Sony STR-DH190 Review: Was I WRONG about this receiver?

After having multiple friends ask, here is my Sony STR-DH190 review.

Sony STR-DH190 review
Sony STRDH190 review

[LBCAndrew]

It's strange that i'm also a child of the 80's and didn't have such bad experiences as you did. My first receiver was an Onkyo stereo tuner, followed by a Harmon Kardon AVR254, then their AVR354, and now i've got a Harmon Kardon AVR 7550HD. All of them have been great products. None failed. A few years ago i was leaving a friends place and i spotted a "dumpster dive speical" sitting on the neighbors trash can, a Haromon Kardon AVR1700... so i grabbed it to see if i could fix it, and to my shock it worked perfectly.

[DJNEXUS]

thank you for the review. so funny that you say this. when i bought mine 5 years or so ago i was very surprised about the sound and everything about it. i used it with my old canton speakers and it was nice to listen. a year ago i bought a pair of new Klipsch R-620F for 550 bucks for the pair. now i have a sound system for less then 1000 bucks and it blows my mind. cheers

[maryrafuse]

I'm a child, at heart, from an earlier era than you. When I think of SONY I think of my TA-F3A & TA-2650 Amps. They are so well made which is why mine are still working. A work of art both outside and internally. I'd love to see you take the STR-DH190 apart so I could view the assembly quality. As a teenager in the 1970's we took the cover off every amp or receiver we came in contact with. It is what we did in this era since we did not have computers to entertain us.

[hippydippy]

Your review is spot on. I bought one to hold me over until I got my vintage Sansui's (9090db & QR-4500) back from the shop for some restorations. The thing that really impressed me was the soundstage. It's incredible for such a low priced amp. Totally agree about the volume knob too, but the remote does a great job all around so you don't have to fiddle with it. I use it now for bluetooth playback & it sounds great. Turned a friend onto it & he paired it with the Klipsch rp-600's & a Fluance 81 TT. He's very happy as well.

[gewamser]

I’ve had one for a year now, and I love it.

[vergevinyl]

I agree with you, I had mine for a few months now . Only downside for me is the price is $50 less now then what I paid . At the time I was looking for budget friendly and get me going. Also, hooked up a preamp instead and that thing works great for me ! Blue tooth works great as well. No complaints from me.

[richmorrison]

Thank you for reviewing this amp. This is the amp I have and I love it! I bought the amp for the fact it has a built in phono stage. I use the bluetooth quite often with my smartphone. I am with you on the volume knob, it seems cheap, but I am using the remote control most of the time. This is all part of my budget system, I have it paired with a pair of Polk Audio bookshelf speakers, a NAD C538 CD player and a vintage Technics SL-D2 fitted with a new VM-95e cartridge and stylus. I have my computer running into the amp as well. The computer is integrated into the whole system as well. I use it for iTunes and Apple music. Enjoy your channel!

[FreedomFighter]

Great review, thanks! I just bought this. Only cared about FM and blutooth as it's being setup in my garage for causal listening while i work outside Sounds like the ideal unit with no bells or whistles at a cheap price.

[leonardlos]

I was skeptical about the phono pre amp in this unit but matched with a turntable with an Ortofon OM 5E cartridge and Wharfedale Denton speakers. Excellent sound.

[thewinir]

As a child of the 80’s, and a poor teenager in the 90s, I bought with my saved pennies, a brand-new ‘92 Sony STR-D990, Dolby pro-logic receiver. It was pretty sweet at the time, powering a cheap pair of Realistic floor standers. My buddy had a classier-looking pioneer with the amber glowing LCD, whereas the Sony had an active white LCD with digital level meters. It was a cool, yet worthless feature. Yes the case was black, but was built very solid. The volume was motorized and had a red LED light - still works today as it did then.

Contrary to your experiences and damning generalizations, all features are 100% functioning 30 years later, one of several systems I have throughout my home. I keep it as my vintage setup because it still has a great phono stage and line inputs sound great.

I also bought a Sony CDP-C725 CD transport in ‘93. It too was black, and Sony. It happily works as my faithful CD transport today with its rare TosLink output.

I enjoy your channel, and your easy-going delivery is fresh and inviting, but strongly disagree that all the black boxes from that era were cheap garbage. I also disagree that all Sony is bad. Yes Sony made horrible plastic boomboxes and became interested in mass-market budget electronics, and all-in-ones, but they also made some decent AVRs and CD transports.

