I've had this system for a few weeks. It was a gift from an uncle who just bought a new system and had this in storage. This replaced my old Realistic STA-2000 reciever I got from my father who had 4 of the first generation Realistic Mach one's. Get them set up right around the room, you get some of the best bass.

Pros
has many inputs, great bass

Cons
My Realistic had twice as many watts as this unit.

Many features and functions. Price.

Can't use full range front left and right setting with subwoofer.

I just bought this receiver and for the price ($399 CDN) it's a bargin. Contrary to one reviewer here, there is subwoofer output in stereo mode, although you must set your front left/right speakers to small in order to get this output--apparently, this is normal for receivers in this price range. Also, it takes a bit of labor to get all the settings correct for your needs. For setting up, the manual could be better but trial and error works. As far as sound goes, regular stereo is great as are dolby prologic and dolby digital. The six DSP modes also sound nice, although personally I prefer to listen to music in regular stereo mode. For a good "professional" review see Sound & Vision: http://www.soundandvisionmag.com/SoundAndVision/FrameSet/0,1670,_sl_SoundAndVision_sl_Article_sl_0_cm_1653_cm_153_1798_1_cm_00,00.html

Very good budget reciever.

takes a lot of work to get it set up to your room properly

this reciever is great, but it isn't friendly to new users. The documentation is poor, but it's the best budget reciever out there. this does have every feature if you figure out how to use them

great value for a DD reciever 50 bucks is all i paid for it!

not loud enough for me!

great sound and bass just not very loud for people that like to crank up the music.

i can't complain about this reciever because I only paid $49.97!! at sears (shelf model without remote)

50 dollar DDreciever, i couldn't pass it up, but my technics SA-AX7 will blow it away though (for cranking up the music)

Similar Products Used:

Sony, technics, etc.

decodes dolby digital

no dts,poor remote

doesn't play very loud,but for the price it is great for a starter system.

Similar Products Used:

technics-940

Good value at about $230 (Best Buy) and great bass capabilities.

Doesn't sound great when you listen to loud music. Bad tuner, couldn't get radio stations in very clearly at all. Even bought an amplified power antenna and it still didn't get the stations I listened to very clearly. Had to return it for that reason.

It's an alright reciever for the price but not the quality I thought it would provide. Returned it and then purchased a Denon (AVR-1601). The Denon absoulutely blew away the Pioneer in every aspect, even at a lower power rating spec (60 x 5 to 80 x 5). And the tuner in the Denon is flawless, outdoes the Pioneer easily. I would highly recommend this Denon receiver. At $350 it would be well worth it to save your money and stay away from Pioneer and get yourself a Denon.

Excellent price, two optical inputs, many configuration options

Volume display (dB) is too small, and the remote control could be better

Really nice! I wanted a DD receiver with two optical inputs (CD, Computer audio card) and a coaxial input (computer MPEG2 decoder card), and none of the other "budget" DD receivers have this combination.

I find the power level to be exactly what you'd expect with 80W/channel. Not mind-blowing, but there is plenty of power. Perhaps the previous reviewer accidentally had "Attenuate" mode set? (It's a very useful mode, by the way; without it, my Pioneer multi-CD changer had very loud output).

The ability to control the level of the DSP effects is terrific. I listen to music in "Theater1" mode, with the level turned down to 50. The resulting effect is quite subtle, but activates the center channel - nice!

If I could change one thing, I'd add the ability to disable inputs that aren't being used. It's annoying to have to cycle through all of the many input options when using the remote, even though half of them aren't even in use.

The manual could also be a bit more helpful. It took weeks before I realized that I had to activate Dolby mode to get 5.1 output from an AC-3 source. I thought the Dolby button was only for ProLogic, and that AC-3 would be decoded as 5.1 by default! Then one day I noticed that in the right context, the tiny red light read "Dolby Digital" instead of "Dolby Prologic". Doh...

Nevertheless, highly recommended.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood VR209

dolby digital at a good price

no DTS, no s-video

Bought this used from a friend, great deal for the price, sounded good playing dvd's. Sounds better than the Sony I used, just wish it had some s-video connections. Still, can't complain too much since it was a great price for a decent product

Remote could be a little better, but still works good enough for me

Similar Products Used:

sony, onkoyo, pioneer, klipsch

Cheap price

No DTS, under powered, pales to the older Dolby Pro-logic model VSX-452

This is the system that was replaced by the Kenwood.
It was Dec 1999 and I was making the big jump to Dolby Digital and DVD. I went to Future Shop and bought this receiver and a RCA dvd. I didn't do much research into this unit (shame on me), but I owned a Dolby Pro-logic Pioneer VSX-452 and was very happy with it. However this new Pioneer was let down from the start, and to think I blamed my speakers for the lack of sound. I have a old(1988) pair of front speakers and Sony centre & rears from 1994, and no subwoofer. So, I thought the speakers were to blame, but my friend brought over his Sony receiver (can't remember model#), and it blew me away. This Pioneer system just isn't very powerful! I've heard mini-systems with smaller watt ratings sound louder. I could have lived without DTS (probably not for long), but the Dolby-Digital didn't sound as good compaered to others. And why do I have to press a button for Dolby-digital to come on when playing a movie? Also, the DSP modes weren't as good as the VSX-452. True it's cheap, cheaper now than in 99, but I wouldn't reccomend the VSX-D498 on price alone.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood VR-510
Pioneer VSX-452

an excellent performer for the price! our first dolby digital receiver so we can't compare to anything else but it does a great job with ac-3.hard to beat for $299.00!