everything

kinda quiet in 5.1 mode

At first I thought this sucked big time because I kept overloading the reciever. It turns out I plugged a unit in the back that took more power than it could handle. But this thing rocks. My only problem is that the center seems a bit quiet in 5.1, I compared it with my other recievers and this turned out to be the case. Audio quality is awesome, my teac was better, but this beats the pants off of the JVC and Kenwoods...although the 3080 may be slightly better. But this is a best buy...get it at costco. Sure pioneer doesnt validate the warrenty, but who cares, costco's better than pioneer anyways.

Similar Products Used:

Teac 9100, JVC 7000, Kenwood 3080, Kenwood 407

Just addressing the point about power

none

Just wanted to clear up some issues regarding the output of this receiver. First, for those who say it can't pump out the volume, you're dead wrong. I would say the problem is with your speakers and not the amp. Volume was a concern when I purchased this unit and I that is why I selected a pair of quality speakers to go with it. I could see the sound not being good at high volumes if you are using inferior speakers (low end JBL, cerwin-vega, and others you can get at Best Buy, Circuit City). Go to a higher end non-chain store to purchase your speakers. It will be worth the money. I got NHT's to compliment the unit and it is worth the extra money. I am a college student and frequently host parties. I also bought a sound pressure level meter to use in setting up my system and it measured over 100 db in my appartment with over 40 people crammed inside dancing and having a blast. Trust me, anything past 90 db and that starts hearing damage after about 4 hrs. 100 should be louder than anyone would need it for simply watching a movie. and that 100 db was produced with the sound deadening effect of over 40 people. With out the people, I'm sure I could get to 110 db without a problem, but why would I when I would be in pain listening to it.

Just my $.02.

Similar Products Used:

all kinds of stuff

sounds gd even with just CDs and/or cassettes, not just in movie modes

not any to speak of at this price level

Bought a Technics sadx 940 for xmas and it sounded very gd, but man did it get hot..I also just couldnt seem to get a gd balance on the surround speakers...One was definitely louder than the other..I sold it on ebay and bought this...Its like a whole new ball game. I can adjust levels of individual surrounds and everything else. Has great sound and whatever you have heard before, this receiver has plenty of power. You just need gd speakers. I have 2 Klipsch KSB 2.1 in front with 2 KLH 911Ts in the rear with a KLH ASW 110 sub (not the greatest but it does rock my living room) .I would recommend this A/V reciever to anyone looking for a gd sounding unit at a moderate price.

Similar Products Used:

technics sa dx940

Price, Good stereo sound, simplicity

Bass and Treble controls

I was about to buy the SADX940 when I read the reviews here. It's true. It gets very hot, even at low level! I prefer to stay away from that kind of amp. I have read all the reviews about the Pioneer and I agree with these: the receiver is excellent. I use it only in analog modes (I don't have a DVD). The sound is very clear in stereo mode with a low distorsion level. It's true that you have to turn the volume to a level of -30dB to hear loud music but if you want to listen to music in headphones or at low volume, you'll find the range 0-30dB useful. The tone controls are too limited (+-6dB). Why not +-10dB? You need to use the loudness at low volume. Don't be surprised if you don't feel to have a 100w per channel amp in your room. It's not 100w RMS. Maybe 60w RMS but it is ok for my ears.

Similar Products Used:

Technics SADX 940

Remote, Digital Inputs, S Video Switching

None that affect me

This receiver performs flawlessly for 90%+ of the listening population out there (my guess). I checked the high-end pieces (Pioneer Elite, Onkyo, HK) but for my ears (possibly messed up by 4 years as an armor officer in the army) I could tell NO difference between this and the top end models. However, the improvement over Dolby Pro Logic (my old receiver) is absolutely incredible. I have a Pioneer DV-C503 plugged into the optical digital input to play both CDs and DVDs - The clarity of the digital connections is outstanding. I can't say enough about the advantages of digital 5.1 and DTS - but suffice to say getting 5.1 and DTS decoding for under $200 is a great deal.

The remote. This thing has eliminated every other remote by the TV. I can turn on/off/switch/change every component now (TV/VCR/DVD/RCVR/Cable) - the only drawback is if my wife ever gets control of the remote, I've lost total control :)

Bottom line is that for the money, the 509S will perform superbly for the vast majority of home theater enthusiasts. For the minority, there's always the expensive stuff :)

Similar Products Used:

Sony AV Receiver

dosnt clip, looks pretty good, plenty of connections, good build, not japanese

the tech was rude, the controls suck because they dont let u adjust your bass and treble in Dolby, even stereo the controls were weak. I recently hooked a pair of rear speakers up and the amount of power droped dramaticly. i used to be able to desturbe thge neighbors, but cant anymore since 4 speakers is too much for it. it also gives an echo effect when im in dobly prologic even in standard mode, that becomes annoying.

its got its share of problems

REMOTE, Power, Sound Quality, Featuers per dollar

Bass and Treble Controls

Originally bought this receiver at Costco online for $210 because the stores didn't carry it anymore. Less than 2 months later, it showed back up in the stores for $190. After some hassle about getting paid the difference in price, I ended up only paying $180. Great Deal! Sometimes you gotta love Costco's return policy.

I am a part-time sound engineer, and have been an audiophile for some time now. After looking at some receivers others had recommended, I started really comparing. I didn't have the money to spend more than about $400, so I was looking at Yamaha, Sony, and HK. These all were close to $200 more than the D509S, so it was an easy choice.

