Excellent Sound, A Bevy of Inputs

No tone control for the rear channels

I had originally purchased the 6500 model of this reciever and was very disappointed. The center channel had slight distortion on any sort of surround sound input. It wasn't too noticeable, but enough to drive me nuts. Crutchfield shipped a replacement, but I still had the same distortion problem. Finally I gave up and purchased the next model up for 40 more bucks, which happened to be the 8000. I haven't had any distortion problems with this model.. I'm chalking the problems up to shoddy construction on a lower end model. I have been incredibly happy with this model (the 8000). I love the tone control for the center speaker.. gives me a little leeway in choosing a different brand speaker. I just wish they had included this feature on the rear channels as well. Another feature I really like is the onscreen menus when you have a tv hooked up to the reciever. It makes it so much easier to configure the reciever when you can see everything all at once.
There is no shortage of inputs on this reciever with 4 digital inputs and 4 s-video connections. As mentioned in other reviews, it would be nice if the reciever did automatic composite to s-video conversion, but oh well.. you get what you pay for.
In closing, I'd highly recommend this reciever to anyone looking in this price range ($250-400). It is most definitely worth it.

Similar Products Used:

Technics surround reciever (can't remember the model #)

GREAT SURROUND SOUND LISTENING AT LOW LEVEL VOLUME. GREAT DTS DECODING,DOLBY DIGITAL. THIS UNIT IS A GREAT PERFORMER FOR THE HOME FOR THE PRICE, IT IS A STEAL. REMOTE IS ALSO GREAT, EASY PROGRAMMING TO RUN TV, DVD, VCR, AS A UNIVERSAL REMOTE.

NONE YET

THE BEST RECIEVER ON THE MARKET WITH ALL THE FUNCTION CAPABILITIES FOR PRICE...........

Price,Features,Clear Sound

No Pre-Amp Outputs

I'm very happy with this receiver. Lot's of power and clean
clear sound. Loaded with features, every movie or CD can be adjusted to your individual taste and believe me there are
so many sound adjustments. This is important to me because
the DSP modes are lousey on all receivers I,ve heard. The DSP modes with this receiver are no exception. With this receiver you can truly make the sound come alive with the SEA Mode and speaker size adjustments.
Anyone who is looking for a very good receiver for under
$300, BUY IT!! You won't believe the value for the price.

Similar Products Used:

Sony,Pioneer

rot. tuning very smooth

no amp input ( could use some more balls)

very nice unit. though the volume took some time to get use to after owning a very old pioneer amp for so long where you turn the volume up two notches and your shaking the house a amp.input would be a plus welcome to the year 2001

Price, features, inputs

Input selection dial, FM reception, functions are not intuitive

I bought the JVC because I wanted a DTS receiver with ample power and features. I didn't want something that would become obsolete quickly, and yet I didn't want to break the budget. Other than some cheap Infinity US-1 speakers, I haven't bought a piece of audio equipment in 15 years (I have four children, which explains many things). This receiver is replacing a sad old Technics that maybe put out 20 watts/channel. I am just really beginning to try to put together a decent HT setup, and this was a good place to start.

For an extra $150, I would have bought the Onkyo 575x. However, since I'm really just trying to get a basic DTS/surround setup going, I'll put that extra $150 into a decent center channel speaker and matched fronts (I'm current considering the Paradigm Atoms matched with the CC-170, or the NHT SuperOnes matched with a SuperCenter). At this time, better front and center speakers will improve the sound of my system more than getting the somewhat more upscale Onkyo.

My initial reaction was that the JVC has a fairly solid build. More solid than, say, a Kenwood at the same price/feature range although not as solid as an Onkyo or Marantz. The setup was fairly easy, although the manual could have been a little more detailed. The remote is good, although not backlit. It was easy to set up the remote to control my TV and VCR (it also controls a DVD player, although I don't have one yet). The remote has two volume controls - one that controls the TV and one that controls the receiver. This is convenient since you don't have to switch the inputs first before trying to control the volume on one or the other.

I've only had this for a week and a half, so I'm still putting it through its paces. Overall, the sound is good and a huge improvement over my late model Technics. My permanent setup consists of small "A" speaker fronts and surrounds (Infinity US-1s) in my smallish 15' x 20' den, and larger "B" 3-way bookshelfs (Rogersound Lab Forties) in the adjoining 20' x 30' living room. To test drive the HT capabilities, I moved the larger bookshelfs into the den as the fronts. I was impressed with the sound. Initially, the sound from the center channel was a bit strong and from the rear speakers a bit weak. I made some adjustments to get the balance right, which was easy enough by following the directions in the manual. The larger 3-way speakers fill up the living room with clear and reasonably crisp sound.

