Good power reserves in stereo mode. Works well with bookshelf speakers. Many high-end features in a mid-range package. Sounds better than my $1000USD Denon AVR-3300 in stereo mode.

Quickly runs out of power in surround mode. A couple of rather useless features thrown in to make the spec sheet look better (S-Video in particular).

This is another impulse buy from the local pawn shop. They actually had two there, but one had a bad center channel amp or something (no sound from it in any event). I bought it to use for my computer of all things, having recently upgrade to a 5.1 compatable sound card. I connected up my 5 Wharfedale Diamond 7.2 speakers and Topaz 8 sub. You could have knocked me over with a feather. It sounded not just good, but outright excellent. I then took it out to my main listening room, and connected it to my high-end Technics (no, not a contradiction in terms!) SB-7000A loudspeakers and Sony ES line CD player. Although the speakers are fairly efficent, the reciever sounded louder than my Denon AVR-3300, which was tripple the retail price of the JVC when it was new. And it was cleaner and had much better imaging. When I used ith with my Denon (yes, I have lots of Denon and Wharfedale; they seem to go well together) DVD player for multi channel sound, then some of the weaknesses in the power amps began to creep in, at what I would consider a moderate volume the highs were somewhat harsh, and the bass just vanished on some bass-intensive scenes with out using the sub. And this was using a Wharfedale Emerald Centre, the two Technics as mains, and Wharfedale Modus 1.6 as surrounds, with a EV X-Array sub-woofer (powered by a Peavey 1.3K power amp). In short, amazing on stereo, excellent on small multi-channel setups, and poor on larger multi-channel setups. To be fair, my normal HT system is a Denon AVR-5800 assisted in bi-amping with 6 Peavy CS-400 power amps. As for features, it has a good many for a unit in this price range (retail or used), including an On-Screen Display, semi-universal remtote, and JVC compulink, although this is currently the only JVC component I own. A single S-Video in and out is kind of useless, other than to display the OSD on the S-video input on a TV. It would have been a more worth while feature if it up-converted standard video to S-video. Having two digital inputs is nice, although again a coax and an optical would have been more versitle than two opticals. The system does a good job od decoding 5.1 encoded material (Dolby Digital, anyway), with no drop-outs or stutters as I have experienced in other lower-end 5.1 setups. There is no reason that this system should not be able to decode DTS surround, as the DSP chip used in it is DTS compatable, and the DSP board and chip even have the DTS logo printed on it! I am going to see if there is some way to enable the DTS on this unti, and I will report back if I am successful. But, in closing this is a terific receiver for medium to small home theaters, and a marvelous stereo receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR-3300, Denon AVR-70, Denon AVR-5800.

Power, functionality, nice remote, compatibility with other JVC components through the "compu-link" feature

Mid-level amplifier not as clear as the best: Harmon Kardon, Onkyo, Carver, Quad, . . .

A very flexible and attractive reciever. I have owned this reciever for almost three years and it has been very reliable. The reciever allows speaker levels, surround mode, and speaker type to be set up individually for each input. This means that with a bit of tweaking, you can optimize the reciever for everything from that old cassette deck to the latest DVD players. Don't be fooled, Dolby Digital is every bit as good as DTS. There is no reason to insist on DTS compatibility. There are very few DTS DVD titles and most of them have Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks too. As with any other amplifier, you want to keep it out in the open. It will get pretty warm if you lock it away in a small space. The reciever is full overload protection features and the owners manual explains all the features very well. I especially like the remote control, it is one of the best I have used. The buttons are contoured and the layout makes sense to me intuitively. The weakness of this reciever is that it is a mid range unit. You will not get the same sound and picture quality as a Harmon Kardon, but it will do all the same things for a whole lot less money. Yes, we upgraded to the Harmon Kardon AVR-220 recently. And yes, it was an improvement. To the JVC's credit, it was not as much of an improvement as I expected. Just a little better, no more.

Similar Products Used:

JVCs (4 models over last 15 years), Kenwood, and Harmon Kardon

Value, Digital decoder, power.

Only one S-Video input, rear speaker hiss.

I've had this receiver for a little over a month now, and the only complaint I have is that hissing/buzzing coming from the right surround speaker (and it's not the speakers, by the way). I have Infinity (main, center, sub) and JBL (surround) speakers, and they sound great with this receiver - except for the hiss. I also have an RCA DirecTV system. Those music channels sound awesome! My DVD player is a JVC RX-511BK, so I don't know about those remote complaints. I do know that I can't connect the DVD player and the satellite through S-Video inputs, because there's only one available. I've found that watching movies with the volume around 50 is loud enough, and the music channels sound good around 35.

