★★★★★ 5
It's entry level but it does it great.
Set name: 5.1 Receiver
For what it is, an entry level reciver it is great. Haven't had it long now, about a month but it has been great. Used to own onkyo, pioneer and Harmon Kardon recivers back before HDMI and blu ray. Have used a soundbar for the past few years but finally decided to jump back on a detecated surround system. For my apartment this sounds phenomenal. I don't normally mess with the DSPs so I can't comment on those, I prefer direct sound. Could it use more power? Probably but again this is entry level stuff. I use 12 gauge speaker wire on the front 3 speakers and 14 to the surrounds and it sounds great. Front speakers are 6 ohms and rears are 8 but no trouble driving them. Dialog is crystal clear and the overall sound is warm and pleasant. Playback of Blu ray and Ultra blu ray in both DTS HD and Dolby TrueHD is such a treat, absolutely made me realize how limited a soundbar was. Music playback is fantastic, have my laptop with Jriver hooked up through HDMI for playback of FLAC and WAV audio files from 44khz/16bit all the way up to 192khz/24bit with every genre of music. Put it in direct stereo mode and it sounds blissful. DSD playback does work but only at 2.8mhz DSD64 which is still great considering the price. 4K pass through works as it should, no troubles with HDR or Dolby Vision content. Can't comment on FM or am radio playback. Bluetooth playback is alright, music enhancer does a noticible job of cleaning the music a bit, nothing extreme but does add a cetain clarity. The Bluetooth could have been a more recent standard especially since this reciver came out in 2018 but again entry level. For my Echo it is fine for the rare occasion I send audio to it. Playback of music from LG V60 over Bluetooth sounds okay but wired connection still beats wireless as far as audio is concerned and if you just playing back mp3s AAC, it won't matter, it works. 4K upscale works fine, really didn't mess with it too much because TV is normally going to do a better job of upscalling anyway. Has auto HDCP detection which is nice, allows all HDMI connections to play nice. Binding posts with Banna plug compatibility is nice to see at this price. User interface is nice and simple. One area I can see trouble with is the fact you have to go online for the manual. Again, as a entry level reciver there isn't really much to complain about.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2020
