Sony StrDH190 2-channel Audio Receiver

The Sony StrDH190 is a budget audio receiver that for less than $150 on Amazon will blow your socks off. For that price, you get a 2-channel amp with radio, phono, tape, and CD inputs along with Bluetooth. Currently, I am listening to this wonderful little amp with Spotify playing over Bluetooth from the laptop while I write this review. 

I've had this amp for a couple years now, having paid $90 for an open box deal on Amazon. It only has spring-loaded clips in the rear for speakers, so if you plan on running a sub, you'll need an active one with a built-in amp, to hook the speakers up. But if like me, the way you want to use this amp is just a couple bookshelf speakers, then you are in luck. Pair these with some budget Polks or Klipsch speakers and you're winning for less than $300 if you only want to use Bluetooth. 

The amp comes with a few features, like Pure Direct, which when turned off seems to lessen the sound overall, turning down the bass and treble. It comes with basic bass and treble adjustments, that are surprisingly useful. I suggest turning them up all the way to get a fuller sound. This is not an audiophile-grade amplifier, but it is Mid-Fi and a great start to someone wanting to get into the audio game. 

For $150 you get the core of your system that you easily add thrift store bargain components to and be able to listen to the tunes on your phone or laptop while you wait to find them. This brain amp even comes with a phono connection, which is becoming increasingly rare today. Buying a vintage turntable will more than likely not have a preamp built-in, so this will satisfy that need. For me, I have a turntable that has a built-in pre-amp, which means I have to hook it up to Input 1 so I don't get a loud over-amplified sound. But for a couple years, this amp was my daily workhorse, powering my dual cassette deck, CD player, MiniDisc recorder, and turntable. Be aware though that hooking an equalizer to it, like many other amps, will be confusing and take a couple hours work to figure out what is needing to be plugged in at what point. 

Overall, this has been a great amp. When I upgraded my system in the living room to a larger set of speakers and sub with a center, I moved up to an AVR amp, but couldn't bear to sell this one-off. So for the moment, it is used in the office, connected via Bluetooth to the laptop. I might add some more components to it later, maybe I'll reunite it with my old components as I upgrade them downstairs.