Relatively clean sound, multiple digital inputs.

Product support, good luck getting any information from Nakamichi. Naks are notoriously tempermental. No 5.1. No subwoofer test. No apparent compatibility with single channel powered subwoofers.

I bought this with the knowledge that it did not power on. Two weeks and $100 later the crack in the board was fixed. Unfortunately, using Radio Shack gold cables is not a great idea with the Nak, as the tension of the connectors have pulled out several of the RCA plugs. Sound quality is good for the retail price and appears to be only limited to the efficiency of the speakers. This Nak has many good features, as should be expected. The learning remote is a plus, but could be improved.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood

Warm sound Powerful bass

Reliability!

I bought this amp a few years back. It has performed well, up til this past week. For some reason, the audio output cuts out if the volume is turned past ~5%. This happens with CD's and Movies alike. I have written Nakamichi about bringing it in to a local repair shop, but they have not responded. This incident along with the failure of a Nakamichi car audio amplifier has shaken my opinion of Nakamichi's reliability. Their repair service (even under warranty) takes months...I'm afraid to even ask them about sending it in (at my cost.) I will be very reluctant to purchase another Nakamichi product ever again.

Sounds sublime. Looks like it could entertain and survive a small war. All the right features for me. The right price.

The remote is a joke which is a shame, because the right functions are there, you just cant be bothered find them.

I had decided to get a cheap Sony AV amp to replace the old NAD I had sitting under the TV. I saw this on an end of line offer at £200 and I knew i just had to have it. It is built like a tank, looks ugly but honest and has a remote that takes all the worst elements of 80s design and jumbles them up a bit. But, being teenager of the 70s the word Nakamichi had me mesmerised. Nakamichi was the aspirational brand of my youth. The shops never put a price on Nakamichi because if you needed to ask you couldn't afford it. 5 minutes later I was driving home with a smile as wide as the Tyne on my face. And a very heavy weight in the boot. And do you know what? I haven't stopped smiling. In stereo, through my Kef Q15.2s it is simply the dogs bollocks, detailed and articulate without ever being tiring. The radio receiver is worth £200 in its own right live broadcasts really do put you in the concert hall. And Dolby Digital (through 2 more Kef Q15.2s and a Q95C), well I’m no expert but it can certainly scare my kids even with the pictures switched off. This is just a great piece of kit for a family man like me. Cheap enough to keep within our budget and genuinely awesome value when it does what it does. The real shame of course is that Richer Sounds probably had 10 for the whole country, and 10 lucky souls like me wandered off with them months ago. The website says they are awaiting stock but it’s been like that for weeks. I can't see them getting any returns either.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer SX 590, circa 1975 and still going strong in my son's room.

In stereo with SACD, unbelieveable sound quality. Radio better than a Sony tuner worth as much as the receiver ! Learning remote. Real speaker binding posts (some won't take 4mm plugs). Turn it up - instant home disco ! Amazing volume possible. Red display blends well with any other black hi-fi.... see one and understand... Warms up sounds, makes folk music listenable. Makes big band, jazz, classicla, rock, pop, metal, funk etc sound marvellous. Wife massively pleased with item.

I've had to cut a hole in the back of the cabinet to get it on the shelf... The cooling fan can be heard if you're close and it's late at night. Rear power rating says 950W 230VAC, I haven't noticed an increased electricity bill yet. I read some guy had reliability problems and bought a 3 year guarantee. If that fan stops spinning...... In hi-fi terms, treble end is a little soft.

I was only looking for a quality 2 channel stereo amp and noticed this av reciever was on offer for a very good price, under £200 or $300 USD. Firstly, you open the box and find the machine is very heavy and well built. The manual is about half an inch thick... Then you notice that it does not have a multi channel analogue input for SACD or Dolby DTS built in. So thats why its cheap. Then I wired it up and just about got through my entire collection of CDs as the sound is warm, detailed and untiring to listen to, even noticing some details I'd missed before. Even my wifes folk music CDs sounded good ! The receivers tuner sounds better than our Sony STB-920S unit (up for sale) which was completely unexpected. The digital input is quieter than the analogue one and not so good at portraying depth or layers but has cleaner treble. You can pick.... I have not tried it for Home Cinema uses yet, I am still shocked by the stereo performance on 2 channel SACD playback, the excellent free built in radio, free D-A converter and unbelievable volume I can have through my Dynaudio Audience 60 floorstander speakers. Oh, the remote can learn the codes from your other remotes as well.... and the amp has an auxiliary switched mains socket which my CD is attached to that goes on/off with standby on the amp.

