- good value for a mid-entry receiver and HTS
- 0.09% THD (amazing!)
- remote is actually very good
- optical out (rare on a receiver at this cost)
- manuals are pretty straight forward
- plenty of connections, fairly easy to set up

- overkill on the soundfields (most are useless)
- equalizer settings difficult to set
- no onscreen menu or wizards for setup
- no technical explanation of soundfield settings
- hissing heard at all volumes

This is my first "premium" receiver, and though I'm mostly impressed with the unit, I'm still have some concerns. My biggest concern is that I cannot get the "exact" sound I want, even after fooling around with the soundfields and equalizers for hours. It's close, but not quite what I want.

Sony really needs to clean up the DSP stuff. Fewer soundfields with less equalizer settings, and more customizable surround parameters like reverb, echo, etc., would likely solve the problem of getting the "desired" sound. The best soundfield I found so far for 2-channel sound (CD, Minidisc, VHS, Cable) is "Live House".

Dolby Digital and DTS work as expected. While they are very good, I'm not going to say they're exceptional. Almost all Digital Dolby and DTS receivers sound the same (the signal is digital after all..) The blue light is cool, but I think the novelty will wear off soon.

One of the major problems with this unit is its inability to drive "clear" bass into individual speakers if you choose to use any of the soundfields. The bass becomes muddled, and a fair bit of noise is introduced into all speakers. Sound power, however, through all speakers, is very good - with no detectable clipping.

I'm not sure what the complaints with the manuals are. I found them concise and fairly straightforward. Setup of the receiver took about 1 hour. The section on the soundfields, however, is absolutely useless - because it doesn't explain or help you pick the right soundfield for a particular purpose.

The remote and its manual are also pretty decent. I was very pessimistic about the remote before I got it - reading about all the complaints on this board. Now that I have it, switching between different components (Sony or otherwise) is actually fairly easy (even with the 2-way on). The backlit LCD is a nice addition. The weight and feel of the remote is good too. I do not like the small buttons on the inside cover though. They're impossible to use in the dark. Overall though, I'm glad to have this remote.

While I think the unit is a overall a good value and will last me for years to come - I hesitate to think the "sound" is worth the amount of money I spent ($840 CDN total). Sony Canada's retail on this unit is $1000 CDN *before* taxes (about $700 USD)-- which is *not* a good deal compared to the prices our neighbours get in the US. So I'm rating it's value as a mediocre 3. (Now if we talk cars... up here we definitely get the better deals!)

Setup:
Sony DB390
Sony JB520 (minidisc)
Sony CDP525 (CD)
Toshiba 2109 (DVD)
Infinity RS-325s (mains)
Paradigm Titans v2 (surrounds)
Sony Active Speakers (SAVAs) used as a center channel and basic sub

Similar Products Used:

none used for long periods, but auditioned several units

Sound Quality, Subwoffer Control

Remote

I sore that I would never ever buy another Sony receiver again after replacing my original receiver 5 times, thank god for extended warranties. I bought one of the first Dolby Pro-logic DSP receivers back in 1991 and hated it. Was never truly happy with it. It really sucked... But finally my old STR took a dump and it was time to look for a new one... After looking hard and long for a good receiver I found my self buying another Sony and this time I am truly happy with what I got.

I can tell you there is a huge difference from the Old 1991 Sony to this one. WOW a true difference... The 930DB Rocks... and it really controls my powered sub woofer great!

When I did my research on DVD and receivers, I found that most sales people don’t know what the hell they are doing or what it is they are selling. (Big Surprise) Go to Crutchfield.com and do the research yourself. You’ll be a lot more confident with the purchase that you are going to make.

Got my price quote from Buyersedge.com and bought it from victor-s.com for ($399)

I would have loved to give it 5 stars across the board but they got to do something about that remote.

TIP: If you are looking to buy a product, do a text search for *.com on the reviews. It will lead you to the web pages where others have been. Then I go to those web sites and compare prices. I can tell you the best two out there are Buyersedge.com and pricewatch.com.

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-D1011

Obviously, the receiver has great flexibility and capacity for the price.

I have to agree that the remote is pretty irritating to deal with--an on-screen display would have been helpful. An I would prefer a remote that was designed for human-sized hands and persons with normal visual acuity. The IR should be on the bottom so you can see the display when sending.

I chose the 930 because of the many favorable reviews here, and because it seemed to offer the most I/O options in its price range.

I just received the Sony yesterday. From Victor's for $399 + $20 shipping from Florida to Arizona.

Connections were simple, but I wish the jacks would accept standard dual bananas.

Spent at least half an hour trying to figure out why the center and rear speaker level controls on the remote were giving a "not working" error message when in 5.1 mode. If the message had said "disabled", I might have realized sooner that these settings have to be made in the DVD player's setup (Sony DVP-S550D). Wish they would work on the remote, too, for fine-tuning levels when listening to a particular disc.

And I still have not figured out how to access the equalizer settings via the remote.

This is the first stereo component I have used where configuration is more menu-driven than anything else. I think they still have a long way to go before the controls could be called "user-friendly". Unless you are prepared to spend several hours learning to communicate with this complexity, buy a unit with far fewer bells and whistles.

I even have yet to discover how to turn the unit on with the remote--what appears to be the on/off button does not produce the desired response.

Is there a user's group for the STR-DB930 somewhere? If not, would anybody be interested if I set one up?

