Stronga and punchy sound. Good built and heavy. Sound is clear and balanced.

No DPL II, no discrete DTS ES 6.1 decoding

I like this receiver very much because produces sound which is pleasure for movies. Sound is clear without pumped bass or some unbalanced heavy sound. Good stuff is also pre-out for 7.1 sound and you need just to add amplifier for this two chanells.
When I already bought it I found out from my friend that he bought Denon 3802 which contains also DPL II and discrete DTS ES 6.1 decoding which is the latest technology for home cinema. I am thinking to sell Pioneer and to go for Denon. I listened Denon and I can say that this stuff is awsome. It's also no big difference in price between Denon and Pioneer.
I use it only for movies that's why I can't say how performs in stereo.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 3801 and 3802

Powerful sound, balanced without hissing, nice design

Till I didn't hear Onkyo TX-DS 787 and the last one 797 with the latest technology like DPL II, Neo 6, DTS EX matrix & dicrete decoding and very good price for all this goodies I thought this receiver is a bargain. I sold Pioneer fast as I could.
So my message to Pioneer is to think about this things, Receivers had also product mistake, they failed. Those which they were repaired (with white sticker in the back) had lower price. When they sold them they increased the price for others. How tricky?

Receiver is good product. I was satisfied till I didn't try something else for less money.
I didn't decide yet what I will buy for HT. I will wait a little bit for Pioneer in case that will launch some new product which will replace 859 and which will be better choice than Onkyo or Denon. Otherwise I am buying Onkyo or Denon without hestitating.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX-DS 787, TX-DS 797, Denon 3802

Solid, Powerful and good sound, THX, Good for stereo.

Hard to configure for optimal sound. Small rooms can make the sound to heavy. Doubt about the output watt..

This amp is rocking..

I purchased the Bose Lifestyle system 12 first but after a month i decided to return it to my local dealer.
The midrange sucked really hard on te BOSE unit and the bass was also weird. Its not even close to The VSX-859. The Bose system failed after a couple of movies beacuse of a circuit failure in the auccoustimas module. This was a drop for me and i decided to changed it to the VSX-859 amp. The remote really rocks on this unit because you can program it for any unit of yors. The IR signal is strong and you can point it almost anywhere yot want in the room. The sound is great and powerfull, but im not shure it delivers exactly 5*100 watts as said by the manufacture. Connecting a DVD player with a optical cabel really makes yor cd:s and DVD:S sound at it best. I can have the amp on for hours connected to my jamo speakers (E-850 with the essential sorround) and enjoy the music at its best. Unplugged concerts makes me shivers. Star wars with THX really show what this amp can do. I recommend this amp to all home users who really want a great sorround system to enjoy all types of movies and music..

/ MArw

Similar Products Used:

Bose Lifestyle 12

THX Select
Dolby digital EX
DTS ES
THX surround EX
Sound quality
Build quality
Remote is programble
Many features

None
Well there are early 859 who has a drop-out in the power cirquit,well pioneer change the old for new one's.great of Pioneer.
Maybe DTS 6.1 ES but I wonder if there is an audioble diffrence between Matrixed and Discrete.

This product is awsome.
When you watch in DPL and there is al lot of surround activity,you can hear the diffrence bteween THX cinema and Normal DPL when you switch between DPL an THX.

This machine can deliver 100 watts RMS.I don't if this is treu and if it is exactly measured but when it stand on -20Db, it's realy loud.
A pitty is that there is No extra Amplifer for the back surround.You must buy a seperate Ampilifer and hooked up on the "back surround pre out's" of the 859 to enjoy the EX/ES exsperiece.But it's worht it.
Wow what a sound.It's truly frightned and evrything is so real.
That means a good adjusment for speaker volumes and time-delay's.

There is also a bass peak level were you can adjust the maximum output send to the sub.Only when THX cinema is selected.

You have the option to use "Advanced Theather" mode an "DSP" modes.
Also you can selected if you have back surround speakers aswell.
There are 7 dsp modes :Hall 1--Hall 2--Jazz--Dance--Theater 1--Theater 2--5/7(dependend on the back surround speakers,on is 7 and off is 5).
There are all funny.It's like to be in a real cinema.

There are 4 Advanched Theater modes: Musical--Drama--Action--7D-Theater.
7D-Theater is a good funtion.It makes a closer listening.
The others have a diffrent reverb that goes through you surround speakers.

The inputs are also outstanding.
You have 3 Component outputs.Well this isn't verry intresting fot people who have a telly butt more for the CRT
and other types of projectors.
2 digital Coax inputs,
1 output
3 digital optical inputs
2 component in 1/ output
7 channel external ouput
RF demulator for dolby digital(LD)

Dolby Digital decoding
DTS decoding
Mpeg 2 Multichannel Decoding
96Khz/24Bits D/A converter

30 random pre sets for tuner.
Which have a RDS EON decoder.It's verry usefull to have text in your display of the radio station.
Well you have also an stereo mode and a direct mode .
Both work fine.
There is a good stereo seperation.

