Since I primarily watch standard DVDs and listen to standard CDs in the family room, I decided to use them for my listening tests. The receiver is hooked up to a pair of Axiom Millenia M22ti speakers in the front, a pair of Unisound DAC1 surrounds and center channel, and an Onix X-Sub subwoofer. My DVD player is a Sony upscaling unit model DVP-NS700H/B. All of the cables were furnished by Impact Acoustics from their Sonicwave series of interconnects and 14/2 AWG bulk speaker cable.

DVD: Lord of the Rings - Return of the King
While I didn’t watch all four hours of the last of the LOTR movies (although hopefully we’ll see some movement with The Hobbit soon), the scenes I did watch with the VSX-818V provided a great listening experience. Because the visual experience of watching any of the LOTR movies is stunning, I had to take a moment and remind myself that this was an AUDIO review. I reluctantly closed my eyes and focused on the details in the sounds of the battle of Gondor. The VSX-818V carved out the imaging of a battle exceptionally well. I could hear each of the hoof steps of Gandalf's horse, Shadowfax, as it rode through the castle to the top of Gondor to stop Denethor from killing Faramir. Each boulder cast into the castle by trebuchet sounded as if it was coming right in the room.

DVD: Finding Nemo
While I was analyzing the visual and audio effects of Return of the King, I failed to notice that my 2 year old daughter had wandered in the room drawn in by the sounds of battle. “What’s that?” she asked as an Orc raised its weapon and prepared to storm the castle. Rather than getting into a conversation about Orcs with a two year old I decided instead to switch DVDs to her favorite movie, Finding Nemo. She curled up in my lap and together we watched Marlin in his adventures across the sea to find his son. The VSX-818V easily handled the subtle background sounds of the ocean and the fish swimming across the screen. My daughter actually looked around when Darla pounded on the tank singing “twinkle twinkle little star”.

iPod
I also decided to see how good Pioneer's claim of digital to digital iPod connectivity actually was.I scrolled through the iPod menus and decided to listen to Queen’s Greatest Hits since I knew that I had personally transferred that to my computer and iPod rather than buying it off of iTunes.

Having seen Wayne’s World way too many times, I decided to skip “Bohemian Rhapsody” and go straight to “Fat Bottomed Girls”. There’s nothing like a quiet excitement before a big opening of a song like “Fat Bottomed Girls”. I remember listening to this song as a kid and knowing that the introduction was getting ready to start playing because of the hiss of a low fidelity system. With the VSX-818V that amazing opening harmony from Queen stuns you from out of a silence so quiet that at times I wasn’t sure the receiver was on.

The VSX-818V also did an excellent job with the classic Queen song “Bicycle Race”. The receiver created the great effect the musicians had in mind when they produced this song by surrounding the room with its dueling guitars, bicycle bells and harmonic riffs.

With the Olympics just ending, I also decided to test the John Williams classic “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” from his Greatest Hits 1969-1999 album. In this version of the song Leo Arnaud’s 1958 “Bugler’s Dream” opens the song with it resounding timpani and bright brass then resolves into Williams’ 1984 composition for the Los Angeles games. The VSX-818V handled the pounding timpani like a champ and kept the clean crisp sound of the trumpets and other brass alive with a bright ferocity.

The Downside

Unfortunately at this price, there are compromises. For one, the HDMI interface on this receiver serves as a switcher function only and does NOT support audio or OSD functionality. In actuality, you are better off using component video on this receiver if your sources are all limited to 480p and perhaps run the one source you have that is 1080p directly into your display via a separate HDMI input.

If you interested in 1080p upscaling and HDMI OSD support and audio processing, then this receiver is not for you. We’ll check out some of Pioneer's budget priced models with 1080p upscaling soon and let you know what we think.

Conclusion

It was nice to see that Pioneer produced a featured-packed A/V receiver that also sounds good for only $250. With its well thought out interior layout and plenty of inputs in the back, the Pioneer VSX-818V is a solid choice to get you into the world of home theater for the first time. Pioneer's MCACC auto setup system allows beginners to easily setup their 5.1 home theater room, but still gives plenty of manual options for tweakers like me. If solid performance on the cheap is what you are after, than I am pleased to report that Pioneer delivers.