Price Paid:  $250.00 from harvey norman

Summary:
Having used pioneer products in the past, and been very satisfied i really expected more from this amp/reciever...i have been most dissapointed with this amps performance and sincerely wish i had invested a few extra dollars and gone for a harmon kardon or onkyo. I have had this amp to a specialist stereo supplier and ran it in comparison to the harmon kardon and onkyo and there is just nothing good to say about this amp in comparison to these models. I should say that this amp was bought as a package,,, pioneer cs 5100 speakers and a dud set of pioneer sorround & front speakers and also a pioneer sub woofer and c.d player.(package cost around $1100 u.s) Realisticly it is my own fault for expecting quality at such a price i suppose..... BUT ANYWAY NOW HAVING A LITTLE MORE EXPERIENCE, IN MY OPINION THE WHOLE PACKAGE SOLD AS "TURBO SUB PACKAGE" WAS VERY DISSAPOINTING INDEED. I WOULD BE EMBARRESSED TO SELL THIS EQUIPMENT TO ANYONE THAT I CONSIDER A FRIEND.
The only part of this package which i will be keeping is the c.d player which isn't too bad.I have just put a deposit on the onkyo 575x (approx 399 u.s)to replace this amp and will glad to see the back of the pioneer, and will be replacing all of the rest of this system as the budget allows. Sorry pioneer you have definatly lost me forever....................

kIND REGARDS YOUR DISAPOINTED CUSTOMER.....

Strengths:
it has some power??

Weaknesses:
low sound quality. poor sound definition. crappy connections etc etc

Similar Products Used:
pioneer midi, purchased 10 years ago which was very good indeed for the price......

Summary:
I have had this receiver for over a year now, and it has served me well. Until very recent, this receiver did everything I wanted. For the price I paid, I couldn't ask for anything more. It playes music beautifuly at lower volumes (and this to me is volume where my room isn't shaking) and works well with my VCR for movies. It is extremely simple to use, besides looking up weird fact I didn't have to use the manual but once every few months. The weeknesses, as I stated above, are the lack of power at higher volumes. For being a 500 watt amp. it should be a little cleaner. And the annoying pinch connectors. These limit the use of higher quality cable.
Over all the time spent with this receiver is very positive. It does what it is designed to do, and does it well. It is not an audiophile level component, and it was not intended to be. The problems are small, and if you find that they are problems, then it is time to bump up in quality anyway. I give this product 4 stars

Strengths:
user friendly and many options

Weaknesses:
Lack of high end power, quality of DPL processor, and use of connectors

Summary:
i think overall it is a good reciever but a better quality amplifier could help with sound

Strengths:
looks, sound at moderate volumes
hookups and power

Weaknesses:
sound at high volumes
quality of power

Summary:
First of all like many company's Pioneer lies about its true power. It is not a true 100watts x 5. In surround mode the reciever is rated @ 1khz not over the entire frequency range. Pioneer packed a ton of features into this reciever but left out the preformance. I am borrowing this reciever from work temperarly. I am running a Pair of Klipsch Forte's and a Klipsch KSP-C6 center channel. Each of these speaker is very bright and deatailed which replicates all the weaknesses of this amp. The sound of this amp is way to "tinny" for lack of a better work. I am currently saving for an Onkyo 575.

Summary:
Pretty much it is doing an ok job for now. However, in Pro-Logic Mode, the audio will sometimes shift from being balanced up front to sounding like it is coming from the left. Also, one of the pinch connectors is somewhat delicate now. The decoding isn't the best that I've heard, but since I paid $200 for it in February, I guess that I wasn't exactly expecting the best, but then again, I wasn't expecting this type of decoding.
However, I believe that it works fine when my Technics DD/DTS decoder is hooked up to it. Despite being a little noisy, it can work great at higher volumes without much distortion, but to a point, you will get distortion.

Now, I'm wishing that I had spend $500-600 at the time since I now want to get the receiver fixed so that I can sell it & the decoder (at least it is working fine) so that I can afford to spend no more than $800 for another DD/DTS receiver. However, on an engineering college student budget, I guess that what I have will do for now unless that $800 receiver (Yamaha, Onkyo, Denon, H/K, Marantz) all of the sudden has a fantastic deal staring me in the face.