Sony STR-DH190 Stereo Receiver Reviewed

[amirm]

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

Sadly, that has been the story of my life. I do need to start selling as I have this mountain of gear taking space...

 

[jo_barns]

Hi everyone,

New member here. I just got the STR-DH190 to pair with JBL studio 530's and I wanted to make a quick observation. When powered, with no music playing and nothing connect to the amplifier besides the speakers, if I put my hear next to the speakers I can hear a very faint hiss. If I click the pure connect button I could swear that the noise level gets lowered, has anyone else noticed this?

-Jo

 

[HorizonsEdge]

Hi everyone,

New member here. I just got the STR-DH190 to pair with JBL studio 530's and I wanted to make a quick observation. When powered, with no music playing and nothing connect to the amplifier besides the speakers, if I put my hear next to the speakers I can hear a very faint hiss. If I click the pure connect button I could swear that the noise level gets lowered, has anyone else noticed this?

-Jo

I have Sony Core SS-CS5 bookshelves attached and can discern no HISS, connected or not to my computer.

 

[Boris Badinov]

I have this receiver and the Sony SSCS5 and SSCS3 speakers and it's silent when powered on w/ np music or even when music is paused.

 

[jo_barns]

Thanks @HorizonsEdge & @Boris Badinov. I was using the front portable in for my chromecast audio. I switched to Line 1 and the hiss is ridiculously faint (I need to put my hear against the horn). I wonder if this is the difference in S/N between Line 1 @96dB and Portable in @90dB. In any case it doesn't bother me in any way. One thing I had noticed was that pure direct seemed to be making a difference in hiss level, now that it's connected to line one the sound is too faint for me to tell the difference.

 

[HorizonsEdge]

Today i added a Dayton SUB-1000 to complete my computer desktop system. The Sony Core SS-CS5 sit on top of yoga blocks of all things as stands. And the receiver has remained maybe 5F over room temp since I turned it on.

 

[Boris Badinov]

You're gonna need a bigger desk!

 

[Boris Badinov]

This is mine, all Sony right now, but this will be moving to the TV room to take the place of the Energy soundbar & sub. New receiver on the way, and later maybe new speakers

 

[rik]

is the voltage switchable, so could a us sold sony be changed to work in australia?

 

[Boris Badinov]

is the voltage switchable, so could a us sold sony be changed to work in australia?

No, it isn't.

 

[Billy Budapest]

is the voltage switchable, so could a us sold sony be changed to work in australia?

You could buy an international power converter.

 

[Willem]

I would not bother.

 

[bansuri]

Hi All, New Member here. Been spending all morning hours reading posts related to Elac speakers and finally happy to be a member here. I got this sony receiver few months back and now paired with Elac B6.2. I am beginning to find my lost love for stereo music. Only complaint is that the bass is terribly weak and i had kept it at +10db to feel some of it.

 

[Willem]

Those are bookshelf speakers with limited bass extension. No tone control can overcome that. In fact, it will only lift mid bass and hence produce a coloured sound. Turning up the volume a bit may be more effective and realistic. But if you crave for bass that you can feel you are no longer talking about the neutral reproduction of music - and you will need one or preferably two fairly large subwoofers. But even two small ones will make a big difference, sadly also to your wallet. However, some people have been quite successful with very small and cheap subwoofers if used in larger numbers (four?)

 

[anmpr1]

But if you crave for bass that you can feel you are no longer talking about the neutral reproduction of music...

That's a good line. I wish I'd written it.

The 'popular' idea of bass reproduction really began with the introduction of CD. In spite of some early 'mastering' problems with highs (later resolved), CDs always showed off LF energy, something most people were not used to--at least in that quantity/quality. It definitely overpowered a lot of the then well regarded loudspeakers.

For some historical perspective, the refrigerator size K-horn was reasonably flat to about 38Hz and then rolled off. The much later Dahlquist DQ-10 'subwoofer' (DQ-1W) add-on was 3dB down at 40Hz. Acoustic suspension designs really popularized the idea that a fairly modest-sized box could reproduce a reasonable facsimile of bass, albeit at a pretty low SPL level.

