VALUE

Low power

Great deal - good cost

DUSTY - LEARN TO SPELL WHEN BASHING AN ITEM..... quiet is not the same as quite.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Yamaha

Nothing i can think of

everything

this is my friends receiver that he has set up in his living room, but i have listened to it quiet a few times. i had to set up his entire system so i was there from the start. first off, this receiver is too light to even be somewhat good. there is NO way it can be 100 watts x5. looking at the back panel reveals that nothing is in any kind of order. preouts are scattered where there are no other inputs or outputs, the 5.1 inputs are everyhwere. there arent any S video inputs or outputs on this receiver. and as many other people have said, the volume problem is terrible. when on dvd 5.1 it has to be up to -25dB to hear ANYTHING, but then switch it to cd mode and turn something on at the same level and youll go deaf. even the looks of this receiver are terrible. the cluttered, ugly face of it makes me put something over it so i dont have to look at it. and the remote....i wont say anything about it. if youre thinking about buying this receiver, then youll have to figure out how bad it is yourself. the one thing i do like about it is the ability to choose what you want the 2 optical inputs for. if my sony had that option i would find it very useful. but that option on my friends doesnt work anymore so it doesnt really matter.
anyways il give this receiver 2 stars for the simple reason is it is not the worst one out there and it does work, just not very well

Similar Products Used:

Sony STR-DB830 (mine)

Incredible function capabilities, including built in filters w/ various cut-off frequencies to front, rear & center speakers. I myself am using three small Pioneer surround sound speakers (S-CR505's). Adjusting the receivers built-in x-over as a High Pass filter at about 150Hz greatly reduces the distortion that these smaller speakers cannot reproduce clearly at high volumes. The front speakers and subwoofers will take care of the low frequencies and again, the sub-woofer output has a variable cut-off frequency control. The remote control is amazing--it will work on any make and any model of anything--it's the only remote you need and it is easy to program for different components. The display is a little too small and not very extravegant. It is an excellant receiver for the price and probably the best Dolby Digital Receiver for the price. Plenty of power for the average Audio Enthusiast!

plenty inputs, no svideo,

remote has buttons in wierd places, sounds week, if it is supposedly 100x5, it doesn't seem like it.

for buying an floor unit from best buy for under 200, it's not a bad deal. Great unit for starting out. Has most features I wanted for the price range I had in mind.

midnight mode, thats about it

most everything else, 100x5, yeah right pioneer

This reciever may be fine for someone who doesn't know any better. When i first got this reciever(which i do not have anymore) I didn't know very much about stereo equipment. Now I know quite a bit from my roommate and internet sites. My roommate uses a cheap old pioneer model to power his subwoofer, and it is at least 10 times as powerful as this new 508. Right when i got it i thought something was wrong with it. It was QUITE!!! I had to crank that thing to get it to a reasonable level, and my room is tiny. Since then I've talking to people knowing a lot about stereo equipment and did a lot of research and purchased a Denon 1800. I was blown away by the difference in sound quality. I never thought a reciever could be so clear and loud. The Denon is rated at 75x5 and believe me it is extremely loud, makes the 508 look like a cheap Sony bookshelf system. I took my 508 and sold it on ebay for the same price i paid. i'm one of the lucky ones. The Denon 1800 was $335(shipping included) BRAND NEW from Ebay. You do have to do a lot of looking to get this price but i saw the opportunity and took it. My advice is not to buy this reciever, you can find a good reciever for nearly the same price it you look around and find the good deals on ebay. Thats my 2 cents. Hope this helps.

Similar Products Used:

Denon 1800, Older Pioneer Units.

Plenty of connectivity options. Great speaker level setting options; ideal for those lacking the optimal home theatre setup. Great sound.

Can't adjust bass/treble in Dolby mode. Have to scroll through various components to get to desired output. Not true 100 x5.

Overall, this is a great amp. Although this amp does not have DTS processing, I have heard DTS on other amps in parallel to Dolby 5.1 and can't really hear that much of a difference. As far as the power output during 5.1 playback, it may not be 100W/channel but it still sounds great. Tones are clear and crisp with no discernable distortion. I have 13-year old 140W Pioneer 4-way towers purchased in europe that sound incredible. These have 10" woofers capable of going down to 35Hz so let me disabuse anyone of the notion that this amp cannot reproduce bass effectively........it CAN. Bass is fairly tight and polytonal, not that THUMP THUMP THUMP of one-note bass. This may because of my speakers though. I don't even need a subwoofer at this point but will probably get one ance I invest in a DVD. Two optical and a coaxial digital input allow for plenty of expansion. Only input drawback: no phono pre-out. Oh well, phonos are slowly, begrudgingly dying out. I would recommend this receiver to anyone lokking to start a HT system. Pioneer has replaced this with the 509S I think which incorporated DTS---even better.

Similar Products Used:

Older Pioneer stereo amp.