Play in DD.(EX)
Sounds great when play DD tracks.
EX is the most exiting sound.
It's realy awsome.Crisp and clear with dialog normalization when THX mode is actived.

DTS (ES) is also cool and you can hear the diffrence between them.Good decoding stuff.

Well I am happy with my Pioneer 859 RDS.
Well is have It returned for a new one because tge fault in the power ciquit.
Soon I will have It again.
But the important thing is : Good adjusment foor the optimal sound exsperience.

Greets Ruwan Claessen

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo 787

Good looks
Can do 7.1 with extra amp
THX Select
Sound quality

Remote lacks some settings for me

I wasn't even looking at this model but found it at a decent price from a local dealer and took it home to try it. It pulverizes my old Yamaha amp easily with far punchier and cleaner sound. It also made my B&W speakers perform very well indeed, and it does quite well in stereo mode when listening to music as well - something the Yamaha really couldn't do enjoyably.

As for the production flaws mentioned by others here, that is no longer a consideration as Pioneer corrected that on new machines. They were also quite generous with those who had the faulty machine - I have heard of people who got a new VSX-909 instead when Pioneer couldn't get them a new 859 immediately... customer service doesn't improve much from that, IMHO.

All in all a very good receiver with most of the features you could wish for - with the possible exception of DTS 6.1 discrete. I'm still using it as a 5.1 receiver and am very happy with it; planning to purchase the expansion amp from Pioneer and move up to 7.1 in the near future. I would definitely recommend anyone in the market for a solid home cinema receiver to give this a listen, especially if 7.1 is something that interests them.

Similar Products Used:

Yamaha DSP-A595a

THX Select, very good music sound on direct mode, the price.

Noise problem on all modes except for direct mode.

This is a review for the VSX839!! I have been listening to this receiver for a week now. The THX select at first seemed a bit weird but it really rocks when you compare it to the other DSP modes.

At the moment i`m trying to solve the problem i have with this receiver. You can here a noise coming from the speakers when using the 5 ch stereo and normal stereo mode. The noise is simply to loud. In the direct mode the noise is reduced pretty much. The noise is even louder than the noise i here from my $200 stereo set is have in my bedroom.

The receiver is absolutely worth the money but if i can`t fix the noise problem i will return it to the store.

Similar Products Used:

Denon AVR1801, AVR2801, Marantz SR5000-OSE, Onkyo 575

Sound quality
THX Cinema mode
Additional separate inputs for each channel (DVD Audio ready)

I have to change my previous review (3/29/01 11:50:31 AM) because I solved my noise problem. I don't really know how it's possible, but when I re-cabled (and bi-wired) fronts & center speakers the noise was greatly reduced.
OK, I had some really lousy cable which was way to long (and curled up), but still I find it a bit strange that this could produce noise.

THX Surround-EX, Dolby Digital, DTS, price !

Nothing found yet...

At last it is in my hands...

I had to wait about 2 months till it was delivered.
This receiver replaces my Dolby Digital only Sony amp that i sold last month in order to get this new one.

I've not tested it completely since i only have it for two days but my first impressions are that this receiver is a REAL BARGAIN at his price.

I will use it mainly for Dolby Digital laserdiscs, so it's great that it has an AC-RF demodulator built-in.

The laserdisc of "Star Wars Episode I" was the first test-disc, and i was blown away by the THX surround sound.

This is a receiver i would recommend to anyone who wants a descent home cinema amp/processor, wich is ready for the future, at a bargain price.

There are a lot of inputs and outputs on the back, so it takes a time to connect and set it all up, but then be ready to really enjoy surround sound at his best !

Similar Products Used:

Sony Dolby Amp (TA-VE 910)

Sound quality
THX Cinema mode

Noise on "low level" recordings

This is an excellent receiver with a very pleasant sound.
I use it for both hometheater and normal oldfashion stereo music.

When listening to music you generally want to activate the loudness mode, but this amplifies the brightness of my already very bright frontspeakers (B&W DM602s2).The 859 does an excellent job of adjusting the brightness to a very pleasant level without loss of sound quality.

When using it for hometheater it's much easier...just activate the "no bull*"- THX cinema mode and that's it. With "no bull*" I mean there's nothing to adjust in this mode. No loudness, no tone adjustment, it just sound amazing. Sometimes I try an adjustable mode, but 99% of the times I end up switching back to TXH mode.

The only weakness I found so far, is when playing recordings which have been recorded "to low". With this I mean that you have turn up the volume to produce the same DB output. If at the same time listening to "quiet" music, you will notice the (amplifier) noise.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-709RDS