Customer Reviews: Read 18 more reviews...
 Great AV receiver for the money November 18, 2008
L. Cope
I've had this receiver as part of my home theater for 6 months and it's worked flawlessly; excellent picture and sound. I'm not a HT expert by any means but I did a lot of research before buying my components. My TV is a Samsung 52" LN52A550, and I have a Motorola DCT6412 cable box and PS3 connected, everything with HDMI. I was interested in getting a receiver where the HDMI inputs/outputs would handle both sound and picture, since I'd read that on some receivers the HDMI doesn't handle sound. I have Polk Audio Monitor 60s, a Polk Audio CS1 center speaker, and a Polk Audio PSW10 subwoofer, which I mostly only power on when I watch movies. I bought some back speakers but have never hooked them up, mainly because I'm very happy with the sound as is, plus I'd have to run wires all around my living room. Anyway, with this receiver you can run your system as 2 channel, front plus center, 5 channel, or 7. It comes with a microphone gizmo where you can have the system calibrate/balance your speakers for you, but I haven't found that necessary. There are also many, many listening settings and adjustments you can make and options you can choose, but I've so far mostly gone with the defaults. I went to a site called [...] where you can enter your components and it will tell you the most effective way to hook them up. It saved me a LOT of time, since there are so many options and possible combinations. The one thing I don't like about this receiver is that apparently you have to do either HDMI or component connections and you can't switch - i.e., you can't use the optical output for other components not connected through HDMI if you're using HDMI connections. Although I gather that there are switching devices you can buy and that some higher end receivers will do switching. But for my needs and the money I had to spend, I'm very happy. If you're considering buying this, I recommend downloading the user manual from Sony and glancing through it if you have specific questions.
 Excellent for the money November 17, 2008
Kevin C (Connecticut, USA)
You wont get full HDMI (video AND audio) routing, and 7.1, anywhere else near this price range. Plenty of features here...
Dont listen to people nay saying the audio quality. They are either pros or they have buyers remorse that they payed more. I have had both Onkyo and Yahmaha receivers in the past, and I can say that unless you are a TRUE audiophile, you will be very happy with this receiver. It sounds great paired up with some quality speakers.
If you have: a 42" 1080P tv, a decent speaker set up, an xbox/blu ray player or ps3...just save your money and dont look back. You will be happy.
 not what we hoped for November 16, 2008
W. Pease
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
Perhaps a case of "you get what you pay for". It wasn't till we had the receiver all hooked up that we realized you can't play speakers A and B simultaneously, defeating our purpose of music in 2 adjoining rooms. Sound quality was poor, as was the FM signal for all but 1 of our local radio stations, even with a power FM antenna. Maybe this is more suited to a home theater set-up, rather than strictly music? We have since returned the item.
EXCELLENT UNIT November 10, 2008
B. Medina (Bronx, NYC USA)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
All I have to say is excellent unit for the price. Been looking for a long time for a 7.1 receiver. The prices were out of my reach. Fortunately this unit was well in my reach and it being a SONY unit is a extra plus. I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a 7.1 unit.
Bang for the buck. October 29, 2008
J. Olson (Queens, NY)
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I bought this as an open-box [...]. It didn't come with the auto-calibration mic, but not a big deal. This receiver was so easy to set up using just 3 HDMI cables. I hooked up my PS3 and my cable box(DVI to HDMI) to the receiver and the third HDMI cable to the TV. Other than the speaker wires, there are only 3 other cables stickin out of the back of this thing. No birds nest behind my TV anymore.
If you are not looking to spend a bundle on a receiver, I highly recommend looking into this one. It sounds great. It's easy to set up using all HDMI cables, [...] you'd be hard pressed to find something of similiar quality.
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