I recently purchased this receiver with birthday money, $359 of birthdaymoney at that :-) I used to have a Pioneer SX-3600 Which, honestly, was
lacking in many ways. Since I hooked up this receiver, I have noticed a huge
sound improvement with my Cerwin Vega Re-30's. It sounds very good with
Cassette movies or LaserDiscs, I almost felt like I was at the theater. It has
plenty of power for whatever type of speakers you want to power, 150Watts
per channel.It also has 3-way Surround sound capability with 5 sound modes
including Studio, Arena, Simulated surround(if you don't have surround sound
speakers, it uses your 2 front speakers to simulate surround sound), 3 channel
logic, Dolby Prologic surround. It also has many other features, too many
more to list. The only downside I can find with this receiver, if there really is
one, is that I think there should be more sound fields, and they probably
should have added DSP processing. To decide for yourself whether this is the
receiver for you, demo it at your local retailer.

I have the Pioneer vsx-505s in multivoltage model. It has 165 Watts x 2 in stereo and 135 watts x 4. I really like it a lot, especially when I am watching movies.

My first Receiver back in 1987 was a Pioneer Model with surround sound. I always keep an open mind to really any products. I went to listen to this Receiver and was impress but not enought to change my mind. I own a Harmon Kardon 25 and will not trade it for this Receiver. pioneer makes good products but they do not compete favorable with Better quality names Like Nad and Harmon Kardon.

I am a proud owner of a pioneer VSX-454. It has been through a lot. Every weekend at university we would play excessively loud music for endless hours. the reciever loved to pound. On average I would drive it at about half volume for long periods of time. The only problem I have notice is the bass increases at 150Hz to +10db's. So consequently you hear more of a punch like bass. I run Cerwin Vega VS-120's plus a Yamaha powered sub. The Cerwin's are 6 Ohms while the Yamaha is 5 Ohms. The reciever loves the load. I have no complaints.
Thank You