The Sony STR-V7 Stereo Receiver was the best receiver out from 1978 to 1981.

One of Sony’s main goals with this beast was to build something that would last a lifetime.

This Silver face beauty is truly built like a tank. Weighing 48 pounds 6 ounces, or 21.9 kilograms and measuring 20.5 inches wide by 7.5 tall by 17.75 deep, or 522 mm by 192 by 450, this was the biggest and heaviest option available.

How many watts does the Sony STR-V7 have?

The V7 delivers a very impressive 150 watts minimum RMS per channel with an 8 ohm load from 20 to 20,000 hertz.

The Controls

On the front panel, there are many switches and knobs.

It has filter switches for whenever you are listening to an imperfect source. You want to keep that turned off if the source sounds good, having it turned on may remove wanted and unwanted noise. The low filter switch will reduce the low frequency noise from a turntable or tape recorder motor or from the rumble created by a warped record. The high filter will reduce high frequency noises such as surface noise from a disc or tape.

The tone control switch turns on and off the bass and treble knobs. When switched on, the knobs can manipulate the bass and treble.

The loudness switch will make it easier hear low volume recordings.

The mode selector is for switching between stereo and mono sound.

The FM Selectivity switch should be set to normal normally. If you ever have 2 adjacent FM stations, set the switch to narrow for increased selectivity.

The FM muting switch is used for eliminating interstation noise. It can sometimes mute stations with weak signals. FM muting is especially useful for reducing wear on your speakers.

The Dolby FM switch is used when listening to Dolby encoded FM programs. The switch should be set to off if the station is not dolby encoded.

Then you have the tuning knob and next to it the meter button for switching between the power and signal reading on the meter. As power meters, they will indicate the number of watts going to the speaker. Anywhere from 0 to 200 watts. As a signal meter, it will read 0 to 5 with 5 being the best signal.

The tuning meter is used for locating the best tuning position for any station.

The inputs and outputs...

On the back of the V7, you have an AM Ferrite-bar antenna next to the am and FM antenna terminals.

Below that, you have two phono input connectors along with the ground for attaching 2 record players. Next to that, you have a switch labeled MM and MC. This is the cartridge selector, if you have a Moving Magnet or Induced Magnet style cartridge, set it to MM. When using a Moving Coil cartridge, set it to MC.

Next to that, you have an AUX input. This is generally where you would connect a CD player, but you can connect just about anything right there with the proper adapter.

Then you have connections for as many as 2 tape recorders. This is great for easily duplicating tapes or creating 2 recordings at once.

On the opposite side of the rear, you have 2 power connections. One is switched and the other is unswitched. Switched means that the power is controlled by the receiver while unswitched will continue to receive power if the receiver is turned off.

Then you have your speaker connections where you can connect up to 4 speakers ranging 8 to 16 ohms.

If you are interested, check it out at this link. https://spencertified.com/collections/amplifiers/products/sony-str-v7-silver-face-amplifier-receiver?variant=40759456071860