Audio Components - Product Reviews

mshires - (October 29, 2004) I bought this receiver on faith. There are no current trade reviews nor user comments to act as a guide. My two previous receivers were Pioneers. A friend of mine owns a 914 and is quite happy with it. That’s how I made my decision. The first thing I noticed about the 1014 is how BIG it is, how heavy it is compared to what I had (a Pioneer 514). The bill of lading said 35lbs. I believe it. Out of the box, there is no question this is a Pioneer receiver. It has a very solid build quality to it. Before its arrival I had already set up my rear speaker for 6.1 and all wire was terminated, run, and ready to hook up. I pulled my 514 but found that I needed additional space in my rack to accom

twodaend - (July 27, 2004) Originally I had my eye on the 760, but when this system came out and offered a larger sub, even more powerful speakers and more connections, I had to go for it. This is my first Home Theater System and after about a week of playing around with this system I'm really glad I purchased it. Firstly, I'm glad I decided to have it delivered rather than to pick it up my self. I could not believe the size of the box, it was not at all what I was expecting. However after getting everything out of the box, the setup was very easy. Everything is color-coded so finding the right speaker to connect to the right wire to connect to the right connection on the receiver was very simple. Even the

avacenna - (November 16, 2004) I really like the other Denon components I own. BUT ... this receiver is so complex that it's hard to use, and I'm a stereo buff. The receiver is better designed for managing your home theatre system than for use as a stereo, and it does a good job with home theatre if it's professionally installed and you never have to change a setting. However, when it comes to playing music, a simple task like switching from CD to FM and then selecting an FM station can take a minute or more -- and that's after you figure out how it's done. The receiver only has buttons for a few of the features which are on the Remote. The button labels are printed in tiny brown print on the black face plate, and are har

dtcostelloe - (11/29/2009) I purchased this unit (the first one) about 16 - 17 months ago. I bought it because it was on clearance at BestBuy, and the price was about $130. I didn't have any speakers for it at the time, so I read the manual, which recommended 8-ohm speakers. So, I got on BestBuy's ebay site, and found a nice 6.1 speaker set, also made by Insignia. The set includes 6 8-ohm main speakers, and 1 powered sub-woofer. I hooked everything up, and everything worked great ... for about 2 months. My wife turned it on one day, and there wasn't any sound. The unit powered up, all the remote functions worked, but there was absolutely no sound from the unit - no sound from the main speakers, the sub, or even through head phones. It wasn't a connection issue, because even the built-in radio tuner didn't make any noise at all. I took it back and exchanged it under warranty. It has been just over a year now (just out of warranty, in other words) and the second unit is now doing the EXACT SAME THING. You couldn't tell from looking at it that anything was wrong - but no sound from sub, speakers, or head phones. The video inputs even change and the video pass-through works. Video flips my TV to the Wii, Coax1 flips my TV to DVD Player, DVD / OPT flips to my satellite receiver, and I get picture from all sources - but no sound. So, two out of two units = 100% failure rate. I haven't decided whether I'm going to have my electronic repair guy fix this, or just throw it out and buy something else. It had great sound, and I'm very happy with it - except it quits after a short time. I never really push the unit, over 60% of the whole time it is used is with head phones, so the amps shouldn't have to work too hard. Most interesting of all, if I put a DVD in, and select COAX1 (where my DVD is plugged in) the unit even detects and starts decoding the audio stream. (EX: DTS, Dolby Digital, etc.) but there is no sound. So, it's working on some level. If I decide to get it fixed, I'll post back here on what was the matter with it.

atprn - (11/29/2009) Really poorly designed and even poorer reliability. This unit is heavy, runs extremely hot and onkyo has very poor customer service and even worse repair options. My new onkyo 806 lasted 4 months before burning up - it was not in an enclosure.

Jody6050 - (11/25/2009) Had an older Denon 5 disc CD player that was starting to be problematic. Replaced it with this Yamaha and it has been playing flawlssly. If disc has text, the player will show CD title etc.... Plays CD-r as well.