Pioneer VSX-917V-S Home Theater Receiver (Silver)

Whether you're watching HDTV, a Blu-ray disc, or listening to music from a USB memory stick, the VSX-917V amplifies pure, precise audio and video. The VSX-917V provides crystal-clear playback of 1080p signals, making it an ideal component for full high definition home entertainment. You can also connect a USB memory stick to the front of the amplifier and listen to compressed audio files; the system will automatically enhance and virtually restore rich sound.

I ordered this receiver after my 9 year old Technics lost the ability to play digital signals. I did get this at the year end sale price of 180 bucks so that my influence my review a bit. After my old one died I was looking for something cheap just to get my 5.1 working again. I was actually looking on e bay and Amazon for something used so I was not ready to spend a lot of cash. That is when I ran across this Pionner receiver. At the price it sure seemed to stand out of the crowd. Well I went ahead and jumped on the good price and Amazon had it too me in 3 business days! Amazon is great as far as shipping goes!. First thing I noticed when I took it out of the box is that it does not have the USB port that it says it does in the discripition. I knew this might be the case because while searching for reviews of this receiver I found some pictures that shows it with and without it. This might be a feature that was added later on in the year by pioneer or maybe it was a feature for a different market other than the USA? I was hoping it would have it but it is not a deal breaker. This is a very deep unit and filled up my audio stand nicely. They do recomend 8 inches of space above the unit but that is almost impossible to do on just about any tv stand or audio rack. I was able to get about 6 inches of clearance. attaching speakers and my components was pretty straight forward with no issues. Banana plugs would have made it a little easier but not needed. Now that I was all hooked up I was ready to fire it up. which was good because we were having a new years eve party and people were coming over in a couple of hours! I pluuged in the MCACC mic. and setit up on some pillows in my listening spot. I went through the menu on the on screen setup screen and ran the auto MCACC. It went through and tested my speakers and adjust everything. The only thing it detected wrong was my center speaker. It detected it as large and I would consider it a small center speaker(not a lot of bass). so I manually set it to small. After doing this I threw in a couple of movies. What a nice sound! I cant say it was a huge improvement over my Technics(top of the line when it came out) but I could tell that the 917v was better. The MCACC program does a excellent job of setting up the speakes so they have the same timber(tone). I think it just sounds really good. I am not sure what the other review is talking about. This thing has plenty of power. Very clean power. This will rock the house with no problems. a few issues that I dont like are that it does not have a fan so it does get a little warm. It takes a while to find the right setting for music. you have to kind of go through all the different settings to find the one that sounds right. other than those little issues it is a great receiver for the price. at the price I got it for I dont think I could have done any better!

You can't beat all of the features this receiver offers for the price. The only draw back is the amp. The amp is not very powerful. I had an older Pioneer 500w that had lots more juice.