Price Paid:  $100.00 from ebay.com

Summary:
I got this reciever off of ebay. The seller sent the reciever, large Aiwa powered subwoofer, Aiwa RC-AAR02 remote (which I dont think was the original remote for this unit) and 4 high quality aiwa home theater speakers. What he didnt sent was enough speaker cable to hook everything up!! After running to the local electronics store for some speaker wire i finally was able to flip this baby on and hook it up to all of my game systems and digital cable reciever.

I don't think I've spent 100$ on anything better in my life.

If anyone can get their hands on one of these units, it will be well worth the cash.

The sound is incredible in regular Dolby Pro Logic, and even better in Dolby Digital.

Highly recomended if you want the best quality sound for TV, DVD's and Gaming.

Strengths:
HUGE sound for small price. Dolby Digital and Pro Logic sound capable. Easy to use, with or without a remote. It connects to EVERYTHING. I've got this hooked up to my Digital Cable TV reciever, my Playstation2, and my Nintendo Gamecube (all with digital optical cables for the highest quality sound).

This unit will shake the room at low volumes :)

Weaknesses:
Weird remote. Like I said above, I dont think this thing came with the original remote. It does work, I just dont like it much.

Other then that, there really is not anything weak about this unit.

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
I bought the 'Home Theater In A Box" that had the AV-D67 and Aiwa speakers and small powered sub. I have since upgraded all the speakers and the sub to bigger more powerfull units and when I started looking to upgrade the reciever, I found that I couldn't compare ANYTHING to this unit that wasn't WAYYY more expensive. My friend has an OLD SCHOOL Marantz that ROCKS but has no Digital. Anything with all these features is either tons more money. A GREAT unit for a small to mid sized home system.

Strengths:
Good power output, easy functions.

Summary:
We moved Marantz to our living room and needed something for family room. This is a really great amp. POWER into stereo 16" 3-way speakers in 4 foot high cabinets and ease of operation are superior!

I have 4000 songs on about 200 cds that I burned from my record collection. My 2 Sony 300 disk changers (see my review of the Sony cx-335), Technics 5 disc changer and a casette pbk/recorder are connected.

Now I'm looking for something to TRANSMIT the output to other radios around the house Please e-mail me with any suggedstions.

I really like the ease of operation. The remote is ok.

Strengths:
power, sound, full rich bass

Weaknesses:
initial set up - but after I got familiar with it was fine

Similar Products Used:
Marantz 120 watt per channel rcvr

Price Paid:  $160.00 from web dealer

Summary:
Well even with the ghetto remote and funcitons this amp just blows even the more expensive ones out of the water (well for what im looking for anyway) i just need the surround for movies and the stereo for the music. But if you have large speakers and are worried about power.. dont. though the amperage isnt that high with the use of the "rock" GEQ and the bass boost you can really pound even High quality Dj speakers. The center and rear outputs are quite well done as well. i have a sony center speaker and its a bit loud i blew it and had it repaired once already so i hooked up a small compression horn and the sony so as to disperse some of the power so i wouldnt blow it again. I have pioneed mid sized speakers as rears. and the rear output puts out more bass then i expected as well. I am more then in love with this Amp.

Strengths:
This product Really Dishes out the power. More then i expected i hooked up some Nady THS Concert Series Dj Speakers and they really pump out the volume. These speakers will handle 400 watts and this amp only dishes out 160 peak in stereo mode and the volume and clarity is more then amazing. Before the dj speakers i had KLH 4 way Floor speakers. And they also just blew me away. Using the bass boost both sets of speakers had my neibors complain. And yes even the dj speakers witch want 400 watts can be heard down the street!

Weaknesses:
The remote is really annoying. Many functions cant be done without the remote and many funtions need you to use 2 hands on the remote. this is casue of the shift key on the remote. and as far as i can tell to do some things you need to press a key on the remote then on the receive itself.. but once you get it set up once you dont really need to tweak it much more so this is a minor complaint.

Similar Products Used:
This is the first true dolby device ive used but this even beats some of the stereo recieves i had been using and my old ones had higher advertised amperage. But this aiwa just kicks

Price Paid:  $210.00 from Best Buy

Summary:
Well, I bought it from Best Buy thinking I was getting a bargain, 500W total and 320W in stereo mode, and the car stereo-like display. When I researched with more depth, I felt I was scammed by Best Buy. The Av-d77/97 sell just a little bit more and have many more features. I bought it with idea of stepping up when I had a better budget to Kenwood, Yamaha, Onkoyo, or Sony, when I had like $600 to spend. I mean I love the system. I was using Yamaha 6390 bookshelf speakers for their clarity and overall value, handles 160W max. And I have to say Aiwa has great power at the top on my cds, games, movies, and just regular TV. No reliability problems as I keep it around middle volume. Like the T-bass and the signal Db increase for low powered inputs. I took it back and the reason why is that Best Buy charged me a price when the receiver had no manual and remote, and without the remote I couldn't use a subwoofer without problems. As for surround(Phantom), I used some older speakers for surrounds and it didn't sound that bad for some movies, games, etc., but it depends. For the movie Blade with its engulfing intro, the surround was phenomenal, but for most of my games and regular TV, I just left it in 2 or 4-channel(surround speakers are activated) stereo. I think if I had a bigger room, the Aiwa could really show its potential.

Strengths:
Price, Power, Appearance

Weaknesses:
Price(I'll explain), only $10-50 seperates it from av-d77

Similar Products Used:
none