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

Do not allow the extremely low price on this Sony STRDH 190 stereo receiver to in any way prejudice you against considering it as a wonderful entry-level stereo receiver. I have purchased thousands of products on Amazon over the past 25 years, and I cannot think of any item that pleasantly surprised me more profoundly than this one. I also purchased the matching (style) Sony turntable PS-LX310BT which works perfectly with the STRDH 190 receiver. Sony's lowest priced receiver now sells for the astounding bargain price of only around $200, though I caught it on sale for closer to $150... and as impossible as this is the believe, it has in recent years gone on sale for as little as $99(!) I have no idea how Sony makes a profit at these price levels. Now I know, most people would think, "there is just no way a $200 receiver is high quality"... but I am telling you, that is dead wrong in this case, and you should prepare to be blown away by what you get at this crazy low price point. This is NOT a no frills unit. It is feature packed. It has connections for TWO PAIR (four total) speakers, and PLENTY of clean no-distortion power to drive all four speakers to loud and clear volume levels. It also has an A/B speaker switch to play through speaker set A, or speaker set B, or all four speakers at once. It has a phono stage pre-amp which is actually very good. Seriously, it is much better than the phono stage pre-amp built into my Emotiva integrated amp for which I paid $1,000. It plays vinyl loud with no distortion. You will NOT need an external phono pre-amp. It has excellent Bluetooth wireless connectivity built in... no trouble getting it to instantly recognized sources and play them perfectly. You can play all the music on your iPhone or other digital device, wirelessly. It has a huge allotment of extra connections, ... a whopping FOUR inputs... so you can also hook up a CD player, and another external device of your choice, and another one after that, and another one after that! (WOW). And that's is not counting your PHONO input which is actually a fifth input connection. Astounding accommodation of external sources at this (or almost any) price point. If you are a dinosaur who listens to FM ... it's got an FM receiver with 30 station presets, and an output to hook up a proper external FM antenna, and a long-wire FM antenna is included in the package Sony says the "HiRes" audio produced by this unit is "superior to CD quality"... though I am not sure how to measure that claim, especially if the extrnal source you are using is a CD player. It comes with a very high quality remote control, with real buttons, and many features. You can actually program each of your external sources to appear in the illuminated display as the specific names you want, rather than a generic default source name like "CD". The low price may raise an eyebrow, and the fairly light weight (much heavier on one side than on the other curiously) nature of the unit may also cause doubt... but only until you set it up and start listening, and your jaw drops. I would put this sub-$200 receiver up against any receiver on the market priced under $800, (and probably several of them priced at twice that much!) and I believe you will not be disappointed in the sound quality of Sony's entry-level unit. You certainly will NEVER find another receiver anywhere near this price point with so many features and inputs... all of which work flawlessly. This is the greatest bargain in the world of affordably-priced HiFi equipment. It is easily worth multiple times the asking price.

Excellent Stereo Receiver with Clean Sound and Easy Setup The Sony STRDH190 2-Channel Home Stereo Receiver has exceeded my expectations. Setup was quick and straightforward, and within minutes I had my speakers connected and enjoying rich, clear audio throughout the room. The sound quality is impressive, delivering crisp highs, detailed mids, and solid bass without distortion, even at higher volumes. Whether I'm listening to vinyl records, streaming music via Bluetooth, or connecting other audio sources, everything sounds balanced and enjoyable. One of the standout features is the built-in phono input, which makes it incredibly easy to connect a turntable without needing an external preamp. Bluetooth connectivity is also reliable and pairs quickly with phones and tablets for convenient wireless listening. The receiver feels well-built, with a clean, classic design that fits nicely into any audio setup. The controls are intuitive, and the remote makes adjusting settings simple from across the room. Overall, this receiver offers excellent performance, versatility, and value for the price. It's a fantastic choice for anyone looking to build or upgrade a home stereo system without spending a fortune. Highly recommended!

