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..

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Yamaha A1, A2...

Loads of inputs-outputs lots of clean power. User interactive remote.

clumpsy remote can be over come with practice

This is my second review. I like my toys elaborate such as McIntosh-Carver-BK, but I also like simplicity, affordability,and flexibility. At this time I would like to point out I am continually on a quest for better home theater equiptment, for both the budget minded and the gooroo enthusiest. Lets face it we don't all have thousands to spend. I keep hearing people complaining about this annoying hiss and i have tested this unit thoroughly and found that there is some channel cross talk, but certainly not to the level of the common complaints that are continually talked about. All stereos have cross talk. This stereo is the best bang for the buck and for the budget minded stereo enthusiest. I wish people would read their manuals learn how to set their equitment and quit all the whinning about the annoying hiss. It's obviously something on the input stages of their components such as shotty or low grade equiptment. I have tested 2 of these units with complete and utter satisfaction this unit was built for the europeon market whom for years has been far advanced in stereo technology and demand nothing less. Us americans on the other hand have been hand fed lower grade componentry for so long that when something good comes along were to ignorant to know it. Read the manuals, set the speakers to the proper settings, set the screen depth, I suggest mid or deep and sit back and enjoy a quality sony seldom seen product that was introduced from the europeon market. A quality that sony I'm sure will not be producing anytime again soon. The specs all suggest that this receiver out performs sony elevated standard receivers in the europeon market this is sold as a QS separate. Stop all the whinning.

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denon3300 denon1700 nakamichiAVR10 (HK.avr35junk)HK.avr65 is junkier yet.

Best bang for the buck

Remote...but for a different reason -> see below. Only one digital coax input (but has 3 optical)

I'd like to start off by saying that most of the reviews here are accurate and have really influenced my decision to go with this receiver.

I have done extensive listening to the Denon, Yamaha and Pioneer, but at different dealers, so I did not have the chance to A/B them. All excellent receivers, but none offered the value that this Sony does (got it at Oade Brothers for an excellent deal).

Once again, to rehash what everyone else has already said, this receiver is awesome for movies, but nothing spectacular for music. And the hiss? Yes, it's there, but not until you turn it up to an insane level. Most of the DSP fields are pretty hokey. And the remote......

Unlike most people, I actually think the remote isn't that bad....that is when it's working! I have since found out that this remote suffers from a problem where the LCD will periodically stop to work, and you lose all the functions within it (soundfield, input source, setup). The strange thing is that other buttons below and under the cover continue to work. I have received feedback from numerous owners who have had the exact same problem. Then again, there are some that are not affected by this.... so it just depends if you're lucky. It's really not a huge deal, since you can get around it by pulling out the batteries and sticking them back in, but it's a pain.

All that said, I still love this receiver and have no regrets buying it at all. 5 stars for value, 4 overall because of the remote problem.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR3300, Pioneer Elite 24TX, Yamaha 795