I bought one of these at Best Buy and love it! It's the best receiver with the most features available by far for under $400.

For the price you can't go wrong. If you're expecting the same quality as you would get from a $1000+ Yamaha or HK as some here seem to think you should for some strange reason, you'll be sorely disappointed. However, for under $400 this receiver is a steal. It totally blows away the similarly featured and priced Kenwood for example. For those who want tons of features as well as great home theater and digital surround sound without spending a fortune, this is the receiver for you.

I bought a Pioneer VSX-D608 from Best Buy ($379). I like the price and its features. However, when I listen to DVD movies, I keep getting "overload" even the volume is not very loud. My HT system includes B&W 602's, B&W 601's, B&W CC6, AudioSource SW-15 subwoofer, and Panasonic A-120 DVD player. Does anyone have the same problem? I plan to return the unit if I cannot resolve the problem. Have anyone compare Pioneer VSX-D608 with new Sony STR-DE935 or JVC RX-888VBX receivers?
For features and price, I would have given it 5 stars. I am giving it 2 stars because this annoyinng problem.

I recently picked up a Pioneer VSX-608 for $380 to get into the Dolby digital realm while i save for seperates. This was an upgrade from my 1995 Sony 900es pro-logic receiver which was a $1000 receiver in its day. The only area the sony beats the pioneer is in stereo music. the sony is a little warmer and has better tone controls (eq vs bass/treble controls)
The good stuff:

The VSX-608 100Wx5 comes loaded with S-video switching, 1 coax input, 3 optical, Dolby Digital and DTS. For under $400 this is a steal. You would need to spend upwards of $600 to get anything compareable. The Kenwoods 209s,309 only go down to 40hz and the sonys just dont sound as refined in this price range nor do they contain all the features. The VSX-608 uses the same Motorola 56362 24bit DD/DTS Processor as advertised in the more expensive Pioneer Elite Line. The DACs are Crystal CS4226 20 bit which is used in the more expensive ELite VSX-21. The amps in the Elite series are better but we're talking about a $400 receiver vs $650-2000 units.

The sound is very pleasing even with my bright speaker setup (see equipment below). Good channel seperation and transisitions with no discernable crosstalk to my ears. The unit is more configurable than most. Loudness switch. You can select large or small speakers for each channel and use the sub even with all channels set to large. With small speakers the crossover is selectable between 100,150,200HZ. Individual speaker volume and distance are configureable. LFE cutoff, Dynamic range compression, midnight listening mode allow for even more tweaks. Switching for DD/DTS is instantaneous with no delays or drop outs. There are multiple DSP effects but I dont use them so I wont comment on them. Each digital connection is configurable to a different input function allowing ultimate flexability. The display has a dimmer plus shows each channel in the audio playback mode with a little dot that lights when the LFE channel is used.
Adequate 5-way binging posts on the A&B channels and Preouts for the center and sub. Digital noise reduction on analog signals is switchable. Front AV connections.

Now the bad stuff
no bass/treble control besides the loudness switch in anything but stereo mode. Fortunately the sound is perfect for my setup without. I run full range speakers all around but if i had smaller ones I would like the ability to compensate.
No balance control. but this can be configured through individual speaker level.
Remote is crappy with no direct function switching. You need to scroll through the inputs.
Test Tones cycle a little to fast for accurate readings from a SPL meter. Use Video essentials or another test tone disk instead.
Center and surround channels use cheap clips for the speaker connections

Its not a DSP-A1 or AVR5700 but for the money its hard to beat. Definate 5 star for the price.

