Sony STRDH190 2-ch Home Stereo Receiver with Phono Inputs & Bluetooth Black

I bought my STR-DH190 receiver to put in my "man cave" pool room. I respect SONY products, but I realized this 2-channel stereo receiver was a budget item, seemingly so inexpensive it must just be an entry-point-only receiver. I was shocked by its quality, sturdy construction, versatility and audiophile sound. It has Bluetooth connectivity, and a phono input for turntables. I hooked up a CD player, turntable, reel-to-reel, cassette deck, iPod, sub woofer and two sets of high end bookshelf speakers. The fronts are SONY Sscs5 3-Way 3-Driver Bookshelf Speakers. The rears are Polk. The sound is shocking, and everyone who hears it can't believe how it rocks. Now that this receiver is actually on sale at almost a "give-away" price, I'm tempted to buy another one as a backup in case one of my other systems needs a replacement receiver. It is Bluetooth ready, so I pair an Echo Dot with it for streaming. It is an amazingly versatile and reliable product. Highly Recommended.

I had been using my Marantz model 22 receiver now for a couple years now with the TV, dvd player, and youtube music from my tablet. I like lots of knots and switches on my audio gear, I'm an engineer. I was getting tired of the seemingly endless up and down to adjust volume and whatever. And my inputs on the Marantz were maxed out. I searched Amazon to see what was available as a possible replacement that had a REMOTE. This Sony caught my eye. Relatively inexpensive, plenty of inputs, and specs I could trust, not a 3x4x5 box offering 220+220 watts of unlimited power! Ordered it and been using it for over a month now. Only 2 knobs, how good could that be? Well, it's remote let's me control everything without getting up. Plenty of output power, 100+100 watts of true RMS power. I didn't plan on using the Bluetooth but I tried it with the tablet, keeping the tablet by me, and it really impressed this old audiophile. I really don't have any negatives about it, even the fm sounds great. It was heavier than expected but not as much as that old Marantz. I even popped the cover. The build quality was what I consider good. I only wish I could find a service manual with the schematic for it.

First off, I don’t think some of the negative reviews are the final word. For one thing, if you call yourself an “audiophile”, you probably shouldn’t be buying a $200 stereo amp….more like, ‘wouldn’t you spend a whole lot more for a better quality component to begin with’? I am old school…I still have albums, cassettes and CDs, plus I listen to the radio daily and I do have a tablet…which now, thanks to this unit, I can play through all 4 of my stereo speakers. Yeah, yeah! The flimsy piece of wire antenna that comes with the unit gives me good reception for the stations I regularly listen to. I like how I can access the first three of the fourteen stations I easily programmed into the unit, via the remote. The remote is very functional and handy….especially if you have trouble seeing the small print on the actual buttons on the face of the amplifier. I am no tech whiz…and I don’t have a lot of patience but it was very easy to duplicate my old set-up from the amplifier I was replacing…which was my 37 year old JVC…it finally died. I listened to an album and the sound is fine. You can adjust the bass and treble to your liking. The phono input jack accesses an equalizer so it is important to use the Phono Line In for your turntable. There is a button to press for high fidelity which supposedly cuts out background noise. That also seems to lower the volume a bit as well. Someone wrote that you can’t control the volume independently between left and right speakers..but you actually can using the settings via the remote. I read through the entire manual and I only got confused a couple of times. It is a very user-friendly manual and machine. It plays my CDs very well..nice and loud. I plugged my dual CD player into the 4th input which allows for playing and recording (line in/line out).Now the newness for me is the Bluetooth….it has many features..some of which I don’t want so I just go to the display and amp menu and click here and there and eventually find the setting I need. It is nice to now be able to listen to the podcasts on my tablet through my home speakers. I guess I am lucky…the package arrived in two days, everything was totally brand new and in excellent condition…It was a little bit of a challenge to get the speaker wires in the little holes but with readers and a headlamp and some calm, I did it. Fingers crossed that I don’t have any issues in the future. If you read the instructions and pay attention to little warnings I don’t see how anyone could complain about this item malfunctioning. Like I said…if you are an audiophile and very picky and meticulous about sound then don’t buy this for yourself. I am very sensitive to sound and a lot of sounds in life bother me…but everything coming out of my new stereo receiver is music to my ears.I love it!P.S. The only thing I can’t seem to do is to remove some radio stations from ones that I mistakenly set to preset. I can remove them as I go by changing the order number but at the end of the preset list there are remaining stations I don’t want to ever hear again. My fix was to program my preset list of fourteen twice and then the first two as stations 29 and 30. So at least this way if scrolling through my presets I don’t have to listen to obnoxious music and talk..but only hear bits and pieces of stations I might consider listening to. I wish there was a way to just delete the presets entirely so you could start from scratch.