I bought my D509s in 1995 for casual listening and movies on my 32 inch CRT television. Through the years, my TV's have upgraded from CRTs to DLPs and now a 55" flat panel 3D LED. Through this time my D509s has never let me down with audio for my movies however, for pure stereo listening it does lack the power and clarity that I prefer. So, after 19 years of enjoyment, I am upgrading to the Pioneer Elite SC89. Considering the $600. dollars Canadian that I paid for the D509s, it was an awesome buy and a loyal movie companion.

Remote, sound

No prologic II, of course the receiver is 2000 model before pl II

The receiver has plenty of beef being 100watts per channel.For being entry level i think it has clean sound especially with dts 5.1.

Putting some sound out from your speakers that's about it.

Putting some sound out from your speakers that's about it.

This receiver is a piece of junk really. I will not even buy this thing for a 100 bucks in the yard sale. Fit for teenagers below 18 years of age or novices who like to fiddle around with a low-end piece of equipment and not concentrate on sound quality. Try a Denon instead.

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Denon AVR-3801,3802, AVC-A1SE

The remote is very versatile, operates all other electronics in the room. Good clean sound from the system.

The Dolby and synthesized 5 channel settings degrade the sound. I leave it on stereo for FM, TV and VCR. No input for my great 70’s phonograph. The back panel is not intuitive for wiring, several speakers having different kinds of connections, circuitous outlines to indicate inputs and outputs. The manual is essential.

This unit is everything that I expected in a medium price receiver. The manual and the remote is very critical to the operation of this receiver. I downloaded the 60 page manual from the Pioneer site. My first 5.1 system, I have a set of epi speakers that fill the room with great surround sound. During movies, the clear sound effects from the rear speakers will startle my wife. Digital cable from the DVD and optical from the CD make for very clear sound. I have no idea how old the unit was when I bought it, but has worked very reliably.

This receiver is crap. It only came with a one-year warranty, and right after my warranty expired (it was manufactured in August of 2001, it's now December of 2002), my front left channel just died. Not like fuzzy sound or anything, it is completely dead. I've sound checked everything, Pioneer doesn't know what's wrong. Pioneer has gone downhill - this is my second Pioneer component that has died in the last 2 months (the last was a progressive scan DVD player). I'm never buying from them again.

Sounds great. Nice remote (I'll be keeping it.)

Died after 15 months. Fragile. Not truely powerful when it did work.

I have been happy with this unit for more than a year, using it primarily for home theater/DVDs. The remote is nice enough that I was able to put away 5 others. BUT, two things: I upgraded my front speakers to an $800 pair of Klipsch RF-3II floor speakers and my receiver's warranty expired last month. This combination, of course, caused my receiver to fail critically. (note: I was pulling my new speakers out of their boxes when the receiver died! I hadn't even touched it yet) As mentioned in several other reviews here, the receiver now displays an OVERLOAD message about 20 secs to 2 mins into using it and then it powers itself off. It does this every time. I hadn't changed any configuration. I am using digital input, not analog, as the manual mentions a strong analog signal can cause this. So, I was happy, but now it's a paper weight.

Flexibility, ease of use, price. A good AV-receiver to cut your HT teeth on, but..

...it will eventually leave you wanting more POWER. Analog CD input distortion. Needs more inputs and outputs as my system expands.

Adequate in nearly every respect. No THX or Prologic II, but a lot of flexibility for the $$$. Amplification was adequate when I bought it, but it's limitations are becoming more apparent as I upgrade to larger speakers, especially in the lower frequencies. Also, it doesn't seem to like the analog CD input. The sound from my old Kenwood changer was distorted, and repeatedly triggered the overload indicator. Disconnecting the EQ and going to a newer Pioneer DVD/CD changer with digital coax connections solved this problem, but I still swear I hear some distortion from the front R channel occasionally. I don't regret this purchase at the price I paid, but I probably won't be buying another Pioneer receiver, because I value a strong amplifier above all other features. Going to give it to my wife and buy a 7-channel Denon with prologic II.

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Older pioneer prologic with an even weaker amp.

Good quality, price, quantity and variety of connections for various devices (DVD, VCR, CD, etc), great remote.

DSP sound modes are bad (Hall1, Hall2, Theater 1, Theater 2, etc) and result in the inability to produe good sound with surround speakers for audio. Manual should be bit more descriptive.

In the market for a DVD player and receiver, I was pleased to find both at Costco for excellent prices. I knew I would be happy with Pioneer brand. I have an old (1993) Pioneer shelf audio system with 5 disc cartridge and the sound and performance on this unit is amazing and the CD never (never) skipped, even on scratched CD's. I expected the same performance from Pioneer this time. I am very happy with my setup but I do have some complaints about the reciever (or perhaps I just don't have everyting setup correctly, however, I have read the manual extensively). First, I wanted to set up my surround speakers to be active (as well as the front speakers) for listening to audio CD's. Trying to adjust the reciever settings with the DSP modes (hall1, hall2, theater1, etc) I just couldn't get quality sound out of my surround (back) speakers. So what I had to do (and this was quite a pain in the butt) was to connect my surround speakers to both "A" surrond speaker connections as well as "B" speakers. Now, when I listen to CD's, I need to select both speaker systems "A" and "B" to get the sound I am looking for. I really thought that I must have done something wrong, but after extensive experimenting, I see no other way to get good sound in all (4) speakers for audio listening. As a matter of fact, I really don't understand the intent of the DSP settings - they all sound awful (sound is always far away with extreme echoing). Still, after these unusual adjustments, I am very pleased with the sound quality in DTS mode (for DVD's) and using "A" & "B" speakers for audio listening.

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Pioneer shelf system (CD, receiver, tape deck), Pioneer 5-disk carosel changer, JVC 4-head HI-FI VCR.

I purchased a Pioneer receiver (Model #VSX-D509S) and used it for about 5 hours before it stopped working. I purchased it from iDerive.com and contacted them with my problem. They referred me to the manufacturer for a warrenty repair. Pioneer would not honor the 1 year warrenty because iDerive is not an authorized retailer. Pioneer will only recognise 4 internet retailers as authorised (Crutchfields, Circuit City, 800.com, and
Amazon). Pioneer is VERY hard nosed about warranties only from purchases at authorized retailers. I'm still battling with iDerive, Pioneer, and my credit card company. Buyer beware, with any of Pioneer's products at least, if you want a warranty! (Needless to say, I'm LESS THAN SATISFIED with this receiver.)

Multiple S-Video inputs/100-watts/ch good sound and seems to be well made

Confusing owner's manual - had to keep jumping back and forth to get answers to questions

I thought something was wrong with my sub woofer(KLH 8" Powered) when I was getting no bass, until I finally set my other speakers (Front, Center, Surround) to "small" so the receiver would send the bass to the woofer. Once I figured it out it sounded fine, and considering I bought it at Circuit City for $250 ($100 less than Best Buy) I really can't complain. I bought the receiver, 2 Front Sony's, a JBL Center/Surround Combo and the KLH Sub all for under $600 just by shopping around. The manual was a little confusing and irritating - otherwise I would've given 5 Stars.

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First subwoofer