Price, ease of use, DTS,and Dolby Digital

Dolby Pro-Logic, Weak Stereo Sound, lack of power (even while using Klipsh Rf-3''s) which are very efficient, and Lack of good bass management

First the Good news: This receiver is very nice with Dolby Digital and DTS. It sounds good and all in all pretty good with those 2 modes. Now the Bad news: This receiver is not really good for regular Dolby Pro-logic sound. One reason perhaps is that the rear singal is just too weak. Another thing is that if u want to listen to music..it''s best to do it by selecting the "direct" button on the receiver..otherwise, there will be little to no bass ... the bass management is a bit weak.

Similar Products Used:

Aiawa(i forget the model) Cheaper than the pioneer and sounds a hell of a lot better! (great bass)

Great sound quality with a great price

Only one digital in, no s-video

I traded a younger friend an earlier Pioneer model that only had stereo. He wanted more power. While I wanted DD. So we traded. I learned that power isn''t always the best way to get the sound you want to hear. It''s all about airspace. I own 4 JBL theater speakers that sound incredible with any reciever. But when I got the 309 I was so impressed with the sound quality. I have yet to add a decent sub so I don''t have the exact sound that I want, but with the speakers that I have I am very impressed with the sound. As far as the setup it was a breeze. The Pioneer name has been in all of my systems one way or another and it always will be.

Similar Products Used:

Technics, Sharp, and Sony

Good power for a small room, has DD/DTS, good sound fields for music.

Just add a powered sub (100 watt or more) so the units power can push the other speakers.

I brought this unit for a friend to bring him into the world of DD/DTS. From what I have heard of this unit I am impress. I did the setup for him and found it a little confussing, but I guess if I were using it everyday it would become second nature. Over all I found this unit a great starter system. He has two Pioneer speakers for the fronts (unknown model) and I picked up a KLH 120 watt sub for him to replaced his old 35 watt RCA sub. He still needs to add the rear surrounds to complete the package, but with just moving into his first home the wife''s list comes first.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VXS 505s, Pioneer Elite VSX 26TX

Price, sound clarity, DD and DTS decoding.

Configuration confusing at times, lack of useful DSP modes, remote could be more user friendly.

After buying a Playstation 2, which I am using for my bedroom DVD player, my Onkyo DR-90 was somewhat superfluous. I decided to sell it to recoup some of the cost of the PS2, and to find an inexpensive DD/DTS receiver for the bedroom. I liked the DR-90's receiver section, esp. the 5-channel stereo DSP mode for listening to the stereo and to music CDs, so I had hoped to find another receiver with 5-channel stereo.

My choice came down to either the Onkyo TX-DS484 or the Pioneer VSX-D309. The fact that the Onkyo was $70 more than the Pioneer led me to try the Pioneer first. After only a week or so of use, I'm largely satisfied with it.

I do wish the 309 had the 5-channel stereo DSP mode, but it sounds OK in plain stereo mode for music; none of the surround modes sound acceptable to me.

I am using Polk R10s as my fronts and rears, a Polk CS175i as my center, and a Polk PSW-140 subwoofer. In stereo mode for music, the Pioneer seems to go pretty well with the Polks. The 309 doesn't quite sound as real and open as the DR-90 did, but I can live with it.

For home theater, the 309 is much closer to the Onkyo. The 60 watts of rated power on the 309 is way more than I've needed to this point. I've heard people complain about bass response, but with my speakers all set to small, my sub gives me all the bass I could ask for. The clarity and detail of both Dolby Digital and DTS DVD's is very good. Pro Logic for TV watching is also very good. I didn't have to tweak the receiver at all to have a good balance of volume among all my speakers.

The A/V and speaker connectors on back of the 309 are adequate. Sure, S-Video, front A/V connectors, and 5-way binding posts for the speakers would be nice, but aren't missed much at all. The 309 does feel very light, which leads me to question the quality of internal components, but again, for just over $200, what do you expect. Comparisons to my Marantz SR-19 in my living room would be a poor joke.

