receiver

Sony STR-DH500 5.1-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)
$199.99
All that I expected in a good receiver. It powers my 15 year old DCM 12 inch 3 ways and Infinity 12 inch powered sub woofer just fine. I don't use the sub out as the sub is wired in parallel with the DCM's. The Infinity has a low pass built in adjustable filter. I do not use the HDMI inputs at this time, however I'll be ready in the future. Nice unit,

Pioneer VSX-819H-K 5-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)
$350.00
well, I blew $250 on this receiver as an open box deal. well,its going back tommorow. however, it was a great lesson. It was going to replace an older 5.1 pioneer,but as it turns out. this one has less watts per ch than the old one.Dont get me worng its a nice receiver, incredibly difficult to setup though in comparison.I mean horribly complex though I did own a $900 onkyo which was 11.1 which was even more difficult to setup than this). Even after setting the speaker settings via the online menu and having the calibrated mic and then bypassing it and doing it manually I was getting more out of the left than right ch. Also, what they dont tell you is this: no matter what, there is a built in crossover and its default at 100k and the lowest is 50khz you cant bypass it. so that means that if you have full range large speakers for the front left and right ,they get very little bass and it all gets routed to the sub. thats fine for sub and little cube deals but not for 6ft towers with 12"woofers and three drivers. So unless I was going direct bypassing all the surround stuff it soundeed quite lame compared to my old 5.1.And this is where I heard what it really sounds like and its crap. So after about an hour of different setups and trying things, I still never got as full a sound from my old receiver which was nothing really special,but maybe I took it for granted after trying this receiver.Basicly, this receiver can get the same quality of sound as my old one but it would take hours of setup and perfect alignment of the surround sound speakers and a hell of powerful sub. Perhaps I am old fashioned ,but to get a good sound should not be this hard.I mean you hook up pmy old one and immedieately you get a great sound and then you can tweak it. but with this thing, you start out with no sound until you setup the inputs via the on screen display 9provided yo have component plugged in and not hdmi).Then you have to set up the hdmi. but even then you get a crap sound and it really does take lots of tweaking to beging to get a basic decent sound. I am not tryng to scare anyone away but geez I just couldnt beleive what they are asking as far as setup goes. Now I did notice some really great things about this receiver: 1)if you have little tiny speakers and a sub then this would be a good match 2)it does have lots of power but that is mostly hidden by all the setup which limits the power it seems 3)hdmi causes more problems a than it solves and even with audio its a fad ,the analog outputs into my old recevier sound the same if not better 4)you can really tweak this thing for hours on end. Everything is hidden in menus, even the lowly oudness has nop button and it has to be gotten from a menu.lame.5) I was stunned by the surround sound possibilities and it really was like working with a dedicated surround processor with tons of modes!! if one could master the setup it could be great movies only.I found the surround overbearing for audio.

Anyway, overall, this is a prefect amp for someone who has a thx cinema setup in their home who does not mind tweaking for hours or someone who has tiny speakers and huge sub and doesnt listen to the front speakers for music.I feel sory for the average consumer who is not a dedicated audiophile who buys this unit as it is terribly complicated to hook up and to get it to sound good would be a feat to be proud of haha.Working with the unit trying to set it up felt like i was in a diagnostic mode only technicians normally have accesss too. kind of like the old tv's where you could never get a good picture becasue of all the diffferent settings and had to be accessed via the "diagnostic" mode.

So it goees back tommorow and instead I am getting 2 more of these old receviers I have as they sound great with little thought and sounded better than this unit no joke and the old ones have more watts, no hdmi at all, no onscreen menus and has buttons for almost all functions and are about 1/4th the price and still do 5.1 but without a bunch of bells and wistles and no need to setup the amount of delay between speakers and stuff yuk!!!. Also, I dont give a rats butt about the ipod and usb and most of the other features if the sound quality just isnt there or in this case its there but how do you find it.

I just wonder if people wont returns receivers like this becasue of the complexity/hassle of the setup opting for simpler receivers of old? Anyway I will sleep well now knowing that my recevier search is at an end.stear clear if you just want to hook it up and have it sound amazing and even after an evening of tweaking I approached the sound i was getting with the old one but it was timid in comparison becasue of the bass crossover

Sherwood RX4105 2-Channel 100 Watts Stereo Receiver (Black)
$119.99
With the brick-and-mortar stores pretty much void of anything but high-end 5.1 receivers, it is gratifying to have a site like Amazon offer an affordable alternative for those not needing any thing fancy in their home entertainment system. The Sherwood RX-4105 is just such an alternative; a simple two-channel sound system, with five different audio sources including am-fm radio. For those simply needing to navigate between the audio inputs of their separate components and not interested in a fancy 5.1 speaker system, this is the way to go.

Onkyo TX-SR507 5.1-Channel A/V Surround Home Theater Receiver (Black)
$399.00
This receiver has many great features and sounds really good for the price. The only features I wish it had are an on-screen menu via monitor out and also custom input labeling for a computer input or other source.

Another rock solid Onkyo product overall.