I didn’t have any great expectations for this Sony receiver, I guess I’m a bit skeptical of things at first. But, wow was I surprised, and I was not disappointed in any aspect or functionality of this receiver. (1) I tried the FM tuner while listening through the headphone jack: outstanding. Easily volume control through the Sony remote. (2) I tried my iPhone pairing still through my headphones: excellent. Immediately paired with the Bluetooth of my iPhone to the Sony. Great sound. Easy to adjust sound volume and to use forward and backward either using the iPhone or the remote. The two times I paired it with my iPhone I simply pushed the “Bluetooth” button on the Sony remote, went to my iPhone Bluetooth settings, saw the Sony receiver was ready to connect and selected “connect” on my iPhone. I did not use the “pairing” button on my Sony receiver. (3) I finally connected a pair of JBL speakers. First I turned off the receiver (not sure if I needed to, but.. I tried the FM first, then I paired my iPhone again. Both are Awesome! I don’t have a turntable, so I can’t report on it. Haven’t hooked up my Yamaha CD disc changer, because it’s old and the remote doesn’t work anymore. If I can get a replacement remote for it, then I’ll give it a try. In conclusion, the sound is superb with all of the above connections that I tried. And everything was simple to setup. I think the best sound was when I connected my bookshelf speakers. I’m sitting here right now streaming my Apple playlists and I’m blown away by the quality of the sound. I have an old 2011 Yamaha receiver, though it hasn’t worked for about 4-5 years, so I’m close to ecstatic to have an excellent new receiver that also has Bluetooth. Update 4/8/23 I have just hooked up my Yamaha 5-CD changer and it works and sounds superb. The reason I have no trouble with the FM reception is probably because I am within 10 miles of the radio towers of the stations I listen to. So, the fact that this Sony comes with a proprietary FM antenna is not a problem. I only use the remote to adjust the receiver, so I can’t respond to reviews that state that the dials seem cheap. If you have had problems with your speakers, I highly recommend reading the instructions thoroughly to verify the impedance of your speakers and hook them up as described in the manual. I did have one speaker that did not work when I first hooked up my two speakers, but I quickly found that one of the speaker wires was not connected properly, but it took me about 30 seconds to rectify. Update 6/19/24 More than a year later I realized that I had not tested the headphone jack on the front of the receiver. So, after attaching my wired Bose QC25 headphones into an extension cable I plugged the cable into the front of my receiver. Then I paired my iPhone via Bluetooth to the receiver and began streaming my music. The sound quality was so much better than the sound that I was getting from using my JBL speakers. I’m sure it would work with any decent wired headphones. Give it a try, or maybe you already have. I speculate that it takes less watts to power the headphones than it does the speakers. Now 5+ stars! Update 7/22/24 My Bose QC25 headphones died, so I replaced them with Sony MDR7506 headphones and they work great, as you might expect when combining Sony headphones with a Sony receiver!

My Situation: I had a (good) 35 year old Sony receiver running my outdoor patio speakers - decent outdoor speakers installed with the house when it was built about 10 years ago. My annoyance was connecting an iPhone or iPad to the old stereo which I did with lightning to 3.5 mm wired connection. This of course meant someone's phone or an iPad had to be sitting inside by the stereo - which was a pain, especially when batteries were running low. The old stereo also had lots of buttons and plenty of confusion when anybody but me was using it. It was a pain and generally a sorry setup. My first thought was to just replace my outdoor speakers with wireless, Bluetooth speakers. First, there is VERY little choice here and I settled on the Pyle 5.25 Inch outdoor speakers. Speaker replacement was going to take a little more work getting power run but I figured the Bluetooth functionality would be worth it. Got the speakers, tested them before installing and the sound quality pretty much sucked, even compared to my existing speakers that had been outside for 10 years. Bluetooth wasn't great either. Returned. Next, I had the bright idea to just get a Bluetooth amp. This would allow me to replace the stereo mess in my cabinet with a very compact amp and I could just connect my existing speaker wires into and then connect an iPhone or iPad via Bluetooth. Again, very few options available. After reading (too many) reviews and (too much) searching, I settled on the Fosi Audio BT20A. I REALLY wanted this to work because the idea of replacing all my old stereo equipment with one tiny device was very appealing. Despite upgrading to 100 watts (I think the old Sony was 65), the sound quality was again a noticeable downgrade. PLUS, the Bluetooth connection was ridiculous. I could barely get outside with my phone before the sound started crackling. Returned. After another round of (too many) reviews and research, I decided to just replace with entire old Sony receiver (and equalizer) with the Sony STRDH190. I didn't want another big, clunky receiver, I was a little annoyed that Sony doesn't have a good app to run the receiver, and I didn't like that I couldn't turn the receiver on/off remotely from my phone. However, the STRDH190 works great. The sound is much stronger than I was getting before and the Bluetooth works GREAT - super easy to connect and I can walk around out by the pool and the connection stays strong. And that's what I wanted - good sound and good Bluetooth. The unit looks nice, although that doesn't matter so much because it's still sitting in a closed cabinet. Overall, the solution isn't perfect but Sony is quality stuff and I'm happy with the 2 big issues I needed covered - good sound and good Bluetooth connectivity.