Similar Products Used:

Had a quick play with Denon, Sony, Yamaha, Marantz.... they were more money and sounded far worse in stereo.

simple, elegant design; easy to use; sounds great; plenty of power

DAC is not 24 bit/96 kHz (most digital components downconvert to 48 kHz anyway);lack of soundfield modes and similar gimicky features for those who like to play with such things

I've had this receiver for about 5 months now and am very, very pleased with it. Nakamichi has taken a simplicity in design approach to this line of receivers, and I think it paid off. For the money, you get more power and fewer gimicks than in other receivers at similar price points. The features that are important, such as onboard DD decoder, multiple digital inputs (there are 2), automatic power-on, tone control override, dual main speaker outputs, and automatic detection of the signal type (PCM, Pro-logic, DD) are all present. There are only 3 soundfields to choose from if you like to play with features like this, but I hardly ever touch them. The AV-8 is easy to set up and very simple to use, and I think it looks very nice as well. Nakamichi really thought about useability and usefulness of different features when they designed this one.

Music through the analog inputs sounds superb, which is very important to me. The tuner is reliable and compares favorably with any other tuner I have used recently when it comes to pulling in signals. Sound on movies has been excellent. I do not have a subwoofer or center channel speaker yet, though. The power rating of 100 W x 2 or 80 W x 5 means you notice a significant volume shift when switching between stereo inputs and surround inputs--no big deal for me. I think this is the case for many receivers. I will say again that I love the way this receiver sounds. Maybe it is my speakers (which I bought at the same time as the receiver) but the sound from my stereo is much less harsh and better balanced than I am used to from most mass market (esp. Japanese) gear.

The AV-8 does not have top vents. Instead it has a fan mounted in the inside of the case at the back to help cool it that comes on automatically. I will say that I have never ever heard the fan operating, although it is definitely pulling air through the receiver and doing its job. My receiver has never gotten very warm. Normal listening positions on the volume knob for me are between 8 and 10 o'clock, and I have never turned it past about 11 o'clock (maybe 12 once when I really wanted my ears to bleed).

The AV-8 comes w/ a cool learning remote that you can teach the commands from other remotes. Unfortunately, it is not especially well laid out for use as a universal remote (no menu navigation keys, channel up/down keys get lost among all the other keys), but this should not be a selling point for the receiver. As a remote for this unit, it works very well. If you need a universal remote, look into the AllForOne lines.

I auditioned my speakers in the same store w/ both the AV-8 and a similarly priced NAD T750 A/V receiver w/ less power, uneven power to front/rear speakers, and no onboard DD decoder. Sound was very similar, but the Nakamichi had a lot more headroom on the volume knob, looked better, and had the onboard decoder, so it came out the clear winner.

My associated gear: Monitor Audio Silver 5i main speakers (another 5 star), Mission MS-5 surrounds, Sony DVP-C600D DVD changer.

At MSRP ($799?), 4 stars for value, 5 stars for value if you can find it below MSRP. 5 stars overall.

Similar Products Used:

I auditioned similarly priced NAD, Yamaha, Denon, Marantz, Onkyo, Sony receivers. The Yamaha that lived in my apartment for a year was significantly more difficult to use.

Not loaded with useless features. Clean sound.

Remote is barely functional.

I was out of town when the AV8 arrived. At 1:00 AM when I returned I had to open the box and take a look. The remote was the first item I saw and I was both tired and now dissappointed - this remote is basically the same as with the Nakamichi AVR500 (this is why the remote after market is so good, eh).