I checked for hiss. With the larger B speakers, a comfortable listening range is with the volume up to 40; somewhat loud is up to 50; and up to 60 is about as much as is reasonable. Between songs or when I turned the CD player off, there was no hiss with the volume at 60. At 70, there was a slight hiss if you put your ear close to the speaker. At 80, there was a notable hiss from a couple of feet away. However, as I said, these volumes are not reasonable listening levels for me since the floor was vibrating! For my purposes, it passes the hiss test and provides clear sound during quiet passages at reasonable listening levels.

The SEA modes are convenient. Plus, you can customize one for your own tastes.

I would say it runs warm but not hot.

I don't really like the input selection dial. I much prefer having clearly labeled buttons on the front panel for input selection rather than twisting a dial through choices. However, I knew this was a weakness going in, so I can't complain too much.

Some basic functions aren't very intuitive. Making any adjustment, even something as simple as adjusting the balance, really does require you to pull out the manual to figure out which buttons to push and in which sequence. I would gladly trade some of the inputs or features that I am not likely to use for more intuitive controls.

One problem I've encountered:

When I switch the input selection dial, the receiver makes a loud "click" sound when it switches on or off of the DVD-Multi selection. (It also makes this same "click" sound when I switch the Surround mode on or off.) It is only in the DVD-Multi mode that all of the lights for the center, left rear, and right rear speakers are displayed on the front panel (the front left and right speakers are always lit up). This seems unusual to me. If I have the VCR selected as the input and a surround sound movie playing, the surround mode works since the receiver distributes sound to the front, center, and rear speakers. However, the lights for the center and rear speakers are not displayed on the panel. The manual says the lights should be displayed when the different channels are receiving signals.

I would appreciate it if other JVC-8000 owners could let me know if their receivers make the "click" noise or don't display the center and rear channel speaker lights when in surround mode. I'm not sure if this is how it is supposed to operate or if this is a minor defect (since, like I said, the surround mode actually works).

You can e-mail me at ed_jacobson@yahoo.com.

All in all, I am satisfied with this receiver. The combination of price, features, and performance are good for me. I would recommend this for a beginning to intermediate listener who is on somewhat of a limited budget. It is a superior product to similar Kenwoods and Sonys. I would not recommend this product for intermediate to advanced listeners who already have a good system (good speakers and DVD player) and are just looking to upgrade their receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo 575x, Sony STR-545, Kenwood VR-407

Great build,Sound reproduction!

Before you buy one you need to go to YourInsider.com to make sure you are getting the best price. Also you may find a better receiver for what you were expecting to pay for this one.

number of inputs

No internal composite to s-vid conversion for picky TVs
Quality control lacking with JVC brand

I waited 23 days for Amazon to ship this thing to me. Setup took about an hour. It worked fantasic for an evening, until I noticed random crackling occurring in the surround and center channels. I thought I could live with it until quiet passages in movies would come up and you couldn't help, but hear the crackle. I bought this unit to replace a Technics receiver that hissed on the surround channels. I had to convince my fiance that purchasing a new receiver would be better. It didn't help my case any when I got this receiver and the surround channels were making even more noise. It isn't the Bose speakers connected either as I have ruled out that possibility by trying other speakers. Someone was kind enough to email me that his RX-8000VBK was also crackling in his surround channels. He said the culprit was loose solder joints in the unit. Right now my unit is at the repair shop hopefully being fixed (and hopefully just loose solder joints) taking advantage of the 2-year warranty for parts and labor.

When the receiver was working for the brief time after initial hookup, it was great! I have a JVC VCR, but lost the compulink cable, so no comment there.

One disappointing thing is that composite and S-video video is not combined to a single s-vid output with this receiver. My Toshiba TV accepts both s-vid and composite video, but not at the same time. If you so much as plug in composite while there's something plugged in the s-vid on the TV, the video goes bonkers. You can only plug in one type of input at a time. I had hoped the receiver would do some internal conversion to make a single s-vid out to the TV, but it doesn't. I have a JVC switchbox that does convert composite into s-vid, so I can have a single s-vid into my TV, but I was hoping this receiver would allow me to get rid of it. It would have been sweeter if the JVC switchbox used the compulink.. I bet it would have made things easier and less confusing. Or better yet, if my JVC VCR used s-video instead of composite -- then I could say goodbye to composite for good.

The price was decent for this receiver, but the fact it didn't operate correctly (for me) and doesn't simplify composite/s-vid problems for annoying TVs warrants only 3 stars. Don't get me wrong, if I get this back from the repair shop and the surround and center channels are working as designed, I'd give it 4 stars because it does have many features for the price. I just wish I wasn't mailed a dud.. I can't wait on Amazon to send a replacement.. took them long enough already.

Similar Products Used:

Technics receiver