INPUTS, sound, screen menus

No digital output

I have my RX-888 since June and I think this receiver is absolutely perfect for my needs (DVD, DBS, CDS).
With Cerwin-Vega speakers and Sub, it rocks!
The only missing thing is a DIGITAL OUT (like the Pioneer model ).
How can I use a CD recorder with it besides using RCA plugs?

I have owned this receiver for a couple of months now and have not experienced any of the problems everyone is talking about. I don't know why anyone has to turn up the volume to 70 to hear anything. I have never had to put mine past 40 while listening to a movie or 50 listening to music without rocking the house. Overall I am really pleased with this receiver. For what I use it for and the price, it performs great.

As You all saw from my posts below I had a Very Bad Experiance With this Unit. I also am disapointed that the company never called me back as promised. The unit was useless, Volume had to be turned up very high, Hiss and Hum, Overload after a few mins of powerfull bass like Phona Apple, Lost In Space DVD. People how own the unit say they play DTS CD's The company told me it would not decode them, who knows. I returned this unit and Bought a Sony 333 ES For $545.00 plus shipping From Willie At JandR Music World. Shipped Double Boxed same day as promised. This unit is Fantastic, DTS is Crisp and Very Nice, AC-3 Great, Power clean and Very Ready to Rock. Five Year Warranty, 27 Sound Fields, Two Way LCD Remote, Lots of inputs, Optical Output, Pre outs, Two Subwoofer outs. A Ton Of Features, Worth every penny.

I'm going to have to jump in here. I own the RX-1028VBK, which is supposed to be better than the 888. I'm hearing the same problems that everyone else have had. I have to turn the volume way too loud to get decent sound from my speakers (i have some kick-a** Polk audio speakers too). If you put the receiver into Surround mode, boy does it hiss. It's terrible. The max that you can turn up the volume is 90. I need at least 40-45 to get good sound. But by then, there is hiss from the speakers from turning the volume too loud. Even worse, the THD from this unit is 0.8%!!! That is way too high. The Yahama has 0.02%. Believe me, that makes a huge difference. If you want to hear a good sounding receiver, try the Yahama V795, for about the same price range. You will hear 0, zero, nada hiss from the speakers at all. Crystal clear sound. An you need to turn up the volume only 1/4 way to get good sound. it's only 85x5 watts, compared to the JVC 100x5. The 100x5 is better, but comes with alot more noise. Don't get any JVC receiver.

Enough power, lots of I/O, price

Nothing is perfect.

I can't complain. This receiver is very good for the beginner. It gives everything you need to set up and run Home Theater very quickly. On-Screen display is very usefull. Power in stereo is awesome. In DD and DTS is very good. Overall very satisfied.

Similar Products Used:

Sony ProLogic receiver

DTS, 5.1, onscreen display, easy to follow manual, simple universal remote, incredible sound, DSP, multiple digital inputs, too many more to list!

None!

This review is for the vbk8000 (2000 model) This upgrade from my yamaha was like night and day. To all the idiots who complain of a hiss, they must not have set it up right. I can turn the volume up loud and there is no hiss, and I can turn it all the way down and it is dead quiet. Even with the DSP on it sounds perfect! The surround sound is incredible, The rear speakers come alive and there is no way the rear speaker output is not as good as some say. It seems to me that people who complain are not using quality wire and interconnects. I have my satelite dish and DVD player hooked up to it and I am only using a regular RCA cable as my coxial digital cable, and it sounds that good. There is no reason to spend tons of money on so called digital cables, when the regular RCA worked fine for me. Overall this receiver was a great investment at less than $300 online brand new. If you are looking for a good deal and good sound quality this is it. Ignore all the posts from people that don't know what they are talking about. Feel free to email me and I can vouch for my post. I think the onscreen display is one of the best features, it allows you to adjust everything by seeing it on the tv screen. It also allows different audio sources to be assigned to another video source. Another awesome feature is the ability to remeber different presets for different sources. For example I can leave the volume on say 30 for my TV, but when I switch to DVD the volume of say 50 is automatically recalled, as with all the DSP, SEA and surround level settings. This brings up another point. Some people talk about turning the unit up to like 75 for a dvd??? I turn mine up to 50 MAX and its way too loud! Usually for regular listening I leave it around 30. Well there are probably more features to list but as you can see, you can't pass this one up.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha natural surround receiver
Aiwa surround mini-system

Great features, Ease of setup, Great sound, Price,

None............Yet

I don't know hor relevent this due to the fact that my reviever is an RX-888RBK, i don't know what the differance is between the VBK and the RBK but here is my thoughts in mine.

