Clean, natural sound
Excellent tuner
Wide range of controls, especially the tone controls

Not as good looking as the CR-2020

While I don't like the appearance of my CR-2040 as much as my CR-2020, the improvement in the sound makes me forget about that issue. If the sound of the CR-2040 could be described in one word, that word would be "clean". The sound is about as uncolored as anything that I have heard.

At first the low end seems a bit thin, however, that is because competitive Receivers were designed to emphasize the bass, given a somewhat "muddy" and "dark" sound. The Pioneer SX-1980 is particularly noteworthy in that regard. However, overemphasize bass can be tedious to listen to as time goes on whereas as the CR-2040 just sounds better and better.

Highly recommended.

-- Chris Opfell