The AV8 looked so simialar to the AVR500 I took them both apart for a look-see. Yep, very very similar, except for the digital inputs and an improved faceplate and speaker binding posts of the AV8, these are lookalikes. I was not impressed by the build and finish quality (made in Malaysia). In fact, I believe the AVR500 has a better power supply (two larger transformers versus one in the AV8).

I seem to have a problem with the AV8 (I have sent an email to Nakamichi for an answer, but your input is requested as well). When the AV8 is switched to Dolby digital or a DSP mode, the volume is way reduced. That made the background hiss with no signal very noticable. Hitting input attenuation has no affect.

In any event, the unit sounds very good in stereo mode - separation is great, soundstage is open, and I just enjoy listening. Dolby Digital, with the volume way up, also sounded very good - the first movie I watched was Gone in 60 Seconds and the dialog was clear, and the effects were great.

The AVR500 is a killer deal at about $300. The AV8 is very good but I expected better based upon the AVR500. Given the volume problem and the lack of a well written manual, and a poor remote, I can not rate this as highly as if I were just rating the stereo performance.

I am kind of wishing I had went for the Outlaw.

Similar Products Used:

Nakamichi AVR500, B&K.

Beauty in simplicity

No DTS, flimsy speaker inputs

I just hooked her up last night and I wanted to warn folks that you have to make sure the voltage is properly set to 110v for N. America. I got my unit from Ubid and the voltage was set to 220!

Otherwise, she sounds incredible. I bi-wired my new Mission 773e's and hooked up my old Sony cd player and Stan Getz was playing right in my ear.

Until I break it in and actually use the AC3 I'm giving it an overall 4 stars for not having DTS on board. It may not be a big deal, especially if I can find a reasonably priced DVD player that decodes DTS for me. I think all the Phillips models do.

Any advice on that end is appreciated.

Similar Products Used:

Marantz SR 7000, Onkyo 575x, Yamaha, Pioneer

Crisp sound, great for music or movies. Classic simple design... Solid build.

I miss the sleep feature my old Sony had.

Love how Nak focused on sound quality for this unit... Imagine that in a receiver : ). They left out a lot of the bells and whistles you can get with other home theatre receivers but... To tell ya the truth I don't miss them (other than the sleep feature). The sound quality would be very hard to match in this price range!

Similar Products Used:

HK, Sony, Denon, NAD

Price-to-performance, quality of construction, sensible features

Not many: Remote (so what!), no DTS (so what!)

I have never owned any Nakamichi components since I became a "budget" high-end audiophile back in 1982, but judging from what I have experienced with this component I'd have to say I'm very impressed with NAK quality and the performance of this receiver!

I purchased this unit from "Yahoo! Auctions" and, considering the price, I think I got a great deal.

The sound from this unit is very clean, and the construction just reeks of quality. The power is more than adequate for my family room, which measures about 18'x16'. When called upon, this receiver will deliver plenty of punch! They layout of the buttons on the front panel is superb and made for human hands. Also a nice touch, the display on the receiver is large enough so anyone can read what is says across the room, and the volume knob has a light on it that lets you see its position in the dark. Although it doesn't have a DTS decoder on board, I don't miss it considering the sound it puts out in DD---excellent! Try Mel Gibson's "The Patriot" in DVD on this and you'll know what I mean!

I highly recommend this receiver to anyone looking for a solidly built, great sounding receiver.

Similar Products Used:

Tested against Marantz SR-5000, Denon AVR-2801

does everything well

sometimes lacks low end

This is a good a/v receiver. If you are looking for clean warm sound in a A/V receiver look no more. Yes, it doesn't have all of the frills like other japanese crap because everthing is spent on the amp and equipment that matters. My Denon AVR-2800 has 10X more toys but it doesnt sound close to the Nak in sound. If gimicks are your forte, stay away. This receiver makes the Klipschs sing. New things I have never heard before with this thing.

Equipment
AV-8 Nak
Yamaha 905CD player
Klipsch 10.5 front
Klipsch SC-5 center (no room on the TV for bigger)
PSB Image 2B rear
Monster cable running the system.

Similar Products Used:

denon 2800