I didn't even know about this receiver until I stumble on these reviews. Checked it out last week, sounded OK (although it was through marginal speakers). They had five left. Went back yesterday to buy it and they were all gone. Tried all the other BBs in Cleveland, found one demo, one open-box. Picked up the open box for $215. Morale of this story: if your interested, you better move quickly. I haven't had the chance to hook it up yet, but I have a feeling that it will be the best-sounding $215 reciever ever. The rating is on sheer value.

I got this unit for free because I earned gift certificates from the store I worked at and I used those gift certificates to buy this receiver. Right off the bat I must tell everyone that Best Buy sucks and are run by morons. I had to quit because I was afraid the sheer stupidity of that store was contagious and was getting into me. All who consider to get a job at Best Buy: be warned; you might end up babbling incoherently for the rest of your life. That said; this receiver is great as a bedroom piece. And I got it for Free! I also bought the Eosone speakers at an outrageous discount because I was an employee; although even at the discounted price these speakers kinda suck. Would have something better if not for the discount.

Better then any amp or receiver I,ve heard or owned. Never heard of it until I saw reviews popping up on the "Recent Reviews" section.
All this great reviews got me started on a quest to hear one. Best Buy in Princeton N.J. had two left. Unfortunately they had it hooked up to two little mini speakers. With a 30 day money back guarantee I took the leap. $299 here on the East Coast.
A little while later after I sneaked them in past the wife.....
In stereo mode everything all the previous reviews stated was true.
Absoulutely phenomenal!
I've heard krells hooked up to martin logans and sure this was'nt close, but this was $300 (and some for my speakers) compared to $6000 (krell amps and martin logans). One review said this was the best amp section in a reciever under $1000 and from what I'm hearing that was a right on assesment.
In dolby pro logic and dolby digital it's just as good.
For $300 this amp has DD 5.1 inputs for hooking up a decoder or a DD 5.1 DVD player. Just watched "BLADE" awesome sound.
The remote lets the user to set the Center Rear and Sub woofer levels as well as learn all commands from remotes for TV VCR DVD and CD.
Pretty damn good.
Five Stars!

P.S. I brought both of the last units. One for a friend from Britain who's into high end gear. I'm going to ask him to post a review after he sets his up and uses it for a while. Should be interesting cause he's a guitar player with really good ears and good gear whose system is made up of all seperates and some kick ass $2000 Joseph audio speakers.

Amps I've owned and their rating and what I paid for them..
As a rating of price vs sound quality...

1 Nak AV-500 reciever $300
2 HK 5800 power amp $400
3 HK AVR30 receiver $430
4 Parasound HCA 1000 power amp $350
5 HK AVR25MKII receiver $400
6 Carver TFM6 power amp $200
7 Carver A-220 power amp $400
8 NAD AV716 receiver (loaned to me) $300
9 carver HTR 881.5 receiver $350
10 Technics SA-AX6 package $600

After reading all the good reviews on this product on this site, I took one from a local BB store three weeks ago for a try. It took me almost no time to set it up. The first thing I noticed after powering it up was the fan noise (whether it's from the motor or just the air). Then I played some of my favorite CDs (vocal and instrument). I have a pair of Energy C-8 which need high power amps to make them sound good. The Nak had no problem driving these speakers. It was the first time since I auditioned these speakers at the store I bought them that I heard the speakers sound so good; bass is tight, mid is full, high is clean and clear. I really started enjoying all my CDs.I went back to the store the next day trying to find out about the fan noise. I couldn't hear that from the demo unit (the store is quite noisy with all the people doing their last minute Xmas shopping). I asked a salesman about the fan. He suggested that I take the unit back to have a tech check it out. The tech checked it out and said the fan was noisy. So I got another unit. Took it home and set it up. The same fan noise (the noise is there if the music is not that loud). My wife doesn't like me play CD's loud so I could hear the fan noise in the background quite often which is kind of annoying. Anyone has any suggestions?
Other than the fan problem, I think this receiver is the best deal out there. The remote is really great. I used to have 6 different remotes on my table. Now only one. I gave this a 5 star for its price/performance.

