6.1 Sound, 6 Channel Stereo, DTS-ES, Video Switching and optical In and Out

None so far

This is a great receiver for those on a budget and want the 6.1 experience. They don,t have a lot of movies to take advantage of this yet, but I found out that there are some DTS movies that actually uses the rear center channel.

Similar Products Used:

Pioneer VSX-D608

Checked into the heat issue;measured at 120*F and was told this is a normal operating temperature. Note: I gave 4 stars on performce because I have little experience with other receivers. Pioneer does an excellent job of decoding all signal formats.(Rates 5 stars otherwise)

clean sound on music and video,6 channel discrete and matrixed,price

runs very warm at high volumes

I really like this unit! Got "The Haunting" in DTS-ES which has an excellent soundtrack{Check this one out!}. It's nice to hear sound enveloping the whole listening room. Very clean and crisp with lots of control of all seven speakers. Six channel theater and 6 channel stereo are great whether using stereo, VCRs, CDs or DVDs. Regular stereo is also excellent sounding. Ample bass too. Only thing I need to check out is that this unit gets very warm{hot}, especially with heavy soundtracks as I like it loud. The only other 6 channel units are all above $1700cdn so I waited for this unit which cost $700cdn.This left me room to buy a better speaker system as right now I'm using a mixed bag of speakers from 20 year old mains and surrounds and Kenwood HTB center, back and powered sub.

Similar Products Used:

none

Its feature, with a lot of input & output.
Price is incredible

Its small heat sink and its look

Overall it is a great product with this price tag. When you look at its rear panel , you just cannot believe you have such a large array of in-outs with this price range. It comes with S-video and components video in-out, plus it has pre-outs for all channels.

Its look is dull as there is not much color buttons you can touch. All are hidden behind a door. Its built is OK but is not great. I know why people complain about its heat. Its heat sink is only half the size of the vsx-409. Even though there is an internal fan, which will only turn on at about -30db. What I suggest people to do is to make an external fan and powered by its AC outlet. It will work as I did for other receiever (Sony 925).

Pioneer has a different volume design which is not linear. Only when you turn to db -40, then you start to feel punch from music. In Sony receiver, by the one quarter you have the volume level already. Sometimes I doubt if Pioneer really has 100 watts??

This has a nice remote which can learn other components easily. I used the learning to assign VCR and DVD. But in the manual there is a missing section of 're-assign mutli-control button'. Say if you have two DVDs, you should be able to use another button to be 'DVD' control. I tried to call pioneer office, but the service man asked me to call back and talk to other person. In previous model, like 509S you can do such re-assignment.

I tried this on DVD playback. It has no obvious problem. The surround effect is as great as I expected. I also played music CD. When I used DSP effect, I can feel more ambience. But Hall1 and Hall2 makes no difference. When I set to '6-stereo' effect, I really like it as it give you a good definition of music playback from the rear speakers.

I opened the case and looked into inside. I found its heat sink is small compared to 409. But I see a separate chamber for the main audio/video chips which are hidden inside the chamber. I believe this is called isolution from electronic interface which will provide a pure vidoe/audio signal.

I love this machine as it runs first in the race before Sony. Sony is too pricy and its features are cut down to accommodate the new 6.1 features. With this price, this product is more than enough for anyone to enjoy digital entertainment. This is more for those who want high flexibility in connection. For me, it is a perfect match!!

Similar Products Used:

Sony 925, Pioneer 409,

6.1, Price

Hiss, THD, No Bass

I have been looking at the Elites for some time. I broke down last week, lowered my standards, and bought a D810S. I tweaked it for about 4 hours and then gave up. I had to put it on Midnight Mode and crank the bass to get any sort of full spectrum sound out of the amp (I had the bass adjusted for no sub etc..). Also, I also noticed hiss through some quiet parts of songs (such as Stings, Englishman in NY). I am replacing a Top Art Yamaha I bought when I was 17 (11 years ago for $600). After the fact, I realized I was stepping down quite a bit. I didn’t realize how spoiled I was all these years. The D810S is a good receiver for the money, but didn’t meet my expectations. I wanted to get into the home theater. I worked well for movies, but lacked seriously in the reproduction of music. Needless to say my Elite will be here next week. I know these products probably aren’t comparable, but I just want to say don’t get your hopes up on this new product, Hybrid amplification can only get you so far.

Similar Products Used:

Higher end stuff