Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

While I classify myself a videophile with only a passing interest in audio, I did early adopt multi-channel surround sound about 20 years ago. I fell out of favor with it in the early 2000s opting until recently for a quality stereo setup because multi-channel A/V receivers were extraordinarily energy inefficient. These days, multi-channel receivers are much smarter about energy use and multi-channel audio is ubiqutous. So after replacing my favorite plasma display, I decided to use some of the power saved by switching to OLED to get surround sound back. My ancient SONY 5.1 receiver used to suck a constant 300W of wall power whether the volume was at maximum or 1 dB above mute. This 7.1 (or 5.1.2) amplifier, which has a rated energy consumption peak of 600W draws nowhere near that at THX reference volume (82 dB). The most I've measured the receiver draw continuously is 86W; if it ever came anywhere near the 600W number listed in the specifications it'd overload the UPS in my A/V rack and I'd be writing a very different review right now ;) Basically what you're buying here is a receiver and speaker bundle adequately balanced to earn THX I/S Plus certification (viewing distance should be ~6-8 feet). I'm not one for flashy brand names, but THX is a name I trust from my experience in video and certifying theater audio performance is the entire reason the brand was created. Matching receiver and speakers for room size as determined by certification class makes going multi-channel almost as effortless as buying a soundbar and it is a great thing that consumer THX certifications exist. The bundled front / center channel speakers are pretty much what I expected, but I'm very impressed with the satellite speakers; they're full range. I was pleasantly surprised to hear just as much range of detail out of the surround channels as the front. That said, they're much heftier than many satellite speaker stands are designed to accommodate (8 lbs each) and you need to be careful if you go with a floor stand solution because without adequate base weight these stands are very likely to tip over. I picked up a pair of these http://www.amazon.com/LOCH-SS-1-Speaker-Stands-set/dp/B00W3S8XTM/ to hold the satellites, they have enough of a counter-weight in the base that they are less prone to tip over than other stands I tried (there's a very good reason these stands are rated for weight, and it has nothing to do with the strength of the stand). The keyhole mounting bracket on the satellite speakers doesn't quite fit the hardware supplied with those stands, but if you reverse the thumb screw and move it 1 notch above where it's engineered to go you can attach these speakers securely. I'm only mentioning this here rather than a separate product review because there are a couple of other satellite stands on the market with identical mounting hardware designs but less of a counterweight on the bottom (which is why they tip over)... attaching these satellites to any of those stands is a bit awkward but can be done. If you're looking at this receiver's HDMI 2.0 4K/60 Hz and HDCP 2.2 support and thinking that buys you a little bit of future proofing, I would strongly suggest a bit of caution here. It's absolutely true that the receiver is HDCP 2.2 compliant (you will need this for Ultra HD Blu-Ray) and will allow you to pass through a 4K 60 Hz signal, but there's a slight caveat that plagues a lot of HDMI 2.0 devices right now. This caveat is the maximum pixel clock (how much data the cable can carry), and it is identical to HDMI 1.4 (340 MHz) on this receiver. There's a sort of hidden gotcha with HDMI 2.0, where the 600 MHz pixel clock (arguably its most important improvement over 1.4) is actually an optional feature. A 600 MHz HDMI 2.0 device can do 4K 60 Hz using traditional color encodings such as YCbCr 4:2:2 or YCbCr 4:4:4 / Full Range RGB (what PCs prefer to output), but to do 4K 60 Hz with a 340 MHz pixel clock requires sampling color at 1/4 the resolution of brightness. HDMI 2.0's 4:2:0 subsampling creates visible color artifacts on just about anything rendered on a PC because you effectively get 4K resolution for brightness and 1080p for color. High contrast text, narrow fonts and thin lines in graphical user interfaces are almost impossible to make out clearly at 4:2:0, so if you plan on doing anything non-TV/movie related at 4K 60 Hz, don't route the signal through this receiver. I have a very high-end PC that plays games at 4K, and what I wound up doing to integrate this receiver into my setup without sacrificing image quality required a bit of ingenuity. I have the HDMI 2.0 output on one of my GPUs connected directly to my TV (allows full range 24-bit RGB at 4K/60 Hz instead of the nasty YCbCr 4:2:0 HDMI 2.0 hack I discussed earlier), and I have a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter that feeds an uncompressed 7.1 audio signal to the receiver. In lieu of this, you might also be able to pickup a dedicated sound card with S/PDIF output and either DTS Connect or Dolby Digital Live encoding support in order to get 6.1 or 7.1 audio to the receiver while playing games at 4K 60 Hz. It's not ideal, but that may be necessary on some setups if you don't have enough HDMI and/or DisplayPort outputs on your GPUs. I had to resort to this prior to picking up a DisplayPort to HDMI adapter (my GPUs only have 1 HDMI output, but 3 DisplayPort outputs). Minor videophile and gamer annoyances aside, there's some undeniable value in this system for a small sized room (the THX certified 6-8 foot viewing distance means this would be best paired to a 55" or smaller display). Incidentally, if you're interested in the THX certified speaker package by itself you can get it for ~$400 less (SKS-HT993THX) - you might use the savings to buy a reiver that handles 4K signals better than this one does (I suspect they all handle 4K poorly at the moment though, HDMI 2.0 and most other UHD related standards are poorly implemented across all consumer electronics right now). For a bit of scale, I have attached an image that shows the speaker package against a 55" display. You can arrange L/C/R horizontally underneath a 55" or larger display if you have no room on the sides... I did that originally and used the AccuEQ room calibration to fix up the center channel, but eventually I just decided to stack my second display on top of the subwoofer.