However, I am going to return this receiver, so I can get the JVC RX-888VBK instead. I'll let you know how that turns out...

Similar Products Used:

None.

Pricetag, on-screen setup ,Power,one touch memory setting

Non-universal Remote,size of remote,1 S-video input,no digital coax

After spending a couple hours experimenting with various settings, I found this receiver to be very capable for my needs. I only wish for a better jack pack, but for this receiver to be a closeout and last years model, you cant really ask for more. This unit has a lot of settings and it takes a good couple hours to play with all of them and get the best sound that suits your ears. For those experiencing a ground loop hum, I would recommend a line conditioner. For the money, this DD receiver is a great value.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer Prologic Rcvr and Pioneer DD Rcvr

price , sound quality ( no hissing ) one touch operation ,remote does almost all my equipement

remote doesn't control my DVD ( RCA ) and for such a big remote they could of made the function buttons bigger.

First of all Thanks Audioreview.com for this great site !!
I have to admit I tried 3 other reciever/home theater packages in my home before I stopped "tring out my system . The Sony 935 reciever was good but for $ 400.00 I wanted it all and that remote didn't do it for me . My first mistake was an Aiwa system from Best Buys , Home theater system , 550 watts or some bogus number they made up , junk from the box it came in to the way just to hear it you had to crank it 2/3 rds of the way up . Needless to say my wife was very sick of shopping for stereo equipment . So I left her at home and went to Ultimate Electronics . The JVC was a closeout and I love it . The on-screen display , easy settup , and a great looking reciever on the shelf ,what more can you ask ? Paid $ 240 and feel I got the best I could for the money . I had an old 777 and from now on I will stay with JVC stuff when I can afford to get neww that is .

Similar Products Used:

61"Panasonic TV,DBS Sat.,very cheap KLH speakers but hey I have 4 kids and speaker money is hard to come by right now , DVD ( cheap RCA )

Price ,Preformance and features

takes awhile to setup for nice theater surround sound
remote takes awhile to get use to

I had this reciever for about a year now and at the time it was one of the best receivers for the price and features.I was reading some reviews on this reciever . When i first got this reciever home i to was a little disappointed with it , only because i didn't know how to set it up properly. I've spent countless hours tinkering with the numerous setting on the reciever until i finally got the killer surround sound now i couldn't be more happier I don't know what people are talking about hum and hiss i've never had any problem with hum or hiss with this unit,maybe it's because of the way they have it set up or maybe even because of cheap surround speakers or even the speakers placement who knows,every room is different and it takes a little time to set this puppy up properly ,like i said i've never had a problem with hum and hiss . I have this unit connected to the TV VCR DVD CD and it works flawlessly with the remote.I also have connected to 5 matched jvc satellite speakers, two cerwin vega 3 way 12" loud speakers and two sub woofers(need a jack splitter) one 50 watt jvc powered sub woofer and one cerwin vega 100 watt subwoofer and this reciever shakes the the neighbors house on 60 in the surround mode with a nice clean sound with no hum or hiss so it's got plenty of power .This unit is defintly worth buying so go head and get one unless you want to spend a small fortune for a top of the line home theater to get a little better home theater surroud sound

Similar Products Used:

pioneer,optimus

good clean sound, just enough to set up all the basics

terrible hiss from right rear surround, jvc support very unhelpful

allright this is for all the people saying "i dont know what your problem is with the hissing, it must be bad speakers"

the 778 has a problem. i bought a brand new definitive tech setup. it is not the cable, because i am using a very low guage and it does not matter what type/length/brand cable i use it still buzzes. it is not the speakers, ANY speaker i hook up to the right rear surround using ANY cable causes it to hiss BAD. and any speaker i hook up to any other channel sounds crystal clear.

jvc is apparently unaware of this problem, when i brought it in to them the first time i had not yet read this site. they hooked up the full surround and ran some diagnostics on it, and set it to tuner to listen to it. they said that they heard no hiss.

i hate to turn this into a forum, but i was hoping that maybe someone can help the rest of us out. i have a digital line to my dvd, and also have my vcr and tv running through my 778. i also have an svideo cable running to my tv (seems irrelevant but...) i wonder if all these people that are not having problems are either not digital, or dont have thier tv or vcr plugged in. my antenna is also not plugged in, i wonder if that could be causing a problem.

let me know if you read this and can offer some assistance, i will also repost if i find something out from jvc.

i unfortunatly give this reciever a low grade for now, but i imagine that if i can get this fixed then i will raise the score...