I just got back from the CES in Las Vegas and talked to the Nakamichi reps for quite a while. I asked them about the Best Buy line and they said they are discontinuing them. Nakamichi got a lot of negative backlash for the move and they said that they are pulling the line and going back to the higher-end stuff. The rep said that they manufactured the recievers specifically for Best Buy and that the tweaked the specs to match the AV-1s.
I have heard this receiver and I think that regardless of whether it is considered a real Nakamichi by a lot of people is irrelevant. I think it's a quality receiver, and I almost got one myself (I opted for a Yamaha). It is quite a lot better than the other receivers Best Buy sells and I think it's a good buy if you can still find one. However, Nakamichi just released a new line of recievers (including a $1200 DD/DTS unit) that are supposed to be significantly better. They will be available through the usual specialty shops.

I've been listening to a pair of Celestion 7's through an Adcom GFA-545 amp and GTP-500 preamp for four years now. I finally decided that I wanted surround sound, and eventually a move to Dolby Digital (when I get a DVD player with built-in 5.1 channel decoder). After reading all the positive posts about the Nak AV-500, I decided to give it a spin. I bought the last unit at the local Best Buy for $299. Out of the box, this unit was initially a disaster--there was no power to either the A or B jacks, and the unit would turn itself off if the volume was turned above "2." The air blowing out the back was hot almost immediately. I tried the unit on a couple of different sets of speakers, then returned it to the store, where it was replaced (from another store's stock). Upon hooking up the unit this time, I was amazed! The sound to the Celestion 7's is crystal clear, not bright (like it is through the Adcom), and powerful all the way up through the frequencies without clipping or distorting. I'm adding a pair of Impact 40s later in the month, as well as a Celestion CSC center channel. I can only hope the surround sound is as wonderful as the stereo audio has been so far.
It's unfortunate that the initial quality of the first unit was so bad--but that is the ONLY reason I'm not giving this product a perfect 5 star rating. Clarity and power is great, and for the price, in my opinion, this receiver is unbeatable. Now I can unload the Adcom (itself a fine combo) and more than make back my money!

I just want to thank the reviewrs who help me in selecting teh AV-500 . I bought one $200 (floor sample at BEST BUY) yesterday . It's pure power , sharp & clear sound.I really enjoy it . My main problem was to break away from the optical, digital interfaces...
If you are not surfing what I call the "technology wave" , that is the unit you need to buy. And hurry , it seems that the supply is short and will may be discontinued.
And if for some reasons you want to upgrade later on , by this time , the AV-10 will be at $800.( currently at $1200 )

It's a strong 5 in its class (performance/price)

The idea behind the Nak AV-500 is make it SIMPLE and POWERFUL. Nakamichi did an AWESOME job of accomplishing this. I worked at BestBuy whenever the Nak's were released. I thought Sony and Pioneer were the only good receivers until they laid the 35 lb Nak monster on the shelf. I was impressed immediately. It was ugly but that is why I liked it so much. I did a numbers performance comparison between the Nak, Pioneer, and Sony. The specs placed the Nak in a totally different category than the other two. It outclassed everything in the "low end" receiver line that I have seen so far. BUT you cannot go by number alone. Some of the BestBuy staff decided to do a real world comparison after hours. Using Eosones, JBL's, and Cerwin's, the Nak lived up to the numbers. At low levels it sounded more powerful and cleaner and the upper limit was higher as well. The Yamaha line was soon to debute at BestBuy. I had already purchased the AV-500 at this point and was and still am extremely happy with it. We set up the same test using the DolbyDigital Yamaha and the Nak 500 except during store hours. Every customer and employee agreed that the Nakamichi blew away the Yamaha. I was disappointed with the Yamaha line. At that point every employee was trying to buy the Nakamichies whenever they were in stock (employee discount for $275 retail $449). The other receivers had one thing in come. Lots of features and no real power. The Nak was in complete contrast with hardly any features and lots of power. The Sony we used in the comparison had 48 different sound fields: small stadium, large stadium, etc. The Yamaha and the Pioneer had very small dim displays that would have been impossible to read from 10 feet away. The only drawback to the Nak is that the fan on the back is makes enough noise to be noticeable. For the money nothing comes close or every will. I don't plan on buying another receiver for a LONG time. 5 star definitely!
PS. The Nak/Sony Cd-player that BestBuy carried is crap. It was a Sony with an Orange display and it sounded horrible.