[barrettwbenton]

Great review. Had mine for two years as the heart of a second, smaller system, and it's delivered quite well for vinyl, CD, tape(!) and streaming. Yes, you can buy "better" (and I have, for silly amounts of money), but for getting bedrock *good* audio on a budget, it's hard to bet this receiver.

[qwkimball]

For the same price, on sale, I bought a Pioneer SX-10AE, which is quite similar, but adds 5-way binding posts and a subwoofer out, which are two absolute musts for me. I use it as a shop unit, and it has done very well for over a year now.

[AG-bpll]

I had Onkyo's in the late 80's and 90's and they were affordable and lasted forever. I would end up giving them away when I wanted to upgrade. I've had this Sony one for about a year and it is a fantastic value. You would have to go up pretty far in cost to find something better sounding.

[wjack]

Never tried one of the cheaper Sony receivers, but I've still got a Onkyo TX-8020 I got in 2019 for $119. I've been using it for a amp for my main PC, and it sounds fantastic. I've used it in my living room for awhile, and it did a great job there. Got a tube amp in my living room now, but that el cheapo Onkyo will blow your mind for the money.

[vadar]

Hi, total novice here, so hopefully you can excuse my question. I've just bought this (waiting on it arriving) I will be running 4 speakers, 2 small, 2 large, the two small Wharfedale are 6ohm & the 2 large Wharfedale are 8ohm so which setting do I select once I have them plugged in on A and B ? Thanks for your reply 😎

[filmic]

Thank you. I just bought one. My old Pioneer Amp/Pre-Amp and Tuner from the seventies are just falling apart. Audio cut-outs, etc etc, burned out pots. From watching YT repair blogs probably soldering has gone cold. So, thanks for your review. I have a Fluance TT. excited about trying it out. Thanks for mentioning the volume off set setting.

[altops]

ROCKIN THE 2004 STR DE197 IN DA BEDROOM AND IT SERVES VERY WELL. GOT IT FREE, AND HEARD VERY GOOD THING ABOUT THE 190. CHEERS. IM CURRENTLY LOOKING INTO OP AMP UPGRADES.

[DaveofAllTrades]

I honestly don’t understand why so many people are giving this a good review. I purchased one because so many people were saying how good it was to replace my vintage Yamaha VX 480 which still works fine I just wanted a newer one with Bluetooth and I really wanted to like it but the sound quality was so much different than my Yamaha and by different I mean it was way too neutral to bright no matter if I turn the bass even all the way up to +10 and my subwoofer volume on high there was very little low end especially on music that should have lots of low end and when I played the same music on my old Yamaha I can have the base at zero and the subwoofer knob only halfway up and shake my house lol but I don’t care just about the thump my point is that the music was more naturally sounding and rich but also still had thump when I wanted it to and not on music that shouldn’t the Sony just seemed neutral no matter what type of music you played and I could not get any decent low end out of it at all and I had to return it despite wanting to like it I guess that’s just my experience with it.

[ohplayasmarinas]

What speakers do you recommend? Thanks.

[ROCKNROLLMODS]

I was born in '79 and got really into audio in the very early 90s. At that time, for the average poor kid, 2 channel stereo receivers were the only affordable option for really decent clean power. A dollar per watt was doing very well in those days. You could buy plenty of car amplifiers that claimed several hundred watts for $50 at the flea market. But you were lucky to get 12 wpc with 97% distortion. But there were a few jensen car amps that got you close to 100w for around $100, and then there was a vast sea of home stereo receivers, usually around $100, and easily gave you 100 watts. As far as the really vintage wood-grain era of receivers, (pre 1985) which I assume, is your cup of tea, it was a big time crap schute. Most of the old receivers I dug from the trash on my way to school, were completely anemic. Some were pretty good, i scored a fisher that was pretty powerful once. But the early 90s-present stereo receivers always delivered. Don't even get me started on the modern 27 channel theater receivers, where all powered channels have a high pass filter at 100hz. I think you may have had a pre-conceived notion, that these 2 channel receivers were not good, but if you give them a chance I think you'd like most of them. I almost cried recently when I learned that the only inexpensive home receivers that remain on the market are Sony, Pioneer, and Yamaha. But if you like a bass and treble heavy sound, Sony is the way to go. If you're looking for ultra clean more honest power (flat response) the Yamaha is the way to go. If you're in the middle, go with Pioneer.