This receiver is well worth the money.
Written: Jan 22 '03
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Pros: The sound is incredible for the price.
Cons: I think they overrated the 100 watts per channel.
The Bottom Line: This is an awesome receiver for the money. But if you have an enormous room, I don't know if this is the best receiver.
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| hailander's Full Review: JVC RX-8020V 5.1 Channels Receiver |
The other reviewers did a great job of telling you all the little details so I won't bore you with the same stuff. I'll just tell you about my experience with this receiver.
I bought this receiver for 247.77 from 6ave.com. The same receiver was priced at $399 from my neighborhood Audio King. Audio King is like a best buy, except they have more high end stuff. Before the JVC 8020, I had a Harmon Kardon AVR25 that I bought brand new about 5 years ago. At the time, this HK was one of the top of the line receivers. I hated to part with it, but I had to go digital. After receiving the shipment from UPS, I immediately spent the next few hours playing with the setup. I would agree with the other reviewers about the User's manual, you have to constantly flip back and forth. They reference too many prior and future pages. Once setup was all done, I popped in Gladiator. The opening fight scene was absolutely awesome, the sound was crystal clear. I couldn't believe the difference between my analog HK and this digital JVC. I really thought I was in a theater. My wife joined me and she was equally amazed. I did hear a little distortion in my subwoofer. I found out later that it was the subwoofer cable. Believe me folks, you need to get a quality Subwoofer cable to enjoy undistorted bass at high volumes. I previously just had regular RCA cables that come with my old stereo. What a difference the monster cables made...although I had to shell out $60 for it.
The many DAP options were great, but I mainly use the Theater 1 and 2 options. They sound the best for movies. Poping Twister in the DVD, I felt like I was actually being sucked up by a tornado, what an awesome receiver. Another great thing, you can rig this receiver to send signals to 7 speakers. I used the Surround back preout to hook to my old HK which now powers the 6th and 7th back surround speakers. Wow, this setup is just plain amazing. All my buddies want to watch movies at my place now.
There are countless positives but I do have one major drawback. I think they overrated the 100 watts per channel. The JVC's volume control goes up to 70. I usually set it to 30-35 for movie watching, it is too loud beyond that, but not loud enough unless I get into the 30's. Which I assume is halfway since you can only go up to 70. On my old HK, which is rated at 50 watts per channel. I can't even get it past a quarter of the way before it is way too loud. So to get the same amount of production out of my JVC, I have to go about half way, but on my HK, I only have to go a quarter way. Something doesn't seem right there. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy with the receiver, but I don't know if it truly is 100 watts per channel. I'm not an electronics whiz, but I worry about having the volume half way up all the time...could it reduce the life of the amplifier? I don't know. Other than that, I love this receiver. If it is too much power for your sub, do what I did, get a nice Monster subwoofer cable instead of a new sub, it will make a world of difference. You will not hear any distortion even at the highest settings.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 247.77
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Epinions.com ID:
hailander
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Reviews written: 3
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