Great value
Written: Nov 03 '05
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Pros: Durable, great value, good sound
Cons: No decoder, no preamp output, limited inputs for this day and age
The Bottom Line: Buy it if you can find it, but only after you know the cons...
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| compufreak800's Full Review: JVC RX-558V |
I purchased this receiver, oh, 4 or 5 years ago at a Rex Electronics store here in town. I have since put this receiver through hell and back, and it's taken it all in stride.
I really can't comment on the surround sound capabilities of this receiver, as I've never used them... I only bought it because it was cheap at the time, and had decent two-channel power output. 3 out of the 5 amps this thing contains have never been on in my unit, except when I accidentally hit the "DVD Multi" button on the remote.
I must say that I got my money's worth out of this receiver, and it's always played loud and clean. It has shorting and thermal protection, each of which I've tripped once. The thermal trip was when I was driving a large car subwoofer box to high volumes for an extended period, and it has never done it again after that. I've now graduated to better quality sound, and am using this to power a pair of Polk Audio SDA2 loudspeakers. Sounds great :).
One downside, if you're using this for HT, is the lack of a decoder. As long as your DVD player has discreet audio outputs (one output jack for each channel of signal), you'll be fine. That's really what's prevented me from using this in a home theater, as it's getting hard to find discreet outputs without paying a lot of money.
All in all, I guess I can say that this receiver works very well for 2channel, and can drive two pair of speakers quite effortlessly using the "A" and "B" outputs.
I must say that on the inputs side of things, it's fairly obvious that this model is a few years old. You have Tape, Phono, VCR, DVD, DVD Multi, and CD. Now, in my system, I have the following hooked up:
Tape deck to tape input
XM Tuner to VCR input
Computer to DVD input
CD to CD input
It'd be nice if it had an Aux or something, but again... it is a few years old, and this setup works fine anyway. I'd run into more problems if I was also using this with a video setup.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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Epinions.com ID:
compufreak800
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Reviews written: 9
Trusted by: 0 members
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