Great sound.

The remote is really weak. No S-Video. No DVD optical input.

I purchased this unit at Circuit City in August, 1999, it was on sale. We use it regularly and haven't had a problem with it. We usually watch at least 4 DVD movies each weekend, with the volume control in the 9-11 o'clock range. It has gotten very hot in the past, but I've never had the failure alot of people talk about. Last month, I installed the secondary fan on the unit and it does run very cool now. The fan does make a little noise, running at 12v, so I would be sure to advise anyone else doing the mod to buy an AC/DC converter with adjustable output voltages. The receiver is mounted at the top of an enclosed entertainment unit. When I noticed it running hot, I would leave the glass front door slightly open so air could get in and circulate. I've been very satisfied with this receiver and believe I got a very good buy. The features on this receiver beat those of any comparably priced unit. I was looking around to buy another receiver before I put the additional fan on, but did not find any receivers that were affordable (for me) that I preferred over this unit. I did buy the extended 5 year warranty from Circuit City, $60 for 5 years = $1/month, so I'm covered if it does break.

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None.

Very good sound for the price, excellent for those starting a home theatre for the 1st time.

Heating issue, burn out, and having to add to the receiver, heatsink doesnt work the greatest..either does the fan..

Good receiver with dds and dd5.1. After about 4 months of normal usage it burned out on me during normal usage even with an extra fan attached. The warranty was over so I decided to open it up and look inside and i found that the i amp fuse was blown so i replaced it with a 1.6 amp fuse and it works as good as ever. I have it set up with 2 150 watt RCA speakers (not the greatest but they sound alright) a 100 watt koss center channel, a koss 250 watt sub, and 50 watt TEAC surround speakers and the 930 makes them sound quite good.

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none

Price

Burnt out circuits on center, sub, and surround rear outputs.

Well, time to move up to higher end receiver, love movies, and always wanted surround. Found this one with ProLogic and DTS for 198.00. Was excited until I plugged it in and found that my surround circuits are already burnt out. At least most of you were able to enjoy it for a few weeks. I can only get it to play in stereo and that is it. Has some hiss through speakers between CD tracks too. I have bent the ears of several tech support folks (Easter day as well, they were there) and they concluded it is fried. How exciting!

This is all a BIG disappointment since I was finally upgrading, I will return and buy a Sony, since I should have in the first place. Price may be right, but quality is bad, those that have their's still working, keep your fingers crossed!!! :)

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JVC high end standard.

Inexpensive. Decodes Dolby digital/DTS. 100w x 5. Dedicated subwoofer output. Easy to use/set up. Quiet sounding amps.

No EQ. Universal remote problems.

I have only had this receiver for a few days. I must admit, I was a little disturbed to see all of these other reviews describing how the unit overheats. I find that the unit does run hot, but not unusually so. My other amp runs much hotter and I have had it for at least 6 years. I guess time will tell. I always suggest that you buy extended warranty if possible and this is what I have done.
As far as I can tell, the fan in the unit has never turned on since I have bought it. This would suggest that the heat tolerance level is set too high. Some, that I have read here, have suggested that the tolerance level is determined by heat AND volume levels. This may very well be the case. I almost never play the unit past 10 o'clock (it's really loud).
This receiver sounds really good for the cost. It is VERY quiet and has more than enough oomph to power my speakers and sub. An EQ would have been a nice feature, but I find that the unit sounds good without any tweaking of the bass or treble controls (in my room). There is no crossover feature to tune the sub, so hopefully your sub would have this function. Mine doesn't, but it sounds great regardless.
I like that it is possible to set individual levels for both surround channels. My set-up has one channel quite a distance from the optimum listening position and this is no longer a problem.
The universal remote recognised my Toshiba VCR, but the TV/VCR switch doesn't work. You also cannot pause the VCR from the remote. This is somewhat annoying, but no biggie. Also, the remote is kind of cheap and care should be taken not to sit on it or something.
Overall, this receiver is wonderful and I highly recommend it to people who are hoping to experience Dolby digital/DTS for a reasonable price. I will keep my fingers crossed regarding the heat problem and remind everyone that you should never block the heat vents of the unit and always place it in a well ventilated area. Never stack.

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Sony STR-D2020 A/V receiver.

Cheap

Cheap

What a piece of c**p. Cant believe the design fault on this baby and Technics wont do a recall probably cause its economically unviable. Dont buy this, it WILL burn out. Fan wont come on till you crank unit so if you use it all day for the TV at a low volume it is EXTREMELY likely to burn out after a short while. Technics have not put a recall on this product, most likely cause its not an economically sound move.

I plan to leave mine on constantly until it burns out so many times that they have to replace it. I see Technics have just released an upgraded version of this model. Wonder what they fixed as the only functional difference is DTS auto detect.

Whilst prices of this unit make it attractive, dont let the math fool you. Spend an extra $100 - $150 and get a real reciever fro
m a real company (Harmon Kardon or Onkyo or similar) that wont leave you swinging in the breeze. The sound will be better and your unit WILL DEFINATELY last longer.

To sum up, it doesnt sound great and it WILL burn out eventually.

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Akai, Onkyo Harmon Kardon

Dolby Digital and DTS built decoding....high power...value

Runs Warm

I want to write yet another review on this receiver as my initial review several months ago did not include what advise I am going to tell those of you who have legimate concerns relative to the heat that this unit generates. First let me tell you that I have not experienced any problems as of yet but I wanted to do something about the cooling down (to some degree) of this unit. So I came up with what I think is a real winner....I added a additional fan to the existing one on the back of the unit....You will not believe how well it works and how good it looks....and it only cost me $28 bucks at Radio Shack.

