Customer Ratings & Reviews

GREAT RECEIVER! Sounds miles better than my Onkyo 7.2, of course, with the addition of 2 more speakers. However, the inclusion of Dirac Live was a game changer! Perfectly balances all my speakers and now I am watching a bunch of old movies over again to experience the "new" sound. The only reason I did not give this receiver 5 stars was because you can't set the cross-overs individually. This may be a deal breaker for some, but still... This receiver rocks! If you want the individual cross-over options, you can get the sister product in the Onkyo TX-NR7100. They are the same exact unit, aside from name and the cross-overs.

This unit replaces a Sony purchased to replace a failed 10 year old Denon. None of the equipment was well understood by seller or installers. Best Buy represented no Denon like for like replacement existed and offered a Sony unit. Installer denied suitability of Sony replacement unit and recommended this unit. On delivery installer said either a Denon or Sony appliance could replace the multi-zone, Apple centric original but the Pioneer not so much. It sounds great if it feels like work-around. If Best Buy understood their products better I would own a Denon.

I have had this receiver for over a month now and so far so good! It is easy to use and is working as described. We have surround sound and it is working great! Our last receiver was not producing the surround sound and it was more money. We did have this one installed by the Geek Squad so that may be the difference too!

The receiver is awesome. I purchased this receiver to replace an Onkyo 9.2 receiver that I had for 10 years. The pioneer plays the same as the Onkyo. No to mention the pioneer is the same quality and much cheaper.

I bought this AV receiver to replace my 12 year old Pioneer VSX-1123 after the video switch failed. This unit is essentially the same receiver as the 1123, only a few updated features dealing with "tuning" the sound profile for your room and seating positions. What I really appreciate about the Pioneer lineup is it's compatibility with my Apple ecosystem in my home. Works very well with my iOS devices and my Apple media server. It also plays very well with my Sony Bravia HDTV and its HDMI / ARC connectivity. If I would have been unhappy with Pioneer, I sure would not have bought another one. After 2 months in service, it has not disappointed me!

Set up was easy and it powers my 4 tower speakers, center channel, 4 atmos, and 2 subs perfectly with no distortion even at higher volumes.

I ordered a open box with excellent condition, I received a very big box, after I opened I see a piece of bubble wrap around the receiver and that it nothing else not even a power cord or something to support the receiver for not moving around, cut the bubble wrap and see the antenna fell off and the receiver damage,I took it to the BestBuy store right away to return but they didn’t excepted my return and said I have to send it back and I have to take to the FedEx, what a wasting time experience . I read a lot of reviewers had the same shipping problems, don’t know why some shipping department doing the same thing ,no body reading the review?, they just wasted the company money and customer time . I hope my next orders could be better .

I really like Pioneer and Pioneer Elite home theater receivers as I think they sound the BEST compared to other brands! However, their new model receivers are all up +$400 from last year because they have DIRAC Live software installed in them. DIRAC Live can only calibrate speakers on a Horizontal Plane and is only capable of 8 channels, and that includes your subwoofer. So if you have a 7.1 Home Theater speaker layout, then you're really going to benefit from this addition. But if you have a DOLBY ATMOS 5.1.2/5.1.4/7.1.2 (i.e. CEILING SPEAKERS) then you just waisted a lot of money. Besides, the only true way to get your Home Theater system to sound it's ultimate best is to invest your TIME and adjust everything manually. DIRAC Live and/or Auto-MCACC can not make your Home Theater system sound the way your ears want it to be heard, it can only get you in the ball park. The other thing that I do not like about this over-priced receiver is that they still have it set up to where the Crossover shuts down all of the Bass going to ALL speakers set to 'small'. For this price, a person should be able to set the Crossover point to each individual speaker or to each pair of speakers in the system like a person can do on other receivers from different brands.

Great receiver. Sound quality is excellent. Cheapest way to get 5.1.4 Atmos with 4k120fps.

Fantastic receiver amplifier Plenty of power for quality speakers.

I am very happy and impressed with the 305!!! Dramatic improvement over my 5.1 JVC that is about 25 years old. The 5.1.4 (5.2.4 is possible if you run 2 subs) setup is a real game changer with 4 height channels. It all sounded really good right out of the box but with the dirac room calibration (fairly easy to use) my system now sounds truly amazing, I mean truly. Dirac adjusts all the speaker frequency responses, channel volume levels and delays to optimize based on specific listening environment. Following dirac, I manually assigned all speakers as 'small' with crossover at 80 (single global crossover value is a limitation of the unit but I take little concern with it, especially since Dirac tunes the frequency response of the entire system). The way dirac tunes in all the specific channel volume adjustments, delay settings and frequency filter curves to get the speakers to all play well together and avoid phasing issues is nothing short of brilliance, no possible way to dial that in by ear unless you are some kind of sevant. I also ended up upgrading my fronts (to the RP-6000F), center (to the RP-400c), Sub (to the SPL 120), and two of my heights (to the RP-500SA). I also have 4 in-ceiling (2 used as surround and 2 used as heights). The 305 supplies plenty of power to run all that beautifully and I've not pushed the limits of max volume (-15 is really loud and sounds very theatrical for atmos Movie content, I am usually closer to -20, -5 is loudest I have pushed and it still sounds good, just way too loud for anyone in the room) (-25 is also way louder than normal music listening volume but sounds amazing with ext stereo mode, I have pushed up around -10 and it sounds great and ultra loud). Dialog in movie content is great and you can use the dialog enhancement as well but I have not typically found it necessary, though I do use it sometimes and it definitely works. eARC has been very good for me, occasionally I find it easier to power cycle when switching inputs. I run everything to receiver and just one HDMI to TV (Series X, 4K Blu-ray player is all I am using now as I just stream everything direct to TV such as Netflix, etc but Im sure it'd be great with ATV, Shield, Roku, etc). Bluetooth is seamless and allows me to play my huge digital music library straight from my phone. Spotify works really well too. The only debate with going to the 505 is if you really need the added power. 505 has a little more built-in power and has pre-outs so you can use additional external amp to drive some power hungry speakers. 505 also has 2 additional pre-out channels so you could do 7.2.4 but without additional amp, 305 and 505 are both 9 channel (7.2.2 or 5.2.4) AVRs. 5.2.4 is clear winner in my opinion on that front. Bottom line, 305 is FANTASTIC and fills the entire house with music and turns the living room into a rumbling/screaming/zipping/zinging immersive movie viewing experience. Definitely recommend!

