Samsung DTBH260F HDTV Terrestrial Receiver Review

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(More customer reviews)This item has been hard to find in stores and online. After being waitlisted with Amazon for some time, I finally ordered it from another large electronics vendor that offerred free shipping, but I had to pay sales tax.
Last year I purchased two HDTV's (without built in tuners) thinking I would always get HD from my cable company. When I totaled up the cost of HD on cable with all of the extra boxes and fees, over-the-air HD for the price of a tuner seemed like a much more reasonable alternative.
The tuner was not difficult to hook up. I used an inexpensive HDMI cable (purchased off the web), regular rabbit ears/UHF antenna and plugged the tuner directly into my TV. (Remember to flip the switch on the back of the unit and to set your TV to HDMI input.) According to the manual, audio is supposed to be transmitted to the TV through the HDMI cable, but my TV does not accept dolby 5.1 surround sound. I had to change the audio setting on the unit to PCM to get sound out of the TV. Alternatively, I got stereo sound by running separate audio cables (included with the unit) to my home theater unit.
Being at an age where I grew up with over the air TV and recalling that we continually had to adjust the rabbit ears to improve the picture, I was astounded by the quality of the signal. The transmission towers are about 19 miles away and I was getting all bars on the signal strength. No fidgiting with the rabbit ears was required and the picture has no ghosting. Clearly, this is not the over the air TV of the 60's and 70's.
In addition to the HD shows, I'm also getting a 720 digital signal on most of the non-HD programming, which is a big improvement over the 480 analog. The improvement is so good, I'm thinking of getting another tuner for my other hd-ready TV.
I do have a couple of small complaints. As noted by other reviewers, the channels seem to change very slowly using the remote and you need very good aim. And, don't lose the remote because you cannot change the channel without it. Another reviewer noted that it takes a bit of time for the unit to boot up when first turned on, which I can also confirm. He also noted that the unit gets very hot, which is NOT my experience.
Happy viewing!

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HDTV Terrestrial Tuner. Samsung brings you great flexibility for delivering FREE over-the-air digital television signals to a DTVready television or DTV-capable computer monitors.

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Sony STR-DE898/B 7.1-Channel A/V Surround Sound Receiver (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)For the most part, this receiver does its job well. It provides plenty of power and has an overall quality build and feel to it. One feature I really like is that, when listening to music, you can set it to multi stereo mode, which distributes stereo sound equally through all the speakers in your home theater system. Many receivers will only play CDs or radio signals in 2 channel mode, essentially shutting off the center channel speaker, surround speakers and, in some cases, the subwoofer. If you listen to a lot of music, you will really appreciate this feature.
However, I do have a few criticisms. For one, I wish it allowed more extensive equalizer controls. As it is, you can just do basic adjustments to the bass and treble. . . nothing in the mid range. It does have preset sound fields for Hall, Jazz Club, or Live Concert effects. Unfortunately, these don't apply when you are using the headphones. The owner's manual could do a more thorough job of explaining some of the features. It devotes many pages to how to hook up your components, which will be self explanatory for most people, but devotes little space to the unit's unique features and quirks . . . or how to decipher the sub par remote control. The remote's buttons are small, cramped, and laid out in a confusing manner. Many of the buttons have different functions, which means you have to push one button in order to perform a specific function with another button. The buttons and labeling on the main unit itself are also small and hard to see from more than 6 inches away. But, overall, this is a good receiver for the money. With Sony, you can't really go wrong.


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Sherwood RX4109 2-Channel 100-Watt Stereo Receiver (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)-------------------------------------------------------------
Update (November 12, 2010): This receiver, except for electrical failures, has been on and functioning properly now for more than two years straight.
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I'm an old audiophile, dating back to when "MacIntosh" was not the name of a computer. It was the company name of the most prestigious of hi-fi components. What dismays me is that today's manufacturers of audio equipment (some of them well known brands) rely on the ignorance of the consumer when it comes to audio specifications; and they can get away with it because there no longer seems to be any standards for those specifications. For example, a manufacturer can claim that an inexpensive 15 watt amplifier puts out 500 watts, and that amplifier actually can accomplish that feat at "peak" output at one frequency with very high distortion. Match that amplifier up with very efficient speakers; and voila...you have harmonic cacophony now called a "boom box."
Enough of that....I was looking for an inexpensive, basic, but decent stereo receiver for one large room. Surround sound annoys me. (When you attend a live orchestral concert, the orchestra is in front of you.) After comparing many (some for almost twice the price), I decided on this Sherwood for less than $100. I was apprehensive that its low price might reflect its quality. I was wrong. It is solidly built. I am running acoustic suspension sealed cabinet speakers (no need for a separate bass woofer) that require 20 very clean watts each just to get any response out of them. This amplifier, turned up one third, drives them more than adequately with no discernable distortion...almost as good as my old top-of the line Marantz. What's more you can use this as a base amp by pressing a button on the front ("TON DIRECT"...somewhat cryptic) and disabling the tone controls so that the amp runs flat, allowing for a separate equalizer. (The manual isn't very good about explaining this. In fact, the manual isn't very good about explaining anything.)
Another thing...with 8 ohm speakers, this amp doesn't even get warm, so you can pile stuff on top of it (with a little space in between) without worry.
The FM tuner is fine enough. The AM tuner (at least at my location) is above average, which is unusual in even $400 receivers.
This receiver has a phono input for those who still listen to the pops, the static, and the warp distortion of vinyl. All the other inputs are at the same impedance, so you can hook up anything else to any input regardless of its label, i.e. your dvd player can be plugged into the "tape" input. Unfortunately, if you do so, "TAPE" will be displayed on the front fluorescent panel when you play your dvd.
Don't expect a lot of toots and whistles; but you can expect a good solid product with performance factor that far exceeds its modest cost.
Would I recommend this receiver to a friend? ...yes and no. Most of my friends do not know a thing about audio and believe everything they read...which doesn't say much about me and my choice of friends.
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UPDATE 3/26/2011 The Sherwood is still running strong.


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