Stereo Lives, but ...

Whatever happened to two channels? I can't seem to justify playing music on any more than two speakers. Lots of people have gotten caught up in the 5.1/7.1 craze that manufacturers are pushing, but the fact remains that truly high-end systems (Revel, Bang-Olafson, etc.) usually involve two speakers and a massive amplifier.

I've always been a two-speakers-and-a-massive-amplifier guy myself. So when I sought to build a fairly inexpensive system (with two speakers!) I was somewhat stupified by what I saw in the stores: both Best Buy and Ultimate Electronics only carry one two-channel amplifier! Since I wanted my music right now, I just went with it.

The Sony STR-DE197 is obviously on the bottom of the food chain in Sony's eyes. There's nothing really fancy about it; it's actually quite nostalgic in that it doesn't have 50,000,000 buttons and it's big and black and boxy. Simplicity rules here - it's nice enough looking.

It's rated at 125 watts into two channels, but I'm pretty certain it doesn't deliver that. Driving it into two sensitive speakers (93dB) I found that one had to turn the volume up to "57" (max is "74" - odd) to get a sufficiently "loud" sound. Now, compare this to an ancient Pioneer amp I have sitting around - delivering perhaps 40w/channel - which gets LOUD at about 1/4 the way up the dial. And that's without distortion, mind you, that amp has HEADROOM. So I must say I'm disappointed with the power the unit puts out.

However, it is clean power. I detected very little hiss or noise even at maximum, and since this is Sony's cheapest reciever (to my knowledge), I have to give some credit.

Feature-wise, the reciever (yes, it has a tuner in it ... sigh, you can't find a cheap two-channel amp anymore without ordering it online) is adequate if not overloaded. Honestly, the thing isn't worth the $150 I paid for it. $99 would be reasonable. You've got 4 inputs and the tuner, and two outputs. No video switching, of course - you have to use 5.1 channels with video! Cough. But that doesn't bother me, I'm not using it for video. It's got Bass Boost (which is effective and undistortive) and Bass/Treble controls. You can name your preset stations, which is more novel than useful.

Overall, I'm ambivalent. It's not worth $150, so don't pay that.