General Asylum: REVIEW: Pioneer VSX-D606S Receiver by ROBERT G

I've owned this product for just about 2 1/2 years and bought this just before the DVD fad became the standard for true HT enthusiast. I bought this not knowing much about actual ratings of power (i.e. thought this was 100wpc full range... if only I knew) and since it was being discounted (WARDS was marking it down from the retail $699 to $499 but I got it for $399) I decided to take the plunge as I was craving for an upgrade. This was an obvious improvement over my old Pioneer VSX-455 as the power was equal in all channels and active bass management. This AVR has 4 video/3 audio inputs, DSPs (Hall, Jazz, Dance, Theater 1, and Theater 2), programmable/learning remote, and of course DD decoding (1 coax for DVDs and 2 for LD with one being an RF demodulator).

Now on to how this thing performs. Music is definately not this things strength though it is very good with poorly recorded materials as it will keep you from hearing most flaws though the vocals sound somewhat muffled. Dolby prologic isn't too bad except for the fact that the sub-woofer out on this is very weak forcing me to turn down the gain on the sub and up for the sub level adjustment thus this AVR only performs great during action/adventure, horror, and sci-fi movies but poorly on all others (I had to hook the sub up thru the center pre-amp out and setting all speaker for large). This thing was definately setup for the DD domain as it seems to work very well with the sub not cutting off and all channels silent with no hissing that is strangely enough found on some of the newer AVRs. The general characteristics that I would attribute to this AVR is fair bass, slightly muffled mids, slightly rolled treble, and decent dynamics. At low levels details are OK but as this gets louder it gets harsher. I have heard this same AVR on some of my friends speakers as well as their AVR in my home (we were comparing what we have) and this thing is definately not even close to the Yamaha (namely the 1105), Denon (namely AVR95), or the Onkyo (the predecessor to the 474).

My advice to anyone wanting to buy an AVR to get into the HT hobby my suggestion is to look at what the AVR draws from the wall (this Pioneer has a 280w power supply), pre-amp outs for all channel (to hook-up to a separate amp which this AVR doesn't have), and inputs for an out-board decoder (like a 5.1 input which this doesn't have). This AVR is ok for a beginner and would be ok for a second room use (for the kids) but shouldn't be considered for your main theater.

One other thing of note, the volume is not well graduated as the low starts at the 7 O'clock position and max ends at the 5 O'clock position and the AVR reaches distortion at the 12 O'clock position pushed further makes the display flicker on bass heavy materials.

REVIEW: Pioneer VSX-D606S Receiver Review by ROBERT G at Audio Asylum