value

remote is a bit slow to respond

I was looking to upgrade my 18 yr old system to HT. My old system consisted of NAD 7020 receiver, Sony CD player, Boston Acoustics A100 speakers. After upgrading the receiver to the STRDB-30,the Sony CD player to the Sony DVD SP330 replacing the woofers on the speakers and upgrading the interconnects to medium quality monster cables including digital coax from the DVD to the receiver it was like hearing an all new system for the first time. I now hear details on my old CD's that I never heard before. I can even hear some imaging from these old speakers that I never heard before. I still plan to upgrade my speakers for the full 5.1 Dolby digital experience but I can now live with my existing speakers until the rest of the upgrade is in place. The local high end audio chain had this receiver on sale for $579 but I purchased it for $389 + shippping from onecall.com. Great value

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha 595A, Sony STRDB-830

Sound, Quality, Price

None

Thanks to AudioReview folks I've got piece of mind. The sound is very natural, the design is almost perfect. The remote isn't bad as most people mentioned here. The manual could be better of course, it looks like the one for cheapest Sony staff from K'Mart store. I've bought mine through buyingedge.com for 389 plus 20 dollars for shipping. Probably the best reciever under 500 bucks.

Incredible sound with good clear bass

the remote is terrible

Great receiver, nice price. Highly recommend it to anyone.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-D508 which is so bad it's unbelievable

Separation, clarity, speed

Sony's Uk distribution operation and staff!

This amp is wonderful. The clarity and separation of all five channels is startling. The bass is tight and punchy and very low (i've shelved plans to buy that active sub!) and the mid and treble are clear.

I use this with a Sony DVPS725 DVD player, and MS 816 front pair, MS823R rears, and MS821C centre.

On the downside, the sony operation and staff are appalling, trying to get hold of this product was a nightmare, with retailer after retailer telling me they couldn't guarantee delivery dates as Sony couldn't/wouldn't tell them when stock would be available. Add to this the fact that I had to buy the silver model to appease my other half!! Calling Sony direct for information only resulted in a curt, unhelpful employee quoting company policy at me. This is usually enough to put me off buying from a company for life - but in this instance i'm glad it didn't!!

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha A1

Value

Possibly 24bit,96khz processing (under evaluation)

Overall I would have to say that I am very happy with Sony's DB-930, I did a lot of comparison shopping and believe the DB-930 is a very good value for the money. I listened to the Denon 3300, Onkyo 575 and Sony DB-930 through a CD player and noticed very little difference in sound quality, at least not enough to justify the extra 400 dollars for the Denon 3300.
To be fair to the Denon and the Onko though I did like the 5 speaker sound from 2 channel source option. I am not sure yet about the DB-930's ability take advantage of the 24 bit, 96 ktz from the DVD player as is advertised by the Denon and Onkyo through their SHARC 32 bit DSP processor. Sony's information does not cover this in as much detail as Denon and Onkyo, but they do say in the manual that the reciever out put is converted to 48 khz when using digital input from the DVD, but 96 khz through anolog input. I am not sure whether the need to use anolog input rather than digital ends up being a big disadvantage or not.
I used ONECALL through Buyingedge.com and was very happy with the price and service.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 3300, Onkyo 575

nice to look at

remote, bass, sound

I cannot see why this unit is getting such good reviews, compared to the yamaha A1 or A2 it is simply not able to compete. Try listening to the two units back to back on the same setup before considering the Sony unit, I think you will be quite surprised.
Regarding its ability to play music, forget it, AV amps are not designed for this and the Sony comes pretty close to the bottom of the pile while attempting.

Similar Products Used:

yahama a1

Great sound. More than enough power. Plenty of surround sound fields. Blue light on face lights up to indicate a Dolby Digital signal.

Nothing tragic: No optical input for CD (hook up to MD/DAT instead). The manuals don't help a whole lot. Remote is a little confusing. This doesn't bother me much, but the grief I get from my wife...

Overall: This is a great receiver. Like many others, I got it instead of a DE unit. Great value for the money. It produces excellent sound with little effort. I have never had the volume past about 4.5 for music or DVD. I have also never had overheating problems either.

Wish list: I wish it had an optical input for the CD, but connecting the CD to the MD/DAT input works fine. I also wish I could set the equalizer settings to be dependent upon the surround field chosen. Finally, you can't set the subwoofer crossover frequency through the receiver.

Other components: Infinity RS5 front speakers, JBL PSWD112 subwoofer, Wharfdale center channel, Infinity Quadrople surround speakers, Sony DVD, RCA DSS, Pioneer 57 inch wide screen TV.

Movie watching or listening to music is an experience. The receiver is great and considering the price, really great!

Excellent build, Power you can feel, ES look, Bananna connectors for all channels, 2nd audio (Sub Room)

Remote

I was one of the first people to review this unit here and now after 4 months of use I can still say this receiver is wonderful. Since I've owned the unit I've added a new B&W LCR S2 center channel and B&W SW1000 sub woofer. Prior to the purchase of the sub woofer, the unit did run a little hot when I drove it hard, however, it runs much cooler with the separate powered sub. Let me tell you this, if you think you don't need a sub because your mains handle the bass just fine, you will be in for a pleasant surprise when and if you get a sub. The only draw back with the DB930's sub woofer RCA outs are that you can't control, or do you know what frequency they are sending out. I found that cutting off the sub at 80Hz and using LARGE for all speakers rounds out the bass really well.

One quick note. The reason people complain that the remote is slow is because the remote attempts to talk to the receiver first before displaying info on the it's screen. It contacts the receiver to accurately display which input is selected. So, if you point the remote directly at the DB930, then hit a button, you'll see the remote respond much more quickly. You can also disable 2-way remote control functions from the receiver if a quick response is what you desire.

For under $500 there is no better receiver. If your budget allows room to spend, check out the new Denon AVR3300. For around $800-$1000 this is a very nice reciever.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo, Denon, Sony

Great sound, ample power, great looks

the remote sucks worse than anything I've ever used in my life

I got it from OneCall about a month ago, and boy does this baby scream! I originally had a pair of 7 or 8 year old Bose 401 towers, and the difference in sound quality from my old receiver was damn near amazing. Now I got a pair of Infiniti Delta 60's and it sounds better than anything I could have ever imagined myself having in college (yes, I'm 21). I especially like the S-Video switching. I use the S-video from my dvd player and dss box and run a single s video into my tv. The one thing it could have more of though, is coaxial digital inputs. It only has one, but 3 optical digital inputs. And the remote is horrible! If I had to do it over again, I might get the 830 just for the remote. I don't like to go through menus simply to select something, like change it from tuner to dvd or the like. All in all, a great unit.

ES Circuts..More Inputs than I can Shake a Stick at...

Remote..has a learning curve and takes a week to learn it fully

What else can I say I picked this up for $450 Locally cuz they pricematched the Oade Bros. quote of $425....

After Numerous reccomendation from the Members of teh HomeTheatreforum.com.....I picked it up am in Love......Dolby-pro WHAT?..lol....If ur thinking about Upgrading to DD/DTS...do it now before teh holiday rush....:D