So...everyone is a Nakamichi basher now. I would wager that the people who gave this product bad reviews don't even know what "high current" means. This unit is one of the best deals in home audio.
First, I must address what this reciever does NOT have:
It does not have a billion features such as a "rock quarry" surround mode. True audiophiles subscribe to the notion of "simplest is best". Look at high end audio. Every component serves just one purpose, be it playing a CD, decoding digital information, sound processing, sound amplifying, etc. I find that this reciever's lack of features works in it's favor.

It does not have Dolby Digital. Fine. You limit your upgrade path when you have a built in AD converter. With built in features such as these, whenever a newer feature is introduced (ie Dolby Digital, DTS, or better sound field processors), you become obsolete. It is much more cost-effective to purchase a new external processor than a whole new reciever.

It does not have a toroidial transformer,1 farad capacitors,or the quality of parts found on truly high end solid state equipment, but we must remember price when I speak of the quality of this unit. For the price, it is impossible to find a better deal than the AV-500.

What this reciever DOES have:
It does have a six channel amplifier compatable with Dolby Digital 5.1 and DTS. This is a high current amplifier capable of 25 amp peaks. This is no Sony or Pioneer we are speaking of. It is much more reasonable to compare this amp with high end audio rather than the consumer crap we see lining the shelves of Best Buy and Circuit City.

It has a learning remote. Quite a bonus considering the bargain price of the unit

It has a unique look. I have heard many people complain about the look of this unit. I find it almost appealing it a retro sort of way. It's look takes me back to a time when engineering was more important than appearence. I would rather have my money go towards what is inside rather than outside.

It sounds remarkably good. It has a powerful amp section with clean pre-amp stages. I would recommend the AV-500 to anyone. This unit strikes a refreshing balance between quality and cost that makes me optimistic about the future of comsumer audio.


On a personal note..
I wrote this review in response to the completely asinine comments made by some of the reviewers of this reciever. Comparing this unit to ANY of the other crap in it's price range takes incredible stupidity. Go ahead...buy your Yamaha or Denon..you missed the boat.

I cant agree with very many of these reviews, this unit doesnt sound any better than comparibly priced Sony products, It has no real low end, its very muddy. The pro-logic sounded ok at best, for music it was very nasal sounding and did not produce anywhere near the level of power it is rated for. I was using it to try and drive a pair of Platinum Studio 2's they only require 50 watts and guess what, they couldnt do it! I always thought Nakamichi was, shall we say a class above the Sony and Pioneers of the world, but with this peice I was saddly mistaken! At its price point it can be beaten and for a few dollars more you can get a better Sony product with Dolby Digital to boot.
And in regards to comments from the other gentleman comparing to a Sony, I called Nakamichi and confirmed that all the units at Best Buy were contracted out to Sony they are NOT Nakamichi products, it apears as though this was a marketing scheme to try and get Nakamichi more publicity, it appears to have worked. But they have lost me as a customer, Ive owned lots of Nak equipment in the last 10 years but they have lost my trust and respect. For its price on sale, maybe it deserves 2 stars, but due to this company trying to pull a fast one Id like to give it negative 2 stars!!!!

If you want real power and good clean sound, get the Yamaha RV-503, ITS ONLY $235 AT Best Buy and it has a 2 year warranty! Its 70 watts is alot more powew than the Nak and the company is an honest company.