Dolby Atmos, 9 channel. What else can you ask for ? 100 watts per channel. Great AVR for a big great room. Dirac live for free. Great room software.

Easy set up great hi quality sound power and overall output..

I've enjoyed this reveiver aince I acquired it a month ago. The amp sufficiently powers my modest 5.1 setup (Klipsch Quintet III, 12’ Klipsch sub) and Dirac did a great job setting the foundation for my room's calibration. I did have issues with dirac complaining about the sub level being too loud (without explicitly telling me the sub was the target), but lowered it in the app, completes dirac setup, then turned the sub back to a reasonable level (it set it way too low).

I got this open box! What a deal! It sounds great. I had an expensive Marantz SR-7011 that channels burnt out and then the whole amp burnt out. I had a Denon that channels burnt out on too. My Dad had a pioneer AVR in the 90s that lasted for 25 years so I figured I’d give it a try. It sounds just as good as the Denon and Marantz. It’s got Dirac live which is really good, better than Audessey. I think it sounds better for movies than the Marantz and a little less good for music but barely any difference, the Marantz was a little warmer for music.

The vsx 305 is excellent!! In fact I didnt even notice a huge difference in volume compared to the vsx 505. Setup is super easy and unless you plan to use more than 1 additional pre amp this is a great value. Clean crisp sound with more base output than comparable brands. I LOVE IT!! I am using it to power def tec bp 9080 and no pre amp is needed plus 4 subwoofers, atmos speakers and another set of towers on the B channel in another area of my home. The pioneer apps allow your ohine to control every aspect from setup to input changes to volume and equilization.

Very similar to Anthem and Onkyo. Dirac live is good. App works great. Multi zone is awesome although video is reduced to the first 3 HDMI inputs. Powerful and sounds really good.

Great sound. Dirac Live is a game changer with a steep learning curve if you use the computer program. I'm hoping the lack of pre-outs isn't an issue later on if I decide to change speakers. A great value to get into Dirac.

As someone who is a musician and sound engineer, I know my audio quite well. I have been a big fan of Pioneer and have gone back and forth between Pioneer and Sony AVR's for years now. While this AVR has many features, gadgets and apps, such as 8k passthrough and the many Theater like features such as Atmos , Dolby Surround Upmixing, DTS:X®/DTS Neural:X Upmixing, IMAX Enhanced, and Dolby Atmos Height Virtualization, however the first rule in audio is tone. This AVR failed miserably. Upon set up I attempted the DIRAC sound set up. Let me say that it wants you to do between 9-17 mearurements. That takes quite a bit of time and to be honest is ridiculous, so I went to the more basic auto setup and it took a lot longer than my Sony STR-DH790 AVR and was for more inaccurate especially on the low end. Let me say this, it sounded like a very cheap sound bar through all of my speakers regarding its tone. So after a while of trying to figure out where I can adjust the tone manually, which was an adventure, the sub was -13db for whatever reason, and my speakers were identified as large when I have Satellite type speakers (Celestion AVP 303) and the crossover was at 100. I adjusted to small speakers and when I went to adjust the crossover It gave me a 150 option- Nothing in between, which I like about a 120. I switched it to 150. There was nothing in this menu to adjust for the treble or tone. Even after making these adjustments, it still sound hollow and lack luster. Nothing on the highs or lows that stood out. After fiddling with it for over a half hour I finally found where I can adjust the bass and treble, but it does a system adjustment, and does not let you do individual speakers that I could find. There was not a full manual, just a quickstart quide, where the Sony STR-DH790, had a full manual and is almost 1/3 of the price. After the adjustments, the tone still didn't cut it. Out of all of the AVR's that I have bought since I was in the service back in 1992, this was the worst ever by far. Were the theater surround features good? Kind of, however I didn't get a good tone, so anything can sound like it is surrounding you when the tone is hollow sounding. The extra inputs are nice, but I really don't need more than 4 anyway. Apps, you can get on a FireStick, Roku or stream from a tablet or device via blu-tooth. Dirac is a waste of money as far as I'm concerned where it is that complicated and time consuming to set up your sound. For an AVR of this price, you should have more options to adjust your tone than a sound than a soundbar. In regards to gaming at 4k/120P or 8k/60P I guess that would be an advantage, but I'm not a gamer, so I am not sure what difference that would make. In regards to 8K viewing and TV's at the current sizes at normal viewing range, it is hard for the human eye to tell the difference unless you are up very close, and not much if nothing is being broadcast in true 8k anyway so for me this feature is not relevant for me or most at this time. Lastly, to my surprise when downloading the app, Onkyo bought Pioneer, so maybe that is where the problem is. I don't know, I just know that this receiver is horrible for almost any price point.

Great sound when paired with my speakers. Very user friendly. Love the wifi connection. Controllable from my phone. Great amount of inputs. Great looking as well.