Price Paid:  $200.00 from ebay

Summary:
Overall, an incredible unit for the price I paid. For movies, it works very well. It is not the latest 6.1/7.1 technology, but it does a fantastic job with my DVDs. For music, if you are like me and have an extremely discerning ear, this unit will disappoint you.

Strengths:
Movies sound great with the DS595. Menus and setup is very easy and straight forward. Appears to be well built. The learning multi-unit remote is quite nice.

Weaknesses:
Stereo music, bass management, backlighting on remote is lacking. This DD, DTS Onkyo was hopefully going to replace a 10 yr old Nakamichi AV-2 (Pro-Logic) unit. Unfortunately, the Onkyo is not in the same league as the AV-2 for music reproduction. After hooking up the Onkyo to my Boston T930II speakers and Nak CD player, I was very underwhelmed. The sound was not terrible by any means, but compared to the Nak it is a bit muddy and seems to under-produce natural bass. I tried to like it for music, but ended up hooking the Nak back up to the Bostons and WOW! I looove my Nak for music. Looks like I am keeping it for that service alone. See my review on the AV-2 on this site somewhere. The other thing I don't like about the Onkyo is the lack of tone management. This may be the norm these days, but it only has treble and bass knobs on the front. This is the 21st century, why isn't tone adjustable via remote? I also can't find any crossover adjustment for the sub output.

Similar Products Used:
Nakamichi

Price Paid:  $1200.00 from Harvey Norman

Summary:
After owning a Pioneer VSXD508 reciever and knowing people that own sony''s, I decided to buy a mid range, good quality reciever. I bought the GOLD 595. The build quality and power impressed me the most at first, but the sound really inspired me. I have some cheap floorstanders at the moment... But even they sounded heaps better...Good Bass and nice crisp treble. This amp has LOTS of clean, distortion free power. I am looking forward to buying 2 pairs of B&W 601 S3''s. When I have some REAL speakers i will write again... I love this amp, I love the learning remote. 5 Year warranty too!!!

Strengths:
Build Quality, Power Output, Looks, Menu Setup & Functions, # of inputs, Learning Remote.

Weaknesses:
(None really) Gets warm at idle,

Similar Products Used:
Pioneer VSX-D510 SONY STRDE675

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
After my HIFI system from Sony broke down it was time to buy a new. This time I decieded to buy a receiver. I read some reviews of a sony receiver (don''t remember which model), and decided to buy it. I was not satisfied with this receiver. Not much deep bass of this. So I returned the receiver, and started reading rewiews again. Then I Found this one from Onkyo. I ordered it, and that something I don''t regret. It''s amazing! Mostly of the time I listen to music in DPLII, which is great. The sound is amazing, allthought I still think the bass could be better. Just connect a powerful subwoofer to it.

Strengths:
Sound, design, DPLII, Easy to use

Weaknesses:
Bass could have been better, Size

Similar Products Used:
Sony Receivers

Price Paid:  $299.00 from bestpriceaudiovideo.com

Summary:
After doing a lot, I mean A LOT of research, I finally decided to upgrade my home theater system. We first bought the onkyo 494 reciever which was great. I immediatley saw and heard the difference a high quality reciever made. The only thing that the 494 didnt have was enough digital inputs, so we decided to pay a little extra and get the 595.
If you have any doubts about this reciever, I would go to good guys or someplace and just look inside this one and others you are concidering. Look at the heatsink, the onkyo is one solid metal block as opposed to a thin metal board with thin metal fins bolted on. You can see also that the capacitors are much, MUCH larger than other recievers at this price range. This makes a huge difference in sound and power handling. Very clean signal. Also, each audio and VIDEO input is on its own board which reduces any bleedover from your other sources which ends up giving you a much cleaner sound on each separate channel. If youre an audiophile, you have to get this reciever. The Sony and Kenwood recievers I tested were really crap. I would much rather have 75 CLEAN watts than 100 dirty watts. You can tell the difference. Onkyo really made this one like their top of the line recivers.
The Remote is really cool, I wish it had back light like their old model but Im sure its to conserve battery life. You can program macros so you can turn on your tv, sat, dvd, reciever all with a few buttons. you can even turn everything off with one button which is so cool. I even programmed the remote to close our blinds when we turn the tv on. A dream come true. I love showing it off.
This reciever has 4 digital inputs, 2 optical and 2 coax. Perfect for when I get my Xbox and PS II. Check out the first scene in Saving Private Ryan and you will be in love.

I got a really great deal at bestpriceaudiovideo.com which makes it even nicer but honestly, I would have paid more. I hope they didnt hear that. :)
Thanks to my wife for agreeing to get it. Thanks monkey. I love you.

Strengths:
Solid Construction, Learning remote, looks great, conservative power rating, discreet channels and separte a/v circuits

Weaknesses:
heavy, big

Similar Products Used:
Onkyo 494,
Kenwood,
sony

Price Paid:  $756.00 from Professional High Fidelity

Summary:
Great unit! Go listen for yourself before you buy. Remember to budget for a subwoofer if you do not already own one.

Very good looking, clean unit. Well assembled and has a durable feeling in the stitches and buttons. Other units look cheap when compaired to this Onkyo.

Remote is fantastic. Too many options to list. Onkyo is very "reserved" in thier power ratings.

Strengths:
Outstanding headroom with All Channel Stereo mode. Pro Logic II is highly recommended in any reciever purchase and sounds excellent on this unit. The unit itself looks good. I was originally out to buy an H/K Unit but this Onkyo sitting next to it looked so much more professional and subtle.

Weaknesses:
If you do not have one, you will need to purchase a powered subwoofer to get the full effect of the system and 5.1.

Big unit, I had to remove the glass doors on my entertainment center.

Similar Products Used:
15 y/o Marantz 2 Chan, Carver Holgraphic reciever 2 chan - obviously, modern day surround is an improvement over those 2 old workhorses (but they still work fine!)