Pioneer recievers are the equivalent of bose speakers!! they have a big reputation (the company pioneer, not their recievers, that is). their recievers have wonderful specs ( un-bose like) but have NO,and i mean NO power supply. the 455 model(supposedly 110wrms x 3 channels) has only 1.25 amp fuses on its outputs!!! how can this be??? if you do the math, there is no way this thing can do as much power as they claim. the audio quality (when compared to any decent amp eciever) is piss poor, with no bass definition. the only reason why this thing is getting one star is because they don't have a lower rating!!!!!!!!

Bought this receiver about 4 months ago. My friends brought over their Denon and Onkyo. Both the Denon and Onkyo blew my Pioneer away. What a piece of junk this thing is. I'm looking back and wishing that I spent more time listening to the sound of receivers rather than looking at B. S. features. Oh well, I'll never buy another Pioneer product again. It's just horrible when compared with other, higher quality sound receivers that are out there. Save yourself some trouble and profit from my misfortune. I'd give it -5 speakers if i could but I can't.

Good reciever for the $$$, heard better though, but about the best for what you paid. I got it for $200, expecting to pay around $300. Sounds good, excepy a VERY low VOLUME, my right channel has a LITTLE more power then the left. But otherwise a musical reciever (probably from the generous power supply).
Although I use it ALOT, the heat dissapation fan is a little annoying, and the volume controll SUCKS. but usually I'm listening to it at VERY loud levels and don't even notice the fan. As for the volume controll, it sucks. VERY hard to set it to a good low volume setting. so I usually just do it manually. if neither of those would bother you. you have yourself a GREAT reciever for a low amount of money. Stereo Review reviewed the Optimous reviever, witch was EXACTLEY like this one and gave it GREAT reviews (except for the fan/vol. controll)

The programmable remote that comes w/ last years model (don't know about the others) is GREAT, I NEVER have to use ANY other controlls, witch is very convienent...

sound wise, it gives any speaker the power it will need and sounds musical. I ran some Mag's off of it and they got plenty of power & sounded GREAT.. enough power to run a subwoofer off the RECIEVER. Sound qualty is high, thought not audiophile quality, it is great for the casuall listener or music lover. The surround options are very well laid out & sound beautifull.

overall it is the BEST buy for the money, since I got mine for $199 =)

I bougth this receiver and returned it to the store two days later. The sound was not that bad. But I would like to hear some dsp in it. I addition, it has one single channel for surround. That is OK for dolby prologic sorround sound. But, this receiver has inputs for dvd audio and video. DVD has stereo surround, so I won't get the most out of dvd if I use this receiver. But if we look at the price and features, this receiver is not the worse deal you could get.

This is the best receiver ever made by any company.

This amp is expensive over hear and when compared to onkyo and denon amps in the same price bracket its crap! I wouldnt buy one in a pink fit.

Ok i have the Pioneer vsx-504s And i find it to be an amazing, (For it's Price) It has features and power, that surpasess many of the other amplifiers. I have the Bose Surround sound speakers (12 spearkers) and the sub woofer and the base speaker. I have never been so amazed. My DVD's have never sounded better. I thik shelling out $500 for amplifier. I give the Pioneer vsx-504s

I bought my 505S used for about $100 bucks, so I didn't loose much. The honestreview is it has a good amp, I have played it long periods at high volumes
through some old sony 3 way full range cabinets. On the other hand I do studio recording a good bit, and in the studio we use JBL's and a Old Pioneer Metal faced, real wood sides, 100 watt. It was rated like one of the best back in the 74'ish age. It BLOWS away the 505S, man what a quality drop over the years for pioneer. I had one of the first Pioneer Pro Logic recievers, and it was better than this one in many ways. It had treble and bass controls right on the remote, not on the front.. sounds like Pioneer is cutting down on quality features and starting to cheeeese out. I probably will NEVER buy Pioneer again until they get a new attitude... (The old 100w is about 3 times more powerful than this reciever, cleaner, etc.. rivaling Harmon Kardon's of today... )

I liked the remote!

Volume control is a bit touchy
No S-Video

This receiver served me well for the past 3 years and is still in tip-top shape. It runs fairly cool, although its fan does emit a slight whine.

I paid $299 for it new back in Sept. 1996 and now just paid $299 for my new Pioneer VSX-D509S (purchased because I needed Dolby Digital).

This would be a good model to pick up used if you're low on funds. You should be able to find it for less than $100 based on today's prices of new Pro Logic recievers.

Power, remote is pretty cool-looking

Muddy sound, boominess and tinniness all at one. Volume via the remote is overly sensitive in the low range.

Overall, I have been less than thrilled with this receiver since buying it and a 101-disc Pioneer changer in 1996. The sound is fine at high listening volumes thanks to the power, but clarity and balance of the sound is hard to achieve, even after I added the matching equalizer for a time. I'd suggest that my speakers were to blame, but a friend with a similar setup and better set of Jamo speakers has the same complaints after three years of listening. I guess you get what you pay for, so I can't really complain, but in the same price range today, you can pick up a much better sounding Yamaha receiver.

The volume control is especially difficult. I remember learning how, in the 80's, Japanese car manufacturers would set up the throttle pedal of smaller-engined cars to respond more aggressively at the low end of the gas pedal to give the illusion of more power. It seems like this is the same sort of game going on here where the volume knob is really sensitive at the low end, while the last 50% of the rotation is basically going from blasting loud to "you're going to get a visit from the cops soon". This problem is even worse with the remote and with time as the know wears slightly. Also, it seems like the volume knob affects the highs and lows with minor adjustments, like there are separate controls for each attached to the knob.
Maybe I'm nuts.

If you have a large area to listen in and want a loud receiver at a low price, this isn't a bad receiver- I happen to live in places where this isn't possible though, as do a lot of people who shop in this price range, and have found it hard to appreciate this receiver.

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