not look especially good (many of them have audible hiss) but this goes unremarked upon because people quite correctly judge the performance based on combined amplifier - speaker performance.

 

[Soniclife]

The ordinary user will blow this amp by throwing a birthday party or watching "Interstellar".

That may well be true.

I'd like to see what happens if a warranty claim is put in. If a repair or replacement is done will it break from high volume use for an hour?

Is a real world soak test a good idea for any component that night fail during test?

 

[yowsa52]

I have this amp and enjoy it. Plenty of grunt for me and the sounds are good, but then I have profound hearing loss and wear hearing aids. ha,ha Using mostly for streaming, Bluetooth and Wifi.

 

[yowsa52]

$98 on Amazon right now and Best Buy.

 

[HorizonsEdge]

I just picked one up from Amazon Warehouse (open box) for $74.48.

 

[amirm]

I could have given you guys a broken one for less!!!

 

[Boris Badinov]

I have this receiver (retired, budget constraints etc.), bought it about 18 months ago as a factory re-furb for $100. New condition and have not had a single problem with it and never seems to get warm, though I don't play it really loud for extended periods. I don't seem to listen to my old rock music as much these days.

PS: First post, been reading as a guest. I'll be asking a few questions soon.

 

[yowsa52]

I could have given you guys a broken one for less!!!

I thought you don't sell only receive/pay.