I`d say the one weakness that really stands out to me was the large silver funky 70`s type remote. It does not fit your hand and has alot of wasted space on the face that could have been designed diffently...But it works well after you spend some time in the opering manual.

I like the way everything works. It took a me an hour or so to read thru the manual to try things out. Although Aiwa is not so popular a name as some of the other receiver companies, they have satisfied me well. I especially liked the DTS DD And Surrond Sound modes that basically covers the movie industry for now until they come out with something newer and better. For 299.00 I feel it was what i was looking for at this time. Thanks Ola

I would like to temper the enthusiasm of my initial review. Although this system is a decent all around low-priced receiver, it does have some problems. The specs are in my opinion exaggerated by not using the full response range and other tricks to up the wattage rating. In Dolby Digital it is just barely powerful enough for a satisfactory viewing experience in my (rather large) listening/viewing room although in analog pro logic mode it is fine. I have also been plagued by a hum that made Dolby digital unusable, I was able to reduce it to a tolerable level by adding a ground and isolating the power cord. Aiwa tech support is a joke, they were not even able to give me the crossover point for the Subwoofer output. I still think this is a good deal for many people, but I am now at the point where I am strongly considering returning it, mainly because of the hum and its over exaggerated power specs. My old Sony rated at 70 Watts 20HZ-20KHZ could cleanly drive my speakers playing demanding musical passages to higher levels than the AIWA in 2 Channel mode. If the hum rears its ugly head in the next week it is definitely going back.

Power 600 Watts divided between Center and four Satellite JBL's. Very powerful when playing DVD's on my Tosiba player.

Pro-Logic in Analog is weak! No S-Vidio.

The FM/AM board fried, couldn't find or get any product support, even though I registered the reciever (oxymorn?).

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It is really powerful

I haven't noticed any.

I just recently bought it at Best Buy, and it really kicks. It really made my cerwin-vegas sound a lot better. I had them plugged into my old (1-year) sony reciever, and when I switched them into my aiwa it sounded a ton better. Aiwa, you guys make the greatest stereo equipment. I would recccomend this product to anybody looking for a newer and better stereo.

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Last review. Couldn't quite get rid of the hum although I reduced it to acceptable levels. I was new to digital sound when I ordered this unit and the more I learned in the last week the more I realized the Aiwa is not what I was looking for. Sounds great out of the box but not for the Audio enthusiast. Have ordered ONKYO TX-DS575 and am returning the Aiwa. Possibly critical missing feature, no 96kHz DAC.

Full feature set for low price.

User interface

This is my first experience with a Dolby Digital/DTS capable receiver. In the past I owned a Yamaha Pro Logic integrated amp and the AIWA replaced an older stereo-only Sony reciver. The user interface is completely non-ituitive and I would not recommend this unit to someone without a decent knowledge of how things work audio-wise. I am getting used to the interface and it is getting easier, I am just glad I do not have to explain to anyone else how to use it. I am very pleased with this feature packed receiver, it has excellent sound and I must admit I was ready to be disappointed considering it is 5x120 watts, Dolby Digital, DTS and more. The DTS and Dolby digital work flawlessly and I have to admit to being very impressed overall. For 299.95 you are not going to get pre amp outs, great speaker connectors and don't expect SVideo connectoids, but what you do get is a powerful, great sounding, versatile receiver.

Got it on sale for $299.99 at Fry's. Bought this for HTS. Swapped out my old Sony STR-D865 and found that switching from Pro-Logic Dolby Surround to Dolby Digital only gave me marginal sound improvement, maybe about 15% improvement. I haven't bought a subwoofer yet, so that may change things. The UI on the receiver sucks. There are several knobs and buttons and an "Enter" button. No real on screen programming and the interfaces weren't intuitive. I really had to read the manual to program the thing. There are a lot of bells and whistles, but it was impossible to access them easily. Has a built in 5.1 and DTS decoder. 100watts/channel (for all 5 channels, subwoofer isn't powered). Price wasn't bad.