Customers are saying

Customers praise the excellent sound quality, noting its clarity and impressive power, even for home use. Many also highlight the impressive power output and the great value for the price. The positive feedback consistently emphasizes the audio performance across various media. Overall, the product receives overwhelmingly positive reviews regarding its sound and value.

This summary was generated by AI based on customer reviews.

The vast majority of our reviews come from verified purchases. Reviews from customers may include My Best Buy members, employees, and Tech Insider Network members (as tagged). Select reviewers may receive discounted products, promotional considerations or entries into drawings for honest, helpful reviews.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Great sound on a budget.
I bought the predecessorof this receiver a few years ago for $200. I had a really difficult time with deciding between four and five stars. For performance I'd give it a solid four. When the price is figured in, it deserves higher than a four. I would like to have given it 4 1/2 stars. Before considering my review it is relevant to consider the generation I grew up in. I am not a technophile. I was born in the early to mid 1960s. I found the settings on this unit to be maddeningly confusing at times. The most frustrating experiences were when I unintentionally changed the input/output options. For example, the CD or DVD outs can be electronically switched around. I'm not sure of the purpose of this feature, but I wish it didn't have this confusing flexibility. The unit does not automatically set up the surround distance speaker volumes etc. for the room. Many of these perceived shortcomings may be due to my lack of technical savvy. Of course it does not have the physical attributes of a more elegent and expensive piece of audio equipment. For example, in the 1980s I bought a Caver receiver that was a hefty beast. Oh what I would give to have silky smooth rotarary controls!! Now that I have said what I do not like about this receiver, I need to give it its due. The computer sound processing options make this a very nice sounding receiver, especially for a paltry $200. I really appreciate the optical inputs. It is pre-HDMI connections. The newer model may have them. I have been surprised and very pleased with the power output of this unit. Using a powered subwoofer helps any amp out tremendously, and I use one. Due to its many sound options and flexibility, you need to play around with its settings to get the best sound possible from this receiver. You "tune" it to your room. It used to be impossible to get such good sound from a $200 receiver. With everything taken into accout, I have to say that this receiver is a very good buy and sounds much better than a $200 receiver has any business sounding. Check out the newer version of this receiver currently being sold. Some of the maddening things about the older model may have been changed.
Posted 17 years ago by WVresident
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
just ok
i needed an inexpensive receiver to run a secondary home theater i was setting up in my living room. i am using it as a 3.1 system, using a jbl sattelite & sub speaker package from best buy. as i said, it is not my main home theater system, so i didn't want to spend much money, but it actually gets used more for daily tv viewing, music and ocassional movies, so quality was still important. having said all that, here is my opinion of this receiver. getting it on sale, the price was really good and it has all the features i need. set-up was about average; hooking everything up was easy, programming was about what i expected, i got through it, but felt that there must be a simpler way! i thought music sounded great, whether played from a cd or a concert dvd. sound quality was also good when listening to a movie or tv played on my dvr. however, this was not the case when playing a movie on my dvd player. no matter what soundfield i used the dialogue was always very quiet; i was always having to turn the volume way up to hear and understand what was being said, then turn it down quick when there was an action scene. nothing i did solved this problem. i checked my settings, changed soundfields, nothing helped. i guess i could have increased the signal sent to the center channel since that is where most of the dialogue comes from, but then i would have needed to decrease the signal when using my dvr or listening to music so the sound from the speakers matched again. and , i don't know if it would have worked anyway. since i haven't read any other reviews complaining of this, maybe mine was just a fluke. also, the total harmonic distortion is not as best buy has it advertised. check the "overview" section for the receiver. it says thd is .09%. now, check the "specifications" section. it says thd is .06%. according to the owners manual neither of these is correct. yamaha says thd is .9%. in the end, it became too frustrating to listen to movies the way this receiver performed, so it was exchanged for a pioneer vsx517k, also from best buy. you can check my review of that receiver if you are interested!
Posted 17 years ago by mattfromwisconsin
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
Great surround receiver for under $200
This receiver has the feel and touch of a high end one. I was extremely pleased with its performance right out of the box. The unit has more than enough power for most home use. The sound quality is excellent. The only negative about the unit is that the text for the buttons in the front of unit is too hard to read. So if your in the market for a surround system, I highly suggest this unit. If you purchase this unit and use it for 6-9 months, then usually the price of higher end units will drop a couple of hundreds so you can go purchase them, and you use this as your spare!
Posted 18 years ago by ahoss