Excellent Sound & Features for Under $300

Very easy to use Setup menu and options. Could use a little more help text for each option but is good as is. Sound is as good as the speakers you connect to it. I initially connected a $12k pair of Zu Audio speakers and was SHOCKED at how awesome this receiver sounds without even breaking in. Then I switched to my NHT Home Theater speakers and was very satisfied. Point is that if you have high-end speakers, then you will get a very articulate and wide soundstage, deep and responsive bass, natural sounding female vocals, very expressive. A couple of improvements to make this an AWESOME received, and not just for under $300: 1) There are 2 subwoofer outputs, but they both have the same stereo signal which has both the left and right channels in each sub output. For owners with dual subwoofers, allows users to split the signal into a separate Left and Right channel, one from each sub output. This could be configured in the Speakers Setting Menu. 2) Allow the TV/Cable/Sat front speaker signals to also be passed to the TV via HDMI WITHOUT losing the front speaker signals to the stereo. This would allow users to adjust the appropriate speakers levels for the receiver's front and center speakers as well as the speakers on TV's eith high end speakers built into them. I have an LG plasma with Mark Levinson speakers that are very nice that I'd like to use in addition to the receiver's front and center signals, but I can use only one or the other instead of using all. As mentioned earlier, other than a little more descriptive help text for each Setting Menu option, which is already good, the user interface is very intuitive. Users who aren't familiar with stereo jargon may find the help text not as helpful and they will likely have to use Google for a better detailed explanation. Overall this is a slam dunk buy for under $300. It isn't as good as my dedicated stereo equipment, but that was over $15k. To put it into perspective, if the sound from my dedicated stereo is a 10, this receiver is a solid 6-6.5. It really is that good, and for under $300 it is a must have for anyone looking to get into a high quality Home Theater system without having to spend a lot of money.Read full review

Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned