I bought my receiver second hand in a auction for a mere £78, wired up 2 wharfdale diamond speakers to it and it really is the dogs dangles. The sound quality is brilliant.

I know some people have had problems with theres, but mine never gets hot, even on low volume.

My advice....keep it well ventilated!!!!!! (like it says in the manual hint hint) choose good speakers that can respond to low frequency to maximize the bass

this is a great receiver well worth the money if you can find one get it, it is a great device.
if you use it excessively i suggest buying another computer fan and a 12-volt power regulator.
the is an outlet on the back of the unit so you just plug the 12-volt source in there and it comes on and off with the receiver. I also got some wheels off a HESS TRUCK and put them under the unit to rise it up a little, this thing runs cool you wouldn't know it was ever on and to this it would probably cost under 50 dollars. here ar some pictures of mine with the fan/12-volt regulator upgrade.
picture one

picture two

Excellent unit lasted me 12 years with no problems

No 7 to 1 dolby

I have to agree with the one guy here who says you need quality speakers. I was using KLH speakers with a powered sub and the sound was good. I bought Cerwin vega towers, powered sub and book shelf speakers and the sound is awsome. I bought mine when it first came out and I've had no problems til just this past week when all my outputs stopped working? I am a certified electronics tech and I have metered, inspected and tested everything I could think of and I can't find any problems? All in all I'd say this is a great head end unit and well worth the cash I paid for it (I said 399.00 ) but I honestly can't remeber.

Dispite this being the first, only and last problem I ever had I will be replacing it with a unit that has 7 to 1 surround. But still it lasted me 12 years! ! ! Oh, and yes it gets hot but anyone into home theater and and lound heavy metal like my self would know to keep some space around the bottom and keep the top clear of any other equipment. I have never had any over heating issuse!

Hope this helps some one out!!!

Clear, crisp stereo sound, deep bass, ease of use, 3 x optical input, excellent value!

DPS modes are a waste of time... apart from that - NONE!

SA-DX940 is the AMP I have owned for over 4 years now... it was the best money I have ever spent on audio equipment. I can only presume that the people in this forum who are running this Amp down have had bad examples of this AV receiver. The DD and DTS watching movies is outstanding. Yes, the DPS is gimmicky, I've never bothered using them after trying them all once. I have bi-wired my Mission front speakers so that a flick of the switch enables surround or stereo (as the manual denotes) and this gives me a really good crisp stereo sound when listening to music. I have never taken my AMP over half volume as it's loud enough at that (and the wife gets a bit twisted if I do) but it's never given me any trouble. I've never even noticed it getting hot as some have suggested. I've had it mounted in a rack and now it's just sits on top a unit under my 42" plasma. I've had my DVD player on top of it before now and there's never been a problem. I absolutely love my Technics Amp and until it gives up on me, won't be replacing it with anything else. I went to a sound & vision expo in London a couple of years back and sat in on the BOSE demo... even with their huge base, lump, thing, my amp still appeared to me to be louder and much clearer. I have an Eltax sub (100 watts) which gives me all the bass I need and I have replaced the surround speakers recently with Mission surround and stereo speakers which only seemed to enhance my listening pleasure. I suggest all those who put run bit-of-kit down to study the manual carefully and check their speakers are compatible.

good power
clean sound
three fiberoptic inputs

no digital coax

I have had this reciever/ amplfier since 1999 i think. I use bose 6 1/2" towers in the front and bose 8" bookshelves for the rear. I have used this thing hard and never had any problems what so ever. And I've had it stacked inside of a cabinet with dvd player and vcr. And I think the sound is excellent especially with the digital input watching movies or listening to cd's. Maybe everybody that is talking bad about this reciever needs to have better speakers or speakers that dont need alot of power to sound good.

I haven't taken a sledge hammer to it yet (but will soon in all goes according to plan)
It is very loud, but distorts so it is hard to enjoy the sound.

Distortion at any volume.. Insane HEAT unless you modify the fan to stay on constantly.

It will soon by scrap metal.

I have had this SA-DX940 since summer 2001 or so.. This thing is a piece of junk..

It sounds horrible at times (bad distortion) and it gets EXTREMELY HOT (until modified with computer case fan)

The only reason I still use it is because I rigged the fan to always come on and stay on the entire time the unit is powered on. I did this by using the power outlet on the back of the receiver and a transformer connected to an 80mm computer case fan.

This piece of junk came with a cooling fan, but some genius engineer decided the fan should only come on when the volume is turned past a certain point, not when the thing gets so hot you could fry and egg on it when it is at 1/8 level volume in an air conditioned room (for example).

I have other hobbies that I am more interested in than watching movies or listening to music in the living room, so I decided to just keep this thing until I decide I am totally sick of it an buy another receiver that actually sounds good.

I use another very old Technics 2 channel receiver (of much higher quality, from the mid '80s I guess) to power two separate subwoofers for my sub channel, and use a combination of Cerwin Vega and JBL satellites for the satellite channels. Strangely, sometimes music sounds OK, but when there is any voice coming through the center channel it is often horribly distorted even at very low volume levels. I tested my speakers and they are fine, the distortion is coming from the receiver.

I paid 250 bucks for this thing so I wanted to get my moneys worth out of it.. it is time to get a better receiver, this thing isn't even good enough to hook up to my PC when I get a new one. My 100 dollar "Creative" brand PC speakers with built in 5.1 channel amp connected to my Herculese Fortissimo III 7.1 sound card produce much less distortion than this receiver which is sad to say the least. The PC speakers are no where near as loud, but have less distortion at any sound volume level.


Actually I even had this thing serviced under warranty to address the heat issue and distortion before the warranty ran out.. What happened is probably typical, the place I took it to said they hooked it up to a load overnight and then said there were no issues with it and charged the warranty company 50 dollars to "replace caps" even though they did absolutely nothing.. at least that is what the work order said.

I should have reported them for insurance fraud, but my warranty ran out before I got around to doing anything about it. Oh well.. I don't think that any repair shop can fix a design problem anyway.

Customer Service

Horrible.. they lied and stole money from the warranty company while doing absolutely nothing to fix the problems.

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watch a DTS movie... great .. you feel yourself in a movie theather .. cinema

stereo sound is weak ... but I of course still use it tolisten to cds and stuff.. but in high volume

I am a musician .. I hear what most people dont hear ... of course I bought this receiver just before my daughter was born ... that was the best equipment I could get for this price... but yes... its brilliant when you are watching a movie.. esspecially if you are watching a movie in DTS format ..but maybe because of my speakers... they are technics also .. small tho.. stereo mode is very weak .. I will write another review when I change my front speakers. but overall ...its a brilliant product ..

Very good and clean sound quality, both in stereo mode and in DTS/Dolby Digital. Excellent rate quality/price.

Run hot. Not possible to adjust treble or bass in DD mode.

I bought this receiver in December 2002, and I'm very satisfied with the performance, the quality is very good in stereo and in dolby digital, with good bass response. Regarding to the hot issues, I've followed the instructions of the manufacturer, no put another element on top and having a little distance with the wall, and yes, it runs hot, but not until the limit to be dangerous. For this price, it's a good receiver.

Good bass. Bright lively sound.

Unable to adjust bass/treble on dsp modes and digital surround.

I had the Yamaha RXV396 receiver for 5 months. It performs great with movies and has a good range of dsp modes. However, I found myself using 'disco' to try and get 2 channel stereo source to sound better. I realised the "rumble" in the bass was lacking when playing stereo sources. The Yamaha seems to come alive though when playing in digital. I got frustrated at only being able to enjoy good movie sound (and a couple of dvd digital music discs I have) and yet not enjoy 2 channel stereo. The Technics resolved all this for me, as in stereo the bass rumble is there. What's more is I now found the high frequencies projecting to the back of my room as they should do from 'horn' tweeters. The Yamaha is great as a cinema system, but flunks at stereo. (By the way, some have commented that the bass isn't so good on the Technics. I've found that bass cones less than 24cm in diameter in a big box simply will not produce that all-important "rumble"). The Technics is all round brighter and sharper than the subdued Yamaha. The Technics on movies is inevitably very different from the Yamaha. The Technics is a touch quieter on the rears and gives a wider sound than the Yamaha. The sound is cleverly projected from all speakers leaving you unable to tell where it's all coming from until those effects come in that make that gun shot come clearly and loudly from your screen- i.e. your centre speaker. The Yamaha seems to give a more precise sound all of the time and is less expansive. By the way Richer Sounds Ltd in UK provide an excellent service with heavy discounts, unlike most retailers who just want to sell you something expensive and never see you again. They took my Yamaha receiver back after 5 months- no questions asked. They really aim to help people achieve the sound they require.

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Yamaha rxv396rds

auto shut off if you overload it

overlodes too much, no more than 100/w a channel. it dose get hot

It is a good Reciver, Ive had it for about 2 years and it is still going strong. It has no problem powering 2 15 inch shelf speakers along with souround

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Pioneer, Kenwood