amp sounded clean till it burned out in 2 months & spent 5weeks in repair shop only to bring it home & have another proplem with the volume jumping up and down so i traded it back in on a kenwood vr309.

Price , sound quality, great bass

remote, confusing Dolby Digital and Pro Logic set up

I have searched the internet for reviews and prices for all types of models/brands. This best suites my needs for my budget. I bought it at a retail store for $279. I was very interested in that it came with a digital decoder. I purchased a Toshiba DVD 2109 (without the decoder) so the receiver would handle the decoding. Thought that would be best.
The only problem so far is that the remote does not work with the receiver. First I thought the remote was the wrong kind for the receiver and I called the retail store and told them about it. I took the remote to the store and we tried it on the same receiver and it worked just fine. Brought it back home and to no avail, it would not work. So in the meantime, I must use the limited features on the reciever (the remote gives more bells and whissles). The following evening I called back and the salesman requested that I package it all up and bring it back to the store for a new one. Obviously, it must be the receiver not accepting the signal from the remote.
I will give a future feedback on this product when the remote works with the receiver.
It's hard to say at this point if I would recommend this product until I get everything to work.

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood

The Pioneer Receiver VSX-D557 could be rated as the best value for money.Its performance is good and upto the standards.

Ample power at a sensible price. Dolby decoder built in.

Remote. Manual is miserable, and it showed the wrong Remote. Can the subwoofer be run without a DSP or Dolby mode? Nobody seems to know!

Bought this gizmo primarily for playing music. However, I was glad I took the time to research inputs, DSPs, and all that good stuff. I'm officially out of inputs, which may be a minor failing of the amp. On the up side, I've yet to clip it out and the 5.1 works great. My one gripe, however, is that the subwoofer doesn't seem to work when the amp isn't in a DSP or Dolby mode. Odd stuff. No mention of it in the manual, and there is no assistance from Pioneer on the web.

Overall, I'm satisfied, and if it wasn't discontinued, I'd definitely tell the newbie to pick one up. It's made me appreciate the options that are available for A/V systems. It's actually made me kinda snooty... now I want a dirty-big Yamaha.

System:
Front spearkser: Bose 301 IV
center channel: Bose VCS-10
Subwoofer: JBL PSW-D112
Rear Surrounds: KEF bookshelves
CD: Nakamichi CDC 200
MD: Sony MDS-JE320
DVD: Sony (connected with the only available optical input)
TV: Zenith 30"

Similar Products Used:

Kenwood, Sony

Except for the missing S-VHS connections their great for the price!I tried rock, rap, classical, country & easy listening. All sounded GREAT!

Just love it!!! I work at United Audio, and they carry from Sony ES, Pioneer Elite, to Carver and McIntosh. Of course this 557 won't give you the quality of Carver or McIntosh, but if you're considering a very descent Dolby Digital receiver without all the gazzetts, this is the way to go. Thanks to MOSFET technology, you WILL get a very clean sound out of it. And it's just my opinion, but I think this 557 sounds much better than all the sony receivers, including Elevated Standard line.You won't regret it.