As far as the unit goes, I have no major complaints. Better Bass/Treble controls would be nice, but if you set up the system right, they are not a problem. I built my whole home theater system on a budget, and I ended up buying just about everything at Costco. My mains are a set of KLH 915B's, which are four-way, with a 15" woofer. The D509S pushes them just fine, and there is almost no need for a subwoofer. My satellites are a set of Advent Marbl's, which sound pretty good, and I also use a pair of them for the center channel. I just recently got a KLH 10" sub, but as I said before, if the system is set up correctly, it is almost unnecessary to even have a sub with the 915B's. CD's and DVD's are played on a Toshiba SD-3205 5-disk carousel using the optical digital out to the receiver.

I haven't had any problems with the amp even getting warm, and I usually listen to it at about -50 dB, which is loud enough that you can't hear anyone trying to talk to you. If you are having problems with the overload indicator coming on all the time, something is likely hooked up wrong. First thing to check is that your speakers are phased properly (just make sure that + goes to +, and - to -). Haven't had any problems with the loudness feature like others have where it is distorting, but at high volumes, this is a common problem with a lot of receivers. Again, with decent speakers, the volume shouldn't need to be much above 40 with loudness OFF if everything is set-up properly. Using the digital inputs makes a good bit of difference, as there is not nearly as much noise as there is with analog.

The unit is rated at 100 Watts per channel AVERAGE, which is actually better than 100 Watts RMS. Avg. power = Peak Power*(2/pi) and RMS power = Peak Power*(Sin 45degrees). Using these formulas, Peak power is about 157 Watts using Avg. Power and only 141 Watts using RMS power. This is at 8 Ohms impedance (not the same as resistance) and .2% Total Harmonic Distortion. Pretty good for an amp only costing about $200.

The sound quality is absolutely amazing in my home theater set-up, especially when you consider that everything only cost me less than $550 (speakers and receiver)!!! I have been in other theater set-ups that cost at least 10X more, and I am suprised how much worse sounding they are. I am always impressed with the number of features the D509S compared to other "high-end" brands, and I have only been in one theater set-up that sounded noticeably better, but the cost was upwards of $25k including the speakers. For the money, the D509S just can't be beat.

This receiver is amazing, especially when you consider the price at about $200!!! It is easily comparable to systems costing $500 - $700 (Yamaha makes one almost identical). If you have the chance to purchase one of these units for $200 or less, DO IT! You will not be disappointed.

Similar Products Used:

Sony, Denon, HK, Yamaha, Onkyo

always reliable-awesome learning remote!-what can i say it is a simple piece of excellence.

i want the same reciever but a new one with pro-logic ii. c'mon pioneer make one!

I have now had this unit for over a year and four months- it was a birthday present and what a nice one. this reciever has only overloaded once-the day i got it!! i was turning it dangerously too high in the midnight mode which is very stupid!(don't do this) it has never given me trouble of any kind-speaking of midnight mode-i'd almost say that it sounds better than any other mode-because of the detail in sound-although it must be noted that dts is incredible in the midnight mode with no downgrade in bass signal-but the dolby digital sounds compressed with less bass signal for late night viewing--watch dolby without midnite or loudness-it sounds better! currently i have my sony dvd player-rca sattellite reciever-hifi toshiba vcr-playstation 2- technics cassete deck-sega dreamcast- and sharp 27 inch television all wired up with highgrade cables and optical cables-have yet to use the digital coax-and it ia awesome-and efficient, all because of the great remote- take the time to learn how to use it-there is no need for backlighting!!!-i've never understood that complaint--the remote can be programmed to work anything and you can program any button to copy a button on another remote--for instance-my dvd player is a five disc changer-which there is no button on the reciever remote for this-no problem-just pick a button on the remote and point at the dvd remoter and input a simple 975 and learn--and ther you go-it now will switch the discs on the dvdplayer. i currently have my remote programmed to operate everything exept my cassette player(it's old) and dreamcast(boo hoo) and i must say i feel like i have a magic wand. this reciever will not disappoint it is easy to use and doesn't overheat-and plain stereo sounds great-with control of the sub cross over to the speakers you can adjust it to your liking--just don't turn it up too loud in the midnite mode and it'll be your friend for a long time. dts is highly recommended-my only wish is this same reciever with prologic II! pioneer?

Similar Products Used:

an old sony prologic reciever-i gave to my sister.

cool remote but thats it!!!

OVERLOADS!!!!! ITS WHIMPY!!!!! ITS TOO HOT!!!
I HAD TO KEEP AN OSCILLATING FAN ON IT BUT IT STILL WASNT ENOUGH!!!

Well I'm not all that technical bout such things but this is the second unit I've had. You see the first one overloaded so badly just weeks after purchase that it would not even power back up. Even after unplugging it for a few seconds as the manual suggested. Best Buy did gladly replace the unit however. The second unit worked well for quite a few months but it started overloading on me. Yes I did have the volume up pretty loud but never past -25 to -20 db. This unit however will powere back up after an overload. Now I cant even play a cd at more than -60 db (less than 1/2 way up!!) and the thing overloads. I dont know what to do with this thing now. I dont know if its completely useless or what.

Value/Performance

None

It's been a little over a year since I bought this receiver. I've never encountered any problem at all. I like the sound it produces for the money I paid for it. DTS DVD is quite awesome, even the DPL. For music, my wife and I listen at a moderate volume, we tend to just turn the receiver and the (100) disc player on and let it flow. I always have the loudness button on for a more pronounced bass and treble. I don't mind it at all.

I can't really complain. You get what you pay for and I really did get my moneys' worth for what I paid. For a budget home theater system you can't beat the price and performance.