So if you like this receiver and want it to last for some time do what I suggest. Buy a 3 inch 12volt dc fan ($15) and a 1.5 to 12 volt dc adapter ($13) at radio shack. First thing is to take the fan wires that are already tinned with solder and fold them over or you may need to cut the insulation a little bit to expose more wir as what we will be doing is making a large enough tip to be forced into the end of the female adapter. The adapter end has 2 female positions on it....you will notice that there are also 2 lead wires on the fan as well....the trick here is to insert them individually in the adpter ends while the adapter is plugged in and see when it starts to run...there is only two ways the wires can be crossed into the adapter to make it run so if they don't work when you first placed them in then just reverse them and bingo....blower works. Now with this universal adapter you can adjust the voltage by just turning the switch on the adapter....I set mine to just 4.5 volts as this position was both quiet and functioned well for me....functioned being that it pulled enough hot hair out of the unit thus keeping the vented area on top of the receiver cool to the touch.

Now find about a 6 foot extension cord and plug the cord into the switched position outlet on the receiver then connect the adapter to the other end....I place the adapter end on the floor in back of my stereo rack so i can get at it if desired. Now remove the 2 screws from the existing fav as you will need to use those same screws in mounting the new fan to the existing one. Make sure the label on the fan is pointing outward when you attach it to the factory fan and that the two wires (black and red) are at the bottom of the fan (in this position you will ensure that the fan will be pulling out the warm air from the receiver)then push the first of 2 screws into the inner holes (one is at 11 o'clock and the other at 5 o'clock)...you may have to force them just a little but they will go in.....now place the fan against the factory fan and hand tighten and with a jewelers philips head screwdriver or one skinny enough to go throug the first set of holes on the fan into the inward hole where the screw is and tighten down both screws. There is enough thread to fasten securley both fans. By placing the fan in the switched position of the receiver it will enable you to start the fan and shut down the fan each time you fire up the unit....that way the unit will cool even when the other factory fan won't because it's cut in is set at a much higher position. Well there you have it....I have noticed that my unit stays cool to the touch at the vented areas where the heat sinks are where before they were very warm. Well I hope this suggestion helps those of you who want to keep this receiver for many years.....If you have any questions about it, please feel free to contact me via e-mail at nc616@aol.com and i will be more than happy to answer your questions if i can....PS...As you can tell....I really love this unit and I see now that Technics has come out with the 940 model for around $250 bucks....Oh well......

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Kenwood

DD, DTS

unsure yet

I've had this for almost a month. I was truly impressed with the features. I bought it prior to reading reviews about the product. The common theme seems to be over-heating so i checked it out myself. Well, the unit does tend to get a bit hot after some use. I have about 6 inches of space on top of the receiver. I wrote Technics and expressed to them about the 'heating' problem. They said there is nothing wrong with the fan and that it was designed to only turn on at certain volume level.
I still like the unit but I'm seriously considering returning it. I'm thinking of replacing it with a TEAC 9320 - it's about the same price as to what i paid for it.

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5 yr old Kenwood pro-logic

Cheap,can be upgraded

Ok, I don't own the unit that doubles as a heater, but let me give you some of my experiences with Panasonic (listen up!)
If you bug them the right way, they will cut a deal! I had a Prism 27" set that blew a power supply 5 (!!!) years out of warranty. I got them to pick up the bill on that one (they must have known of some defect there). Back in '91, I bought a floor demo Technics receiver with a built in DAC for only $200. Top 'o line. I got the extended warranty on it. Well, the thing kept going out, and I sent it back to Circuit City five times. They said they would replace it with another one but not one with a DAC (like the $1400 onkyo!). So, I called panasonic and complained. My other Technics amp was bought in '84 and still cranks, so what's the deal? Well, she said that if I sent in this pice of junk, with $120 extra, they will replace it with a new THX 1010 reciever ! So, I have this THX unit and it sounds better than even the cheapo Pioneer DD/DTS unit I bought and returned. So, if panasonic comes out with something better, get a cheap upgrade. Now, their amps of the 80's and early 90's were among the best sounding in their price, with great tight bass. However, their recent models look like they have ditched the old design with something cheaper. The specs on my '84 amp and '95 THX receiver have distortion at around .008, but newer models are as high as .8! Will they come out with something better? Who knows, but if you got problems, don't stop bugging them, especially if it is out of warranty. Now, I will go back to shopping for something with DD/DTS.

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Technics THX 1010

I submitted a good review of this before, but I have now owned it for a bit less than a year and it died on me tonight in the middle of a movie. Stereo works but surround is dead, and I'm getting audio from certain devices in all the other modes... it's REALLY messed up. Calling their techies tomarrow (open sunday they claim!)

High output power, relatively low distortion levels

not enough digital inputs

Most of the people that have posted reviews mentioned the heat problem. I'll admit, the cooling system is far from perfect, but all the people that said it was a problem have had it for half the time I have. Plus the heat problem can be fixed by using a replacement from radioshack. The thing i like most about this product is the amount of power. I am running 2 cerwin vega's with 15's on the A speaker terminals with DCM's with 12's on the B terminals. The speakers want a total of 1100 watts and I'm feeding them 50 apeace-all this and the sound is very clean. Better than my old 500x2 watt amp I replaced with it. This product is very good for people that like using stereo mode very loud because at high output levels the cooling system works great and the distortion stays low. If you wan't an amplifier for surround sound, look for a slightly more expensive model from Denon or Onkyo. Listening to this system below 10 o'clock when the heating fan hasn't kicked in is how you will burn this system out