Best stereo receiver under 300 – myth or reality?
Are there good stereo receivers that are affordable for everyone? Have you ever wanted a home cinema but were stopped by the price of the receivers you looked at? If yes, there is another solution for you! In this article you can find the best stereo receivers under 300. Of course, there are more advanced receivers on the market right now; however, if you need a sound upgrade and don’t require lots of extra features, these are the receivers to think about. Some of them were upgraded, and newer models have come out; however, it doesn’t mean that they are outdated – stereo receivers can stay in trend for a long time, so there is no need to change the receiver often. All of the receivers in this article do a perfect job in upgrading the sound, there are minor differences between them. Keep reading about each one and you can find your best stereo receiver under 300.
Read our review of the best AV receivers.
Our pick
The best receiver under $300
Stereo receiver with phono input and BLUETOOTH connectivity that brings together your analog and digital music.
This is one of the finest examples of the best stereo receiver under 300, and I will quickly persuade most of you. This stereo receiver is great both for Internet radio and as a digital player. Besides, it supports all currently known music formats, so you can be sure it will be suitable for your home system for quite a long time. It has 0.1 W standby power consumption, which is a pleasant addition to other features like 100 W output power per channel and 100 dB signal to noise ratio. Great news for someone who uses wireless stereo – this best stereo receiver under $300 has WiFi, Bluetooth, and IEEE connectivity. You can play songs from a USB stick or straight off your phone; in this receiver there are all ports needed for that. The cherry on the top is that you can control this receiver remotely, via your smartphone, so there is no need to look for the actual remote all the time.
- MusicCast app has great functionality and does well in organizing over-air AM/FM, and on-phone audio.
- The receiver is compatible with the streaming sources on the internet; I tested the sound on Twitch and Spotify.
- The buttons on the remote are quite small and hard to read, you also can’t see the panel display clearly, even sitting 15 feet away with a perfect vision.
Sony STRDH190 – clear sound you are looking for
This best stereo receiver under 300 may seem to you less attractive as the one described above. However, it also has its advantages related to the sound, in particular: 93 dB signal-to-noise ratio and total harmonic distortion of 0.09 % ensure great sound quality. It can recognize all audio formats known for today and has a small operating power consumption of 350 W. This receiver also has a Bi-amplifying feature implemented and a sleep timer so you can stay in bed and listen to your favorite music. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have a smartphone remote control feature, so you need to be careful not to lose the physical remote.
- Very loud and clear sound, especially with RCA jacks for CD components.
- Bluetooth is quick to connect and does so well with both my laptop and iPhone.
- I have 8-ohm speakers next door and unfortunately, you can only operate A and B sets of speakers at the same time if both speaker sets are 12 ohms or higher.
One of the best 2 channel stereo receivers, Pioneer SX-10AE is great due to its quite large frequency range - 20 Hz-20 kHz. You can say that this is a typical one; however, the receivers mentioned above in this article have a starting value of only 40 Hz, so here you can be sure that your basses will be upgraded as well as the other themes in the track. Apart from this, it also has 0.08% total harmonic distortion and 100 dB signal-to-noise ratio. However, this device has a drawback: although it has Bluetooth connectivity, there is no ability to connect something via WiFi, and this receiver doesn’t have a USB port. As for additional features, it has Bi-amplifying and auto power off, so don't worry if you go to work and forget to turn it off.
- Bluetooth connectivity is solid, there is no ‘connection lost’ problem at all.
- Well-designed; the actual remote is intuitive to use, no need to look for features for ages.
- Little power output per channel (45 W), so if you prefer rock, this may not be for you.
Sherwood RX4508 – clear sound you always wanted
This stereo receiver can be called best stereo receiver under 300 due to its amazing sound characteristics: 93 dB signal-to-noise ratio, 0.01(!!) total harmonic distortion, and 100 W output per channel will upgrade your sound to an entirely new level. Modern design in combination with extra features like A-B speaker switch, audio return channel (ARC) and bi-amplifying makes it a perfect choice for your house. Unfortunately, it can’t recognize AIFF and DSD music formats; however, you will meet no problems if your playlist is in WAV or FLAC. It has a good operational power consumption of 230 W, so your electric bills shouldn’t suffer too much from this novelty in the house. If you have a smartphone, you can control the stereo remotely, so don’t worry about the physical remote too much.
- Amazing Bluetooth range, I can be next door wearing my wireless earphones and hear everything without any noise.
- There is a banana plug option for speakers’ connection.
- There is the A/B speaker switch button on the remote, no need to look through the whole menu if you have two pairs of speakers.
- Only one AUX input, I would prefer to have a second one to have more options.
- Some features can’t be controlled from the front panel of the stereo.
- No ability to customize the names of the inputs.
If you want something consistent, but not really expensive, you don’t have high demands and just want to listen to the good sound while being busy with a daily routine, this may be the best home stereo receiver under 300. It can recognize all known audio formats apart from AIFF, and has quite low operating and standby power consumption (so you can use it for quite a long time without any regrets afterwards). However, the output power per channel is low – only 50W. You won’t feel it that much if you are not an audiophile or do not wish to listen to loud music, and as an upgraded player, it is amazing due to a wide frequency range (20 Hz-20 kHz) and 98 dB signal-to-noise ratio. You can connect your phone to the stereo or listen to the music wirelessly from Bluetooth – the choice is yours!
- Remote buttons are clearly labeled and logically located.
- On-board DAC with 24 bit/192 kHz is excellent.
- AM/FM is sensitive and picks up different stations.
- Not powerful, sometimes basses can disappear.
- Only physical remote is available; you can’t control it via smartphone.
If you like watching films while doing something, this is a stereo receiver for you. It can not only recognize every audio format known except AIFF, Apple Lossless and DSD but also has all Dolby family cinema decoders built-in, so you can enjoy a Dolby digital film while busy with cleaning. Another advantage of this stereo is acceptable operating power consumption of 135 W, though the output power per channel is quite low – no more than 50 W, so you'd better choose it if your TV is just a couple meters away. Otherwise, the sound will not be powerful enough. Despite not too impressive sound characteristics (0.1% total harmonic distortion and 105 dB signal-to-noise ratio), it has analog to HDMI conversion and HDMI pass-through up to 4K. Unfortunately, you can’t pair it up with anything via Bluetooth or WiFi as it doesn’t have any connectivity interface at all, but at least you have speedy audio D/A conversion of 32 bit/384 kHz.
- Ability to connect two pairs of speakers managed to create a two-zone effect.
- Motorized volume knob.
- Buttons are sensitive and nice to the touch and are located logically on the remote.
- It's quite heavy, so you’d better leave it where it stands.
- No digital input options; you are limited to analog outputs and RCA in.
Comparison chart
If you’ve just read too much text, don’t worry – below is the comparison chart that summarizes everything you see above. Last hints from me: when choosing your best home stereo receiver under 300, think about how you want to use it – whether you are going to watch films or not, which music you prefer, which formats it should be able to recognize. Don’t listen to any advisers who think that they know best – remember, this is about you and your stereo use only. So, look at the table and tell me your decision in the comments!
Power: 200 WChannels: 2Weight: 15.9 pounds 
Power: 200 WChannels: 2Weight: 17.1 pounds 
Power: 90 WChannels: 2Weight: 15 pounds 