However, back then, you had to necessarily employ LF roll off because of turntable/record artifacts. And FM wasn't better in the LF department. Really, music-wise, the bottom octave wasn't the big deal then as it is today.

Then came the compact disc. But it was DVD, movies that did it. The big push for moving a lot of LF air was movies. Few people needed that low gut-punching sound for music. At least acoustic based music. Rock was of course a different thing. But if you wanted the Death Star to light up in your living room, and wanted to feel the Jurassic Brontosaurus stomp, it required a different order of thinking.

 

[bansuri]

Those are bookshelf speakers with limited bass extension. No tone control can overcome that. In fact, it will only lift mid bass and hence produce a coloured sound. Turning up the volume a bit may be more effective and realistic. But if you crave for bass that you can feel you are no longer talking about the neutral reproduction of music

Thanks for being more clear and to the point. I have grown listening to long hours of cassettes during my childhood days and i was so satisfied with a little movement of speakers in my simple national panasonic tape recorder and that cd quality treble hiss

i just lost that dedicated stereo listening in last 10-15 years or so and it is more of you play it and do your work listening them casually. Now i am back to work from home, this stereo set up is bringing back my childhood memories. Ok, let me stop here! I am now liking this sound and i am not going to go for that sub route for stereo listening.

My listening is Amazon music mobile app connected to Sony Amp. Will also try next to listen to few tracks through my laptop. Any good app you recommend for windows?

 

[blynott]

New member here. Bought this expressly to use the Bluetooth feature to power a pair of Def Tech BP6B towers speakers. So far so good. Connects easily and has plenty of power to fill my listening space with music. Now for my question, how do I get a better audio signal to this unit to make use of the Hi Res audio that is advertised. I am using Spotify premium but I know that doesn't send over Bluetooth.

 

[LBec]

In defense of the Sony amp. First, it is cheap (I paid $99 +tax on a Black Friday deal) . It is cheaper than putting together a cheap class D amp with a power supply, case, etc. All equipment will die if pushed beyond its limits. Also, ALL electronic equipment will eventually die (electronic equipment typically follows a bathtub reliability curve).

I do not drive it hard (my wife screams if I push the volume). So for $99 I drive my Sony SS-B3000 speakers at pleasant levels (probably not over a few watts on a continuous level, not sure because my test gear [e.g., cathode ray based Tektronix oscilloscope] went away decades ago), connect a small Yamaha sub-woofer into a line out port of the Sony for the low end (a sub out port would have been nice.

So, for a small amount of money I have a pleasant sounding system. Not great, but OK. My ears aren't great either. If I get 2 years of service out of the Sony receiver then its only $50/year.

Right now I am using the amp to play around with some old Kef T27 and B200 drivers.

All this for $99.

P.S. Based on what was said here I will probably throw a 12v computer fan I have laying around (with a 12v wall wart I probably have somewhere) on top of the receiver to draw out some heat.

 

[Billy Budapest]

For $99, the thing is a steal. I can’t really think of any receiver or integrated amp that’s $99 and has the feature set of the Sony along with acceptable sound.

 

[Boris Badinov]

New member here. Bought this expressly to use the Bluetooth feature to power a pair of Def Tech BP6B towers speakers. So far so good. Connects easily and has plenty of power to fill my listening space with music. Now for my question, how do I get a better audio signal to this unit to make use of the Hi Res audio that is advertised. I am using Spotify premium but I know that doesn't send over Bluetooth.

I have this receiver and used my laptop(on top of the rack) to 3.5 by 2xRCA to receiver, then later used laptop to DAC via USB to rec.
In the living room I use laptop via wifi to Paradigm PW Link(wifi streamer) to AXR100 via RCA or toslink cable. Someone here should be able to give some better options as my choices were low budget.