Discount Pioneer VSX-819H-K 5-Channel A/V Receiver (Black)

I paired the Pioneer VSX-819H-K receiver with Yamaha NS-SP1800BL speakers and I am *very* satisfied. The sound quality is excellent to my ears. The receiver plays MP3s from a usb flash drive just fine, and anything 256kbps or higher sounds fantastic. Even lower bitrate MP3s sound pretty good!

The receiver has a LOT of surround modes, but I pretty much use two: Dolby Pro Logic for music, and "Pro Logic II Movie" mode for movies, as those two sound the best to me.

A couple minor gripes: The MTAC setup didn't work for me -- In a TOTALLY silent house I got a "too noisy" error. No big deal though, I just did some minor manual speaker set up and everything sounds fantastic. The other gripe is that I can't get an on-screen receiver menu on my TV. I only have an HDMI cable going from the receiver to the TV, so that may be the reason -- it may need a different connection for the TV menu.

Neither of those are big enough to warrant the loss of a star, though. The sound and DVD HDMI video quality on this receiver are fantastic. Movies and music sound better than ever.

If you get this receiver, go for those Yamaha speakers -- they aren't very expensive, and they sound great with the Pioneer.Get more detail about Pioneer VSX-819H-K 5-Channel A/V Receiver (Black).