receivers

My friend own's this unit and I beleive he is fairly happy with it. One major complaint about this reciever is though...It does not proccess HDTV through the component video input. I feel that it is highly important for this problem to be discussed before the purches of your reciever. I own a Yamaha htr-5640 (about the same price) and it handles this task very well. Alse this Panasonic does not support DOlBY DIGITAL EX (Matrix 6.1). It does however have I believe two more digital inputs for sound. As of right now I have my HDTV cable, my dvd player and my xbox all running through my reciever and switch between them is a breeze.

I bought this receiver on the strength of Consumer Reports' "Best Buy" ratings and various reviews here and elsewhere on line. Now that the receiver is set up and running, I can tell that it works just fine, as advertised. While it is not a high-end product, it does an excellent job holding up its end of the sound reproduction process.

BUT it was absolute hell to set up. I was prepared for the awful manual, which is absurdly terse and crowded with confusing diagrams.

I was not prepared for the insanely inadequate clips for hooking up surround speakers and the nightmare of trying to use these clips. Each is controlled by a single lever that serves for both + and - leads. The wires fit into extremely small holes, so thick speaker wire won't work, nor do standard pins. I think what's inside the mechanism is a kind of blunt guillotine on a spring that lowers onto the wires when the lever is depressed. What happens is that the guillotine lands on the top (+) wire before it has squeezed the lower (-) sufficiently to hold it in place. After many attempts, I figured out that putting some solder on the lower wire could thicken it sufficiently to be squeezed and held in place. But too much solder and the wire won't fit into the hole. Worse yet, the banks of clips for the surround speakers are so close to each other that it is virtually impossible to work with the wires for one speaker without jiggling the wires for the adjacent speaker. If the adjacent speaker's wires are not completely tight, they fall out. More than once, I got one speaker working, only to lose the connection while working on the next speaker. It's also quite tough to get both + and - leads for the same speaker hooked up, because they too are incredibly close. It took me 4 1/2 hours before I had three working surround speakers hooked up. That's 4 1/2 hours to get six wires secured in their holes. One connection is still loose, however, and I anticipate with dread having to repeat the process some day.

This is RIDICULOUS. Panasonic should be ashamed of themselves. What would it have taken to provide a reasonable mechanism for connecting speakers to the unit?

At last, I have sound from the unit. But both my hands hurt, and I am both exhausted and extremely irritated.

Looking for a receiver to be the controller of your music/video center? This is it. I've given it 4 stars only because I haven't had it that long,but I suspect it does deserve 5.No complaints from me about this one.