I've had this thing in my parts department for almost 4 years now. It's really basic and works great. The Bluetooth connection is fast and stable. I have it running a pair of Yamaha bookshelves. It sounds amazing.

Surprisingly, it's small size is actually a problem! It's simply not long and wide enough to be stackable. I can't put my turntable or my projector on top of it because it's just too small! If you are expecting to stack this item be sure you actually have shelves or measure first. As to the sound quality... It does not suffer from the frequency gap or tinniness I found with the Yamaha amp I tried before, but the frequency crossover is not as smooth as the Insignia amp this unit is replacing. Interestingly, it seems to have some kind of volume leveling circuitry because while my PS5, Turntable, and Xbox all had different volume settings before, now they all seem to be the same. Bass is woefully inadaquate at default settings and to get a "normal" sound I have to turn bass up between 5 and max, with max my default setting to prevent harsh sounding voices in movies and videos. I don't see a need to turn the treble up because again, that results in a harsh scratchy quality to voices like a bad telephone conneciton. Bass is slightly boomy but nowhere near as bad as the Yamaha. It lacks power and expansiveness. Not terrible, but not the home theater showcase I got out the Insignia. The overall sound profile is "clean" but on the cold side, even after adjustments. I played vinyl records, and they had a "cd player" sound do them similar to the cheap Audio Technica direct-drives. Very very clean but lacking in warmth and bass feels dampened. Static and distortion seems to be amplified instead of muffled. Overall impression is that there's some noise and/or signal cut-off, which my pre-amp also provides to elminate hum, but seems even more severe with this unit. It does not sound "bad", just less analogue if that makes sense. From digital sources that previously had weak signal and static/distortion at high volume, this unit seems to be processing the signal with more powerful amplification and noise reduction. For my PS5 console the sound through USB DAC is noticably improved. From a usability standpoint it's got cheap clips for speaker wires as opposed to the big screws on the Insignia, the expected A + B speaker configuration options, FIVE inputs including the front "portable" port (why you would plug a phone in rather than using the included bluetooth or a dedicated streaming box is beyond me). Sound amplification and clarity on all ports appears identicaly, though the 4th input does feature output as well. Inputs are selected with a knob instead of a button (old school) and there's a very loud CLUNK sound when the unit powers on. Remote works well but has some weird button placement with voluem control at the bottom, with radio tuning below it...and radio presets at the top with inputs above. Not bad, just...odd. I don't generally have need to turn audio up to thunderous levels but I haven't noticed static or distortion at any volume level from any source so far. Unit is very responsive to inputs from the remote. Volume up/down is very gradual so accidentally turning the volume up too high is very unlikely. The unit also comes with a two year warranty, which is honestly the real reason I bought it rather than another very old Insignia amp. If ultimate sound quality, esp for vinyl and movies through 2 channels is your thing, I would go with an Insignia over this. If you don't want/need heavy bass response from just two speakers and use primarily modern devices with a DAC or analog out (video game consoles, bluray players, music streamers, CD player) I think this is a very good choice unless you require more/different features or a lot more power for your needs.

