First of all let me tell you as soon as I got this thing hooked up I thought it was junk. Now that I've listened to it for a good 8hrs straight it seems to be growing on me. In any surround or DSP except the digital AC-3 there is a definite hiss from all chanels. The operating temp seemed to be normal. Roughly the same as my HK AVR 25 which I was gonna replace with this reciever. One thing I can say is it does sound really good in 6ch dolby digital. Standard sterio mode sounds ok but seems to lack a certain depth. Anyway back to the surround hiss isue. I spent a good hour getting all the settings dialed in just right and I was able to fade most of the hiss out. I couldn't get it all out though and it really bugs me since the only thing I can play in AC3 is my DVD player. I haven't decided if I am gonna take it back or not yet. But hey for 300 bucks you can't get anything with theese features thats even close. I found an AVR 55 for 400 but it lacks some of the features and power that the JVC has. One thing I would like to check out is the JVC 1024 They want over double for it but I'm sure for the price they fixed the hiss bug thats a prob in the 884. I plan on calling JVC to see if the hiss prob can be fixed and will keep you all informed. I am giving a rating of 3 stars but if the hiss was gone I would definitly give it a 5.
John

I have a very poor opinion of this receiver. The rear channel hiss is so obvious at volumes over 60 its annoying. The connections at the rear are painful to make.. doesnt have power sockets insitu so you have lots of wires dangling at the back..I would never buy a JVC receiver again.. even though I had almost 3JVC receivers over the past 10years.. this one was the final straw! I preferred the dolby prologic 774 over this piece of garbage touted as dolby digital. Beware! Fine it is cheap.. but come to think of it, a receiver is the engine that drives your music system and it is going to be part of your life for a long time.. why compromise? I bought a Yammy 2095 in my pursuit of top quality.
-RM

This one of the most night/day receivers ever. The features on this receiver are unheard of for the $299 I paid for it. (S-Video, dynamic range compres.,etc.) But their is a major drawback, the infamous amp. In stereo there's nothing that can touch it, but in surrond and Dolby Digital once you get close to a serious listening range(about 60) that dam hiss appears. You can hear it very clearly in soft passages of movies, jazz, classical and anything else that doesn't have high level content to mask the hiss. My speaker aren't blown, and i've read the manual. My previous setup of an sony de515 and the decoder in my rca dvd player, yelded me clean, no hiss, theather level sound. But relief is near for me, i just took it back and got a refund, because I got a tip that the JVC 888 was coming out. Think of it, same as 884 in features but you get the Dynamic Super A amplifer of the 1024(no hiss!!!!) and DTS DECODER ON BOARD!! I found a site where I can get it for only 349. Now you can put jvc in the class with the best recivers for the price.

I have never needed to play this receiver with a volume level over 50so I can't say that there is or is not a hiss at 60. I can say, though,
that with Atlantic Technologies Compact Theatre 2 speakers from onecall.com
the system sounds great. One deign flaw though with the concept is the video
inputs and outputs are the same. In other words, I can't watch TV off the air
and record DSS at the same time thru the receiver. So there is very little advantage of the video system switching except for the fact that I can use on
screen menues to adjust the receiver. Because of the design flaw I give it only 3 stars. Also, if you want to program your vcr to record when you are not home, you would have to leave the receiver on.

One word: dang
I thought this receiver would pump out some power but it does the oposite, doesn't pump out enough. I'd like to know how the heck JVC thinks these things have 110 watts to each of the 5 channels in DD mode. My parents have a 65 watt per channel receiver made in the 1970s and it puts out about twice the power as this JVC. My 3-year old 100 watt per channel Kenwood also easily puts out twice the power. I was thinking about getting some 15" speakers thinking this JVC amp could power them nicely. Now I see you have to turn the volume up half way to get any sound out of it. I listen to it at about 40 (out of 90) for easy listening and turn it up to 60 when a good song plays. In surround sound mode, I have to turn it up past 65 for fairly loud sound, and in the lower 60s it starts to hiss like a snake. The freakin' speaker connectors are hard to screw in unless you have fingers the size of a 2 year old, so I suggest banana plugs if you're going to maybe move the speakers around a lot or whatever, plus the gold banana plugs sound better and cost only 6 bucks a pair at radio shack. The on-screen menu is nice, since my eyes are terrible and I can't read the read-out on the receiver itself. On the 27" TV screen it's easy to read, even for me! Plus it's easy to use the on-screen menu than the one-line read-out on the receiver. This receiver is loaded with inputs. You might have trouble using more than half of them. The FM antenna is a joke to hook up, especially when they didn't include one in my box. I find the power EXTREMELY lacking. It should say 50 watts per channel, not 120! Oh well, as long as you don't want loud stuff, it's OK. Good for the price I guess, but I'm willing to bet a $300 Kenwood with DD is about twice as powerful even with a lesser wattage rating. I guess the .02% THD is good, but you have to turn it up so loud it doesn't seem like it even matters. Anyway, I wouldn't buy this receiver if I were you, unless you just want lots of features with pretty good sound but no power. If JVC would just get a real reading of its power and sold it for maybe 50 bucks less, it would probably have an average score of about 4.5 right now instead of 3.8. Not a bad receiver for the $290 I pair for it, but lacks big time in the power department (for a 550 watt receiver).

Nice features and good sound. For $400 this is a nice choice. I have the home theater bug and will upgrade to either the Yamaha 995, or the Denon 3300 (they are twice the price). I may be approaching the point of diminishing returns, but HT the bug won't let me admit it!

I've had this receiver for about 1 year now and have no regrets. I paid $400, and give it 9 of 10 for sound and 10 of 10 for features in this price range. This would satisfy 75% of the level thinkers (98% of our better halves). However for the people who have the home theater bug (thanks to JVC in my case), there is always an upgrade. Mine will be either the Yamaha 995 of the Denon 3300. Yes, this is $750 range and to most this is the point of diminishing returns, but I do not have to justify my "toy" purchases!!! I will be using my JVC 884 in the bedroom (Dolby Digital Surround (PBTV soon?).

For $299 this reciever is amazing. It does almost everything the $1000 + recievers do. I am very pleased with this product.

Sounds good and I hear no hiss but I do have a question?Suppose you need to see DSS thru the vcr so you can read the VCR menues for recording?
Anyone have a clue? Seems to me that it can have only one input at a time?
Or do you have to connect the DSS to the VCR too?

I just don't understand why people want to knock this reciever. For the money it just cant be beat. I have ALL the hookups working on the back of the reciever, including 2 CD players and DVD w/ AR315HO's as mains and am getting very excellent sound out of it. I own a collection of over 200 LP's and over 300 CD's. I also own a older Kenwood spectrum system from years back. This reciever may get a little warm at times but I didn't buy a $1000 A/V reciever. I have heard no hissing. I think this reciever performs wonderful for the money w/ all the availible features and was well worth the money I spent. I am not disappionted.