Very good performance and easy to use.. very cool running when loaded properly

reliability, sound

still can't find one

This is a follow-up review. It's been 2 years since I bought this receiver and 1000 or so DVDs later, it still gives me trouble-free performance. I have since added a yamaha yst 10-incher subwoofer and a pioneer sacd-dvd audio universal player to my system and the receiver took full advantage of the additions. sacds and dvd-audio disks really bring out the best from this receiver. the resolution of sacd and dvd-audio makes you want to dump all your cds. the handful of sacds i have since bought include chesky's blue bossa, ink and orchestral spectacular. dvd-audio disks include carly simon's we have no secrets, paul simon's you're the one, harnoncourt's 2001 new year's day concert, joni mitchel's both sides now and natalie merchant's tigerlily.

Warning to all Pioneer receiver purchasers: All Pioneer receiver have inopertive tone controls in any surround mode, they only work in the Stereo/Direct modes. In order to adjust the tonal balance of your surround system, you have no choice but to put an equalizer in the tape monitor path and keep that path active all of the time. This is a serious deficiency, and misleading advertising on the part of Pioneer, and possibly other A/V receiver manufacturers.

its very low price as compared with other gears under the same category and its features

power consumption is 990 watts

Well a week after i bought the pioneer vsxd811s-s i posted a review saying that this baby gets hot easily. in fact several times it OVERLOADED. thats horrible i thought before. what i did was to re-check all my connections including the speakers hooked in it after having read some literatures about impedance matching. i discovered that it was my fault because i connected two 8 ohms speakers on parallel in each of the receivers speaker output. two 8 ohms connected in parallel will give a 4 ohms rating. the receivers reqmnts is from 8 ohms to 16 so to protect it self, it goes off when the power is pumped up. what i did was to connect the two speakers in series, giving it a total of 16 ohms, which is within the receivers specs. I never experienced any heating after that. all i am getting now is the superb sound plus all the good features of this baBY. I really like this one because it turns a 5.1 disk into 6.1. the

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pioneer vsxd409g

1. All the important decoders 2. 6.1 3. front set of A/V inputs including toslink 4. 100 watt by 6 channel 5. easy setup 6 best feature set for the Money

1. remote not backlit 2. have not been able to get the remote to control my dishnetwork 301 receiver

This is my first receiver and I spent 6 weeks comparison shopping and decided that the vsx d11 would be the best bang for the buck it has plenty of a/v inputs and outputs it has nice quality features like binding posts for the speaker wire and the remote looks intimidating but is layed out in an easy to use manner. I have owned mine for a little over a month and I LOVE it!

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none

Sound, intelligent control that auto-detects format (DD, DTS, Pro Logic, EX, ES). Great silver finish. Good FM reception

None as of yet

This received does Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES Discrete, and a host of DSPs like DTS Neo and Dolby 5.1 music surrounds, etc. Has all the amps you'll need for a 7.1 set-up, which is how I'm using it. The great thing about this is that if you do not want to go beyond 5.1, the receiver allows you to run a passive subwoofer using the back surround amps. This receiver has none of the quirks associated associated with earlier models. For example, you can set your front speakers to large and still be able to use the sub. Funny, but earlier receivers allow you to engage only a sub when your front speakers are set to small. The dilemma,of course, is that if you have a sub and large front speakers, you have to set the front speakers to small (a waste of the capability of the fronts) just to engage the sub. Connectivity is never a problem. It has pre-outs for all six channels and has analog inputs for DVD-audio and SACD. The sound is full, clean and amazing. Music or movies, this model rocks.

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Pioneer VSX-D506S Pro Logic I am running this 811 with mordaunt short 904s, and matching MS center. Back and side surrounds and sub are from JVC -- the weak links in my system.

- Price - All channel pre-amp outs - Optical inputs for CD player and DVD player - Handles surround modes well - Learning remote - Clean looks (hides all buttons on the amp and can dim all display lights)

- Sound, sound, sound! - Reliability? - Poor ergonimics on remote

In short- Understand the receivers capabilities and limits and you will not be disappointed! I bought this receiver for 3 specific reasons- price, 2-optical inputs, pre-amp outs for all channels. Connections: Nothing is amiss here, except for a phono input, but then again, if you are into vinyl, you will not be in this price range. :) I have hooked up everything that I own, and still have room for more. Front RCAs are good for a camcorder, or a portable player. Speaker posts are real nice, accepts banana plugs nicely. Optical ports have a hinged 'door' to protect from dust- better than the little plugs that you can loose in an instant. Sound: Do NOT buy this receiver for the sound- you will cry when you hear it! Many have written that they use the 'midnight' mode, but that simply compresses the dynamic range and the sound is well, for the lack of a better word, 'forward' everything sounds in your face, there is no real 'music', only bright sound! Misc. The learning remote is NOT intuitive, nor, can you program all keys, however, it is one GREAT way to put away all your other remotes. Handles, all 'surround' modes like Dolby Prologic, DD, DTS well. Has a few other built-in 'advanced surround' modes that are fluff. Circle surround would have been better for those that like it (I don't like anything but plain vanilla stereo). Recommendation: Like I said before, KNOW its strengths and limits and buy, you will not regret it. Hook the pre-amps to a good amp. and you will be using the system as a glorified switchbox for your audio needs. That is EXACTLY what I am doing.