Opps forgot my equipment to go with my post
Pioneer VSX-608
Toshiba 2109 DVD
Monster digital Interlink 100 coax
Speaker Wire 12-gauge oxygen free
Center: Inifinity Overture 1
Mains: Acoustics 3-ways w/ 12" woofers
Rears: infinity RS3000
Sub: JBL-PSW1000

I had a similiar if not the same problem with my VSX-D608 as Peter. I wasplaying a DVD, when Power output dropped off one day. So I turned the
volume up to about 90% of max, and then I got the 'overload' display. After
that, I just got lots of popping in my speakers, and very little sound output
when playing DVDs (dolby digital). The tuner, CD, and other devices were
still working just fine, so I assume that the AC-3 decoder went out. I
wonder if this could be related to the problems other people have been
describing. Hopefully, when I get my unit back from the shop it won't ever
have this problem again.

I haven't listened to any other DD receivers, I guess I should, but I know
I was happy with this one when it was working. It had plenty of power
to drive my MB-Quarts. I mainly bought the unit because I had a basic
Pioneer before and I really liked the tuner, its sounds a lot better than
my previous Onkyo. I'm still going to give it 5 stars for price/performance despite the failure I had.

I just bought a new D-608. Its my first digital/dts reciever. I was looking for the best value for the buck. and you simply can not beat the d-608. Its got everything you need, +DTS and some fancy stuff for a nice low price. In comparision to other low cost DTS reciever I think the pioneer takes the cake.
If you don't really need DTS, then you may want to go with a yamaha 595 or something..

anyways.. great receiver to tred into DTS with, if you're really picky you can spend more.

This is a great receiver. I read in other reviews that a few people has had problems with this receiver. I had mine for about two months and not one problem. I purchased it from PC Richards for $315. Aside from the great price, this receiver is loaded with extras only found on more expensive receivers. I recommend this receiver for any first time Dolby Digital listener.

I don't know the specs of the speakers the previous reviewers were using or the size room they are listening in, but my 608 plays loud. I have it in a big room and with out a sub it can still drive my main speakers to produce a lot of bass. The receiver kicks ass for the price. If you don't want to blow a lot of cash but want home theater with all the goodies get this unit!

My equipment:
Pioneer VSX-D608
Energy Take 2s (fronts and rears)
Energy e:XLC (center)
Energy e:XL-S8 (sub)

The VSX-D608 is a good, entry level receiver for people that are not going to push it too far. When the 608 is pushed past a certain point (and for me this point was necessary in order to get any "oomph" out of the system) the quality of sound *rapidly* deteriorates which (in my experience) resulted in clipping, loss of clarity, abrasiveness, crosstalk, etc. NOT all of this happens consistently and most of it is NOT immediately noticable, but it WAS enough to make a movie very unpleasant after an hour or so. Like some others that have posted on audioreview.com I found that after listening for extended periods I ended up with a headache. The only way to describe this is that the receiver output is just "noisy" and "abrasive" to my ears. Kind of like the treble is turned up as loud as you can get it with very little bass.

Now I want to reiterate that most of what I am saying becomes noticable after an extended period of time with the volume set at about -20db or higher (and for the Pioneer that is NOT very loud..there is no way this is a 100W/channel receiver!). Movies just didn't sound right, explosions were weak and thin, voice from the center channel varied between good and poor. Lack of bass even though sub was at 8 out of 10 volume. Movie effects in specific channels seemed muted or muddy. I tried everything to fix this: Pink Noise calibration with Radio Shack SPL meter, adjustments to speaker size and position, postition and output of sub, etc. Unfortunately, nothing helped. The other thing I did not like was a frequent "popping" sound coming from the amp through the speakers. This was really weird, but others have complained about it too (check www.deja.com for detailed descriptions).

Now, based on the above, one would expect me to say that it is a piece of junk right? No, it's not. The Pioneer IS a good receiver for the money and for people that don't want or need high performance. For me, I wanted the high performance and it just wouldn't get me there...I bought the Yamaha RX-V995 and I cannot believe how much of a difference there is in clarity and cleaness even at high volumes. All my problems disappeared and even my wife could tell a difference!

A definite 5 for price and features, BUT I can only give it 3 for sacrificing performance and quality in order to get there...

Tige