- Average user rating: 4.0 stars out of 7 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
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5 out of 5 people found this review helpful
3.5 stars
"Good receiver except for the bass"
Pros: natural sound, clear menus and navigation, lots of sound options
Cons: Low bass, No HDMI switching
Summary: Setup is simple using the receiver's own display. In fact I haven't used the autosetup yet and actually didn't even need the on screen display. But then I use it more for music than for the surround sound of movies.
It has lots of inputs, though I wonder who would need all those analog inputs when most DVD and CD players do have digital outputs. Of course the multichannel analog input is a good thing to have for DVD audio if you buy into that concept.
Would be happy with a lighter, smaller receiver with just a bunch of digital inputs, no on screen display and no auto setup but still with a high power rating. Would it then cost less?
Music sounds very natural and Bass seems well defined. One thing I'm not too happy with is that I cannot enhance the bass much and so it sometimes feels low key. I have KEF iQ5 series speakers. It isn't always possible to play your music at high volumes just because you want to hear some bass. Did sound better with my headphones though. And when I checked around I found at least one person had returned his for this reason. There is a tone control (not accessible from the remote) but turning the bass all the way to a maximum of 6 still didn't enhance the bass much. Seems I will have to get a Sub woofer. My no-brand CD player in the car seems to have wonderful bass in comparison or maybe the enclosed space of a car enhances the bass? Would be glad to hear some opinions on this matter.
Anyway the music does sound great and even the bass sounds pretty good when I play my favorite Dire Straits CD.
It doesn't have HDMI switching but I don't need that yet.
While it automatically detects Dolby Digital signals through my cable TV input (it displays 'Dolby Digital' on the LCD) it has not been able to detect Dolby or DTS signals from the DVD player, a SonyDVPns36, over Coaxial digital input. I'm still working on that issue which might well be related to the DVD player though it does claim DTS decoding.
All in all I like the receiver but will probably have to invest in a subwoofer for that nagging Bass issue.
cheers!Updated
To update my earlier post, the receiver automatically selects the right decoder. You just have to make sure that your DVD player is actually sending Dolby or DTS signals rather than a downmixed 2 channel signal which seems to be the default in many DVD players.