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- Sony A/V STR-D1090 - Kenwood AV6070

Crisp clear sound even with lower quality speakers. Rich, solid subwoofer output (this was a problem on the 608). Learning remote (allows direct access to inputs as opposed to cycling through them as in the 608). Front S-Video and fiber input (This is great if you have a PS2 or something not constantly connected to your setup that uses digital audio). Assignable Component Video Inputs (2). I would have liked 3 (one for each video input) but I'm not complaining. 7.1 channel inputs for future expansion (SACD/DVD-A.)

Fewer rear inputs make setup a pain if you have a lot of components like me. No switch for using speakers with an ohm rating lower than 8. (This was a feature of the 608) No visual representation of the number of channels you are receiving sound on. Call me spoiled but I like being able to glance at the receiver and tell what speakers are active. All indicators are text based and don't take into account wierd sources like the Sound of Music (4.1 Channel) and the menus for The Transformers: The Movie (4.0 Channel).

I bought this unit as a replacement for my Pioneer VSX-D608. I was primarily interested in getting a receiver that would handle the DD and DTS ES formats and ProLogic II. Sound: My speakers are nowhere near reference quality (they are generic Aiwa if you must know), but I immediately noticed an improvement in sound clarity and fuller dynamic range. Setup: The setup was a breeze as the unit is very flexible. (Can be used effectively with numerous speaker configurations from 2 to 7.1 channels.) It is packed with a learning remote, but I have not used it much as I rely more on my Sony AV-2100 remote commander. (I did not have to reprogram my remote as the 811 accepts most of the same signals as the 608). There was a tradeoff where features were concerned, though as the system has only 3 rear video inputs, and only two rear fiber inputs. (The 608 had 4 and 3 respectively) This presented a problem for me as I needed every one of those inputs. It has front inputs but if it wouldn't look goofy enough to have a permanant connection there, the large front panel has to remain open for them to be connected. I was forced to resort to using the co-ax digital out on my DVD player in lieu of the fiber, and to use a couple of S-Video equiped switch boxes to squeeze all of my components in. (I'm heavily into video games.) I paid about $100 less for this than the 608. I would recommend this to anyone that does not have very many components and wants something simple and quick that will get the job done.

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Pioneer VSX-D608

7.1 midnight mode surprisingly lower THD than advertised solid power output to multiple ohm speakers learning remote (throw away your broken TV remote!) dimmer switch for front display midnight mode speaker distances and sizes in set-up "Hide em all" front panel that hides the buttons from view [let's face it, buttons collect dust--hidden buttons collect LESS dust] Price, price, price!

fm/am channel setting is an unneeded pain loudness mode?! (totally useless for this) Video OUT is VERY poor; any TV older than 1995 will not hold the picture resolution! (i've just bypassed that on my system)

far better that i originally thought. i have attached to this amp: Bose AM7s, Bose AM3s, JBL Pro IIIs, plus a Klipsh (18 & 15) passive sub. the total harmonic distortion is a little high according to the specs, BUT the Bose are VERY power hungry, they want/need the power offered by a solid amp. this amp provides that. as for the actual audible distortion, it's not that noticable with my speaker set up. i've run a few tests for distortion here with some equipment from work (i teach audio production) and have found only a spike of .04% THD. i'm not really certain why i'm getting such low numbers. i agree with all the other posts here. Midnight Mode is really the only useful mode offered by the amp. however, i have found the ability to turn midnight mode OFF to be pretty handy when the wife is trying to sleep two rooms over. another concern i have is with the "6.1" modes. they are quite restrictive; they cannot be activated without going into the preset mode and must be patiently "defused" to get them to sound better. I LOVE the ability to program speaker sizes and distances-it is such a powerful and useful feature! it belittles other amps in this price range that do not offer the same. the "7.1" ability is pretty groovy too. i added a set of Studio monitors (JBL) to split the rear channel and WOW. Lucas' films actually sounded better than the local theater! yes the remote as a bit "light" feeling, put who wants to do bicep curls while watching the home theater at home? me neither. overall, i was pleasantly surprised with this amp. it was much better than i thought. i had some major speaker problems with the previous amp that i owned, this amp solved several of those issues. a MUCH better value than i ever imagined!

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Harmon kardon, onkyo Yamaha (but i liked this one) Sony (waste of money)

Powerful broad audio, that is as good as I've heard even with higher end recievers. Easy to use funtions when you get the hang of it. Can't beat the price!

It sometimes gets uncomfortably hot when running intense loud audio(DTS particularly). I purchased a small fan that mounts on the A/V rack and aimed at the reciever, it stays nice and cool(a cooling fan would have been good). Also it needs more A/V inputs. Video inputs are plentiful for most(but I have ALOT of stuff, and use a seperate vid switcher). But it NEEDS more optical and coax inputs.

I purchased this reciever when upgrading from an old JVC reciever that had no DTS or even digital inputs. I have been using this reciever for 5 months now, and the quality is amazing. At first I heard distortion on certain DVD movies, I thought sure it was the receiver, but it turns out I was sending a PCM signal instead of bitsream to the reciever(don't do that). Now the audio sounds beautiful with bitstream. Set up was nice and simple even without an onscreen display(never had an OSD for a reciever so it wasn't a bother).