The 309 does the jobs I ask of it, and does them all reasonably well. I definitely feel that surround sound home theater is much more of a strength with this receiver than is music. And the Pioneer definitely beats the Sonys, JVCs, Technics and other brands I looked at in similar price range to the 309. It is a competently average receiver at a better than average price. For value, it rates a 4 1/2; overall, I give it a 3 1/2. I'll be generous and round those appraisals up for this review.

Similar Products Used:

Onkyo TX-DS474, Yamaha RV-905

Sound, features, price

remote, power

This is a great receiver. I am sure that better schooled ears would find a fault or two, but they would also not be looking at a sub-$200 receivers, would they? For my ears, the sound is great - no hiss or distortion. The digital surround is also fantastic, both DD and DTS. On the minus side - take a look at the reviews for Toshiba 2109 DVD player - they will tell you everything about the shortcomings of the remote which is basically in the same housing as the one for this receiver. The remote is functional, though, and can be extremely useful if you are willing to have some ambient lighting while watching a movie.

The power in 2-channel mode is fine, but in surround sound modes tends to be on the low side - OK for the apartment, but a lot of people would probably find it insufficient. In hind sight, I wish I had bought the 409 (100W) model, just for potential future needs. I sometimes need to have it up to 80% of the (logarithmic) scale even for late night movie watching, i.e. at -15 dB, with the minimum being -90 dB; although usually I have it at around -45 dB for movies and -60 dB for music. This may be a problem with most inexpensive surround receivers - I also have an AIWA surround receiver that I only tested briefly, and the power difference between 2-channel and 5-channel modes was even more noticeable than with the Pioneer.

If you need a good quality inexpensive receiver for bedroom or a small family room, this one will fit the bill. For parties or larger spaces, you should probably look at the 409 or 509S models. Considering its price and the niche it is in (sub-100W surround receivers), I do not hesitate to give it the highest ratings.

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old 2-channel technics receiver
AIWA AV-DV70 (briefly)

Cheap, got that Pioneer sound

the setup for optical and coxial inputs is annoying, and the remote could be better

I bought the clearance floor sample of this thing reduced to hook up to my 35 inch Inteq TV, in which I needed a small home theater setup (space wise) using small bookshelf speakers. The reciever sounds good, works nice in Dolby Digital but the DTS portion doesnt work with my Phillips Magnavox 825 DVD player from some reason (unless it has to be enabled which I cant seem to do since I lack the instructions for the DVD player). I used the Pioneer speakers from the above mentioned minisystem (spares since I replaced them on the minisystem with some nice AR 226PS speakers instead), a Sony center channel, and some cheap AudioSource speakers in the rear. For the lack of quality speakers it does a decent job, which is all I wanted. The remote isnt the best, but setup is fairly simple (aside from the optical/coaxial thing). Its not my main reciever, its just a secondary and it does what it does good at the right price, even at the price of $199 I have seen it for around here its not bad at all.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer, VSX-4600, VSX-305, SA-6800, XR-P770F (minisystem), Pro Logic reciever/casette deck portion of a rack system (RX760), Marantz 2215

Dolby Digital/DTS decoding
Optical/coax digital inputs
dvd/tv/vcr A/V inputs
price to value ratio

volume measurement
No Svideo support

For the price, I couldn't pass this up when I was looking for an entry level DTS/Dolby Digital surround sound receiver for my entry level home theater/dvd setup. I had been using a Pioneer SX-2800 for the past 9 years as my regular receiver controlling a cd player and tape deck and had had no problems with it whatsoever. Since I liked that Pioneer, I decided to stick with 'em for the new receiver. I decided to retire the old one to the home office and use my new Toshiba SD-1600 dvd player for both a cd and dvd player and use the new receiver for controlling the audio in the system.

So far I have had no problems with the receiver. Since our family room is small, the 60 watts per channel is more than enough although I do have a pet peeve with the volume control. When did manufacturers decide to use negative numbers to represent volume? Call me old and outdated but I like the old 0 to X volume controls. I don't find it very intuitive to go from -97 to 0 when measuring anything. But I digress. DTS and Dolby Digital sound excellent to my old stereo ears.

