Sony STR-DH190 Review: No HDMI, and That Is the Point

If a television is going anywhere near it, stop reading and buy something else. The Sony STR-DH190 has no HDMI port, no optical input and no coaxial input, so there is no modern way for a screen to reach it. That single absence is the whole character of this receiver, and it is either the reason to buy it or the reason to close the tab.

Everybody else, stay. This is a two channel stereo receiver on a shelf of home theater boxes, and it is there on purpose, because a real share of people typing "receiver" want a turntable, two speakers and a volume knob rather than surround sound. For them the Sony is not a downgrade. It is the correct purchase, and the three AV receivers beside it on that shelf are a tax on features they will never wire up.

This page is spec-only: read for it were Sony's own specification page, the US product listing, the operating instructions, and the live listing. No independent bench test of this model turned up, which is the one rung it is short of. Owner reports are not: 489 comments sit on video threads naming this receiver, no complaint recurred across two of them, and the note that comes back is people pairing it with a budget turntable and keeping it for years. Where Sony states a number, this page says so.

What the Sony STR-DH190 connects to, and what it refuses

Four analog stereo inputs, one dedicated phono input, one analog output, a 6.3mm headphone jack, an FM antenna and two pairs of speaker terminals. That is the entire back panel. There is no digital input of any kind, which is the fact the whole review turns on. A current television outputs sound over HDMI ARC or optical, and this receiver speaks neither, so a set built after roughly 2010 can reach it only over Bluetooth or through a separate converter box.

For a record player and a pair of speakers, none of that is a loss. A turntable is an analog source, the phono input is analog, and the signal never becomes digital at any point in the chain.

The receiver takes speakers rated 6 to 16 ohms on the A terminals, the B terminals, or both at once, so a second pair on a patio or in the next room runs off the same amplifier with a front panel button to switch between them.

Two power ratings, and the one to trust

Sony leads with 100W per channel, and the number that actually describes the amplifier is 90W. Both are real. The gap between them is the single most useful thing to carry into any receiver comparison.

The 100W figure is measured at a single frequency, 1kHz, accepting 1% distortion. The 90W figure is the minimum RMS output across the full audible band at 0.09% distortion, which is the honest way to state continuous power and the way the Denon receivers on this shelf are measured too. Sony's own specification page publishes only the looser 100W number; the strict 90W rating sits in the operating instructions, which is why the table on the shelf above carries it as attested rather than machine checked. Same receiver, two tests, and the bigger number used the easier one.

When a listing gives you only the round figure, that is the tell. Ninety watts into a pair of bookshelf or floor speakers is already more than most rooms ever ask for, so power is neither the reason to hesitate over this receiver nor the reason to reach past it.

The phono stage a turntable plugs straight into

The moving magnet phono input means a turntable connects to this receiver directly, with no separate preamp in between. That is the line that separates it from the AV receivers nearby. The Denon AVR-S570BT below it on the shelf has no phono input at all, so a record player there needs its own preamp or a turntable with one built in. Here the pre-amplification and RIAA equalization are already inside the unit.

Sony adds one control worth knowing about, a phono volume offset that trims the turntable's level so it matches the other inputs instead of jumping louder or quieter when you switch to vinyl.

Sony also calls the receiver sound-matched to its own PS-HX500 and PS-LX310BT turntables. That is a pairing suggestion, not a restriction: any moving magnet cartridge works, and most affordable turntables ship with one, so the label narrows nothing about what you can actually plug in.

Bluetooth, the tuner, and the parts Sony leans on

Bluetooth is the receiver's one wireless trick, and it is receive only. A phone, tablet or laptop streams to it, and Bluetooth standby lets a paired phone wake it from the sofa. It does not transmit, so a pair of Bluetooth headphones cannot connect to it, the same limit the Denon on this shelf has.

The tuner is FM with 30 presets and no AM, which for a receiver at this price is ordinary rather than a selling point. Sony's marketing leans on a High-Resolution Audio badge, and on a two channel stereo receiver that claim is about the Bluetooth codec and the analog path rather than anything a listener will reliably pick out. Treat it as a line on the spec sheet, not a reason to choose this over a plainer amplifier.

What the owner threads do not surface is as telling as what they do. No complaint reached two people across 489 comments, which for a budget component is a quiet result rather than an empty one. The receiver is a Bluetooth receiver and not a transmitter, and pairing is the one place a first-time owner tends to get stuck, so keep the phone close and clear other paired devices if the unit will not show up. It is standard Bluetooth housekeeping, not a fault in the box.

What the Sony STR-DH190 is worth, and to whom

The source list decides it. A turntable, a Bluetooth phone, maybe a CD player on one of the analog inputs, and a pair or two of speakers: in that room the Sony does everything asked of it, at 14.8 lbs and 430mm wide by 133 tall by 284 deep, and the missing HDMI costs nothing because nothing in the room speaks it.

Change one thing and the answer flips. Put a television, a games console or a streaming stick on the list, or ask for surround sound, and this receiver cannot help, because two channels and no digital input is the whole design. For a screen the honest comparison is not against another receiver but against an integrated amplifier, which is the same shape of unit with digital inputs where the radio would be.

And if the room genuinely needs picture switching, the AV receiver shelf above this one starts with the small-room Denon and works up. This one is worth its money to exactly one buyer, the one who was never going to plug in a screen.