Cheers,

Peter

Similar Products Used:

All sorts of stereo gear for over 30 years.

none

all

Ok, me again, and after receiving several emails from people, some of which agree with me completely and others not at all, I am going to say one more thing. Now you people are telling me how great of a receiver this is and how you have not problems with it, and that is great. I am sure it is a good receiver if it works fine. I am just saying that it doesn't work fine for me, and I am not alone as other people have mailed me describing the exact same thing that happened to me. I know I shouldn't post this and bring the rating down, but the current score is way too high for this receiver I think. I bought this receiver because of this sight, and I didn't consider that what happened to the dozen or so people here with the buzz could happen to me, well it did. There is obviously something wrong with this receiver, whether it is with all of them or just some I don't know. Sony is a good company, but it is not the best. Stop thinking that, they are far from it.

Value and performance

Remote

I have to disagree with the last 2 negative reviews just posted from New Jersey - while hiss and hum are not something to readily accept I fell that he should have taked other means to find the problem. I have had many fine pieces of audio gear over the years - including Denon - and I've tried all Denon products - CD, Turntables, Cartrides, Amps, PreAmps, Cassette decks and recievers - and yes - Denon is a good company and so is Sony - the DB930 is probably one of the best Home Theater products available for under $1,000 - I have already reviewed this piece before - and this second review will balance the negatives from the last 2 reviews - thank you

For the money this is the best receiver on the block.The power this receiver puts out is clean and powerful enough to drive most any ht speaker setup.

Remote takes some getting used to.Once you do its not to bad.

I'm writing this review to solve the problem of the hiss and or hum some of you are having.First you must ground your receiver!if you do not you leave it open to stray voltage due to surges from house hold appliances and what ever else.Second you need to run a ac power enhancerpower surge protection.I recommened the Adcom ace-515 i got from onecall.com.When i first got my str-db930 and pluged it in i also had a slight hiss with the volume over 3.Check all connections they where rigth on.Checked house wiring to make sure everthing was wired right and it was.You can get a plugin line checker to see if your house wiring is correct.So i got myself an ocilloscope and monitored the line voltage comming into the house and found it to be very spikey and what i call dirty do to house hold appliances and other line conditions.SO i ordered a adcom ace515 hooked it up and you barely have any noise at full volume.The moral of the story is dirty power in dirty power out!Now all of you have the fix stop complaining about your sony and just enjoy it.IT IS A KICK BUTT RECEIVER!!!!!

Similar Products Used:

Harmon Kardon AVR30,STR-DE835

Great theater Sound!!!,Cool remote,Idividual-speaker tuning,no speaker hiss,very clean digital sound,both dolby digital and DTS compatible,better than the 835 & 935 models

None

***WOW ...WHAT A UNIT!!!***
After months of research this is the unit I decided on. Money wasn't an object..I just wanted something good. I was prepared to pay $500-$1000 for something decent. Well the unit I chose was the 930D. it just happened to only cost $399 from onecall-I'm not complaining!

** the (2) best Home theater parts to enhance a total unreal dvd-movie listening experience are these: **

Sony STRdb930 receiver $399
Infinity BU150 15" sub $300
(Monster subwoofer cable $60)

(the other stuff I have it hooked to: sony-53"xbr, sony 550-dvd, yamaha fronts, infinity quadrapole center and rears)

I've concluded that a good reciever and subwoofer are the most important components in a home-theatre. (The center channel, rears & fronts aren't as big of a deal as long as they're not junk)

The only compaints:
I can't find any spec sheets or anything on this model on Sony's web site, I almost didn't buy it because of this. Someone told me it was because It's a better european model that's wasn't intended for us dumb americans.
Maybe I have sensitive eyes but the blue dolby digital light and the red volume knob light are a little bright in a dark room watching a dark show...pretty lame complaint huh?
Another reason I like the Sony is because my dvd and my TV are both Sony - and are all "S-linked" together.
When I push the play button on the dvd remote the dvd,tv and the 930D all automatically turn on and play!

The digital cabling I chose for my dvd was the COAXIAL!! not the OPTICAL. Coaxial accually has a slight warmer sound to it- where optical had more treble than I cared for. The db930 has both connectors.

Now I'd much rather stay home & watch a dvd movie in Dolby-digital than go to the theatre!!!

Similar Products Used:

Technics

Plenty of ins & outs
sounds great,love the remote

none

sounds good still only using vcr,cd & built in tuner.
If anyone knows of a good mid priced dvd please let me
know. also if anyone has any hint it would be appreciated

Similar Products Used:

pioneer

if you select different speaker sizes hissing increases, if you select bass boost hissing increases, if you use the equalizer hissing increases on some sources.

Hello everyone. I think I found out, why the sony of some people hisses and of other people not. I discovered, that different speaker sizes selected(center and rear small, front big)increase the hissing. So does the bassboost button as well. In some cases the equalizer increases the hissing too. If you have the hissing problem, try to disable all these things.
If would be glad if somebody could tell me, if he experienced the same, or if my receiver is broken.

Great with movies..

Absolute dog with pure stereo...

Absolutley stunning sounscape reproduction with movies, lightening fast reactions...good at all volumes...easily the best A/V Unit under £1000...

but...useless with stereo. Fuzzy, short sighted, downright nasty.

Can't be considered to replace even the cheapest of stereo amps..

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha A1, A2...