Sony DB930 - gateway to budget nirvana...

[omnibeard]

Following Drummerman's recommendation of the Sony DB930, which prompted me into a bit of further research, I picked up a mint example, boxed with remote and manuals, for £40.

Digital inputs, decent phone stage, stupid amounts of power, for the money they can be had it's just silly.

I have a mix of speakers that can be had for peanuts second hand - Mission 751, 752, Acoustic Energy AE109. Pair it with any of these and you've got yourself something very nice for probably less than £150. Add an AEX and you've got a lovely streaming system. Well, with a few other bits and bobs I guess.

It compares pretty favourably with my Musical Fidelity A1001, and cost me £40.

£40.

Anyway, there you go, my first new topic in yonks.

Is it dull?

 

[The_Lhc]

Guess I'll carry on with mine then.

 

[omnibeard]

Yeah I remember reading you having one. Do you use it at all? Not rate it?

 

[The_Lhc]

Yeah I remember reading you having one. Do you use it at all? Not rate it?

Of course I use it, only amp I own, been in daily use for almost 15 years (my tv has no speakers).

 

[omnibeard]

Oh yeah, of course.

Do you like to be held?

 

[omnibeard]

Like a great big bear hug?

 

[omnibeard]

Oops sorry about that. Not sure what came over me.

 

[drummerman]

Oops sorry about that. Not sure what came over me.

Mmmh ...

Anyway, yes it has a very good amplifier and DAC section. There are things you can do to improve upon it but even in 'as is' form I would (have) choose this over some well established stereo only options (I have a few of these).

240w/4ohm dynamic headroom with low distortion and good current does make for relatively easy speaker matching.

Great drive. Downsides ... tight bass but I'll have that anytime over something loose (bass that is). I use stand mounts so with floorstanders this may be more of an advantage.

regards

 

[omnibeard]

There are things you can do to improve upon it but even in 'as is' form I would (have) choose this over some well established stereo only options (I have a few of these).

For example?

I have soldering iron and multimeter, will travel! What is easy to do, and what benefits might it have?

 

[drummerman]

Shield the transformer, remove the S-Video board (and tuner section if you dont use it), fit/hard solder a decent shielded power cable and loose the thin stock one with its converter plug, fit ferrite cores on every cable leading in to the receiver plus one after the transformer around the cable harness leading to the main board.

If you still feel full of energy after that you can build a faraday cage/shielded section for the digital board. I haven't done that.

Good luck and enjoy

regards

 

[MakkaPakka]

I bought the DB925 way back in '99 - one of the first DD5.1 amps around. Cost me £500 as the DB930 was on the horizon (£600 I think).

Apart from the poor remote which broke, it gave me no trouble at all in the many years I owned it. Sold it for about £40 a couple of years back.

 

[drummerman]

I bought the DB925 way back in '99 - one of the first DD5.1 amps around. Cost me £500 as the DB930 was on the horizon (£600 I think).

Apart from the poor remote which broke, it gave me no trouble at all in the many years I owned it. Sold it for about £40 a couple of years back.

The 925/940 and most subsequent models didn't have the build and specification of the 930, which, in most probability, was probably the pick of many of Sony's receivers and a 'showcase' for Sony of what can be done. Component/build quality went down after that.

The above are stock pictures of a standard unit.

regards