joshmaier

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Value Rating
 5 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
this is a great receiver well worth the money if you can find one get it, it is a great device.
if you use it excessively i suggest buying another computer fan and a 12-volt power regulator.
the is an outlet on the back of the unit so you just plug the 12-volt source in there and it comes on and off with the receiver. I also got some wheels off a HESS TRUCK and put them under the unit to rise it up a little, this thing runs cool you wouldn't know it was ever on and to this it would probably cost under 50 dollars. here ar some pictures of mine with the fan/12-volt regulator upgrade.
picture one

picture two

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Price Paid:  $220.00 from best buy

Summary:
I have had this reciever/ amplfier since 1999 i think. I use bose 6 1/2" towers in the front and bose 8" bookshelves for the rear. I have used this thing hard and never had any problems what so ever. And I've had it stacked inside of a cabinet with dvd player and vcr. And I think the sound is excellent especially with the digital input watching movies or listening to cd's. Maybe everybody that is talking bad about this reciever needs to have better speakers or speakers that dont need alot of power to sound good.

Strengths:
good power
clean sound
three fiberoptic inputs

Weaknesses:
no digital coax

BWX

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Value Rating
 2 of 5

Used product for
More than 1 year

Visitors rate this review
2.50 of 5, 4.00 votes

Price Paid:  $299.00 from "Rex" Arnot mall 330

Summary:
I have had this SA-DX940 since summer 2001 or so.. This thing is a piece of junk..

It sounds horrible at times (bad distortion) and it gets EXTREMELY HOT (until modified with computer case fan)

The only reason I still use it is because I rigged the fan to always come on and stay on the entire time the unit is powered on. I did this by using the power outlet on the back of the receiver and a transformer connected to an 80mm computer case fan.

This piece of junk came with a cooling fan, but some genius engineer decided the fan should only come on when the volume is turned past a certain point, not when the thing gets so hot you could fry and egg on it when it is at 1/8 level volume in an air conditioned room (for example).

I have other hobbies that I am more interested in than watching movies or listening to music in the living room, so I decided to just keep this thing until I decide I am totally sick of it an buy another receiver that actually sounds good.

I use another very old Technics 2 channel receiver (of much higher quality, from the mid '80s I guess) to power two separate subwoofers for my sub channel, and use a combination of Cerwin Vega and JBL satellites for the satellite channels. Strangely, sometimes music sounds OK, but when there is any voice coming through the center channel it is often horribly distorted even at very low volume levels. I tested my speakers and they are fine, the distortion is coming from the receiver.

I paid 250 bucks for this thing so I wanted to get my moneys worth out of it.. it is time to get a better receiver, this thing isn't even good enough to hook up to my PC when I get a new one. My 100 dollar "Creative" brand PC speakers with built in 5.1 channel amp connected to my Herculese Fortissimo III 7.1 sound card produce much less distortion than this receiver which is sad to say the least. The PC speakers are no where near as loud, but have less distortion at any sound volume level.


Actually I even had this thing serviced under warranty to address the heat issue and distortion before the warranty ran out.. What happened is probably typical, the place I took it to said they hooked it up to a load overnight and then said there were no issues with it and charged the warranty company 50 dollars to "replace caps" even though they did absolutely nothing.. at least that is what the work order said.

I should have reported them for insurance fraud, but my warranty ran out before I got around to doing anything about it. Oh well.. I don't think that any repair shop can fix a design problem anyway.

Strengths:
I haven't taken a sledge hammer to it yet (but will soon in all goes according to plan)
It is very loud, but distorts so it is hard to enjoy the sound.

Weaknesses:
Distortion at any volume.. Insane HEAT unless you modify the fan to stay on constantly.

It will soon by scrap metal.

Similar Products Used:
....

Price Paid:  $220.00 from Circuit City

Summary:
Great unit, then it died. If anyone has had the following problem and fixed it, please email or post here to let me know: No Output for any input, including no output on tape out (or VCR out.) All logic functions normal, occasional pops in speakers (main amp is functioning.) Tuner finds normal local stations during scan, no audio. This failure occurred on a normal startup. Noticed that other reviewers indicated that cost to repair was much higher than purchase price.

Strengths:
Inexpensive (until now) extra receiver for secondary video area.

Weaknesses:
No s-video switching.

Similar Products Used:
Denon, Sony

Price Paid:  $299.00 from Sears

Summary:
This is the second SA-DX940 receiver I have bought. On the first one the front and center channels quit working. So I bought a new one, because the cost of repair was $400. I haven't had this one for more than a month, and the same problem occured. This sucks!!!

Strengths:
Great for for home theater movie watching, but receiver gets hot!!

Weaknesses:
Besides getting hot, the problem with the channels burning out.

Similar Products Used:
none