Well i've had this unit for just over 1 month and so far no problems. I will admit that i have to set the volume to around 70 for really loud(eardrum popping)sound, but unless your some kind of freak that wants to be deaf when you get older who needs the power of higher end recievers with 2-3 times the price tag. If i put a cd or dvd on pause and crank the volume up to 85=> then yes there is a little hiss and hum but like i said, i dont have the volume that hight so that is not a problem for me.
This unit has nice features, i really like the compulink, wack in a dvd and the whole damn lot turns on, dvd, receiver(set to my presets for dvd) and then the tv, and all i have to do is sit back and watch the movie. All they need to think of is a way to get that damn little disk (dvd) to insert it's self and it would be perfect, but i suppose thats what the wife is for.
I am only running the standard RCA cables and cheap (if you can call it that) optical cable, latter when the wife lets me i will upgrade these to monster cables or something, if someone knows of a good brand please e-mail me and let me know about them. maybe this will get rid of the rest of the hiss.
Foir those of you who have severe hiss and hummmmming, i sugest you read the book carefully cause when i changed a few settings around the hiss i talked about befor did lessen somewhat.
After reading many, and i do mean many of the reviews on this page i have come to a conclution that we are all ruled by the loving wifes that we have and can't spend our own mony on this stuff till they say so. well stuff her im going out to buy my monster cables or whatever as soon as.............she says i can.?????
I wont give this receiver a overall rating of 5 because i dont beleive anything is perfect but i will give it a 4 star plus 1/2 so 4 and 1/2. but yes a very nice unit at a very nice price, will recomend to anyone but DO read the manual first.
i will post a follow up after a couple of more months and let you know how its going......for now bye-bye and have fun

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha

Excellent Power and Digital Capabilities

Lack of instructions for the amount of features offered.

After a month, I have set-up the system like I wanted. I still believe this was an excellent purchase for the price.
Excellent futures. Using the optical cable with this unit dramatically improved the clarity of the sound.

I am very pleased.

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Onkyo Yamaha

Great Unit, took me a day to set it up, and for all those people that say it has a hum problem, solved it!

hum-hiss at first setup, but found the problem!

First off, if your going to get this reciever buy it at www.ecost.com, i got it for $351.00 shipped, and shipping is free! awesome price considering Crutchfield sells it for $499.99 plus shipping. If you are reading all these reviews and see alot of people saying that this unit has a HUM? I got the answer, it does only if you have a coax cable loop, let me explain: If you have #1 Digital Cable, #2 DSS/DBS/DishNetwork. And you first have your regular cable come in to your house, not the DSS feed. And connect the regular digital cable feed to your DCT reciever, then the out put cable to your in on your DSS reciever, the Antena In, and then the antena out to your vcr you will get this thing called a 120 cycle hum bar loop. It can be fixed by getting a 2 way splitter, and one sending a signal to the DCT box, then sending another signal to the DSS's Antena In connection, not the satellite in connection. Now my reciever is running great. Awesome sound from my Klipsch KSB 3.1's and my Cerwin Vega E-76C center, takes about 2 hrs to set up on a complex install like mine, 200 disc dvd changer, 2 vcr's, 2 dvd players, md player, etc. But GREAT VALUE! I would reccomend to anyone!

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Sony STR-G3, Sony Strde-435, Teac vg8020, Teac, 4030

DD, DTS, plenty of power, good clean sound, GREAT price, LOTS of features.

Remote, Manual

OK, after reading some of the negative reviews of this receiver, I went home last night and tested mine. Turned on my 888 and set input to DVD Digital. Cranked it slowly up to 90 (Max.) At 85, I started to hear a VERY slight hiss out of all my speakers. At full 90, the hiss was only slightly louder. Now, if I listen to ANYTHING at 85-90, the roof will blow off my house, things will fall off shelves and the floor will cave in. 45-60 seems to be the ideal listening range. At this level, my sound room is filled with sound and experiences great highs and thunderous lows.

I also just discovered that changing the size setting of the center channel speaker to small produces much more subwoofer signal in Pro Logic. WooHooooo!!!!

Overall, I am very satisfied with this product and would recommend it to anyone looking for a receiver in this price range.