Sony STRDH190.CEK 2 Channel Amplifier with Phone Input and Bluetooth - Black

5 stars for the price (€230 on prime day sale July 2025). Obviously not as good as higher end but more expensive amps but really impressive for what you pay. I've connected it my Sony PS-LX300 turntable and it sounds great (for reference I'm not an audio nerd, I just like clear quality sound and wanted to get away from Bluetooth speakers etc). I need to upgrade my speakers in the future but for now it works well with my cheap 6 ohm 40 watt Sony speakers. Bluetooth works great for Spotify etc on both android and ios devices but I got this amp to get away from Bluetooth. The remote control is excellent. It does everthing you'd want and feels good in the hand. So I've been using this for 3wks now and I love it honestly. I'm going to add new speakers and a cd separate in the future.

Set up was quick and connected to turntable so I could play my old LPs. Sounds fantastic. Powerful good quality audio, brilliant controls and even used the radio :).

I purchased this amplifier to replace an AKAI AM-U22 unit that had started to malfunction after 37 years service. I needed a full set of RCA sockets on the new unit in order to connect with my other equipment in the studio, and the Sony STRDH190.CEK has ample. I have connected my original pair of Goodmans Quartet speakers, plus a feed to two YAMAHA HS8 studio monitors, and the sound is excellent, and very powerful. I have also plugged my computer soundcard into the Sony via a jackplug to RCA adapter lead and that also matches up with no distortion or loss of sound quality. The components used in the manufacture of the amplifier are all heavy duty and the unit oozes quality in all respects, a mid -range price for a top-range product. The stereo receiver is an added bonus and was easy to set up and find channels, and I can now listen to the radio in full theatre quality surround sound. I have not tried the Bluetooth circuit or the 'portable audio device' socket, but feel sure they would work perfectly if required. Would definitely recommend.

This Sony is a rare beast: a stereo receiver of the sort that most people once owned, but are now vanishingly rare. Even better, it looks the part, making it a perfect match for retro audio equipment as well, which is why I'm using it. It avoids the complexity of modern equipment: there are lots of inputs (strictly analogue), a big volume knob, another knob for input selection and, er, that's about it. Excellent. The remote control provides additional features, such as bass and treble, input selection and radio presets, and is a custom design rather than a generic handset pressed into service.There are many nice touches. For instance, all the inputs can be named onscreen, so instead of having Input 1, Input 2 etc you can have 'Cassette', 'Minidisc' and so on. There are built-in inputs for Bluetooth (basic but functional), a mobile device (connected with a 3.5mm lead) and Phono. With the latter, you can adjust the gain by up to 6db, which is a great help as the output from most magnetic cartridges is very low. There is no direct provision for connecting a sub-woofer but there are a couple of workarounds i.e. connect it to the Line Out but keep an eye on the volume control of the sub-woofer, or connect it to the second set of loudspeaker outputs if your sub-woofer can handle that level of signal.Overall, sound quality and performance is good, especially for the price. It would be nice if Sony produced an updated version, with a DAB radio in place of FM and a proper sub-woofer output, but Sony know what they are doing. Or do they? Here's the main problem with this unit - it buzzes. Noticeably. It's a combination of the power supply's relatively cheap transformer and resonance from the top of the case. The workaround is to have something sitting on top of the unit, such as a CD player or MiniDisc deck, to help dampen it. That works, although it's not great practice as the receiver needs to disseminate heat. But as long as the unit in top has feet to provide clearance and you use the receiver at normal listening levels then it seems to suffice. Rather ironically, the Sony features a 'direct sound' mode to switch off extraneous noise from the electronics and give a 'pure' sound. Great sense of humour, guys.Overall, this is a nice unit but note the above points about buzzing.

Great sound, used with 4 speakers. Plenty of options to set up. The remote is useful. I used cable with proper plug ends but you can use bare wire, but why would you if you paid this much for an amplifier. Instructions are good.

A nice peice if kit easy set up good sound quality for the price im proper happy would defo buy again and a decent price

These amps produce great sound and especially impressive surround effects in 360sm mode - deserving five stars. However, I've had two of them and both have been faulty, so I can't give them more than one star as they are useless in this regard. Both units suffered from a horrific metallic clang when powering on. The first unit had a very noticeable high pitched whine and hiss, particularly in 360sm mode, but this vanished after a few days (possibly a firmware update?). After a couple of months it went into an endless power boot loop for no reason and was returned to Amazon for repair. After a month of "waiting for a part" I lost patience and got a refund instead. The second unit produced the same clang on power up and whine/hiss especially in 360sm mode. This time the whine/hiss did not disappear after nearly a month of use. I did the obvious things of checking for a software update and performing a factory reset, but to no avail, and so it was returned. I did notice that the whine/hiss only appeared after the unit had gone through its auto calibration routine, which to me confirms that the fault is within the unit and has nothing to do with external equipment, cabling etc. A quick search shows several other people reporting exactly the same problems, so these seems to be generic faults in this model. I hope Sony addresses these issues, as at some point I would love to have one of these amps.