Price Paid:  $144.00 from ubid

Summary:
This receiver was a bargain and priced well on ubid.com I was concerned about the lack of warranty coverage, except for 30 dyas from the seller.....BUT, it is rare to be able to get Dolby Digital and DTS along with 120 w per channel at that price. It was a risk I''d take

(I have heard AIWA is part of Sony and is in some financial trouble, so they may be moving the units out to raise revenues.)

The unit looks well made, all the connectors were marked clearly and everything functioned as expected. Hooking up the peripherals was not difficult. However, the manual is short on details and the remote, though so far it works well, is almost impossible to read the markings---even in a well lighted room. The sound was poor, out of the box; I had to tweak the treble/bass controls to find an acceptable mix. The subwoofer connection is turned off when you start the unit. You need to turn it on, save the settings; then you can also adjust the amount of boost going to the sub. It helped in my situation.

Bottom line, everything works, the sound is good (but not as warm as I''d like), the front panel displays take a bit of getting used to and I just bought cables to get all the Dolby digital connections made, so I will have to update you on performance there. Time will see as to relability and performance.....but for $144? A solid value.

Strengths:
DTS, DOlby digital, ProLogic, 120 watts per channel, good selection of features at a bargain price

Weaknesses:
Hard to read and use remote control, poorly written manual, suspect relaibility (based on other reviews of AIWA products)

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer, Technics, SOny