Speaking as a self-described "audiophile" (but a true audiophile with deep pockets would likely laugh), this was one of the best gifts I've given to myself in recent years (as I have a fairly large music library of nearly 600 albums of 1/3 vinyl, 2/3 CDs and some cassettes). Bought mine back in March--used to be $200, but when I saw it for $150 any hesitation went out the window and I grabbed it. I have been in love with it ever since. Fabulous sound and power (do you really need more than 100 watts per channel?), great remote control (not used to that, believe it or not), and it lives up to Sony quality. Powers my vintage components perfectly: > MCS Series 6202 Belt-Driven Turntable (had it since early 80s) > Nacamichi BX-300 Cassette Deck > Sony DVP-NS725P Disc Player (DVD but used mainly for CDs - audio-only connection) > LG TV connected via optical-to-analog adapter > KEF Reference Series 103/3 Stereo Speakers Interesting observation about the way the ports are labeled on the back: what would traditionally be identified as a tape deck port (with IN/OUT) is just "Input 4," and while it's connected to my tape deck for playback, the REC-OUT is connected to a USB audio adapter to digitally record anything (mostly vinyl of course) to my laptop for mastering and iPod/digital library access. The Bluetooth connectivity is awesome as well with powerful range - great for playing music from mobile devices (phone and iPod Classic with BT adapter). The front line-in 3.5 port, identified as a "Portable" is also a great feature. At first, I was surprised that there was no input for optical, however since digital-to analog adapters are inexpensive and readily available, I think it's best to leave it that way. Would rather have the option, rather than an optical-only port that would otherwise go unused unless one had a component that required it. HOWEVER, if I were to make any improvements, it would be to add a USB Out port (preferably on the front), for digital recording on a PC. However again, since adapters are inexpensive and accessible, and for the price I paid for this device, I ain't gonna complain. Front level analog balance, bass and treble controls would also be nice, but you have access to all that through the menu. If you feel due for a simple, powerful and awesome stereo receiver/amplifier upgrade without breaking your monthly budget, this is a winner.

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.

No soy experto y estoy apenas entrando al mundo hi-fi como comienzo creo que está perfecto tiene muchas funciones y enteradas para poner todo lo que quieras incluso tiene un phono para tocadisco, algo de lo que más gustó es que una vez enlazado con Bluetooth puedes prender el amplificador desde tu teléfono sin necesidad de hacerlo con el control eso me parace súper funcional, si quieres hacer una escucha más profunda ya debes hacerlo directamente con los cables ya que el Bluetooth o es de la mejor calidad pero en esencia funciona. Por el precio creo que es lo mejor que pude comprar 100% recomendable

Excelente compra

I bought this receiver to replace a 40-plus-year-old Harman Kardon unit (hk740). The HK was still functional, but all of its controls and switches were very dirty and in rough shape, and thus needed a lot of labour-intensive attention - which I was not prepared to give to them. I was looking for something that would be simply a plug-in substitution, supporting all of my existing gear, consisting of a very nice pair of speakers, a decent turntable with a magnetic cartridge, a cassette deck, and a CD player. The STR-DH190 filled that bill very nicely, and after a half-hour of sorting out and re-routing cables, I was back in the music business. (Side note: It's amazing how much dust and crud can accumulate behind a piece of electronic equipment on a shelf ... especially if it hasn't been moved in a couple of decades ...) I have been very impressed with my STR-DH190 ... it was relatively inexpensive, and everything works exactly as advertised. It is very quiet, with any hum and noise simply indetectable, even in the phono stage. Frequency response of 10 Hz - 100 kHz, +0.5/-2 dB is claimed, but that's more or less immaterial for me, because I'm an old guy and my ears don't go much above 12 kHz these days. One old-guy bonus feature is that pretty much everything that used to be controlled by front-panel knobs and switches on older equipment is now on the STRDHT190's remote-control keypad. This definitely will not help with getting my daily 10,000 steps in, but that's partially compensated for by the number of steps I've had to put in looking for the damned keypad. So that's my story. Bottom line: Buy it, but keep an eye on that remote!

Las revisiones de este Receptor son ciertas en cuanto a calidad y precio. Recomendable para bocinas y tornamesas de gama media. Solo tengo mis dudas con la entrada de phono, ya que le sigue faltando potencia, preferí usar la preamplificación de la tornamesa combinado con un pequeño preamplificador externo, me pareció que de esta manera tiene mas calidad y potencia. De ahi en fuera todo bien, la calidad del Bluetooth muy buena y la opción de cambio de amperaje para conectar diferentes tipos de bocinas me parece un gran acierto.

Excelente aparelho. Som muito limpo. Boa quantidade de entradas de periféricos. Entrada individual phono. Fácil manuseio/operação. Produto de primeira linha.