Dolby Digital on a Budget
Great Remote
Great sound with DVD and Dolby Digital

Cheap FM Antenna
Manual tuning of receiver volume levels for each input device

Being a person that lives with electronics I was looking for a good output and clean sound. I found Fry's Electronics was selling the 778 for $199 vs. the $399 at Circuit City. I tried it out on my own, the SEA Graphic Eq. was a nice touch with a Usermode that will store your own settings. I initially did hear the "hum and buzz" out of the back surrounds when I first setup, but it is an input issue that pops up with a cable tuner box volume levels and the output from my Toshiba Cinema Series variable output. The problems were eliminated once that was worked out (play with the cable box volume level and the TV's volume level until the distortion goes away). I bought this mainly for a RCA R5220P DVD player and the combination is wonderful full sound with no noticable distortion even at higher volumes. I do notice that each input seems to live at a different volume level for best sound depending on the input (TV=61, DVD=48, VCR=41, Music=38). The remote is the best I've seen since I've shelved the TV, VCR and Cable Box remotes in favor of the JVC remote. It does not control the DVD player though so I've at two vs. five. So far I'm very happy with it and would recommend purchasing for a patient tinkerer who would like great Digital Dolby at a bargain price. The only qualm I have is the extremely cheap FM antenna provided with the unit, the FM connection is now a co-ax type and the wire they give you clips into the center post, just buy/make another one it will definately work better.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo

Clean sound; Dolby Digital; Optical out; Good remote; Price

Overall power; Volume control; No DTS; High THD% in surround

For the price, $250.00 - $300.00, this receiver is an excellent buy; especially for those looking for a SIMPLE Home Theater system. This receiver is NOT meant to be "high-end", so don't expect DTS, Component video, or a low THD% (Total Harmonic Distortion - noise). It simply comes with the essentials for a BEGINNER Home Theater experience; Dolby Digital, 100W x 5 channels, and optical inputs, as well as the standard receiver features.
The sound I found to be quite good, clear and clean, but by no means the best. There is definitely noise or a "hiss", but ONLY at volumes over 70 in surround mode - believe me, it's nothing worth worrying about. The Dobly Digital decoder works flawlessly and the units remote is actually quite good. The many included features never get confusing or become overwhelming.
On the downside, my biggest issue is the volume control - I need to have the volume at about half(45 out of 90) for normal listening. I believe the reason is because the format is exponential. Meaning, the difference in volume between the lower numbers is almost nonexsistent, whereas the difference between higher numbers is obvious. Another problem I found is the overall power, the unit is marketed at 110Wx2 or 100Wx5, but I disagree. I need to have the volume at 80 to output the same volume as my brother's 100W Sony at 3(out of 10). Don't get me wrong though, 80 is still quite loud.
Overall, a great receiver for the price. Recommended to any casual listeners or beginner Home Theater enthusiasts. Just don't expect all the "bells and whistles". If you want more features try a higher class receiver.
To any Audiophiles, you should be smart enough to look elsewhere.

Similar Products Used:

JVC, Sony, Pioneer

Low price, features, flexable remote

Little sound from surround speakers, humming sound from right surround speaker, not as much power as similar products, no DTS.

When I first brought this receiver home, I was looking forward to a decent sounding receiver. I hooked it up with a Bose AM-15 speaker system. What I experienced was an entire different experience. The very first thing I noticed was that in surround mode there was very little power being fed to the surround speakers. The second thing I noticed was a buzzing sound from the right surround speaker. The third thing I noticed is that even though this receiver is rated at 100X5 in surround mode, I had to crank up the volume real high. I read similar reviews about the buzzing problem; however, what I experienced was that even with the volume set to minimum if I put my ear to the speaker, there was still an emition of a slight buzzing/humming sound. When I returned it to Circuit City, they verified it with one of their own speakers - Not the AM-15 by the way. They swapped it out for a new one, and when I brought it home I had the same exact problem. What makes matters worse, is that JVC doesn't even have a clue of this problem.

Finally, I swapped it out for a Soony DE-835 receiver. I noticed the difference right away. The surrounds were performing with full volume, and there was not a trace of a buzz in any of the speakers. Home Theartre sounded very good, as well as 2 channel stereo. The receiver plays much louder also. This is especially important when playing at low volumes. Plus, it has DTS encoding.

If any of you are new owners of this JVC receiver out there, please don't settle for it. There are much better receivers out there for about the same price. Personally, I couldn't put up with the buzzing sound, at any price.

Similar Products Used:

Sony DE-835