The optical and coax digital audio inputs are more than enough for me and while the fact that each can only be assigned to one individual input device is a little annoying (I can't have both cd and dvd assigned to the coax digital input), it hasn't really bothered me that much. There are more than enough A/V inputs (tv/sat, vcr, dvd) as well as audio only inputs (cd, tape deck) for me. In addition there is a composite video out in case you wanted to control your video sources from the receiver and send the signal out to the tv, but there is no Svideo support.

I think for someone who is thinking of using this to do video switching, they may want to look at the VSX-509S which is a little more high end and does include Svideo support. According to the reviews here some people have gotten the latter for under $250. I will admit, if I could have, I would have also bought the 509S model for that price (it's also 100 watts per channel), but I have no complaints so far with my purchase.

p.s. while the remote is small and some buttons hard to press, I have found that it will control all of my other devices (Sharp VCR, Toshiba tv, Toshiba DVD).

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer SX-2800 (oldie but goodie)

Clean sound, user friendly, fairly versatile unit.

Seems to lack power, especially when operating in DSP or Surround modes.

Not a bad unit if it can be purchased for well under $200.
Recommend staying in Pioneer series but bumping up to the 509 model. A little more power goes a long way. The 309 is decent for a basement bar, summer house, or apartment situtaion where the dB's must be constrained !!

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Pioneer SX-1010 (old timer)

Nice sound, features, radio

doa on first purchase (fry's fault)

This dd receiver is to replace my sony, which is old and very old. When I first got it, it was DOA. Actually, it was first Dead and Defective. 5.1 and digital would refuse to work properly. I took it back and got another one. This one works. The reason it doesn't work is probably because of Frys; that's the only store with defective products. Anyway, the people over there were "nice" enough to give me a discount after some -ahem- going over.

Overall, the performance is a blessing. I got the receiver only because of its power handling (i got low powered speakers) and its brand (pioneer always impresses me). It is definitely worth the $200 and the catfight.

THe radio installed on this is MUCH better than the radio in my Ford (surprising enough). I never thought equipment like that existed. with the antennas that CAME WITH IT, I was able to pull signals from all over.

The only miniscule weakness (i never put down because it's nit picky) is the remote control. it took me a while to get used to it. It's much different than the one that goes with the Pioneer DVD player and 52" TV...

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Sony TA-AX301

Great all around home theater/stereo unit. Outstanding features for the price.

Digital input is either optical OR coaxial, you cannot use both inputs at the same time! No S-video handling.

Yup, you simply cannot ask for more for $230. I mostly wanted to post this review to recommend this receiver over the Pioneer 409. I got the 309 first, liked it a lot, but decided I may in the future need more power than 60 watts so I reluctantly took the 309 back and got the 409.

Well, let me tell you, the 409 is only a little bit louder than the 309 (in my estimation it was about a whopping 5db louder at the same volume setting) So I want to make this clear to potential buyers: What you get for your extra $50.00 in the 409 is this
1)Two optical and one coaxial input all of which can be used (the 309 makes you choose which input is active)
2)A/B main speaker options.
If you do not need the above 2 features (I would think most people in this price range do not have 3 digital audio devices or extensive A/B speaker arrays) then get the 309 because the 100watt spec on the 409 is near total B.S.

I finally decided that to get the power output I needed to bite the bullet and move up from entry level components and sprang for a Yamaha HTR-5240. Rated at "only" 70watts it blows the Pioneers out of the room.

Why? well keep in mind that 70watt spec is the continuous RMS rating; that being the amps "cruising speed". The amp is actually capable (it's in the spec sheet in the manual) of output "peak" power in the range of 140watts (for big movie booms!) The lower end Pioneer/Kenwood etc. line of products simply have no such extra capacity.

So if you don't need the extra juice save your money and get one the finest entry level HT receivers ever produced!

Similar Products Used:

5-year Technics pro-logic receiver, Pioneer 409, Yamaha HTR-5240