Well, this is typical Pioneer BPC receiver and isn't worth going into description of how great it's mediocre features are. One note... on the back it says that its power consumption is 250W total. Advertised WPC in stereo is 100W ?!

As far as I can see it's a cost cutter unit and tricks like this with low power consumption and high WPC are found in high-end amps from older Yamaha and Carver units. From 250W consumed from the wall, only about 1/5 can be squeezed into the speaker output power, so, it's more of 50W WPC. I am just amazed how today's consumers are fooled by these inflated power output ads.

Other than that, the unit sounds very dull and lacking good dynamics. Probably OK to watch in a small room.

The amplifer part in my amp completely broke down after 4 years. Not to be expected from a brand as Pioneer.

Great home theatre package for SDTV
(sort of) universal remote

complicated setup

Got this rig a few days ago second hand and I'm really enjoying it for the price. A few people have noticed that they are unable to put the volume up too high without the limiter kicking in - this maybe because the amps are designed for 8 - 16 Ohm speakers, if you are using 4 or 2 Ohm ones you might have problems. On the plus side, the system features built in overload protection and a cooling system. Once again this is a great entry level system if you only need composite video switching (standard def tv).

Similar Products Used:

older pioneer gear

Very powerful for such a reciever, works with any speaker layout, and any speaker. 'Has' a nice remote!!! (simple)

Have to turn it quite high in films and games when impressing mates!!!

Firstly, the guy who thought it was crap, crap, crap. Well it isn't okay, i bought this receiver as my first ever home cinema system, the price was really good, especially at the time becaus they were very pricey then. My dad had bought a kenwood receiver with a 500w shared output and it was good and so he put some towards this one. When we got it home i plugged it to his existing system and it was amazing, he couldn't believe the power that was coming out of it. I took it to my games room and now i have connnected it to some 'acoustic solutions' floor standing speakers, and a sony centre and surround set with a small but powerful enough subwoofer. It is easily good enough, try the receiver watching pearl harbour at the fights as this is in 'THX' it has got an amazing sound. I like it best on dts 'Standard' setting for the movies and dsp 'Dance' for music and it really is amazing. Never have the sound setting on 'loudness' though as it flattens out the sound, but have it on 'Midnight' setting as it makes the sound louder and also produces greater frequences on the basses and tweeter sounds!!! Check It out. Also i have now got in my sleeping bedroom a pioneer vsx 808 rds receiver which is great as i have got 4 B&W 601's, the B&W cc6 centre, and a yamaha yst sw 90 sub a great match!!! check it out, good with an X-Box.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer vsx 808 rds receiver, some kenwood amp.

Good power DD, DTS and enough inputs for a starter system or game system amp

none yet

I picked up this unit with 5 sat's and a pioneer 100 watt sub for $86.00 on Ebay. Got it home and it all work perfectly. I brought this unit for my 12 yearolds birthday and he could hook it up to his PS2. No problem setting it up, same remote for my VSX D309 in the bedroom. hope the 17 yearold don't get jealous

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Elite VSX 26TX, Pioneer VSX D309 Pioneer VSX 505, Kenwood VR305

Strong amp, good sound, price, looks, Strudy constuction

lack of digital inputs, no pre-out of external amp.

I was very impessed when I first looked at this unit, the price futher impressed me. It lacks digital inputs but good quality RCA wires sound better than toslink anyway for cd players. The remote kinda sucks but you get used to it. Its a great unit and not just because of the price.

Similar Products Used:

kenwoods

more powerful in 120 w. x 5 channel

no.

low price in great performance

Similar Products Used:

yamaha and denon

i didnt see any

its dead now

first off, i had a sony strde345 and this thng used to pound. untill it died at a party. i brought it back to future for repair. after 4 month dumasses couldnt fix it and gave me vsx-d510. my first reaction was cool, i got a $350 receiver while i paied $240 for the sony. so i hook it up and it sounds crap, i rewiered my speacers and still crap.... i play with all the options and connect diffrant inputs and try the tuner and its stil crap, not loud at all and when turn to max it cuts off right away. now when i turn it on, POWEROFF blinks and it turns off. im gona throw this crap out.

Similar Products Used:

sony strde345

Powerful bass

Setup is a bit tricky

I posted a review for this system a few hours ago, and after messing with all the controls for a while, I finally realized why the bass wasn't that good. All of the speakers were set to "small" by default. After setting them to large, I noticed a huge differnce in the bass. It was almost as if I had a powered subwoofer connected. I had to turn the bass setting down a bit after watching some scenes in the "The Phantom Menace" DVD. The only drawback to this is that when the front speakers are set to large, there is a slight hiss that comes from them. The hiss isn't there when they are set to small. It really isn't that noticable, however. I think I will hold off with buying the sub for now, and just worry about getting a good center speaker. I'm using a pair of Jensen bookshelf speakers as the surrounds that I had gotten for free at Circuit City. While they're not that great, they will do. I'm thinking about even maybe using one of them as the center speaker instead. The floorstanding speakers aren't really that great when it comes to handling dialogue. Either way, the receiver is excellent, but be sure to take your time to properly set this thing up right.

Fantastic Price, great performance, practical features

confusing remote, no other weaknesses at this price range

I bought this for my childrens basement tv room.... It started as an excuse to get a video switcher. My main HDTV rig is powered by Denon 5700, with NHT, Velodyne, Dish 6000, Pana RP91, and a JVC S-VHS TBC unit, connected to a Panasonic 56" HDTV. I had moderate expectations for this receiver, but frankly, I am blown away by its performance.

It has all the features that would have cost $2500 2 years ago, and it all works well. THere is no S-Video switching, but at this price, who cares. The setup I have it on is all composite anyway.

I'm playing through an old set of Celestion satellite surrounds, and a sub. To be honest, the sound is as good as I have heard on video programs. It does suck on music, but that may be the speakers as much as the receiver. I don't really know.

I have a $99 GE junky DVD player hooked to it, and Chicken Run in DTS is as good as on my $10K rig

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to dabble in this stuff without breaking the bank

Similar Products Used:

Denon 5700, NAD, etc