Cheap And Not Worth What I Paid For It!
Written: Jun 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Loudness control, Surround Sound, Low Price
Cons: A LOT more Cons Than Pros - Too Many To List Here :)
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| shauncool's Full Review: Pioneer VSX-D407 Receiver |
OVERLOADED!… I HATE that message!!!! Recently, it seems whenever I am enjoying some LOUD music – I do love loud music sometimes – the audio cuts out and that message flashes on my screen. It is enough to make me want to scream and throw the damn piece of crap out the window – it really is!! What could be worse then listing to loud music – singing along (maybe even dancing) – and *poof* - it turns off for 15 seconds. ARUGHGGHGHGHGHGHGH&%*&^*%&!!!!
This error doesn’t occur all the time – but its frequency seems to be increasing with time. It happens when the music is relatively loud (50% or higher) and a loud bass sound kicks in which is abnormally higher than the rest of the song. Now, there is NO reason that this should cut out on me like this! I listen to loud music with the two main speakers only - with 100 Watts per channel output and the speakers themselves handle a maximum of 120 Watts – and are also Pioneer from the same 1998 line.
I purchased this receiver (and speakers) a little over a year ago, and am appalled that I am receiving this error. I feel that spending $150 for a receiver should at least last me a few years – even if it’s already outdated (not digital), that’s not the point.
I’ll finish telling you what I don’t like about the receiver, then get into what I like, and then end with my conclusions
THE CONTROLLER: From the moment I opened up my UPS box containing this receiver I have despised the controller! It so small that it’s unacceptable. The buttons are all so tiny that I routinely hit two at once, or the wrong one entirely! I hate having to look at the controller to make every adjustment – it bothers me a lot! In fact, the controller is so damn small that I always lose it – in fact now is such an example – I haven’t seen it for days!
THE REAR OUTPUT: This is a surround sound receiver which has the ability to output left, right, center, L/R Rear, and subwoofer (5.1 channels). The receiver is a 5X400 receiver, but it is broken down into 100(Watts) for the left, right, center, and 100 watts for the combined rear surround sound for 400 Watts Total.
What this means in layman’s terms is that it gives you one half the power for the rear speakers that it does for the front three. I found that I have had to lower the output for the front speakers and boost the rear one (very difficult settings, see next paragraph) to be able to hear the surround-sounds clearly. That sucks! If you are going to buy a receiver be sure that it outputs the same power to ALL channels, and does not share the rear one like this unit does.
YUCK! THE SETTINGS! To perform adjustments to the surround sound settings you have to go through this overly-complicated procedure. Even to this day I cannot make the adjustments without referencing the user manual (It’s a good thing I haven’t lost it yet). When I first started using the receiver I couldn’t even get it to work, and I am VERY ‘technobabble’-friendly, I don’t even have to read instructions when I install computer hardware, but I do/did with this piece of electronics!
NO 4-SPEAKER SUPPORT! This complaint does not refer to the surround sound feature, but the ability to use both speaker units (A and B) at the same time. All other receivers that I’ve used (not owned) support this feature, but not this one! This receiver DOES have the ability to USE two sets of speakers, and to select to use A, B or neither, bot NOT BOTH! ARUGHHH! The point of this is beyond me! I would like to be able to play music in two rooms at once, but not one or the other…. Why would I want to NOT be able to use A+B – that sucks!
NO DOLBY DIGITAL: This isn’t really a complaint about the unit, but definitely a shortcoming. I haven’t yet purchased a DVD player for my entertainment center (I do have one for my computer) because I would have to spend the extra $150 for the DVD player with built-in Digital and a 5.1 (6 plug) output – I’d rather not waste that money. However, I will soon buy a new receiver that DOES have a built-in Dolby Digital decoder, and a DVD player will soon follow.
INPUT SELECTION: (This is another complaint about the controller.) In order to change the input from DVD/LCD to VCR, for example, I have to hit the select key FIVE TIMES to scroll through the possible sources of input. There is no button on the controller to jump from one source to another – which is awful! You can pick the source directly from the unit itself, but not on the controller.
OK, I’ve trashed my receiver enough for now, I’ll throw in a few things that I like about it to be nice.
HAHA, now I’m not sure what I like about it – I’m really not! I suppose the ability to use the “LOUD” function to boost the bass above normal is nice – but I can’t use that much any more due to the “OVERLOAD” error. Also this has a “Virtual Surround” option, but I don’t use that since I have REAL surround sound with five speakers installed.
MODERATELY HIGH-POWERED OUTPUT: Even though the rear-surround output is only 50 Watts per channel, the front and center channels have 100 Watts of output each. Combined with my 120-Watt front speakers with 12” woofers, this receiver DOES ROCK! The output is loud and very clear – I love rocking the house watching a movie - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is an excellent move to play loud – and I have never gotten the “OVERLOAD” error while in Dolby Surround Sound mode. Unfortunately the “OVERLOAD” error of late has cost me my enjoyment of loud, clear rock music.
SOME GENERAL RECEIVER SPECS
++ 5x400 Watts (100 Watts for the Front Left, Front Right, And Center – with 100 Watts combined for the two Rear Surround Sound Channels)
++ Phonograph Input (not usable for any other source)
++ AM/FM Receiver with a 30 preset channel memory (10 each in A,B,C)
++ 4 Analog Audio Inputs, two which support video with RCA Video only
CONCLUSIONS
This is truly hysterical! I had no idea how much I hated my receiver until I wrote this review. I found a plethora of things that I hate about it, and very few that I like. A friend of mine recently suggested a high quality JVC receiver, so I think I’m going to start reading reviews about them right after I post this. My next receiver will most likely NOT be from Pioneer – unless I find that all of the above problems have since been “corrected” in newer models.
Consider yourself lucky that you got to read a good buyer’s guide on what NOT to look for in a receiver. Hopefully my next review will contain what TO look for <grin>! Thanks for reading!
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
shauncool
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Member: Shaun Smith
Location: USA
Reviews written: 121
Trusted by: 236 members
About Me:
Website Applications Developer concentrating on Database Design & Integration into websites based on ASP Technology.
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